Winter, 1895, Design Phase.Wartime Experience Damage Control
Getting ships shot to shreds is not ideal, but it does provide evidence about what sort of damage hostile shells cause, and what can be done about it. Most importantly, fire kinda hurts and we need to deal with it. This requires training more crew in the response to a fire aboard ship. In fact, all crewmen ought to be aware how to fight fires, patch holes, and otherwise deal with battle damage. Given our nautical traditions and general naval excellence most of our crewmen are probably aware of the basics, so we're going to lean into the more difficult damage-control tasks and ensure that our sailors are capable of going the extra (nautical) mile when it comes to keeping ships afloat.
From standardized random drills for fire or flooding to practice swapping out damaged parts in engine rooms or guns so that they can be returned to working condition after suffering damage, we're going to have our sailors trained to a standard of excellence in damage control and recovery. Every crewman will be expected to know how to deal with a damage control situation and every crewman will be responsible for keeping the ship afloat and fighting.
Time: 6 | Progress: 6 | Expense: 4
Work in implementing a damage control program is something that hardly will take any time at all. There is plenty of space in a number of our docking facilities and some old ironclads and the like in our navy that could easily serve as training ships for our crews in the nature of damage control. And further this is made easier with the work already done on the conversion of this project. It'll only be of modest expense too, since we aren't building much that is genuinely new, mostly just doing conversions and the like.
Wartime Experience Damage Control | 6/8 | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 2 PP invested
Effectiveness: 6 | Cost: 1 | Bugs: 2
The knowledge gained from the first real naval battle of the war was put to some use, and a major focus on ensuring our crews know damage control has gone into effect. While the basics are mostly covered already, more advanced and stressful training, such as that of proper damage control teams and even extensive mechanics and maintenance is covered, and with our effective officers this training is capable of ensuring that everyone from the cook to captain knows how to stop flooding or fight a fire. Further, preemptive measures to protect against extensive damage has also been done so as to ensure the crews don't do anything that on the surface seems harmless but in reality is a major liability. Unfortunately, while this certainly makes our skilled crews competent in all fields of maintenance, it has a bit of a cost in time, and potentially will either cause an extended working up time for our crews or cut into our gunnery as it stands now. Though, given just how good this makes our damage control and the fact it will potentially allow us to save ships that seemed lost to all others, it might just be worth it.
Sevitava Motorworks SM1895 Torpedo
Based in the town of Sevitava on a small island in a bay, Sevitava Motorworks is principally a supplier of small engines, a rarity amongst our islands since such engines are largely even more specialist than your typical nautical engine. But small engines, or more specifically the engineering that goes into small engines, are modern and complicated devices and a firm capable of manufacturing them was perfect to approach about designing and building a torpedo.
The SM1895 is effectively a moderate nautical mine's worth of explosives, a hundred and fifty kilograms, bolted to a contact fuse plus a timed fuse (to self-destruct the torpedo once it runs out of compressed air), a compressed air tank, and a supply of kerosene. The kerosene is burned to heat the air as it travels into the turbines, which drive two counter-rotating propellers. Control is maintained by a gyroscope system along with a pressure sensor to maintain a more-or-less accurate depth. The gyroscope is spun up prior to launch by the launcher.
The standardized launcher is a triple mount, firing three torpedoes at a time. To reload requires a crane (not included) and some calm conditions (not included) as well as some spare torpedoes (included with the premium edition). This launcher is basically three tubes bolted together on a turntable, the torpedoes can be fired individually or all at once, the only difference is how many levers the operator pulls as the firing mechanisms aren't linked together.
Time: 4 | Progress: 1 | Expense: 2
Work on this new torpedo is expected to take a while and cost a lot. Early issues have popped up with regards to the more complex mechanics of the torpedo, specifically the gyroscpe, and a triple mount is something that is fairly complex due to the weight involved. In fact, not even the Royal Navy has anything for us to copy. Still, on the bright side it is likely that at most the project will take a bit less than a year provided no major blunders or advancements are made in our progress.
SM1895 Torpedo | 1/13 | 3 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 3 PP invested
Effectiveness: 6 | Cost: 4 | Bugs: 1
The torpedo, from what we can tell, is great. It isn't too costly despite the complexities it has. It's engine is absolutely flawless, and gives it a great range well in excess of 2k yards. And, to top it all off, the torpedo from early testing seems to not go off course when fired, and it's explosive charge is absolutely devastating. There is some issues though. Despite all of these fairly good things. The torpedo has issues in actually...well...exploding. We don't know what exactly is causing it but whenever it hits the target it rarely, if ever, explodes. And while it tends to follow the direction it's aimed in, it occasionally seems to go deeper than it should and just go under the target. We don't know if this is due to a weight miscalculation or something with the mechanical devices inside the torpedo but, these two issues combined mean that realistically it isn't going to cause any damage even if without these issues it'd hit the target. Lastly, the weight of the triple mount is...a bit much, which causes issues in turning, among other things. And honestly most working on the project want to cut it down to a double mount to save weight and alleviate this issue. Still, all these bugs can be worked out. we have plenty of time to fix them before it's finished at any rate.
It is now the Revision and Refit phase of Winter, 1895. You have 2 dice remaining to spend on Revisions and Refits, or save for next turn.
Marine Corps Artillery Development | 6/15 | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 2 PP invested
Wartime Experience Damage Control | 6/8 | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 2 PP invested
SM1895 Torpedo | 1/13 | 3 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 3 PP invested
Naval
Early 2/4/7/9/10 inch guns
QF 3/5/6 inch guns (Average price, rifling wears out quicker than normal. Very reliable. 19k max range estimate for 6 inch version, 9.5k effective range.)
Basic 12 Inch guns (Average price, rifling wears out quicker than normal. Very reliable. 24 max range estimate, 12k effective range.)
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.
Ballistite
Marines & Installations
Defensive guns (Uses same calibers as naval guns)
Magdala N95 Fucile (Early Clip-fed Bolt Action Rifle)
Punto Nord M10 Carabina (Early Clip-fed Bolt Action Carbine)
Sette d'oro 87 Rivoltella (Basic Revolver)
Casciano P95 (Basic Semi-auto Pistol)
Punto Nord M6 Fucile da caccia (Basic Shotgun)
Bomba di latta (Extremely rudimentary makeshift hand grenade)
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.
QF Refit (QFR): A simple replacement of the eligible smaller caliber guns to quick fire variants. Costs 1 PP to refit, takes 1 season to complete. Shipbuild cost same as original.
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.
Refits of the Pompey Magnus Class:
Belt and Magazine Adjustments (BMA): Modification utilizing the overweight nature of the ship to cut down on the lower section of the belt in order to add a inch of armor to the rest of it, along with modification to the magazine in order to add another inch to the turret's armor.
QF Refit (QFR): A simple replacement of the eligible smaller caliber guns to quick fire variants. Costs 1 PP to refit, takes 1 season to complete. Shipbuild cost same as original.
Modernized (MOD): Modifications to the Belt and magazine, alongside the smaller caliber guns. Costs 1 PP to refit, takes 1 season to complete. Shipbuild cost same as original.
Lepidus Class
Pompey Magnus Class W BMA modification
CL - Light Cruiser
Lepidus Class, 14 ships, 31 Maintenance
Lepidus | CL | QFR | Currently unassigned | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Eginardo Marino is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Vettius | CL | QFR | Currently unassigned | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Bindo Zocco is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Curio | CL | QFR | Currently unassigned | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Verulo Di Miceli is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Vitellius | CL | QFR | Currently unassigned | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Gianpietro Nocella is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Bibulus | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Alaudae | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Alessandro Ferro is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Cato the Younger | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Alaudae | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Rodolfo Colasurdo is captain, Trained, Cautious
Brutus | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Sabina | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Ildefonso Santoli is captain, Trained, Balanced
Labienus | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Alaudae | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Azelio Guastella is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Horatius | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Alaudae | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Cremenzio Parziale is captain, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Clodius | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Sabina | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Euclide Iantosca is captain, Greenhorn, Balanced
Virgil | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Sabina | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Ursmaro Battaglia is captain, Greenhorn, Balanced
Cassius | CL | No Refit | Currently assigned to Battlegroup Sabina | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Bassiano Senatore is captain, Greenhorn, Balanced
Lucullus | CL | No Refit | Currently Under repair | Crew are Trained | Heavy damage, 1 season | Spano De Toro is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Suetonius | CL | QFR | Currently Under construction, 2 seasons remaining, 5 PP per turn construction cost
B - Pre Dreadnaught Battleship
Pompey Magnus Class, 12 ships, 69 Maintenance
Pompey Magnus | B | MOD | Currently unassigned | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Mattia Cason is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Crassus | B | MOD | Currently unassigned | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Donatello Cortesi is captain, Greenhorn, Cautious
Marcus Antonius | B | BMA | Currently Under Repair | Crew are Trained | Heavy damage, 2 seasons | Liberio Irene is captain, Greenhorn, Cautious
Germanicus | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 3 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Marcus Aurelius | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Basil | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Tiberius | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Trajan | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Constantine | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 3 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Hadrian | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Theodosius | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 4 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
Justinian | B | MOD | Currently Under construction, 5 seasons remaining, 7 PP per turn construction cost
10,000 Displacement Dry docks.
112 PP (107 remaining), 100 Maintenance.