Interactive History V: The Duel of the Sea

[Kraxis]

Satisfaction

You look on for a few minutes, noting with a good deal of pleasure that the gunners of Baden and Bayern are quite accurate. By now they hit the last ship in the line, Orion, repeatedly. Meanwhile the battlecruiers have spread out their fire with Hindenburg dealing with the battlecruiser, identified with Australia, and the others firing at the enemy ships in succession with both Seydlitz and Von der Tann dealing with the first battleship, Neptune.
But you have that tingling feeling that it is time to pull back, the enemy might have more forces on station than you know of, and with the large formation to the north, plowing at you, you are certain: It is time to end this.
You order a 16 point (180 degrees) tack to starboard, meaning each ship will turn at the point you began to turn thus keeping the formation intact, if somewhat slow.
You order the zeppelieners near the convoy to attempt bombing, perhaps it will throw off the British, perhaps even sinking a few ships. You also inform the Admiralty that three or four enemy heavy ships are wounded, heading for Scapa Flow. If there are any U-Boats nearby they would present a favourable target.

In between your forces the light forces of both sides play their deadly game. The enemy destroyers attempt at laying down a smokescreen while your topedoboats and light cruisers attempt to stop them. The last two enemy light cruisers try to cover the destroyers but your light cruisers are overwhelming them.

As you tack to starboard you get to fire with all guns in succession, Orion taking the brunt of the punishment, meanwhile your secondary guns target the enemy detroyers and light cruisers. Next Bayern completes her turn also ripping into Orion and the light forces. As the fourth ship, Grosser Kurfürst completes her turn and Markgraf fires off a broadside you see Orion suffer a serious explosion in her rear turrets.

Meanwhile the battlecruisers have also turned to give broadsides for as long as possible. Australia turning with them, protecting the battleships suffer a succession of hits, and eventually her rear superstructure is burning seriously, corditefire perhaps and she has a list. But her own broadsides hit Von der Tann several times with plenty damage as a result.
Neptune having suffered greatly in the first contact with your main force begin a lazy turn, but then she is obscured by smoke. And the fire is directed at Monarch.

At 10:22 you finally break off contact and behind you the two British light cruisers are flaming wrecks along with two destroyers in a slowly sinking state, but one of your light cruisers, Pillau has been seriously damaged, as she took three hits from a big ship, and she can't keep up. You station three somewhat damaged torpedoboats with her as they move to the east.
Just then your rearmost ship, Moltke, reports that she has spotted two ships from the northwest and others coming down from the north. The enemy is here.

At 10:45 Pillau reports being taken under fire from enemy ships coming at her rapidly. She has ordered the torpedoboats to run while she lays down smoke and expects to get sunk.
For minutes you follow this action to the rear of you and it seems fo a while that Pillau will make it, as her smoke obscures her. But then after 15 mintes she suffers a long succession of hits which brings her to a halt.

At 10:54 you meet up with Derfflinger and her destroyers coming to meet you.

Feeling the enemy might chase you to the world's end you call up the reserve force and order them to meet you, but it will take some time before they will be able to help you.
For an hour the chase is kept up, but the enemy comes closer rapidly. You don't know how many they are, but it is obvious that they are battlecruisers.
Trying to keep damage to the least you position your own battlecruisers in the front while you expect Kaiserin and König Albert to take the fight up with their three available turrets facing rearwards.

At 11:29 you get a report from Z22 and V86 that they have begun to bomb the convoy. It is responding as if it is under attack from heavy ships, the destroyers fanning out to findthe hidden assailant, but they have only struck a small merchant.

At 11:41 the lead enemy ship opens up, but her shots are falling short, and at 11:56 Kaiserin finally responds with König Albert following suit three minutes later. The fight is equal enough when the second British ship opens up and the first hit is scored on Kaiserin at 12:13 followed quickly but a rapid succession of hits on the lead British ship. This goes on for half an hour, with more ships joining in.

At 12:15 Derfflinger observes smoke to the southeast, and at 12:45 it is clear that another three battleships are coming at you. Derfflinger and Hindenburg open up on them and they respond in kind, but your ships can let at them with their broadsides while they can only present their forward guns.
Instead of turning to follow you they charge at your line for many minutes, enduring accurate fire. Finally at 13:02 they turn onto your course, by then they are supported by an airship, spotting for them.
You curse this, and order the nearest zeppeliner to head for you at once, even if it is low on fuel. You tell it you will tow it should it run out. But it will still take a considerable time before it can reach you, and meanwhile you observe as Derfflinger, Hindenburg and Moltke are straddled.
You order everything not engaging the British battlecruisers to open up on these three ships at once. The staggered splashes indicate some confusion, but sadly has no impact on the British firing as the airship still spots for them, negating the need for a clear sight to the targets.
At 13:20 they hit Moltke several times, knocking out the forward turret. And not untill 13:27 comes the first hit on them. The middle ship is struck by three 15 inch shells, and now you have the range perfectly and straddle them. For several minutes the the three battleships are struck time and again by several ships, until they finally break off. Meanwhile the British coming up from the rear break off too, tacking to starboard.

You take this chance to turn towards the reserve force, meanwhile you count the enemy force. 8 ships... And then you wonder if perhaps not they have the weakest ships to the rear. Perhaps it is possible to damage them?

The tally is good, Dreadnought sunk along with four light cruisers and six destroyers. Serious damage is estimated on five battleships and a battlecruiser while less damage is estimated on a battleship and three battlecruisers.
Your losses is the light cruiser Pillau, serious damage to two battlecruisers and lighter damage to three battleships and a battlecruiser.

What will you do?

A)
1: Reengage the force that is obviously smaller and has been recieving serious damage (you hope) to the frist three ships.
2: Turn to engage the smaller threeship force. Send the battlecruisers (less Derfflinger) to tie and perhaps slow them down so the main force can deal with them. The enemy battlecruisers have obviously become aware that you are much stronger andwill not likely engage you.
3: Go home and lick your wounds. A few ships have suffered quite a bit of damage.
4: Send home the most damaged ships, Hindenburg, Derfflinger, Von der Tann and Kaiserin. The rest will keep their distance and let the British run. Then they will head for the convoy with a lead of three light cruisers and four torpedoboats.

B)
1: Recall the zeppeliners in full.
2: Recall them but keep an eye on the convoy, the smaller force and the battlecruisers.
3: Keep the screen out in place, follow potential targets.
(mind you the weather is slowly clearing up, so they zeppeliners might not be able to stay hidden).

[AggonyDuck]

A) 4

B) 3

[Kommodus]

My goodness you guys are timid. Retreat now, with a chance to deal a crippling blow to the British navy? I understand the reasons for this, and they are logical, but I would opt for a bolder tactic. For the present situation, I like option #2. In addition to hopefully sinking more of the fleeing British ships, it gives us a chance to catch even more enemy ships between two of our forces.

Granted, it's risky. If the British have more ships nearby than the ones we know about, it could turn out particularly bad for us. But if the British are more spread out, as I suspect they are, we can deal with them piecemeal as they arrive.

Edit: Oh dang, while I was typing this Kraxis posted an update. Ah well.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Tough one this time...

For A, I think no. 2 seems to risky. Trying to slow down some of their faster ships until our reinforcements arrive could end in two ways - either the enemy stays until our reinforcements arrive, and then escape, or they escape right away, with the result that we possibly get our battle cruisers damaged without achieving too much. No. 4 isn't a good idea either IMO, as the convoy is still quite far out and the enemy might be able to regroup their retreating forces out there, possibly joining them with some reinforcements we don't know about yet, and will be able to strike the forces we send after the convoy. The zeppeliners might also have fooled them to think we've got a force out there that we're trying to use to trap them. When they find out there's no force out there - and the clearer weather will reveal that to them soon enough - they'll probably be able to destroy our weakened force if it goes after the convoy having sent home the damaged ships.

The question is no.1 or no.3 - should we follow up these successes or retreat? As I see it, going after the three ship force would allow us to cause some damage, but in return that forces us to keep the zeppeliner screen out to make sure the enemy aren't regrouping and reinforcing in preparation for another strike. Keeping the zeppeliners out will probably reveal to the British how we achieved this victory, and also make it impossible to later use them as effectively for recon or deception (they thought the zeppeliners at the convoy were ships), and it will also be possible that our zeppeliners suffer losses in the clear weather. If we retreat we can call back all zeppeliners for refueling etc, and the enemy will hopefully not realize how effective they were to us in terms of deception and recon, plus there's minimal risk of losses for them.

So it's a tie between A1 B3 and A3 B1. Looking once more at the results of the day settles it - we've had enough successes today. We should repair our ships and train gunnery and similar in preparation for the - I assume - inevitable British revenge.

My choices are: A3 B1

[aw89]

A) This could be a golden opportunity to even the odds, but with some care, I think 2. would be best.

B) Even if the weather is clearing some intelligence is needed, especially against a trap, so my choice is 2.

[Kommodus]

I'm gonna go with:

A) 4
B) 2

I think this gives us the best chance to do more significant damage today without risking too much. If the British are regrouping near the convoy and/or bringing in more reinforcements, we'll know about it through the zeppelins and therefore won't be caught walking into a trap. It keeps the zeppelins from the worst dangers while continuing to make them useful.

[Kraxis]

Results so far:

A) 2:1, 3:1, 4:2 (ok... I will revert to numericals and figures in that order next time)

B) 1:1, 2:2, 3:1

A4 B2 is winning but everything can change with so many possible posters out there.

You can always change your mind, but be sure to say to which options (that way you can help out a minority you would rather like to win, even if you don't like it that much), and if you happen to do that while I'm posting and update... Then that is just tough luck.

[Kagemusha]

I would say A:3) and B:2).We dont have anykind of tactical edge anymore so we shouldnt stay in a slug fest with the British.Also Protect the Zeppeliners,they are for gathering info and so they shouldnt be put in harms way.

[Flavius Clemens]

A2, B2
Try for a further quick win against the 3 ship force before we finally scoot for home. If I have followed the directions right, attacking the larger force takes us further away from home, and attacking the convoy even more so. Defeating the 8 ships will take time, and we can only push our luck so long before the various British detachments will be concentrated against us. However I think the risk of taking on the 3 ships is worthwhile, as we will outnumber them heavily for a while. Don't want to hang around too long and let the British regroup though, so any delays or problems and it's time to head for home and a celebration.

[Lord Winter]

A3 B2 Lets leave now the British navy can take more loses then us without the same effect plus they could turn the tide of the battle around and realy due some damage to us. We did what we came to do lets leave and regroup. If we lose here we have a great chance of losing the interactive history.

[Kraxis]

Flavius, all attackvectors will take you away from safety. The threeship group is running to the west, the 8-ship group is running northerly and the convoy is about northwest. Home is east, then south (southeast is uncleared minefields). In any case I take it doesn't change your choices.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

I'd say we've taken enough risks and proven ourselves worthy foes, but for now we must head home and refit. Hopefully those damages British ships will be out of it long enough to be effectively removed from any future engagements and we can strike them again, at our convenience instead of being drawn into a trap like we have. There is always tomorrow and for now we should have gained some more influence with the higher ups and have certainly achieved a profitable loss to gain ratio.

3 and 2.

[discovery1]

We've done enough for this day. Let's head home. And recall the zep for rest and refit.

[Lord Winter]

OT but what was Interactive histories I-III about?

[Mr White]

Let us see what we've accomplished today:
We've accomplished a victory, far from a crippling one but still. This will grant us better morale with the troops, more influence with the admirality and a somewhat better balance between our numbers and theirs ( still greatly in the NR's advantage).

Why did we accomplish this?
Better gunnery, better tactics and most of all better intelligence.

The Brits have an edge on us on nearly every terrain. The only real advantage we have is our intelligence at sea (= the zeppelins) only the NR doesn't know that. So if we want to keep this advantage we should keep the Brits ignorant ( As Legio said). Withdraw everything now and let the NR lick its wounds if we want to use our zepps safely again. Opportunities will rise again as the Brits will want take revenge.

[Ludens]

Yes, I think we have done well enough for day 1. I don't fancy getting into an (roughly) even fight with the British - we are disadvantaged enough as it is - and I can't help but think that they have more ships available. So option A3 it is.

I also think we should conserve our zeppelin, and since the Brits might not be aware of them (or at least the fact that we are using them extensively) we should recall them all. No need to scout if we are safe. I go for option B1. I do wonder, though: you make it sounds as if every blimp was sent to sea. Don't we have a reserve?

[Kraxis]

OT but what was Interactive histories I-III about?

Hehe... I and II was about Hannibal, the first started after Cannae and ended with a forced peace on Rome. II was after a victorious Zama and the story was about to take us into Hispania once more, but then I couldn't go on.

Long pause...

III was Antiochus' Dilemma, you can search for it here. It started just prior to the battle of Thermopylae in 191BC (but in this case the battle never happened), through a lot of convoluted maneuverings the large Seleucid army marched through Thrace and Macedonia until sitting in Epirus while the Romans ravaged Asia Minor and an imposter took power in Antioch. Eventually Antiochus got killed by his own generals as they had long realzed he was only leading them to doom.

All the zeps you had ready were at sea (with a number at home acting as replacements for refueling zeps). Thus you can't demand a more active search...

[Flavius Clemens]

Flavius, all attackvectors will take you away from safety. The threeship group is running to the west, the 8-ship group is running northerly and the convoy is about northwest. Home is east, then south (southeast is uncleared minefields). In any case I take it doesn't change your choices.

I had assumed the smaller group had turned east to get away from us and would then have to manoeuver round to get home. In these circumstances, and having slept on it, I'll change to head for home now and withdraw the Zeppelins, and hope a lucky U-boat or two adds icing to the cake by finishing off one of the damaged vessels before it makes it home.

I'm not sure we can assume the Brits won't already have put two and two together and realised we were using Zeppelins for scouting. They must realise we've either been lucky or have good intelligence.

[Ludens]

All the zeps you had ready were at sea (with a number at home acting as replacements for refueling zeps). Thus you can't demand a more active search...

Excellent. I was afraid that there would be no replacements so our screen would fall apart when the zeps run out of fuel.

[Kraxis]

Battle Finished

Watching the enemy disengage you come to the realization that the battlecruisers might just be a lure. Just like your own had been earlier today. You order the reserve force to meet you as you speed for the Heligoland gap.
From the rear Kaiserin reports that the three smoking enemy battleships have disengaged competely.

So the battle is over you think. Time to consider what to do with the zeps.
Their info has been invaluable in the recent battle, in fact you get the feeling they saved you from a considerable cost when they spotted the British battlecruisers coming at you. There is no telling what might have happened if they had crossed your 'T'... At the same time you perfectly understand that the British must not know that your zeps have been this effective, but you hold no illusions that the British are unaware of them. Both the scouting of Dover and the collision over the British forward force made it clear to both sides thatthe zeps were out.
But maybe that can used to your advantage? You think so, while you rest the British will be watching the skies, looking for zeps. Yes... You order the recall of the zeppeliners but keep three on station to watch the convoy, the large and the small force. Perhaps this will give off valuable info.

At 13:49 the British battlecruisers are finally out of range of all guns and the sea becomes silent once more. You call for a score from Kaiserin and König Albert. It takes a few minutes before Kaiserin reports that it has been hit 9 times, and König Albert reports 5 hits, but neither ship are sure how many times they or the ships in front of them hit the British battlecruisers.

Sailing at 21 knots you press your ships, but you seriously don't want another engagement now. You are up on points and want to keep it that way. Estimates say that your losses will quickly be repaired, no need to make it take longer.
Suddenly Kaiserin reports seing the British airship head for you, following you at a distance. Shortly after, the light cruiser Brummer reports the plume of smoke to the northwest are in fact not moving away but getting closer. Apparently the British have once more turned around and are again chasing you actively.

You think it over. The British are outnumbered and have less armour, they can't possibly win, so they must have stronger forces nearby, but then why haven't the zeppeliners noticed that? Hm... There is not time for such considerations, now you have to deal with an enemy coming from behind.
Since you are sailing on a direct course for the reserve force there should be no problems if you were to lead from the rear. That way you can bring the weaker and damaged Kaiserin and König Albert to the fore while your own Baden along wih Bayern take up stations at the rear. Yes, that will be the plan. To go into battleline would only bring the stronger enemy forces closer and that would be dangerous.

Within a few minutes the four ships have changed positions, and you are now sailing on the second ship from the rear. The British ships are coming closer still, and at 14:16 Bayern opens up. When her third salvo splashes near the front enemy ship she responds, quickly followed by the second ship and then your own Baden joins in.
These rearchases are confusing and not very easy to conduct, but at 14:27 and impact is seen on the third British ship that is not able to repond. But the British have their airship spotting for them, and splashes are surrounding your two ships. You are straddled.

This goes on until 14:43 when the British look like they are turning to port, but end up creating a fourship line abreast. You notice that two of the ships has a small collision and three hits are recorded on the ship moving to the port side. But now the enemy has numbers on her side and it becomes increasingly hard to keep the range with the splashes disrupting the view of the enemy.
It becomes increasingly troublesome and you fear a hit to the engines or screwpropellers. Finally Bayern suffers a hit, this time to her casemate to the rear of the her 'C' turret. This takes out two 5.9 inch guns, but has no impact on her capacity to fight currently. You quickly make up your mind to do something and orders the two relatively unscathed battlecruisers Moltke and Seydlitz to move off to the side and present their broadsides, and move ahead again when they recieve attention.
They move out and blast away with their full broadsides, and incredibly one of them hit the portmost British ship under the waterline. Quickly they come under fire and as they turn and retreat again Moltke is hit.
Continually for an hour this keeps up with your battlecrusiers going back and forth. The dimming lights and shifting targets makes it almost as hard for the British to fire accurately as it is for you. And at 15:50 the British finally break off, just as the reserve force was about to enter the battle, clearly the airship warned them.

Tired after a long day you join up with the reserve force and head back to port. The zeppeliners on station report that the British are returning to port as well. About this time the zeppeliner trcking the three battleships head home as the British coast is getting close and the chance of fighters is getting high.
Late in the evening you get a message from U-22:
"Observed four battleships, three seriously damaged, just as indicated. Fired a spread of four torpedoes. Observed two hits on trailing ship and one on middle-rear ship. Trailing ship halted and listing heavily, will sink. Fear detection."
The zeppeliner charged with following the battlecruisers noticed this and reports that the trailing battleship indeed sank later, but also that the British found the U-boat and forced it to surrender.

You enter port late in the night, no crowds recieve you, but you are too tired to even notice or care. You quickly disembark and turn in in your office landside.
In the morning you wake up to an orderly shaking you. As you sit up he hands you a number of messages. The first is from the Admiralty, they can hardly contain their joy, but they wonder why you didn't finish the wounded forces, both times or even turn on the battlecruisers. They are also disturbed that now the British are using airships to such an effect, but sadly they promiss you nothing, mentioning the upcoming 'operation' is going to take it all. But you get the destinct feeling that they are much more open to your ideas now.

After that you go through the lists of ammo-expenditure, losses and time to repair ships. You are pleasantly surprised that Derfflinger will not need much time in dock, but then again she was practically pulled from the battle early on.
Derfflinger: Will need two weeks in drydock.
Moltke: Will need two weeks of repairs. Can sail right away.
Von der Tann: Will need a month in drydock.
Hindenburg: Will need three weeks of repairs. Can sail right away.
Seydlitz: Minor repairs. Can sail right away.
Baden: Minor repairs. Can sail right away.
Bayern: A week of serious repairs to superstructure. Can sail right away.
Kaiserin: One month in drydock.
König Albert: Two weeks of repairs. Can sail right away.

Your losses are 1052 killed and wounded in total. 442 are from Pillau alone, any survivors are expected to be in POW camps by now. Just like the 459 survivors of Dreadnought.

The morale of the ships is high and the mood is light despite the losses. The battle also gave your crews needed practice in maneuvers and gunnery.

What will you do?

1) Manpowersituation. Sadly you can't rearrange the crews from lesser to superior positions, but 100 sailors are ready right away. You lack 510 sailors.
A: Pull them from the trainingunits. This will impact future replacements, but they are well trained and ready to serve. Will cost influence.
B: Pull them from the non-finished sailors from the trainingunits.
C: Take them from the secondary forces. They are trained sailors and might know some of the systems, but in general they are unfamiliar with the equipment.
D: Let the replacements take the time they need.

2) Ships and repairs.
A: You need as many ships sailing and battleready as soon as possible. Pull influence to give the sailing units priority over the docked units.
B: You need everything you can get as fast as possible, and the docked units are important. Pull influence to give the docked units priority over the sailing units for repairs.
C: Don't try to affect the repairs.

3) Warsituation.
A: Lead the 9 battleships of the reserve force on maneuvers and gunnerypractice. They never got any training while you fought your battle.
B: Stay home for the time being. Your men need some time to rest and brag.
C: Lead out Baden and Bayern along with 9 unharmed battleships. Take advantage of the high mood and attack any British force nearby. They won't expect such a move so soon after a battle. Will sail in four days.

4) Zeppeliners. The remaining zeppeliners returned home in the night after their targets got too far away.
A: Let them rest for four days and ten send them out once more. Full search.
B: Limited search over the Heligoland Bight. See if you have captured it.
C: Remain at home for the time being.

[Uesugi Kenshin]

Sweet we sank their battleship! Do we have any information on what type of battleship the U-Boat sank, or at the very least how modern it is?

1) Not sure what we should do about this, Kraxis please don't count a vote from me on this yet, I'll let you know if I change my mind.

2)Probably C, but I'm not 100%, I'd like to wait and see what others have to say about this, don't count a vote yet.

3)C, the Tommies should be in port licking their wounds and if we send the Zeppelins out we should be able to avoid getting trapped as we did with the previous engagement.

4)A, get them out there to spot for the Battleship force, they will be essential to the safety of our battleships and hopefully we'll be able to spot a convoy to raid or something.

Kraxis if I haven't said anything between now and 11pm GMT-5 (or whenever you update) take these votes, I want to see what others have to say if I can and then possibly change my votes. Thanks

[Kraxis]

You don't know which ship got sunk, but if you look over the last few chapters you might be able to string together which ship it is.

You know this: There were four of them, they were seriously damaged and the sunk ship was last in the line.

[Rodion Romanovich]

- 1C - taking them from the secondary forces enables us to get going quickly if needed. I think we can expect a British large-scale revenge operation soon so we can't wait too long. If we take them from the secondary forces we also probably get the most skilled replacements we can get at this time, which is probably quite useful. New recruits and trainees will then eventually fill up the vacancies created among the secondary forces for us
- 2A - I think it's important to get these ships ready quickly, the British response may come very soon, earlier than we expect
- 3A - Despite the possible gains we could get, I'm against going out again right away - the British might think the same way we are - that the opposition won't expect a response so soon. Maybe they'll send out a large fleet to prepare a revenge very soon. If we're carrying out some insignificant raid we'll not be able to mount a very good response to such an attack, and the British may use their speed to isolate the raiding force from the main force in which case we'll take very critical losses. It's also important for the forces to get at least a little time for celebration for the sake of morale. I suggest keeping most units at home while letting the units who stayed at home get some training at gunnery and manouvering, giving the heroes a chance to rest and celebrate. If our zeppeliners cover the approaches to them we'll know if any chance to redirect them to action will be possible, in which case we should again let the zeppeliners go out in full force so we know what we've got to deal with.
- 4 new option D - if we are only training, resting and repairing in preparation for a British larger-scale attack we don't need that much coverage, but I suggest a limited coverage of approaches to our training units and our main harbors, after all we don't want to risk anything and what to find out early if any enemy is approaching. But be ready to develop full coverage again if we see any British activity at all.

[Kraxis]

Legio, the zeppeliner option B is basically a cover of the approaches to the harbours. But they will also see if the British have conceeded the Bight to you. In practical terms the will only fly a short distance out to sea, stationed around Heligoland (a nice spot to seek safety in case of trouble).

[AntiochusIII]

Kraxis, if we do not affect the recruitment and repairs, what is expected to happen to these quarters? I assume the repairs will be finished as listed above, correct? What about the recruitment?

For now, though, my choice will be:

1. C) Learning the system isn't too hard especially since the ships that need the crews themselves will be out of operation for a while, adequate time to make the experienced crews from the secondary units familiar with how the ships work. The secondary units will replenish their crews in time with new recruits. The primary units come first since we're actively fighting the now-vengeful British fleet. Seamanship takes much longer time to learn.

2. C) For now, my choice will be this. I'd like to preserve the influence for future uses as small-scale victories that give us these influences will not likely be achieved for a while with the other side becoming naturally much more cautious.

3. A) Those ships did not have a chance for gunnery practice at all. This is our edge and we need them to be skilled. Besides, the reserve forces will then be ready for any small scale maneuvers and operations that might need to be conducted if the British decide for an early revenge counter-attack. The crews in the battles, on the other hand, will need to rest and brag for future battles to come.

4. B) Since Kraxis states that this choice means limited short-range scouting that also keep an eye on the reserve forces in training, and we don't want our training ships being catched off-guard, this choice will be. Make sure they get much rest, however, we don't need information THAT much with no active operations in the German Ocean.

[Flavius Clemens]

Do we know how long 1 D would take?

2 - Still chewing this over, but inclined to go for C.

3 - A. We need the reserves able to make the best contribution possible, and the crews who have seen action deserve R&R.

4 - Agree with AntiochusIII B) Since Kraxis states that this choice means limited short-range scouting that also keep an eye on the reserve forces in training, and we don't want our training ships being catched off-guard, this choice will be. Make sure they get much rest, however, we don't need information THAT much with no active operations in the German Ocean.

Beyond this, I think we need to start considering what we might do about the increased British use of airships. Can we improvise some enhanced AA equipment on our ships? Do we have any chance of deploying aircraft (not necessarily specialist fighters given that the targets are large and not maneourverable)?

[Kagemusha]

Nice to see we got out from the Sea in one peace and with a minor victory in our pocket. 1.C) Those guys have been in the secondary vessels for long enough.Now its their time to get on the big boats.These guys should be motivated,becouse we trust them and the veterans can show them the ropes.
2.A) repair first the ones that can sail.So we have always maximum use on our ships.
3.B)If the Zeppelins are home the boats should be too.We dont want to sail in English trap.
4.A Let the Zeppelin crews rest and inspect the ships if there are any damages.

[Kraxis]

All the ships in need of repairs have lost crewmembers, though Baden and Seydlitz got theirs from the 100 ready sailors as they only needed a few men.

If you do nothing to either ships and crews they will slowly proceed. The ships will be finished around the time indicated, and cremembers will refill their ships at a rate of about 100 every week.

Your battleships all carry AA in some meassure, not much in general, from two 88mm guns to around six on the later battleships. Most of the newer light cruisers also carry a few 88s. But it must be considered rather limited what there is of AA. Also it must be assumed that the airships will know to stay away far enough. Like yours have (though it has not been needed with the clouds).

There are a few seaplane tenders but I can't find any info on them being used. It seems they are in fact unuseable.
But be mindful that the British light cruiser Furious is currently being converted to a carrier...

[Kagemusha]

So we have full crews in 5 weeks?

[Rodion Romanovich]

Legio, the zeppeliner option B is basically a cover of the approaches to the harbours. But they will also see if the British have conceeded the Bight to you. In practical terms the will only fly a short distance out to sea, stationed around Heligoland (a nice spot to seek safety in case of trouble).

Ok, then I mean 4B.

Two interesting thought have occured to me:
- maybe next time we should attach a couple of zeppeliners directly to the ship force. They could be an effective way of dealing with British using airships for spotting, which was critical in the last battle
- In ships sunk we're leading, but in ships damaged the British are leading. This means the British still have the initiative during the coming three weeks. We can probably expect them very soon.

Finally the news about Furious are more than just a little unnerving. Since our AA is limited we need to think of a special way of countering the carrier. The carrier can not only effectively be used to hunt down our scouting zeppeliners, but also give them an extra advantage in the normal ship to ship engagements. We need to find a way of somehow isolating the carrier. Do we know anything about it's possible weaknesses? Speed, armament in terms of guns, armor quality etc.?