Let's Play "Rule The Waves" w/ Steve's Custom Country "Cascadia"

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I'd go with the cruisers. If a battleship you can build now can't stand against a British or German (or whoever) ship then it isn't worth the cost or the loss of cruisers you could have built instead.

[Steve]

OTOH, if I wait until January, not only will I have even more budget available from the completion of the Fearless and Relentless, but I'll be able to build a B of up to 16,000T in my own docks. And maybe if I'm lucky I'll get one of those ship design tech advancements beforehand, or an event for private shipbuilding expansions increasing my tonnage size.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Couldn't you build "large light cruisers" such as the Courageous-class? It looks like the various classes of RN monitors are right out, since the game's not going to allow you to mount 15"(or even 6")guns on a destroyer hull.

[Simon_Jester]

Hm. You could build battleships of displacement broadly competitive with period warships (e.g. the Majestic-class). The idea of a native-built battleship class actually does seem logical to my way of thinking, though you might build only one and dedicate any other heavy slips to cruiser construction.

[Steve]

Cinnabar, I can try with something like that, but only when I've gotten two ship design techs (the game requires you to have two ship design technologies researched before you can build a ship it would consider a battlecruiser). And it'd only have 12" guns or 11" guns.

It's really early in the game to be coming up with intriguing classes. I need more tech research completed to expand my options.

[Steve]

September 1900


The Admiralty
Portland, Federal District
10 September 1900


Admiral Garrett met Admiral Wilburn in the Naval Planning Room in preparation for their august visitor. As the minutes wiled away, Wilburn turned to his subordinate. "Dreadful news from Galveston, isn't it?"

"Most dreadful," Admiral Garrett agreed. The news on the wire was sobering; a powerful Gulf Coast typhoon had just annihilated the Texan coastal city of Galveston. Thousands were said to have perished in the flood and devastation. "It makes one pleased that the Pacific typhoons do not in general come our way."

Wilburn nodded in appreciation for that fact and went silent.

Two minutes later the doors opened. President McGraw entered, a man with fine features and graying hair. Behind him Secretary of State Thomas R. McInnes and Secretary of the Navy Charles A. Semlin entered. The two Admirals rose and saluted to recognize their Commander-in-Chief and two of the Cabinet with the greatest influence in the political affairs of their service. Their blue-gray uniforms were of the same color of Semlin's suit jacket and trousers, while the President and Secretary McInnes wore the more common black. "Gentlemen, you are recognized and may be at ease," McGraw stated. He and his Cabinet men found their seats. "You may proceed."

The meeting began as usual. Admiral Wilburn laid out the current naval situation in the world. Of particular interest was any news of major German fleet deployments to the Marianas, Bismarcks, or Tsingtao; relations with that Great Power were starting to become tense.

It was Admiral Garrett's turn when Secretary Semlin called upon him to discuss the state of naval construction. "The delays in the shipyards for our British ships are of the most aggravating character," he stated. "It reinforces my point made earlier this year that we must invest more in native shipbuilding. The Cascadian shipbuilding industry is ready to produce battleships worthy of the name."

"That is all fine. But we are starting to look rather weak, are we not?", McInnes asked. The physician-turned-politician appraised Admiral Garrett with a close look. "Only two battleships in construction? Even Japan has ordered a third from France."

"I have it on authority that my designers are hard at work to make an improved design," Admiral Garrett stated. "One that can mount a heavier secondary battery. Given the rest of the year, we could have such a ship ready to be laid, and in one of the new expanded slipways being built at Hunter's Point. To build another ship in British yards will be to give Cascadian dollars to British shipbuilders."

"An excellent point," Semlin observed. "But the appearance of weakness is something to be considered, especially with the naval expenditures as they are…"

After the pause from Semlin was long enough, Admiral Garrett filled the void. "If we must construct another vessel of heavy tonnage, I would recommend building another Defiant. If we must. But I strongly suggest that we await the completion of the Hunter's Point docks. That will permit us to build our own battleships or an even better version of our cruisers. And we can do it domestically. Cascadian dollars for Cascadian workers, gentlemen. That is the thing that will quiet Parliament on the issue of our naval expenditures."

"I think, Admiral Garrett, that we are well aware of the tenor of things in the House," McInnes remarked sharply.

Sensing the rebuke, the Admiral nodded. "Of course, Mister Secretary. I would never imagine to hold higher authority on the issue."

After silence on the issue, the President spoke up. "I see you have matters well in hand. I give you the rest of the year, Admiral. But in January, I want new battleships laid. Regardless of any other consideration. Cascadia needs a battle line as a tool with the European powers. And we certainly cannot afford to fall behind Japan. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Mister President…"




When the meeting was over and the two Admirals were alone again, Wilburn gave his subordinate a look. "They are right to be impatient."

"As are we, sir. But as I have often told my children, acts born of impatience rarely turn out well." That was the parting note on which the Chief of Naval Design and Procurement left his superior officer.




With these considerations in mind, no new Cascadian construction was laid for September. The rest of the world was not so quiet: Britain laid down another Resolution and Germany ordered another Hannover from British yards.

Brighter news came for Admiral Garrett later in the month.





October-November 1900

The destroyer Stewart was commissioned.

But there was other bad news to come.





During the month, Wilhelm II of Germany proved his tendency to complicating his diplomats' work through several unkind statements. Referring to the Cascadians as " a nation of loggers and fishermen unfit for world power", the Kaiser declared that Germany "would do what is necessary to secure our rightful place" in regards to German claims to Samoa. This was backed up by a report from Manila that German agents had been actively courting Aguinaldo in attempting to woo the Filipino leader into a more pro-German stance. The leading Cascadian newspapers all denounced what seemed a deliberate attempt by Germany to meddle in Cascadia's Pacific arrangements and bully it into remaining silent on the issue. Calls for increasing the naval budget came from several Conservative and Liberal Party leaders and aligned newspaper editors.




In response to this, Admiral Wilburn and Admiral Garrett ordered gunnery and torpedo training to be expanded across the fleet. Full fleet readiness was ordered. The Naval Intelligence Office was granted additional funding for its German branch.

However, since no heavy units could conceivably be ready before 1903 even if started immediately, Admiral Garrett prevailed in heated discussions that it would be meaningless to push new orders. That to do so in defiance of announced plans would be more fo a sign of weakness through panic; cool conduct under pressure was a better course.




Later in the month, the San Jose reported that her working up was completed and that she was ready for deployment.

Meanwhile the diplomats got to work.





The Ambassador from Germany approached the Government with a proposal that the Cascadian naval budget be scaled back in the name of "peace and stability". Upon hearing of this, Admiral Garrett broke out laughing in his office. That Germany, with over twice the number of armored cruisers and an aggressive battleship construction program, could make such a preposterous claim as the Cascadian efforts needing to be curtailed was absurd. Admiral Wilburn proposed that the note be sternly denied. Admiral Garrett, much bemused, pointed out that Cascadia was more likely to benefit from pointing out that such a unilateral action was out of the question and that any curtailment of naval expansion must be international. "Invite the Germans to host a naval disarmament conference, if they are so scared of our two battleships," he suggested.

The public Cascadian reply put the German government into a bind. It could hardly protest the Cascadian reply without looking like buffoons. Kaiser Wilhelm yielded to his advisors on the issue while making it clear he believed the German fleet must continue to expand to support the Empire's growing influence in the world. Ambassadors from the leading naval powers were thus assembled in Berlin to consider if disarmament was feasible.





As expected, the assembled delegates had much to say, but little to do. None of the powers were yet willing to consider limitations on their disarmament programs. For the moment, Admiral Garrett had the last laugh.



December 1900

With the Berlin talks a failure, nothing changed for Cascadia. The enhanced training continued apace. And plans were laid for the New Year and the new orders the President had mandated.

A welcome wire from San Francisco confirmed that the new docks at Hunter's Point were complete. Cascadia could now build its own ships of the same size as the Fearless.



Metallurgical and ship design experts reported that they had grasped the fundamentals of the proposed armor by Germany's Krupp manufacturers. Meanwhile designers, anticipating the larger docks, openly considered that the followup to the Fearless could have a larger secondary battery.







Unfortunately, proposals to improve torpedoes had not gone so well.




Toward the end of the year, intelligence reports from Germany indicated that the Reichstag had agreed to increase the naval budget in light fo the growing tensions with Cascadia.




And so 1901 dawned. Cascadia's situation had certainly changed over the course of the year. While tensions remained low with the other naval powers, a war with Germany seemed to have become closer than ever before. Cascadia had the advantage of distance from Europe, but the German fleet was bigger. Big enough that even a partial deployment of the German fleet to Tsingtao and Guam would threaten to sever Cascadia's lines of communication to the Philippines. It remained to be seen if time and attitude changes in Berlin might yet reduce tensions.

In the meantime, Admiral Garrett poured over his design teams' work. A new battleship class was to be ordered and built in Cascadia. His teams were confident that they could give the ship a heavy secondary battery. Which would realistically be more of Cascadia's fine 10" guns. But could they make that work on a 16,000 ton hull?



One proposal was the Resolve-class.





It would have a secondary battery of 10 10" guns in five casemate emplacements per side joined with 9 4" guns as a tertiary battery, also in casemates. The main belt would provide superb protection at 9.5". One possible weakness would be that only 4" of armor could protect the 10" casemates, making those guns easier to knock out in a general engagement. And the ship's machinery would only be capable of 19 knots, so it could not keep up with the Fearless-class ships being finished in Britain.

One alternative design for the Resolve proposed would use only 8" guns, allowing machinery sufficient for 20 knots.



The alternate design is the Dauntless-class.





The Dauntless would be an evolutionary step up from the Fearless. Superior armor and machinery and an increase in 400 tons displacement would permit turning the secondary battery into 8" guns, although with 12 instead of 14, while retaining the 9" main belt and 20 knot speed.




Another possibility was to accept that Cascadia could not in any way catch up with Germany's battle line by any standard in time for a possible war, and thus to focus on superior armored cruisers to supplement the Defiant-class ships and ensure the annihilation of the German cruiser fleet in a war.





The Navajo-class was a refinement to the Defiant. At 16,000 tons displacement, it fielded a 7" secondary battery, 6" main belt, and with machinery sufficient for 25 knots at flank speed it could run down and - with the superb Cascadian 10" gun - outgun any German cruiser in commission. (Naval intel has not yet determined the specifications for the new Blücher-class German cruiser.)



And then there were other voices. Voices declaring that Cascadia could not face Germany's fleet in a direct fight and that the French Jeune École approach was superior; Cascadia should focus on a new generation of ships like the Fairbanks with which to hunt down and destroy Germany's merchant fleet in any war.

Now Admiral Garrett had to decide which of these voices he should heed in his recommendations to Admiral Wilburn and Secretary Semlin.

[Steve]

Ah, if only Thanas were here...

[Steve]

Note: I'm currently using mostly historical personages - President McGraw was, in our timeline, one of the first governors of Washington after it became a state - but over time I will start to use more and more fictional persons in accordance with the unborn baby concept of alternate history. Namely, that as the divergences to the timeline increase, different persons are born than in our history due to how the ripples of the alternate world change who got married, who got pregnant with whom and when, and thus who was born.

To use a prominent example... in this history, I could argue that George S. Patton II (originally George William Patton) would not have emigrated to California due to the Confederate victory in the initial war. Indeed, I could argue that his father, George S. Patton, would have survived the war as a veteran of the victorious Confederate Army. This means, of course, that the most famous of this family - OTL George II's son George S. Patton Jr., aka "Old Blood and Guts" - would not have been born. At least not as we knew him, as his mother was the daughter of an early American settler to California. Our timeline might still have a George S. Patton Jr., but its likely that his mother would be different and thus he would look differently and act differently from the Patton we all love/hate. Or maybe such a counterpart isn't born at all. Maybe George W. Patton (OTL George S. II) died in a railroad accident that didn't happen OTL. Maybe he caught yellow fever in an epidemic not from our history. Or was killed in the second war between North and South before having a son.

Or maybe not. Maybe history happened similar to ours. Maybe George William decided to emigrate to California and become a Cascadian citizen, where he met Ruth Wilson as in OTL and married and had a son he named for his now dead father. Maybe that young George S. Patton Jr. still became dyslexic - maybe now-General John Singleton Mosby survived both wars and, after the South's surrender, decided to leave behind his broken homeland and emigrate to Cascadia rather than join the partisans. And thus, in California, he served as a mentor to the young son of his family friends.

Anyway, that's my example, and my justification for how we'll still get a mix of historical persons and ahistoric persons.

(I will add that people on Wikipedia are stupid. While looking up the Pattons to confirm things for this, I noted an entry for Turtledoves Southern Victory TL, and a contributor insisting people find it a gaffe on TD's part to have Patton a Southern general when he was born in California. These people apparently didn't bother to look up his family history.)

[Raesene]

I´d produce destroyer and both light and heavy cruisers for the time being.

A swarm of DDs costs less than a battleship and might take an enemy battleship out of the fight for less cost than one`s own battleships.

The cruisers can go raiding or raider hunting, that will probably cause Germany more of a headache than a few battleships on the other side of the world.

Probably missed it in the text: are the Phillippines your territory and can you base ships there ?

[Simon_Jester]

Destroyers have the considerable disadvantage of being short-ranged and relatively less seaworthy. Just about every plausible war scenario for the Cascadian fleet involves being able to steam long distances- either offensively, or to cross the Pacific quickly to reinforce the defenses of a threatened point.

I'm not sure how that would impact Cascadian destroyer design doctrine, but it does interfere with the idea of using destroyer wolfpacks as a counter to enemy capital ships.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Use scout cruisers(with better than OTL machinery) as large destroyers?

[Raesene]

Destroyers have the considerable disadvantage of being short-ranged and relatively less seaworthy. Just about every plausible war scenario for the Cascadian fleet involves being able to steam long distances- either offensively, or to cross the Pacific quickly to reinforce the defenses of a threatened point.

I'm not sure how that would impact Cascadian destroyer design doctrine, but it does interfere with the idea of using destroyer wolfpacks as a counter to enemy capital ships.

Depends on what his war aims would be - for the defense of the Philippines, a swarm of TBDs on location will help more than a few BBs that have to steam there from the west coast and will likely be too late anyway. An alliance with Japan would be an interesting scenario, to secure west pacific superiority.
Taking the war to Germany is -in my opinion- completely out of the question, as is a german close blockade of Cascadia itself. I would say it ends in active and passive trade warfare, for which cruisers are much better suited than a few BBs.

How is land warfare represented in the game ? Can you direct the KI to assault enemy colonies or is that just taking place in the background and can`t be influenced by the player ?

[Steve]

The issue I'm facing is that if I don't build Bs, I'm more liable to wind up with events that hurt my prestige. The game punishes you for having too few battleships with such events. If my prestige gets too low, I lose the game from being fired.

Yes, the Philippines are mine for in-game purposes.

It takes one month for any ship to get between zones. To get to Southeast Asia - where the Philippines and Caroline Islands possessions are considered to be - takes two months, as the ships first have to go through Northeast Asia or South Pacific. DDs and cruisers will not deploy to my overseas holdings any more quickly than Bs will.

As for the entire invasion thing and thus my eventual strategy for fighting Germany... the game gives the player no control, whatsoever, on what gets attacked when. The only control you get is that you can make an invasion of a possession possible - the enemy's or yours - via which side has a dominating presence in an era. Hard-coded at 4x the point value. Each type of ship provides so many points to determining this. Thus Bs are valuable to me if Germany can't deploy as many (I don't know how many of their designs are Short range only, during wars Short range ships can't change sea zones) since they provide the most points as of now and thus make it easier to achieve an invasion threshold in Northeast Asia (to attack Tsingtao) or Southeast Asia (Marianas and Bismarcks). And it's still not a definite thing (In prior playthroughs I spent in-game years with a constant invasion threshold advantage and still sometimes saw not one invasion start... and other times I'd have ships passing through the South Pacific and boom, Polynesia invaded!. It all depends on whether the RNG smiles upon you or not).


As for a swarm of TBDs torpedoing battleships to hell... *sigh* Usually doesn't happen, particularly this early in the game, unless I get a night and/or bad weather action. The AI is really picky over when DDs fire torpedoes, and if I play on Captain realism it can still be tricky to line up the shots.

[Thanas]

Ah, if only Thanas were here...

I am reading it

[Raesene]

So basically to play the game you have to build battleships, eventhough TBDs might be a better stratey, then ?

The bad invasion mechanic is a serious flaw in my opinion and reduces my enthusiasm to buy the game.

Looking forward to seeing what you make of it, though.

[Simon_Jester]

The issue I'm facing is that if I don't build Bs, I'm more liable to wind up with events that hurt my prestige. The game punishes you for having too few battleships with such events. If my prestige gets too low, I lose the game from being fired.

That aside, from a strategic standpoint, it is desirable to have at least enough of a line of battle that the enemy cannot casually divert a handful of capital ships and mop the floor with one's entire navy.

[attempts to channel dry wit as Simon Holmes, naval staffer]

It takes one month for any ship to get between zones. To get to Southeast Asia - where the Philippines and Caroline Islands possessions are considered to be - takes two months, as the ships first have to go through Northeast Asia or South Pacific. DDs and cruisers will not deploy to my overseas holdings any more quickly than Bs will.

Can light naval forces be deployed overseas a la "the China Station?"

As for a swarm of TBDs torpedoing battleships to hell... *sigh* Usually doesn't happen, particularly this early in the game, unless I get a night and/or bad weather action. The AI is really picky over when DDs fire torpedoes, and if I play on Captain realism it can still be tricky to line up the shots.

Honestly this is as-historical; torpedo craft never performed very well against warships in line of battle. This was in part because of the great lengths a line of battle would go to avoid torpedo attack, granted, but that is still a reality.

So basically to play the game you have to build battleships, eventhough TBDs might be a better stratey, then ?

As I note above, it is debatable whether swarms of torpedo boats or destroyers are a better strategy for establishing overall naval superiority. They're vulnerable under a variety of conditions and require favorable conditions to attack effectively. And even under favorable conditions, torpedo combatants are not intrinsically a stronger combat arm than gun-armed surface combatants, because they have a range disadvantage so large (several miles) that their relative speed advantage (about ten knots at best) is not sufficient to make them effective to compensate.

Note how few heavy surface warships were historically sunk by surface torpedo attack.

[Steve]

Can light naval forces be deployed overseas a la "the China Station?"

Yes. I can deploy ships in any zone as I see fit. I could even deploy my battleships out of the Philippines if I wanted.

Honestly this is as-historical; torpedo craft never performed very well against warships in line of battle. This was in part because of the great lengths a line of battle would go to avoid torpedo attack, granted, but that is still a reality.

Yeah.

So basically to play the game you have to build battleships, eventhough TBDs might be a better stratey, then ?

It's more like... if you don't have enough line ships, you get events that can make your prestige suffer. Since it's early in the game I don't have quite the prestige cushion I'd prefer. If this was later and I had 30+ prestige I'd be less worried about it.

The game's meant to emulate being a grand admiral of the turn of the century. If you go against what the politicians want, you risk removal. Higher prestige means that they're not able to fire you even if you're acting against their wishes because you're considered enough of an authority that people are giving you the benefit of the doubt on whatever you're doing. Early in the game, when your prestige is at 19 or the low 20s, you don't have as much luxury to ignore prestige issues.

I'll add that you can get events where the naval secretary "reads a book" and decides he wants the navy to focus on TBDs/cruisers/submarines, usually in budget-murdering excess, and the choices you make in reply can effect your budget and prestige.

The same "grand admiral" thing is why you get so little control over invasions. You simply move the fleets; the army decides when and where to fight. It simply makes use of the advantages your fleet is able to employ. Although I agree that it is vastly annoying. I'd really like it if there were some way to at least designate preferential targets. That way my forces invade the Liaotung Peninsula instead of damned Kamchatka (to use an example).

As I note above, it is debatable whether swarms of torpedo boats or destroyers are a better strategy for establishing overall naval superiority. They're vulnerable under a variety of conditions and require favorable conditions to attack effectively. And even under favorable conditions, torpedo combatants are not intrinsically a stronger combat arm than gun-armed surface combatants, because they have a range disadvantage so large (several miles) that their relative speed advantage (about ten knots at best) is not sufficient to make them effective to compensate.

Note how few heavy surface warships were historically sunk by surface torpedo attack.

DDs are the biggest threats during night-time and rainy scenarios, when visibility reductions allow them to get into torpedo range before being spotted. IOW, knife fights.

And, yeah, DDs run the biggest risk of taking flotation damage in heavy seas.

[Steve]

Before I update, a quick amendment to what I said above. I can indeed send ships to any zone I want. But if I have no possessions in said zone, they start to suffer from lack of support. Crew quality starts to decline and the ship becomes more likely to develop problems or damage. During wartime this can even lead to internment if they develop machinery problems (and that happens...). Raiders can also be interned, or forced to scuttle, over battle damage or lack of fuel (that's why raiders should always Long or Extreme range). Sometimes even if you have a possession in the zone they're prowling in.

[Steve]

West Portland, Oregon
7 January 1901


President McGraw got his battleships.

Admiral Garrett looked over the announcement in the Portland Tribune that exulted in the order. The tensions with Germany over the past several months meant that even the Socialists were giving only mute protests to the orders for two new battleships. The Dauntless and a sister ship, to be named by the end of the month, were under construction and would be completed in 1903.

The naval budget would be constrained as a result. He had high hopes, expressed to the Secretary and to Admiral Wilburn, that it might yet be stretched to allow the laying of the Navajo. The new armored cruiser his teams had proposed would be faster and more powerful than any other cruiser afloat. It would certainly be superior to the Blücher. Of course, without a major increase in the budget, he would likely only be able to afford one to build in conjunction with the two Dauntless-class ships.

Battleships. Battleships. Everywhere he looked the cry was the same: battleships.

"It would appear, dear, that your outlook has become as gray as the weather," he heard Rachel say. She was standing at the door to their screened balcony. Above him he became aware that the pattering of rain upon the glass had become louder and more pronounced. The customary winter drizzle had become a full winter rain.

"I am simply contemplating the folly of people," he muttered. "I had pressed for Dauntless alone to be built and two armored cruisers of our latest design. But the President insisted on two battleships. 'We should be the laughing stock of the world with less', he said. The Secretary went further and thought openly of building three. I am lucky we are only at two."

"I understand." She reached over and put a hand on his neck. "Dinner is ready, by the way. The children are waiting for you at the table."

"Ah. Yes." He stood up and received a kiss on the cheek for it. "A good meal will undoubtedly help my mood."



January 1901


Cascadia lays two 16,000T battleships. The Dauntless is later joined by a sister. Originally the name was to be Diligent. But by the 23rd of the month news had come over the wire that Queen Victoria had died on the Isle of Wight. The death of Victoria seemed to herald the end of an age; she had ruled longer than the lives of most of the world. Half of the great Houses of Europe had married into her bloodline; the Emperor of Germany was among her many grandchildren. That it had been under her rule that the Cascadian nation had been born was not lost on the populace, especially under those in the provinces of the north that still fondly remembered being her subjects


With an eye to cultivating relations with London while relations with Germany worsened, the Admiralty agreed with a proposal from Secretary of the Navy Semlin. The second battleship of the Dauntless class was thus laid at the end of the month as the CRS Victoria.

With the budget surplus from the prior year, Admiral Garrett proposed and won new contracts to further expand the Cascadian dockyard capacity and the Pacific bases in the Carolines, Manila, and Samoa.




The Golden Gates, San Francisco, California
28 January 1901

The Vallejo family yacht, the Azure Clipper, was among many such ships sailing along the Golden Gates when the moment came. From the bow of the ship Admiral Garrett, his family, and his father-in-law were witnesses to an event that many had been waiting to see.

The large vessels came sailing in on the clear winter day. The brisk air was joined by a decent wind. More than enough to properly display the Cascadian tricolor from the masts of the great steel constructs. Cheers were arising from all around them, from Rafael Vallejo's yacht and the other vessels, at the sight.

The CRS Fearless and CRS Relentless answered the cheers with a salute from their 6" casemates, leading to more applause. The crews of the mighty ships were resplendent in their blue-gray uniforms. They had been dispatched across the world months before; now at long last they were home, having successfully sailed Cascadia's new battleships from the British yards to their new home in San Francisco.

"Wow, Pa." Thomas, his seocnd son, pointed out at the vessels. "When are we going to build ships that big?"

"We are, my boy," he answered. "You'll be seeing them in a couple of years."

"Really? Can't we get them any faster?"

"Much to the disappointment of the Naval Secretary… no, son, we cannot."












The Naval Artillery Office's Torpedo Branch issued a glowing report to Admiral Garrett, indicating the difficulties of the prior month had been overcome. Later in the month he received word of a breakthrough for Cascadian torpedo development.











During the course of the month, a new treaty was negotiated in Moscow to further delineate the two nations' boundaries in the Bering Sea. This led to a further improvement in the relations between Cascadia and the Russian Empire.

This was matched by a new development from the South Pacific. Several Polynesian chiefs agreed to join a conference in Honolulu on the future of the Polynesian nations. French authorities were swift to declare the conference an attempt by Cascadia and Hawai'i to interfere with the French protectorate over Tahiti and the other Polynesian islands in their sphere. The French Foreign Minister, Théophile Delcassé, issued a protest to Ambassador Hodges in Paris over the conference and insisted Cascadia have Queen Lili'uokalani cancel the meeting. Ambassador Hodges refused on the grounds that the Queen was within her rights to do so without Cascadian interference in her affairs.

This news was not greeted well in Portland. Relations with Germany were continuing to sour. The Germans were said to be preparing a new reinforcement to their Pacific squadrons and additional troops were known to be underway for the Bismarcks and Marianas. The Cascadian government responded by increasing the Caroline garrisons.








February 1900


With Cascadia's new battleships working up and the new Dauntless and Victoria laid, the Admiralty noted that the naval budget was again rather thin. The costs of the new battleships were simply too high to entertain much construction beyond them. A proposal was made to build another series of improved Hull-class ships. Admiral Garrett resisted this on the grounds that naval design teams were studying the idea of a larger destroyer and that funds were better preserved until such a time that a new destroyer class of greater tonnage could be implemented.

Help came from Parliament. The Conservative and Liberal Parties, along with the more hawkish elements of the Democratic Party, pushed a naval funding bill through the House and Senate. The growing tensions with Germany made clear the need for this new expanded naval spending.






(Author's Note: Okay, I think the game screwed up. Or it's doing some delay. Because my budget didn't go up in the March screen. Urgh.)


Despite the recent difficulties over Polynesian aspirations, the French Government authorized French companies to offer schematics for submarine pressure hulls to the Cascadian Navy. While Admiral Garrett is not entirely convinced of how useful these ships will be in the near future, he agrees with Admiral Wilburn to accept the french offer.







March 1900



President McGraw's decision to send the new naval bill back to Parliament for reconsideration prevented any increase in available funds that would permit new construction. As a result the Admiralty continued on course.

During the month, the Naval Design Office reported it had completed the study into 600 ton torpedo boat destroyers.





France laid down a new battleship, the second Trident-class vessel Devastation.






And so the first quarter of 1901 drew to a close.

[Steve]

I'll add that was literally dumb luck that my tensions with the UK went back to 1 in February. I had always intended on naming a ship after Victoria for IC purposes. I just didn't think the game would oblige me on the matter.

Also, I feel yet again that the game does sort of cheat on naval building. My budget only permits me 2 battleships and I might be able to squeeze a DD in, otherwise I'll start losing money and within a few months go into the red. Meanwhile Japan, which only spends 600,000 less annually than I do, is building three 14,200T battleships to my 2 16,000Ters and they're building four CLs. There is no way I could manage that construction without going into the red.

I suppose I could and then just juggle my budget... but my current surplus is so small that even just one CL would probably require me to eventually have it halted every other month, or even every 2 months out of 3, unless I halted one of the Bs instead.

[Steve]

Ah, if only Thanas were here...

I am reading it

I swear, it was only dumb luck that I look to be on a collision course with Germany. Half of the time my first wars are with Russia or France!

Alas, I do not think there is a Johannes Sänger to save the situation in this world...

[Steve]

Also, I feel yet again that the game does sort of cheat on naval building. My budget only permits me 2 battleships and I might be able to squeeze a DD in, otherwise I'll start losing money and within a few months go into the red. Meanwhile Japan, which only spends 600,000 less annually than I do, is building three 14,200T battleships to my 2 16,000Ters and they're building four CLs. There is no way I could manage that construction without going into the red.

I suppose I could and then just juggle my budget... but my current surplus is so small that even just one CL would probably require me to eventually have it halted every other month, or even every 2 months out of 3, unless I halted one of the Bs instead.

Looking at the save files and running a turn to compare, it does appear the game does this. But still.... it only halted one of the Bs in my test month, which apparently has a monthly cost of 1.4M, yet its budget went up by 2 mil.

So... yeah, I do think the game tweaks things to let the AI build more ships. Presumably from the "Very Large Fleet Size" indicator... save that said indicator also effects my budget.

[Steve]

My apologies for no update. I'm still writing up the next (instead of writing things as they happen, as I was doing before, I simply note them and then fill out the post appropriately) and I worked an extra half-shift today so I've not had time to do more.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Curses, I was hoping for an update. Oh well, guess I'll have to keep waiting for my glorious Naval debut

[Steve]

Curses, I was hoping for an update. Oh well, guess I'll have to keep waiting for my glorious Naval debut

If I build a Superb and get an event saying she was sunk by a sub, I am so going to laugh my ass off.