Pregame Design Phase of Turn 4:Lepidus-class Light Cruiser
A particularly small cruiser meant for escort duty as well as commerce raiding and scouting, the Retiarius carries its battery of six 5" guns in two twin shielded gun mounts; one for and one aft, and two single guns on either side of the superstructure. A smaller battery of four single-mounted 3" guns scattered in and around the superstructure completes the ship's defense against lighter ships and similar targets. Two triple torpedo launchers on the centerline (if we have launchers) or two underwater torpedo tubes per side and two pointing forwards (if we don't have launchers) provide a nasty potential punch.
The ship carries armor more akin to a battleship's; with a belt and citadel accompanied by an armored deck, with the ship remaining afloat even if everything but the citadel is riddled with shell holes and full of water. The ship saves weight with the all-or-nothing armor scheme (similar to the now forty-year-old Italian "Duilio", in fact) with a 4" armor belt covering a few feet below the waterline and several feet above, 3" citadel athwartships, and 1" of armor on the deck. The gun shields on its main battery are 1.5" thick and the secondary battery is unprotected, in open mounts. The keel and other primary structural elements are made of Composizione B steel, as is the bridge tower. The rest of the ship is made with less expensive steel alloys.
The engines are turbines, aimed to give the ship a maximum speed of 27 knots. A pair of rangefinders are carried, one each on the main mast and aft superstructure. The coal bunkers are arranged to give some amount of underwater protection, situated just below the main armor belt where they are slightly closer to the boilers than any design using them to protect the waterline.
Effectiveness: 6 | Cost: 4 | Bugs: 5 |
Time: 2The Lepidus class is a fast, relatively cheap ship that realistically is designed for two things and one things only. Convoy raiding, and engaging in hit and run tactics. Really the biggest issue one could find with the ship is it's relative lack of armament. But even then, it doesn't so much matter how many shells you throw at a target, more how many of them hit. More shells help with that of course, but really, its unneeded. Still, the ship is faster than practically anything on the sea's and can pick and chose its engagements, and it is because of this fact that the ship really will be doing a good deal of work for us. Further offsetting the lack of armament, the armor it has is roughly in a position between a protected cruiser and an armored one, hence the title of Light Armored Cruiser, or just Light Cruiser for short. Really, provided that we get a decent torpedo, the ship should be able to deal with anything provided the captain is careful and uses his speed as armor against anything that can pose a threat to it. But no matter what, even many years in the future, provided the ships of the class are maintained well enough, they will serve as great convoy raiders.
Costs 5/2, 4 season construction time.
Pompey Magnus-class Battleship
The epitome of modern battleship design, the Lepidus carries four twelve-inch guns in two twin turrets, one fore and one aft. It carries a main armor belt of twelve inches, and steams at eighteen knots on turbine engines.
The armor protection is all-or-nothing with the central citadel extending to the magazines beneath each turret, with the engineering spaces between them protected by both the main belt and the coal bunkers behind and below it. The citadel has an armored deck above it, with a thickness of three inches. The turrets are protected by 12" of armor on all faces except the front, which is armored to 14" to resist direct fire at even very close ranges.
The secondary battery is six 5" guns, three on each side of the superstructure, in open mounts. The tertiary battery is made of a further 10 3" weapons, again scattered about the superstructure in unprotected mountings.
Each turret has an integrated rangefinder and there are two additional rangefinders in the main mast forwards and the shorter secondary mast aft. The masts are of the tripod type and the funnels are between them, leaving the forwards mast always clear of smoke. The forwards superstructure housing all the command and control positions is made entirely of Composizione B structural steel. The ship's skeleton is likewise composed of Composizione B structural steel for durability.
It is imperative that the weight be kept below the magic 10k tons number since we can't build anything heavier right now.
Effectiveness: 2 | Cost: 5 | Bugs: 3 |
Time: 1+2The Pompey Magnus class is...an interesting ship. To start with, a number of our desires in armoring the thing to hell and back have had to been cut back a bit due to the fact that not doing so would prove detrimental to it's performance due to being severely overweight. Still, even so, despite our best efforts, the thing is still overweight, though not significantly so. Still, it's a slight problem due to the fact that we were asked so much and limited so much. Still, other than the reductions that needed to be done, and the minor amount the ship is overweight, the ship works okay. Obviously, it'll not be as grand as we originally desired, but these cutbacks have aided in the cost of the thing at least, making it quite cheep for a battleship. And quantity has a quality of it's own... Regardless, the ship should be able to do what it needs to do decently enough for the time being. We will just have to rely on our better, lighter vessels, though some admirals believe that we should focus on cruisers anyway..
Costs 7/2, 6 Season construction time
It is now the Revision Phase of Pre game Turn 4. You have 1 die remaining to spend on Refits, Revisions ships, or to simply Save for the next turn.
Naval
Early 2/3/4/5/6/7/9/10/12 inch guns
Triple-expansion engines.
Early steam turbine engines.
Steel hull construction.
Single Casemates.
Single and Double gun turrets.
Decent Rangefinder
Composizione B Steel.
Montagne Acciaierie Armor Steel
Basic Damage control techniques.
Marines & Installations
Defensive guns (Uses same calibers as naval guns)
Magdala N90 Fucile (Basic Bolt Action Rifle)
Sette d'oro 87 Rivoltella (Basic Revolver)
Lepidus class Light Cruiser: The Lepidus class is a blisteringly fast Light Armored Cruiser, or Light Cruiser, which has a good deal of armor that compliments it's speed. It's arguably undergunned but it's ability to pick it's fights, it's main prey being cargo ships, torpedo boat destroyers, and protected cruisers, should do enough to offset that. Especially with the addition of torpedoes. Costs 5/2, takes 4 seasons to build.
Pompey Magnus Class Battleship:Arguably a miniature battleship, one that could be payed with whatever is in ones pocket compared to the price of true battleships, the Pompey Magnus class is...arguably mediocre. Yet, mediocracy in many numbers is a good thing. The ship is quite well armored and armed, though in part due to this it is slightly overweight, which could cause problems. Only costs 7/2, takes 6 seasons to build.
10,000 Displacement Dry docks.
Author
Topic: Refit and Repair 2. Magna Mongadizafra, Spring, 1896, Revision&Refit Phase. (Read 19528 times)