Lothringen, Southern Superpower

Personally,
- the Stärke class looks earlier than the Tapferkeit class. (well apart from the 1930s AA director)
- the Sarkes look like 8x15' unless you make the mounts bigger (ie longer Barbette's).
- they are supposed to be the same navy at very similar times I would make the small features (directors/5inch guns etc) the same.

If there's anything I can add its that you could most likely just keep it at 8 15in guns and you'll be fine. Look at the ships of the time. I dont think there has been a 12 15in gunned ship in history, I might be wrong. And the onlu suitable ship I can remember in an AU would be krakatoa's majestic, which is the most logical way to ship 12 15in guns. His ship features a good 100metres on yours to keep speed due to the large width needed for triple 15inchers. Your ship would be fine as an 8gunned ship like the QE but would need a major redesign to be a 12 gun.

Alright, I will cut down the guns on the Starke

_________________
"Lead me, follow me or the get the hell out of my way!" -George S. Patton
"A ship is referred as a "she" because it takes so much powder and paint to maintain her"- Chester W. Nimitz

For 1917, 8 15in guns is still a pretty damn powerful broadside

Himmel class, Lothringenese first battlecruiser
This was the first class of battlecruisers for the Lothringenese Federal Navy. They were the Lothringenese Federal Navy's response to the British Invincible class battlecruiser and the German Derfflinger class battlecruiser. It was armed with six 14 inch guns and a secondary battery of 4 six inch guns. It is protected by 8 inches of belt armour, 2 inches of deck armour and 8 inches of turret armour. It had a top speed of 26 knots as it was powered by 4 steam turbines and 12 boilers that produced 79500 hp or 59285 kW. Fifteen of these vessels were built. Four being lost in the Battle of Jutland. However the remaining eleven continue to serve until six scrapped after 1922 because of the Washington Naval Treaty. The remaining five continued to serve until scrapped or sunk as a target with LS Erzbischof being the last, converted into a museum ship in 1930.
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Not sure about,
1) date ? if LD 1915 or earlier ? 14' guns superfireing suggests later but the 26Kn suggests early ?

2) 6 guns sufficient for accurate ranging.

3) 4 guns (2 per side) for defeating secondary attacks.

4) How many built (15?) ? can't be 5 if 4 sunk at Jutland and 11 remaining ?

Personally it doesn't have sufficient funnels (boilers)and screws for a BC and it is very front heavy.

Well, it was Lothringen's first attempt at the battlecruiser concept. And I have edited the number of battlecruisers that were built

Better do something about the completion dates too.

Invincibles completed in 1908. Von der Tann 1910 (German reply). Your ships complete 1915? Better get some decent spies.

Your hull was originally 4 shaft - you have left entry point for shaft still showing. The remaining shaft is badly placed and the mounting points need a lot of work. You would have been better keeping the original 4 shaft arrangement. The armour does not match the gun/propulsion setup.

Sorry but as a battlecruiser your ship would do better as a submarine. Far too much weight forward. Hit any decent wave and the ship would nosedive straight under.

14" guns in 1915 are ok but you need a decent sized ship to mount them on.

Get your inspiration from real life ships. Their designers generally get things pretty right. You want to mount 6x14" in a battlecruiser then use an appropriate hull. Use the twin 13.8" twin turrets you have on that ship then something the size of the Derfflinger hull would be about the right size and layout.

Keep trying! But do take notice of what you are being told by the more senior members. It is no good trying to save the existing drawing there are too many things wrong with it. It needs a complete redraw.

When setting up to do your drawing then you need to have things in the right order. If you are going to draw an answer to Invincible then your time span is 1910-1912. Next look at the ships being completed around the same time. What speeds, guns, armour do they have. Lothringens first battlecruiser is likely to be armed with 11-13" as those were the biggest guns available at the time. It could be armed with either 4 by twin mountings or three by triple turrets if you want to be a bit innovative. A battlecruiser with three triple 12" would be a good first reply to Invincible. Think Italian/Russian for the armament and layout. Something the size and layout of the Dante Alighieri, sacrificing one turret for more speed. That would give you a realistic ship.

Finally get a grip on the numbers of ships you think are likely to be built. The Royal Navy at the time of World War One is far more capable of outbuilding everybody else. It has the resources and money to do so. Lothringen has not been in existence long enough to be able to match the RN. Do not try to do so. The moment you do try to have 5 or 15 it becomes automatically unrealistic. Lothringen is likely to build pairs of ships like battlecruisers. The RN built, 3 Invincible, 3 Indefatigable, 3 Lion, 1 Tiger, 2 Renown, 1 Hood = total 13. That was it, no more. If you build 4 pairs of battlecruisers each class being a slight improvement over the previous one, you will have all you need of that type of ship.

Alright, time to redo the battlecruiser line for the Lothringenese

I hope you don't mind me posting a ship to your AU page. But I wanted to show you what I meant with using the 13.8" on a Derfflinger hull as your 1915 BC. You can see the difference between yours and this one.

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