Playing the admiral of an early Republic of China starting from 1900, entering the Second Sino-Japanese War after a short victorious campaign against Russia that saw the Czar toppled by Mensheviks and Chinese control cemented over Port Arthur, Manchuria, and Sakhalin. The IJN decided to launch a naval invasion of the Liandong Peninsula at night in 1908 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, rather than leveraging their naval superiority (9:6 advantage in battleships). The result was a complete coordination nightmare: the first encounter the Republican Chinese Navy had with them was when their line of battle accidentally steamed right through the Japanese troop transports in the middle of the night. The result was an absolute disaster for Japan: their entire fleet of transports was shattered in an instant. Rather than giving up, they pursued with their entire battleship line. The Chinese lost the Gansu (Chongqing class, 12300 tons, 4x12" main battery, 7.5" belt) to uncontrolled fires, while the Japanese lost the Hatsuse (13900 tonnes, 4x10" battery, 8.5" belt armor) in the exchange. The Chinese then withdrew for harbor, their mission complete with the invasion was foiled.
The Japanese then followed on by separating their battleship line. Taking advantage, the Chinese fell upon a detached force of three of their Yashimas and two Tokiwa class cruisers with four battleships of their own: three Anhui class (14000 ton, 4x12" main battery, 8" belt) and the Chongqing. With encounter in the Changshan islands, the Japanese force tried to break south only to be pinned against the Shandong peninsula and shot to pieces by constant cannon fire. The Chinese in turn lost one battleship to a lucky torpedo: the Chongqing eventually was forced to abandon ship after several hours of trying to seal the breach and drain water. Those little battleships were good in 1890s, I'm sure, but I'm building 12000 ton raider CAs now; they just don't have the survivability to last in 1908.
Unfortunately, it looks like the game went squirrelly while trying to process a peace and force-quit after the second battle before it saved. A shame; that kind of 3-1 exchange in battleship hulls would have been very good for me, but it looks like the game has rolled a cruiser engagement instead reprocessing the turn.
EDIT:
The second attempt at a Japanese invasion of the Liaodong peninsula came August 26, 1908. The Japanese this time arrived in Chinese waters late afternoon with 8 BBs, 4 CAs 1 CL, 6 DDs, and 7 TRs. Opposing them was the Chinese navy with only 4 BBs, 1 CA, 2 CLs, and 11 DDs. Remembering last time, the Chinese kept the range open until night, fending off the first abortive attempt at a forced landing with minimal losses, then took up night patrol off the coast with their full force anticipating a second midnight run. The result: a second night engagement where the Japanese and Chinese battle lines ended up thoroughly entangled, even though they were a bit smarter about their limited transports this time. This time, taking out their landing force involved detaching my only CA and a DD squadron, then sending them off separately to handle the enemy while my battleships kept twice their number busy.
The result was a complete success: one enemy B torpedoed, one B heavily damaged, one CA sinking due to overdose of 12" HE rounds, and a second invasion force at the bottom of the Yellow Sea. The remaining six Japanese Bs only lightly damaged. Of the Chinese ships, three of the four were lightly damaged, one (Guangxi) was torpedoed entering port but survived. The CA Yang-wei was definitely the star of the encounter, at one point fending off three enemy CAs at the same time (armed with 2 10" guns, 14 6" casemates, and 10 3" for lighter enemies) with its 4 9" main guns and 16 5" casemates as it made its final run for Dalian well into the next day.
As a result of redirecting our goals northward, we shifted to aiming for naval support for an invasion of Korea starting in December 1908. To this end, the Chinese took the offensive with three battleships (the modern Beijing at 14200 tons and the older Chongqing and Guangdong) on anti-convoy operations: who would expect to see a full-body rush with battleships against convoys? They ran into three Japanese battleships running convoy defense: two modern, state-of-the-art Mikasa class (15000 tons with 4 11-inchers apiece) and the older Iki, another Shikishima class. The convoy was ripped to pieces, Iki sank to progressive flooding outside Busan, while Mikasa and Sagami ran away with their tails between their legs.
By March 1909, the army and navy were both prepared to embark on an operation in southern Korea, bypassing the North. Apparently, the army decided the timing and location by throwing darts, because they decided our landing would be near Yeonggwang with an arrival time eight hours before local dawn. The order of battle for this operation was six Chinese battleships (Beijing, Hong Kong, the repaired Chongqing, Guandong, Guangxi, and Anhui), two CAs (Ching-yuen and Yang-wei), 2 CLs, and 10 DDs. Opposed to this was theoretically 5 IJN battlewagons (including both Mikasa and Sagami) and assorted lighter ships, but as it turned out, they never were able to contest the landing: the most that happened was that the CA Nisshin took a couple potshots at one of our destroyers and in turn was smacked by Anhui, Ching-yuen, and Yang-wei, which sent it scarpering back into the dark. A quiet operation is a good operation, but it still would have been nice if the IJN had been willing to show themselves while we briefly outnumbered them for once. The IJA wasn't much more organized either; they had only just moved into Korea (which started the war), and Korean resistance combined with Chinese regulars meant Korea fell to China within a single month.
The results of these three campaigns:
Shikishima (Shikishima class B, 11800 tons, 4x12" main armament, 7" belt): Torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Liaodong
Iki (Shikishima class B): Heavy damage under constant volleys from enemy fire, sank outside Pusan
Kasuga (Tokiwa class CA): Crippled and sank after learning the hard way that an armored cruiser's belt armor does not stand up to the concentrated weight of fire from four battleships.
Guangxi (Anhui class B): Took a torpedo while entering port in Dalian. Survived and quickly repaired
Chongqing (Chongqing class B): Still ate a torpedo, this time from a destroyer that blasted past out of the dark while rounding southern Korea the night after the engagement with Mikasa, Sagami, and Iki, but it survived in this time.
Wuchuan (Yuzhou class DD): The only Chinese loss of the Second Battle of Dalian, this poor 600-tonner was plugged by a 6" HE round from the Azuma, was unable to control the flooding, and sank.
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Topic: How did you last *own*? (Read 1353101 times)