16-Inch Guns Already! - US Battleship Only Episode 9 - Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Admiral's log. Italy is gone. Brazil is gone. I've looked at those words on the page and I've let them sit there long enough to understand what they mean.

[00:00:11]Because I think it is important that a man in my position does not become casual about the disappearance of nations. Whatever they were, whatever mistakes brought them into conflict with this fleet, they were real places with real people in them. And the weight of that deserves at least a moment of honest acknowledgement before the log moves on to the next item. But we must move on to Japan and Russia.

[00:00:38]I will confess that when I received both declarations, I sat quietly for a longer moment than I typically permit myself.

[00:00:45]Not from fear. I want that recorded with absolute clarity. Not from fear. from the particular quality of recognition that comes when the thing you have been preparing for stops being theoretical and announces itself at your door.

[00:01:02]This is one of the larger shapes that I saw forming. This is what the redrawn map was building towards.

[00:01:10]The great powers have finished their appetizers and they have looked across the table and decided that the question of the Pacific and the question of the Atlantic and the question of who ultimately commands both are questions that can no longer be deferred. They are correct. They cannot be deferred. I simply would have preferred to choose the timing myself.

[00:01:33]Russia sent their task force. I do not know what calculations produced that decision, what intelligence they were working from, and what assumption they made about the composition and readiness of what they would find waiting.

[00:01:46]Whatever those assumptions were, the engagement corrected them very quickly.

[00:01:50]The Russian task force is gone. All of it. The sea has it now, and the sea, as I've noted before, is not particular about the flags its ships flew before they went down. Our ships all came home.

[00:02:04]I keep writing that sentence. I write it in every log and I will continue to write it because I refuse it to allow it to become routine. Our ships came home.

[00:02:15]I keep writing that sentence. I write it in every log and I will continue to write it because I refuse to allow it to become routine. Our ships came home.

[00:02:25]There are men alive tonight who would not be alive if this fleet were built differently. If I had listened to the voices in Washington who wanted cruisers and destroyers and the elegant economic solutions that look so reasonable on paper and so catastrophic on the bottom of the ocean, they are alive. They will be going home and I will not stop finding meaning in that.

[00:02:50]But Japan, Russia is vast and Russia is dangerous and Russia has resources that could sustain a long war in ways that concern me professionally. All of that is true.

[00:03:02]And yet it is Japan that occupies my thinking in the quiet hours. Japan has been watching. They're methodical in a way that I recognize because I am methodical myself. And methodical enemies are the ones you respect fully and underestimate never. They have been building, but they've also been at war a long time. They've been learning. They have looked at what naval warfare is becoming. And they've not looked away.

[00:03:28]Two wars simultaneously against two serious powers. This is no longer a campaign. This is something larger than a campaign. Something that will test not just the fleet, but the entire architecture of what we have been building. It will test the strategic positioning, the industrial capacity, the depth of the bench. when the engagements start coming faster than the yards can repair what damage they've done.

[00:03:53]I have been preparing for this. I have spent every year of this command in preparation for exactly this quality of test. The 15-in guns cannot arrive soon enough, and more of them are needed. The map has been redrawn. Most small powers are gone. What remains are the nations with the reach and the will and the steel to contest the world at the highest level. and we are among them.

[00:04:18]The conversation that is beginning now will be the one that determines everything that comes after. I am not afraid of that conversation. I've been waiting for it.

[00:04:29]Hey there. Welcome to episode 8. The world is once again in flux as I am making all sorts of moves towards southern Russia. The port of Novaresk has been completely bombarded. This means it is ripe for the taking.

[00:04:43]Shouldn't take too long because it is completely gone. So, three turns and we should have southern Russia and with that oil. Now, Crimea, of course, is next. There is a Russian task force around, but it's just a bunch of lights.

[00:04:56]I don't really consider them to be that likely of a threat. There are a couple of new ships, or rather a couple of old ships over there, and I'm going to refit all of those because those poor things haven't seen a refit in, I think, years.

[00:05:11]uh 1902 1902 1902. So the New York version 1907 is a much better ship than what these guys are going to currently experience. Speaking of much better ships and much bigger ships, we get access to a new hole just now. And of course, we're going to build one.

[00:05:33]And it's not just the hole. It is not just the hole. I have access to 16inch guns. Experimental dreadnaugh three.

[00:05:44]That is a really weird looking hole.

[00:05:47]Unfortunately, I can only go as big as 46,000 tons. Hold on. When is my next When's my next refit for the shipyard?

[00:05:56]If that's months away, I'm going to have to wait a second. Oh, it's years away.

[00:06:00]Okay, fine. We're going to go with the shipyard as is because that's going to take another 22 months most like. So, I'm not going to wait for that. It's too much time. Especially with the design time, the construction time being probably, I don't know, 18 to 20 months.

[00:06:16]Better get to work.

[00:06:18]Now, I can go as high as 46,000. What I'm going to do is give this thing a wide beam because that makes these things more uh stable.

[00:06:28]4600. That's a bit low.

[00:06:32]There we go. 46,000 tons. She's already without anything on her 146 million making her as expensive as two New Yorks. Then again, those ships are carrying around 412 in this is going to have something a little stronger. We're going to give her good range. She is rated for 22 and a half knots, but given the width of this ship, I don't know if that's suitable. Let's see if I can get away with it.

[00:07:00]Fortunately, still no oil. I would like to have put that on there. Hux one, better steering, uh, balanced rudder.

[00:07:07]This thing is never going to turn.

[00:07:09]Let's go with anti- torpedo 2, citadel 2, antifla two. Okay, armor-wise, what can we put you on? 20in belt.

[00:07:18]That should be sufficient.

[00:07:20]It may actually be too much.

[00:07:23]Superructure 5 in one, one, one, and about 15 there. Okay, main towers. What we got? We got the shortened advanced cage mast, the second generation large cage masts, um, and the second generation large cage mast number two.

[00:07:45]This thing's got a lower base accuracy compared to this.

[00:07:52]I think this sits reasonably well in the middle.

[00:07:55]Secondary tower. Why another cage mast, of course. Why you ask? Can I really fit a decent funnel in there?

[00:08:08]Not likely.

[00:08:12]Really? You have to be there.

[00:08:16]And you I need space for a funnel, people. Like it or not, it's going to sit there.

[00:08:25]We got 38% engine efficiency there.

[00:08:28]That's better. Okay.

[00:08:32]Okay. Give me a radio direction finding.

[00:08:34]Well, a radio at least. And coincidence range finding. Good. Inner deck. I don't really care for that.

[00:08:42]Guns. Glorious guns. 16inch. We got 17 inch, but they're just Mark one, so I'm not going to do that because a 16-inch Mark I reloads substantially faster, especially if you get more of them. No, that doesn't actually impact their reloading, of course.

[00:08:59]Um, give these things 16 in of armor.

[00:09:03]One top. Uh, I don't know. 12 on the barbettes. Last thing I need is them blowing themselves up.

[00:09:14]I think this needs to be taller, otherwise it won't fit.

[00:09:24]Don't we get a better fairy barbette?

[00:09:29]No.

[00:09:31]Really? That's not good enough.

[00:09:47]Port weight offset stable.

[00:09:53]I swear that should be able to rotate, but I guess not. Okay, fine. I guess not.

[00:10:02]At this point, I only have a citadel towards the front and towards of course where that is. But we actually have room here for more guns. Now, I have one and a half thousand tons left and I still haven't added a single secondary.

[00:10:17]Do I want to have these long barrels?

[00:10:20]arguably AP range is already 19 as is. Long barrels do make it more accurate. Uh reload right now sitting at 77 seconds and I can push that to 95 seconds and give them 21 km range. I don't think that's worth it. No, we're going to stick with these as they are. Give me a bit of reload though and some better turret rotation speed. And holy crap, that's right.

[00:10:52]50%.

[00:10:54]38%.

[00:10:57]Cramped crew quarters.

[00:10:59]Oh boy, it's a really big platform to be fairing around these guns.

[00:11:06]What if I go with 0% beam?

[00:11:12]Go to 46,000.

[00:11:16]We got a bit more room.

[00:11:19]Is sit.

[00:11:30]Does that still want to turn? It does.

[00:11:34]Okay. Outstanding.

[00:11:37]It does.

[00:11:40]You can't put one up there. Can you put a secondary there?

[00:11:44]No.

[00:11:46]Why not?

[00:11:48]Seems like a perfectly good spot.

[00:11:52]Game is being unfun again. Come on.

[00:11:58]Secondary 4 in. Yes, there it is.

[00:12:04]Okay, so that's what we got those balconies for, I guess.

[00:12:09]And yet you you can't put them there.

[00:12:11]What do you mean me to do there then? 3 in 2 in.

[00:12:18]Not even a 2 in can sit there.

[00:12:21]That's a disgrace.

[00:12:24]What have I got all this room for then?

[00:12:28]Oh, we got a 6 in Mark III.

[00:12:32]I like it.

[00:12:37]All this room and nothing to put there.

[00:12:43]Casemates is a bit of an afterthought.

[00:12:45]I'm going to put six inches in there if they're Mark II. Oh.

[00:12:53]Now we're talking.

[00:12:56]Now we're talking.

[00:12:59]Okay, let's armor the whole shebang up because I think that's going to be fairly heavy.

[00:13:07]And I'll have to find some armor again somewhere.

[00:13:14]One inch on the top. Casem made armor.

[00:13:16]Yes, please make those barrels longer.

[00:13:25]Make those casemate barrels longer.

[00:13:30]Reduce this to 4 in. Reduce this to 14 in. I need to find 500 tons somewhere.

[00:13:39]I really don't like that flash fire chance.

[00:13:42]I really don't.

[00:13:45]I consider that to be a massive, massive issue for this ship.

[00:13:55]I really need to get oil somehow because it's just getting almost critical for the ship.

[00:14:04]It doesn't really work that more uh that much anymore.

[00:14:09]Just the goal.

[00:14:17]Uh yeah. Okay. 10 inch on the bets there.

[00:14:21]All right, new ship.

[00:14:25]16inch guns in 19 I don't think it's even 1910 by now, actually.

[00:14:31]So, I think that's pretty appropriate.

[00:14:34]Um, how about a river class? The Mississippi.

[00:14:37]There we go. Mississippi class.

[00:14:41]She is one big girl. At 46,000 tons, she displaces as much as four of these ships. And she's not exactly four times as expensive. No, it's more like she's six times as expensive as a New York Mark IV compared to San Francisco, which is slightly fairer.

[00:15:01]I get 6 in, sorry, 6 time 14inch guns.

[00:15:04]This gun has 81 16s. That's a pretty good jump.

[00:15:11]And was it the Massa?

[00:15:18]Didn't I have a ship with 15 guns somewhere?

[00:15:25]I swear I had something with 15 guns, but I guess I'm mistaken. Oh, there the Rocky Mountains. Yes, of course these things have 15in guns. Coming in at 209 million. Build time 18 months. For these, it's probably even longer. 22 months. So before you'll see one of these on the front lines will be a while. It will be a while. But she looks pretty good. I think she looks pretty good.

[00:15:50]Decent amount of firepower, good turret angles.

[00:15:55]I don't really like how these things are not able to be put up there.

[00:16:01]So be it. We'll have to adjust that or address that with the 6-in side guns and then those.

[00:16:08]Yeah, I like it. It's another step towards further further modernization of the US Navy. So, we're going to save one. Yes. And I want one.

[00:16:19]Now, one of the rules for the campaign is if you lose a ship of a type, sorry, if you lose a ship, period, you're going to have to build a new one. You're going to have to design a new one of that particular class. But so far, I've never actually lost a ship, which is a bit weird.

[00:16:38]over towards Asia. Here I have taken Sulowi from the Dutch. Um, didn't 100% plan on it, but well, got it done anyway.

[00:16:48]This is Chinese territory.

[00:16:51]Oh, Sumatra is potentially still up for grabs, but unfortunately Java is not because the Koreans took it over.

[00:17:02]Where was I bombarding something?

[00:17:05]Here. I sent two battleships to South Hokkaido to bombard Muran so I can start taking this. It's not a high priority, but hey, I might as well. As for these two ships, we're going to have to join those up, increase bombardments a bit, and make sure that Japan understands the futility of their resistance.

[00:17:29]And here we go. Japanese battleships are meeting us because they're defending some of their territories which are now under threat. This is battleship Hiru and battleship Suo. Both of the Hiru class. These are 152 million which makes them look fairly cheap compared to my ships. They are also escorted by the heavy cruiser Yakumo.

[00:17:51]Couple of underwater torpedo tubes but nothing that dangerous.

[00:17:55]As for these 12 7in guns, sorry, 12 12.7 in guns, let's see what they got.

[00:18:05]Let's make things easy and put every single ship in the same division. We have the New Mexico, the Sierra Nevada. It's one of our 15-inch gun cruisers, sorry, battleships. This is the new one, and it is the first time we've seen the Sierra Nevada out on the high seas. These 15.9 in guns have range, lots of range. They should outrange the 12-in guns by a substantial margin because we can shoot out to 17.7 km range. The Japanese can shoot out to 10. They need a lot more range to be competitive now. Um, some of these ships are fairly old and thus their cruising speed is not as good. I think especially New Mexico may need a refit because her top her cruising speed is 9.2, but she does have turbines. Okay, South Carolina here as well. And finally, the Utah. Uh Utah has not yet received her refit. She was probably under construction when it was refitting all of those ships. So that's fine. Now, let's see what these things can do.

[00:19:10]They're older guns. They're Mark one, which means the reload's 86 seconds.

[00:19:15]Compare that to the reload of this ship at 55 seconds with a substantially bigger gun with more range. I think we have the Japanese quite out teched. Even with my older 12-in guns, I can outshoot them by a couple of kilometers.

[00:19:32]I may be able to capitalize on that, but I kind of doubt it. They will most likely close the distance fairly quickly and try to land some hits. And here we go. The Seattle Nevada opens her her guns. opens her guns, fires her guns in anger for the first time.

[00:19:50]That is 15 inch anger.

[00:19:55]Really got a fairly decent accuracy on it.

[00:19:59]Many bulkheads, spacious crew quarters, point8 in on superructure. That's a weak spot.

[00:20:07]That means even with high explosive, even with secondaries, we can start knocking out their towers, which is really bad news for them.

[00:20:16]Accuracy's building 13%, 14%.

[00:20:19]Coincidence rangefinder 2 active. And there's the first hit.

[00:20:25]There's the first hit. Of course, that won't exactly cause massive damage and stability, but it helps. They got a 1 and a half% debuff. They're quickly getting rid of it, but the Sierra Nevada keeps firing and her guns are becoming increasingly accurate.

[00:20:45]I want to see what you can do with H.

[00:20:49]I think with H you can probably pen that belt.

[00:20:57]Sure. That was all high explosive partial damage and stability 5%.

[00:21:05]Their firing range is still there at 10 six. They still can't get to us.

[00:21:17]Yep, there you go. Damage to your main tower.

[00:21:21]Before the battle has even begun, their main tower is taking damage, which is never a good sign for a ship like that.

[00:21:29]We're going to do a couple of blasts of high explosive to further damage that tower. Perhaps knock out the conning.

[00:21:35]3.7 in of conic tower is not that strong.

[00:21:43]Trained crew s Nevada now at 50% accuracy.

[00:21:58]Okay, Sierra, New Mexico, we're going to all switch to AP. South Carolina in Utah going to start firing on the second ship.

[00:22:06]Execute.

[00:22:08]Can you actually damage me with that?

[00:22:11]Not really. You can damage my towers, and that's about the extent of it. Ooh, ammo detonation.

[00:22:19]That will cause some damage and stability. Their accuracy is about 5%.

[00:22:24]Mine is quite literally 12 times that.

[00:22:30]Now, under this angle, I highly doubt we can pen it. Yeah, there's the ricochets.

[00:22:34]I highly doubt we can do damage against that. Hold up.

[00:22:39]You took a 12 and 1/2 in hit.

[00:22:43]That caused some flooding on the South Carolina.

[00:22:51]I am displeased.

[00:22:54]Nevertheless, the ship should be able to take the hits and keep fighting.

[00:23:00]That's what we designed her to do.

[00:23:03]All ships, secondaries, AP.

[00:23:06]You are an afterthought. You got a one and a half km range on your torpedoes. The battleships have torpedoes. Again, 1.4.

[00:23:16]You have to work pretty hard in order to become relevant.

[00:23:28]All ships target the suo damage.

[00:23:34]Hefty damage. 23% damage and stability.

[00:23:38]I probably got something similar. Yeah, I got 46. Sorry, 44.6.

[00:23:44]Bit damaged.

[00:23:47]casemates there. The 6.9s are penet penning the full belt uh the the front four belt and the more flooding you take well that's when things really start to go wrong.

[00:24:04]Oo 15in hits right through the main belt.

[00:24:10]Think she can consider herself lucky she hasn't detonated yet.

[00:24:17]Main tower is destroyed. That means far less accuracy and less damage control.

[00:24:25]Just continues to get worse. That was the Sierra Nevada again.

[00:24:38]The Sierra Nevada outpaces every other ship by such an enormous margin. She's done 28,000 damage versus New Mexico's 800. South Carolina's 6 1/2 and UT's 311.

[00:24:52]Sierra Nevada and her 15-in guns completely wrecked this ship.

[00:24:59]28k.

[00:25:06]Can we blow this thing to bits with high explosive? Hold. You got armor three and a half. No, 3.2 to an 8 in give or take.

[00:25:14]I can't overmatch 8 in of armor.

[00:25:18]I can just about overmatch three and a half with high explosive.

[00:25:24]Then again, if I hit you in mid ships, there won't be a cruiser.

[00:25:34]Yeah, exactly. 6 and a half thousand damage. So, your Nevada strikes again. I need to start replacing my New Yorks with these. Sure, they're more expensive, but if you compare them to a New York, uh, they're twice the price, but they've done a lot of work.

[00:25:55]Yeah, she's out.

[00:25:58]Good lord, these 15-inch guns are scary.

[00:26:06]Quite scary. And now we're building 16 in.

[00:26:10]And you're firing what is that?

[00:26:13]Capitalistic one AP.

[00:26:20]Think the cruiser is absorbing some fire.

[00:26:26]Okay. Once more livvening color just like that.

[00:26:32]All right. Yep. 3 and 1/2k.

[00:26:37]biggest damage dealer, the 15-inch guns, by 34 damage versus 8,000.

[00:26:43]That's a massive distinction.

[00:26:49]Why are these guns so much better?

[00:26:56]At 10,000 m range, I can pen 14.7 or I can pen 17.7. It's not that big of a difference.

[00:27:04]blocked.

[00:27:07]Is it the damage of these shells?

[00:27:10]You guys do 1261 damage.

[00:27:15]You guys do 1,800. Yeah. Okay. So, that's 50% more.

[00:27:21]And then, of course, you never quite see that number because it's depending on where you hit, where you pen, um what sort of secondary levels of protection the ship has.

[00:27:33]Sharon of has been hit four times but doesn't care explosive.

[00:27:49]That was a high explosive hit.

[00:27:53]Ships on fire.

[00:27:56]One engine out. Conning tower out.

[00:27:58]Rudders out.

[00:28:02]have lost about 20% of their crew.

[00:28:04]Sierra Nevada has lost none.

[00:28:10]Okay, go finish it.

[00:28:13]Oh, torpedo detonation.

[00:28:17]Flooding in ships. I think she's going down.

[00:28:26]Yep, that's her down. All right. Um, I took I think one serious hit all my battleships. The rest of them seem fine.

[00:28:36]Ship stats, damage dealt, 58k. Look at the difference. 3 8 9 58.

[00:28:45]Okay. 52 pens, five pens, 9 pens, and 16 pens.

[00:28:56]Okay.

[00:28:59]I want a few more of those ships.

[00:29:01]Uh, no thank you, Japan.

[00:29:04]I'm losing ships in the Eastern Med in Southeast Asia. In the Western Med.

[00:29:10]Oh, right. Um, the Ottomans declared war on me.

[00:29:15]Who's hunting ships of mine in the Western Med?

[00:29:20]Nobody, right? What? The Portuguese.

[00:29:24]Portuguese are now owned by the Spanish.

[00:29:30]I did put three battle ships out to sea there, but what?

[00:29:38]Okay, we're going to hunt those down.

[00:29:44]They're somewhat older ships, but they can do it.

[00:29:51]Yeah, just basically park yourself where you are and intervene. Intercept those ships.

[00:29:59]Not sure it'll work because the game can be a bit wonky at times.

[00:30:04]All right. Um, how much time for the completion? 20 months. We're going to order another one. The Mississippi's there. All right. This naval invasion is about to complete, giving me control of southern Russia over here. We have now been able to whack that enemy fleet uh here and that means this port is getting bombarded. It's still pretty hefty for now because I was facing those battleships. Once this thing is done, that will give me a bit of time to invade here. It's not the most expensive territory, but it's difficult to take back because it's an island. Gives me time to intervene.

[00:30:42]As for the rest, yeah, the French, the Soviets, the Japanese. I mean, they I'm getting massive victory points against all of them. Portugal, I think, is about to go extinct. They got one territory.

[00:30:56]They're very behind in tech. Am I supposed to be still average?

[00:31:02]Yeah, I'm average. Of course, Germany and Brits are very advanced, so I'm looking forward to fighting their battleships and everything else.

[00:31:16]Where does Portugal still hold territory?

[00:31:21]Not that I care for the complete destruction of Portugal. Oh, here. Oh, it's already been dealt with.

[00:31:28]The fewer nations there are, the fewer slowdowns I have when I'm clicking the next turn button. That's why I'm interested. All right, let's proceed.

[00:31:38]There we are. United States gains control of southern Russia because why wait for the good stuff? Um the Russians tried to gain southern China didn't exactly work out and the Kingdom of Denmark is trying to gain sorry has gained control of the Dutch antills.

[00:31:56]It's a weird weird situation. The battle of the Zorus is a bloody one with zero losses and two Portuguese soldiers. What sort of an invasion is this? A rowboat.

[00:32:11]Oh, what you got? You got 41,000 tons.

[00:32:15]They got a defensive force of 65.

[00:32:20]Okay. Yeah. No, that's going to work out. Um, this isn't really going anywhere. Eastern Turkey is heavily resisting the offensive that I have planned.

[00:32:34]Um, yeah, there isn't that much more to attack here. I mean, all of this is AustriaHungary territory. So, let's go for Crimea next. Just kick the Soviets out of the Baltics completely.

[00:32:50]Um, you guys, I want you to dis encourage or rather discourage that light cruiser from the Ottomans because we are at war with them.

[00:33:06]Because I got the Dardell straight as part of the Dinels from the Ottomans in the last war. The Ottomans are now kind of bottled up here.

[00:33:15]They can't leave.

[00:33:18]Well, that's not entirely true. They can launch from Syria if they wish to, but the territories here.

[00:33:24]They can't launch.

[00:33:27]Um, unfortunately until I take Constantinople, I think I can't launch either. I can't leave.

[00:33:34]Okay, fine. That's a bigger priority. I want to have this battle fleet because it's eight battleships. I want to have a mobile. So, I don't accept the premise that I can't move because Constantinople is in the way. I refuse to accept that.

[00:33:49]Uh, I got two Mississippi under construction.

[00:33:53]Correction. Yeah, two. I want to wait another month and then I want to launch uh sorry start construction on another one. We have another one of the 15inch guns, one of the Rocky Mountain class.

[00:34:04]We now have three of them.

[00:34:07]Um I'm not so sure where to put the last one.

[00:34:11]We are facing the Russians surely.

[00:34:16]We're facing the Japanese. I just leveled this port or at least a bit.

[00:34:22]Yeah, I think this might be a fairly decent launch point.

[00:34:26]Let's go to the Western Philippines.

[00:34:29]3 months from now. I think it's a safe bet. We'll still be there by then. Still be trying to start something.

[00:34:38]Uh, this list is getting longer and longer. If only they had a a control F feature.

[00:34:45]West Philippines, Manila launch.

[00:34:48]Research wise, nothing really interesting coming up. We're going to get advanced weight con weight control uh less armor weight whole protections anti- torpedo three in three years internal protection it's going to give me citadels that's interesting and then large guns is going to be the 9 in three and extremely large guns is 18 mark1 in about two and a half years unless I speed it up slows down everything So yeah, battleship techwise we're not really advancing that fast.

[00:35:25]Um, yeah, I'm going to leave it here. The last one was a very long episode of almost an hour. So I'm going to end it here and this is going to continue on in the next one. I am looking forward to facing some bigger foes. At the moment I am allied with the potentially bigger foes. The United States is allied with Britain and Germany.

[00:35:49]So, all the potential ones that I would like to fight, I'm friends with.

[00:35:55]Um, China. China is also on my good side. Yeah. Okay. Uh, more on this in the next episode. Thank you for watching. Hope you've enjoyed. See you soon for more.