Autumn, 1896, Design Phase. This project calls for a total modernization of how Veenland designs and constructs its vessels. As our ships become larger and larger, and new designs with even more capabilities are drafted, it is becoming apparent that we must overhaul our ship design and construction standards to bring them in line with the projected vessels we will be constructing during the twentieth century.
First, the design of hulls and superstructure is evaluated to find the ideal balance between effectiveness and ease of construction. For superstructure design, care is taken to ensure that ships have plenty of room for additional capabilities to be added when discovered - one designer has mentioned the radiotelegraph as a possible new development. Additionally, hulls have been designed and tested to allow speed and high strength with the materials and construction methods available. This will set the stage for the construction of faster, longer vessels, such as future torpedo-boat destroyers, cruisers, “cruiser hunters”, and fast battleships. To aid this, tanks and basins for hydrodynamic testing of hull-form models will be constructed, allowing for the extensive proving of hull designs in miniature before they hit the slipways. This will, of course, also be integrated into the Veenland National School of the Navy’s shipbuilding program. Likewise, the metallurgy of components beyond that of armour is examined for the potential of newly developed alloys or simply new metallurgical practices to have a positive effect on the design of our vessels.
As an adjunct to the first line of improvement, an investigation into design features such as the tumblehome and sponsons, the ideal areas and mounting for the placement of secondary batteries on ships, the ideal design of masts and other superstructure elements, and other features will be carried out to find the best features for our future ships. Experience with real-world observations of the performance of the Resoluut, Zeerover, and Union (AKA Compromise) classes will aid this review.
Second, construction methods will be modernized to allow Veenland to produce these larger, faster vessels with speed and effectiveness, including the mechanization of the shipyards. Additionally, methods of speeding up the construction of our smaller ships will be investigated. The “piecework shipbuilding” scheme, where the ship is assembled from prefabricated sections constructed in different locations, has been suggested as one way this could be achieved.
Third, based on the capabilities of our machinery, fire control systems, and other equipment, the ideal layout in future ship designs for these components will be wargamed with the goal of maximizing survivability and minimizing weight. Attention will be given, for example, to find methods of shortening the citadel, such as the so-called “All-forward armament” scheme. With these design studies, the goal is to aid the resilience of vital components in the face of shellfire, fire, flooding, and other inclement events; as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of current passive damage control procedures. Target-ship firing tests using obsolete vessels, if they can be sourced, could be used as one method to evaluate the effectiveness of current techniques and help discover where they can be improved.
Time: 5 | Progress: 5 | Expense: 4
Work on a general overhaul of our shipbuilding and designing methods utilizing our experience in the field and simply rigorous testing is something that isn't expected to take too long for what is essentially a very extensive review of our practices. Further, it's not to cost too much and already has gone off to a good start thanks to the more bureaucratic work being done fairly swiftly. Still, other than this there isn't much to talk about other than the review itself.
Ship Design and Construction Review | 5/15 | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 2 PP invested
Effectiveness: 6 | Cost: 1 | Bugs: 6
The review itself is fairly extensive, opening up a new way to potentially build ships and a number of design techniques to increase the ease of refitting them in the future as well as survivability, speed, and general effectiveness. This work, when done, should greatly assist in the construction of faster, more durable ships that are designed in the future, as naturally the nature of these changes are impossible to really do to our existing designs without essentially just making a new ship. Still, future designs will benefit immensely from this, especially with our engines. Tragically, this is not going to be finished in time to influence our latest battleship design, but even so it's secondary effect should be able to increase it's build time. The only issue really with this project is simply the fact that the shipyard modernizations will cost quite a bit, however they will be able to cut the construction times of all our ships, be they of future designs or older ones, a fair bit once done.
Torpedoboot van de Havenwacht
This is a very light torpedo boat, designed primarily to operate from ports to defend ports. Two variants of the vessel have been designed, with the primary version being armed with a 2” gun on the forward deck, two torpedo tubes fixed to the hull and pointing some 18° off of centerline, and a stoommachine on the aft transom. The other version is designed for more utility work, being armed with a pair of stoommachines(mounted one on either side of the vessel's cockpit in “pulpits”) and having the capability of carrying three of the mines as proposed by the Unterwasser Anti-Schiffsminen Projekt on the vessel’s aft deck(or some cargo, a number of troops, or other such items). There is no form of armor on any of these vessels. Propulsion is via four engines of the "hot bulb" type, each directly linked to a propeller shaft, with a design speed of 30 knots. In part to achieve this speed, the range of these vessels is limited to about four hours of operation and the boat is extremely lightly built, being mostly constructed out of sheets of laminated timber. However, it should be noted that these vessels do possess a double bottom, albeit as a side effect of fuel bunkerage more than anything.
Boats of this type are not named, being simply numbered. Mass of each craft is projected to be in the 23-35 ton range.
Time: 2 | Progress: 6 | Expense: 6
Work on the torpedoboot is going to take a bit longer than expected mainly due to some issues with the motor unions and their integration into the project. While they and other machinist unions have been important to the navy, they aren't exactly on call like the steelworkers or shipbuilders union. Still, this minor issue aside, the project is as cheap as the naval school is for a Shipbuilding union member. Of course, it's by no means cheap, but relative to just about everything else that we deal with when it comes to costs, it's hardly anything, and the same could be said if the program was done by any other major navy. On another bright side, despite the time that the project is likely to take, we are off to a very good start with the initial prototyping.
Torpedoboot van de Havenwacht | 6/20 | 1 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 1 PP invested
Effectiveness: 5 | Cost: 5 | Bugs: 2
While the Torpedoboot will be a while off, the initial design is promising. It's not expensive in the slightest, after all it's made of wood, and it matches the speed desired. A mine variant and a normal one currently exist, and both have good turn radiuses and rudder shift time. Further it's quite stable despite it's size and has a tad bit more range then originally expected, capable of just under six hours. Really, there's not too much else to say about it's effectiveness, it does what it needs to say. The only real issue is that the shafts for the propellers are a bit finicky and can be damaged by continuous operation at high speed for too long by the motor, which isn't exactly ideal given it's main defense is speed. But even so it'll probably be fixed by the motor unions sooner rather than later.
Revision phase will be skipped due to lack of dice. Feel free to discuss strategy and buy plans.
Resoluut-Class | 3/4 Seasons to Completion | Battleship | 7/2 PP cost | 6 Season Construction Time
Ship Design and Construction Review | 5/15 | 2 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 2 PP invested
Torpedoboot van de Havenwacht | 6/20 | 1 PP per die | Rushed 0 times | 1 PP invested
Naval
Early 7/12 inch guns
QF 2/3/4/5/6 M1895 guns (Cheap price. Rifling wears out at an average pace. 20k max range estimate for 6 inch version, 10k effective range.)
8/10/11.5 M1895 guns. (Cheap price. Reliable and long lasting. 25k max range estimate for 11.5 inch version, 12.5k effective range.)
Early Armor Piercing
Early High Explosive
Modern Parachute Flares
Smoke Rounds
Shrapnel Rounds
Basic Surface Single Torpedo Launchers
Early Prototype Double Torpedo Launchers (Basically useless in current form)
Advanced Triple-expansion engines.
Intermediate Steam Turbine Engines.
Decent Boilers.
Early coal/oil hybrid firing.
Steel hull construction.
Prototype Hydrodynamic hulls.
Single Casemates.
Single and Double gun turrets.
Early Rangefinder.
Early Central Fire Control.
Möser-Fokker Cemented Armor.
Basic Damage control techniques.
Cordite Draadkruit Smokeless Powder. (Now cheaper and slightly less likely to copy the brits)
Zeeslang Mk3 Torpedo. (Somewhat reliable Torpedo with 37 knot speed and 3500 yard range)
Advanced Observatieballons.
Marines & Installations
Defensive guns (Uses same calibers as naval guns)
UVW T92G (Basic Bolt Action Rifle)
UVW T96G (Bolt Action Rifle with 6 round magazine loaded with en blocs. Can use Mini Coehoorn. Reliable)
UVW T88R (Basic Revolver)
UVW T96SAP (Basic Semi Automatic pistol. Mostly reliable. Low bullet caliber. Variant for service crew and officers. Has 12 rounds)
UVW T95MG "Stoommachine" (Early Machinegun)
UVW T96S "Mini Coehoorn" (Rifle grenade. Usable by the T96G)
UVW T96HG (Simple Grenade.)
UVW T96H "Emmer Helm" (It's literally a steel helmet. What more do you expect?)
UVW T96S (Shovel/Entrenching tool)
UVW T96M (Knife)
Advanced Observatieballons
Zeerover Speciale Kruiser: A modest high speed cruiser with a fairly sizable compliment of guns for dealing with any ships of equal size and armor along with anything smaller than it, and a few things above it. The submerged torpedo compliment also gives it a chance to punch well above it's weight, if it gets lucky. Fairly expensive though. Costs 5/2, 4 season construction time.
Compromise Class: An effective, slightly overweight shore defense ship with powerful guns and substantial, high quality armor. Quite fast for a ship of it's armor and armament, not far off from our cruisers. Costs 6/3, 5 season construction time.
Main Gun Refit (MGR): A simple replacement of the main 10 inch guns with the modern M1895 versions. Costs 1PP to refit, takes 1 season to complete. Shipbuild cost same as original.
A1-Klasse: A extremely fast Torpedo Boat Destroyer with a good compliment of guns and modest torpedo armament. The bridge is armored enough to be safe from splinters, barring a direct hit. It should be noted however the engine cannot run at full speed for much longer than a hour without running into issues. Costs 3/2, 3 season construction time.
Top Turbine Streamline (TTS): A simple replacement of the prototype engine with the fruits of the Top Turbine Technology program. Naturally efforts were done to make the design cheaper to maintain in the process. This has limited performance improvements the new turbines can give, but has succeeded in making the ship cheaper. Costs 3/.75, 3 season construction time. (Maintenance rounds up)
Resoluut Class: A modest Battleship with a good armament of submerged torpedo mounts and 11.5 inch guns. The bridge isn't very armored unlike the rest of the ship, but that is fine, provided the tower isn't hit by any proper battleship shells. Though more cautious captains and officers can lead from rooms inside the ship rather than in the tower. Costs 7/2, 6 season construction time.
Zeerover Class
Compromise Class
A1-Klasse
Resoluut Class
TBD - Torpedo Boat Destroyer
A-1 Klasse, 4 ships, 12 Maintenance.
A-1 | TBD | TTS | Currently Under construction, 2 seasons remaining, 3 PP per turn construction cost
A-2 | TBD | TTS | Currently Under construction, 2 seasons remaining, 3 PP per turn construction cost
A-3 | TBD | TTS | Currently Under construction, 2 seasons remaining, 3 PP per turn construction cost
A-4 | TBD | TTS | Currently Under construction, 2 seasons remaining, 3 PP per turn construction cost
SK - Speciale Kruiser
Zeerover Class, 10 ships, 29 Maintenance
Zeerover | SK | No Refit | Currently unassigned | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | David Streithorst is captain, Trained, Balanced
Pirat | SK | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Pieter-Jan Geurtse is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Avonturier | SK | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Thijn Seijnen is captain, Trained, Balanced
Geest | SK | No Refit | Currently assigned to Group B | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Bartje Brugmans is captain, Trained, Balanced
Onderneming | SK | No Refit | Currently assigned to Working Up | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Sibren ten Bouwhuis is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Rancune | SK | No Refit | Currently assigned to Working Up | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Mathies ten Hermsel is captain, Trained, Balanced
Wraak | SK | No Refit | Currently Under construction, 1 season remaining, 5 PP per turn construction cost
Vrijheid | SK | No Refit | Currently Under construction, 1 season remaining, 5 PP per turn construction cost
Bevrijder | SK | No Refit | Currently Under construction, 1 season remaining, 5 PP per turn construction cost
CDS - Costal Defense Ship
Compromise Class, 9 ships, 36 Maintenance
The Union | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Christiaan Mol is captain, Trained, Aggressive
Herman Van Veen | CDS | No Refit | Currently assigned to Group C | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Egbert Hazenkamp is captain, Trained, Cautious
Lourens van Vilet | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Marlijn de Wal is captain, Trained, Balanced
Eldert Schimmelpennink | CDS | No Refit | Currently assigned to Group D | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Lindert Knuif is captain, Trained, Cautious. Wounded 1 turn
Reinout van Diermen | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Trained | Undamaged | Piet Bisschop is captain, Trained, Balanced
Gustaaf ten Donkelaar | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Gustaaf Hietland is captain, Trained, Cautious
Hendrik-Jan Dangremond | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Kobus Zwakenberg, Greenhorn, Aggressive
Rogier van Beulingen | CDS | No Refit | Currently under repair | Crew are Greenhorns | Undamaged | Jurren Strobos is captain, Greenhorn, Balanced
CDS 9 | CDS | No Refit | Currently Under construction, 3 seasons remaining, 6 PP per turn construction cost
Veenland National School of the Navy (Costs 15 PP to maintain)
One 6 inch battery at Buskruithof, Sparrendijkje, Berenberg, Diepput, Bloemenheide, Marvinsburg, Baggerrots, Nijzande
10,000 Displacement Dry docks. (3 more seasons upgrading)
(104) 101 PP, 77 Maintenance.
