Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Organising the Fleet(s)

Tsesarevich1903France.jpg

The battlship Tsesarevitch - soon to be appearing under Fezian colours

I am still awaiting the iminent arrival of my order from Stonewall of the various 1:2400th scale WW1 ships models I need for the four fleets I am planning. In the meantime though, I have spent some time divvying up the existing selection of Viking Forge models from the pre-dreadnought era for the 'old iron' element of both the Feziana nd Rusland navies. If you recall, I acquired a selection of these from my old friend Chris Hardman and then managed to change the selection slightly via some horse trading with Mr Fox. the models I have available and the forces I shall be using them for are as follows:

Fezia:

  • 1 x Tsesarevitch - Russian Pre-dreadnought battleship 1903
  • 3 x Pommern - German Pre-dreadnought battleship 1906
  • 4 x Wien - Austrian Coastal Defence battleship 1897
  • 2 x Nymphe - German Light cruiser 
Rusland:
  • 2 x Shikishima - Japanese Pre-dreadnought battleship 1900
  • 2 x Fuji - Japanese Pre-dreadnought battleship 1897
  • 3 x Admiral Ushakov - Russian Coastal Defence battleship 1895
  • 1 x Wien - Austrian Coastal Defence battleship 1897
  • 2 x Nisshin - Japanese Armoured cruiser 1904
  • 1 x Giuseppe Garibaldi - Italian Armoured cruiser (1900?)
  • 1 x Cristobal Colon - Spanish Armoured cruiser (1897?)
I am currently giving some thought to the back story as to how these ships came to be in their respective navies and I shall report this once I have done so. The sharp-eyed amongst you willhave noted thatt he Fezians seem to be rather light in terms of cruisers compared to the Ruslanders. There is a very good reason for this and it is to do with the delayed Stonewall order. Basically, Fezia will be getting the following German cruisers:

A large warship steams at full speed; black smoke billows from its four funnels

SMS Scharhorst - also soon to be appearing under the Fezian flag, together with her sister ship, the Gneisenau
  • 1 x Blucher
  • 2 x Scharnhorst
These will serve to balance out the heavier Rusland types and it means that both navies will have a powerful squadron of modern armoured cruisers in the absence of any battle cruisers.

All I need is the Stonewall order to arrive which should be any day now!



at

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous19 March 2013 at 18:43

    I can assure you there is NO truth to the story about the Fezians throwing a party for "Ship Week", getting all the foreign crews drunk and then seizing their ships in the wee hours in order to upgrade the Fezian Navy. None whatsoever. Now, the Ruslanders....?

    ReplyDelete
  2. David Crook19 March 2013 at 20:53

    Hi SAROE,

    That would be somehing to see! Seriously though, the years leading up to the (historical) Great War seemed to be almost a golden age for international arms dealers. Fezia is probably far more financially solvent than was Turkey and so could actually afford to go shopping for warships.

    What I am striving to do is to provide a viable back story behind the growth of both the navies of Fezia and Rusland; influenced by their strategic situation.

    All the best,

    DC

    ReplyDelete