Topic: Evolution of the French Fleet
OK, I've been an ass and criticized other people's fleet concepts. So pick apart mine, if you have any interest in playing the French.
The full blown fluff will come later (kinda like what I did for the Turks). But the general idea is that the French are mildly behind other states in ship development. Not numbers, but in where their designs shine.
Just like with their real world wet navy entering WWI, the French Ether Fleet is focused on counteracting the Italians and Austrians. The whole dreadnought concept was slow to take hold in Paris, and the result was that in 1907-1909, far too much of the military budget was invested in the creation of the Alembert class battleship.
The ship is meant to resemble the wet navy Danton -- in that it's a "semi-dreadnought" with only four powerful primary guns, but a TON of secondaries. It has decent armor but indifferent speed. Combined with its hard-hitting torpedoes, it's a natural response to the Janos Hunyadi class CH, which was the Sternmarine's main ship of the line until its full-blown BBs started appearing.
Here's why:
Four D10 (X2) primaries can punch through the Hunyadi's armor of "4" at ranges beyond 5" (or 10 nm in game terms if I remember Dan's scale guidelines from when he was looking at the bomb templates). And its 12D8 (X2) secondaries mean it can direct a withering level of firepower at short to point-blank range. Its torpedoes are rough, and it has a horde of light guns. Its main weaknesses are its lack of speed, and maybe the fact that it really won't hold its own against a legitimate battlewagon.
The next ship to pop up will be the French attempt at a dreadnought. Following that with a CL, AC, destroyer, defense ship and a FAC platform.
If folks don't like them, tear them apart.
Ships in class: Alembert, Clairault , Diderot
Hull: 25(VL/4) PV: 211
TR: 4, AV: 4
Primary: 4/d10 (x2)
Secondary: 12/d8(x2)
Light: 16/d4(x1)
Torpedoes: 4/d10 X3)
Equipment:
Babbage Engine
Machine Guns X 3
[1-10] [11] [12] [13] [14-16] [17-20]