This is an experimental animation of the plot from the previous post. PDF files were created at various time points from the plot data collected by the game code. GIMP was used to create a GIF animation from those PDF files.
This scenario is a fictional battle where the British attempt to stop the 2nd Pacific Squadron from reaching its destination in 1905. The idea for the game came from this blog post with a memo by the Director of Naval Intelligence, Prince Louis of Battenberg, which includes the proposed British force to be assembled at Singapore:
https://simonharley.com/2022/03/01/prevent-the-russian-baltic-fleet-from-reaching-the-far-east/
Since the memo’s proposed location for the battle (west and south-west of the Straits of Sunda) assumed that the 2nd Pacific Squadron would not go through the Straits of Malacca as it did, the location has been moved to the open water between Singapore and the Island of Borneo.
With the exception of the 4 “Duncans” from Mediterranean, the memo does not list specific ships. The order of battle for the game attempts to reconcile the memo with the fleet deployments listed here:
http://www.naval-history.net/xGW-RNOrganisation1900-14.htm?fbclid=IwAR2ESrVd8GGc80XW1-i7shHVBNvEBki_-zpPa3vnVBVmbFRCZA-kJv2Tk4w
The two ‘PARTIALLY-ARMOURED CRUISERS’ from the China station are taken to be the protected cruisers of the Powerful class, although they may have been the Amphitrite and Argonaut of the Diadem class. The latter class is not yet included in the game code. The British third class cruisers are not included.
The code AI ran both side’s forces.
The sea conditions and orders of battle are listed on Page 1 of the Narrative file:
Force reports:
Plots and commentary:
The 2nd Pacific Squadron cruising formation is that of the Battle of Tsushima. The formation is compact, with no screening or scouting ships. This is consistent with the intent to pass north unobserved. The British force (dubbed the Far East Fleet) cruising formation has two battleship divisions in line ahead, the armoured cruiser division stationed ahead, two divisions of cruisers in a screen ahead and the destroyer flotilla stationed abeam to starboard of the flagship Duncan. The wide scouting screen is deployed to assist in finding the opposing force.
After the initial sightings, the Far East Fleet alters course to close the range. The 2nd Pacific Squadron deploys to port to gain a downwind position. The Far East Fleet later deploys to starboard to engage the enemy battleline.
Once the battle lines open fire, the 2nd Pacific Squadron reverses direction to the south to engage on parallel courses. Since visibility is good and the torpedos carried by the destroyers are short-ranged, the flotillas remain out of action on the disengaged sides of the battlelines.
This simplified plot omits all but the battleships for clarity. Few hits are obtained until ranges fall below about 8,000 yards. As the range continues to decrease, hits from both primary and secondary batteries shatter the leading battleship divisions of both sides. The four Duncan class are sunk (one blows up) and the four Borodino class are damaged. At this point it was assumed that the fleets would disengage.
This plot shows the entire engagement.
End of game status:
The damage to the best ships of the 2nd Pacific Squadron would seem to make it pointless to continue toward Vladivostok, so the British objective was achieved.
Gunnery logs:
Hit Logs for the primary divisions
This scenario is a fictional British fleet exercise in 1909, designed to examine the idea that dreadnoughts “… were equal to any two and a half battleships at present existing.” [Reference 1]
The Red force, dubbed the ‘Royalist Fleet’, consists of all the currently operational dreadnought battleships and dreadnought armoured cruisers (later renamed battlecruisers) . It sails south from Rosyth to confront the Blue force, dubbed the ‘Parliamentary Fleet’, consisting of twice the number of pre-dreadnought battleships and armoured cruisers. The Red force includes the newest destroyers and the Blue force has a larger number of older destroyers. Both forces have scout cruisers of the latest operational classes.
The guns of the Invincible are penalized for the problems associated with the electrical turret mechanisms. These problems were never resolved, and the equipment was replaced with standard hydraulic gear in 1914. [Reference 2]
The code AI ran the blue side’s forces.
The sea conditions and orders of battle are listed on Page 1 of the Narrative file:
Force reports:
Plots and commentary:
The Red force cruising formation has the Invincible class ahead of the dreadnoughts, the destroyer flotilla stationed on the port bow of the flagship Dreadnought, and the scout cruisers in a line abreast screen ahead. The Blue force cruising formation has two battleship divisions in line ahead, two armoured cruiser divisions stationed ahead to port and starboard, two destroyer flotillas stationed abeam either side of the flagship Lord Nelson, and the scout cruisers in a line abreast screen ahead.
After the initial sightings, both sides deploy to port. The Red force attempts to use its speed advantage to gain a downwind position.
Once the battle lines open fire, the Blue force reverses direction to engage on parallel courses. Blue divisions adopt quarter line formations to allow following ships to be clear of the smoke from those ahead. This can be seen on the plot as parallel blue line segments. The Red heavy ships initially concentrate on the leading Blue battleships, but as the range closes and the Blue armoured cruisers’ fire becomes more effective, the Indomitable’s division shifts fire to the Warrior’s division. The leading Blue ships take significant damage, but the trailing Blue ships are firing undisturbed.
The faster Red force pulls ahead and edges to starboard to cross Blue’s line of advance. The Blue battle line turns away to keep gun arcs open. The scout cruisers fight their own battle between the lines, but the Blue scouts take damage from Red battleship secondary guns.
The Red force, having expended most of its armour piercing shells, and under threat from a visible Blue torpedo launch, turns away and makes smoke to break off the engagement.
End of game status:
The Red force of dreadnought type ships inflicted greater damage than it received, but left almost half of the Blue heavy ships undamaged. For the number of 12 inch shell hits, relatively little critical damage was inflicted. This was due to the defects of the shells, most of which exploded prematurely from the sensitivity of the lyddite filler, or shattered on face-hardened armour when striking at an angle from the perpendicular. It is possible that umpires of an actual fleet exercise would have judged many of the damaged ships to be sunk.
The short range of the torpedoes (3,000 yards maximum) made the destroyers ineffective in this scenario.
Gunnery logs:
References:
1. Fisher, Sir John, “Naval Necessities,” The Fisher Papers, Vol. II, page 149.
2. Roberts, John, “British Battlecruisers 1905-1920,” pages 84-85.
This scenario, occasioned by a recent TMP discussion, assumes that the 1st Cruiser Squadron commanded by Troubridge was able to predict the future track of the Goeben and arrange a dawn attack on August 7th, 1914. The 1st and 2nd divisions of the 9th Flotilla have sufficient coal to accompany the cruisers and are positioned for a torpedo attack at first light. Neither of these conditions were likely. The Breslau was omitted from the scenario since she had separated from the Goeben the previous evening and did not rejoin until 10:30 am.
The code AI ran both side’s forces.
While the torpedo attack was evaded, the necessity for the Goeben to parallel the torpedo tracks for several minutes allowed the 1st Cruiser Squadron to close to around 4,ooo yards and achieve a significant number of damaging hits. At such short range, some lower hit probability reductions are applied (e.g., those for the concentration of several batteries on one target). Eventually the Goeben sinks, primarily due to flooding of the unarmored forward and aft portions of the ship. The Goeben’s speed loss was caused by flooding, and not by any direct hits on machinery spaces.
The sea conditions and orders of battle are listed on Page 1 of the Narrative file:
Force reports:
Plot
End of game status:
Gunnery logs:
This scenario, based on the Battle of Dogger Bank (January 23, 1915), was an attempt to test the AI code against a human player. Information used by the human player was limited as much as possible to what would be available in an actual game.
The sea conditions and orders of battle are listed on Page 1 of the Narrative file:
Force reports:
Plot from 0710 to 1610 Hours
The single lines (red for British, blue for German) show the movement of the forces prior to contact. When contact was made, the individual ships were set out into their cruising formations. The British Battle Cruiser Force was in two squadrons in line ahead with a line abreast screen of one light cruiser squadron. The Harwich force was in three flotillas, each lead by a light cruiser. The German battle cruisers were in a single line ahead, with a circular cruiser screen ahead and two flotillas flanking the battle cruiser line.
Plot from 1616 to 1815 Hours
The Battle Cruiser Force was headed north-east at the time that the Harwich Force sighted smoke to the south-east. The BCF then reversed course to the south-east. The cruiser screen would take some time to regain station since the cruiser’s design speeds were only 25 knots.
Sighting of a German light cruiser heading west by the destroyers of the Harwich force occurred at 16:45. The human player assumed that heavier ships would be following this screening cruiser. He therefore continued to the south-east to get between the enemy and his base.
Sighting of British battle cruisers at 16:54 prompted the deployment at 16:55 of the Aufklarunggruppe (A.G.). The battle cruisers of I.A.G. maintained course to the west to engage to starboard and allow the wind to carry smoke away from the direction of the enemy. The light cruisers of II.A.G. formed up and took station 3 NM ahead. Once the battle cruisers opened fire, the German flotillas took station on the disengaged side.
Since the light forces took only a limited part in the later action, the simplified plot showing only the battle cruisers will be discussed. The Lion opened fire at 17:05, beyond the range of the German guns. I.A.G turned north to close the range, then back to north-east when in effective range. The two lines passed on opposite courses. Once the British had achieved a position between the Germans and their base (to the south-east), they reversed course to the north. Smoke interfered with the fire of the British line, so the formations were changed to line-of-bearing, 3 points to port, and the 2nd BCS was stationed on the port quarter of the 1st BCS. This took some time to achieve, during which the British received significant damage.
The game was ended when damage caused the German line to attempt to break off to the north-east. The time (18:15) was past nightfall for this date, and the code does not currently account for night conditions.
End of game status:
Capital ship gunnery logs organized by unit:
ncc1717.com 
You must be logged in to post a comment.