Strength of the Eastern Fleet

To: Ministry of Naval Warfare, Vienna
From: Admiral Miklos Horthy, Commander Eastern Fleet, Imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy

Sir,

As requested here is a summary of the current strength of the Eastern Fleet; for brevity logistics and transport vessels have been excluded. On October 1870 (before the beginnning of the present hostilities) the fleet consisted of;

•  SMS Szent Istvan (Blucher class)
•  SMS Mjolnir (Blucher class; did not actually arrive in theatre for several months due to diplomatic delays)
•  Cruiser Squadron Elso (3 ships, Reiver class)
•  Cruiser Squadron Második (2 ships, Revier class)
•  Destroyer Squadron 1 (3 ships, Stolz class)
•  Destroyer Squadron 2 (3 ships, Stolz class)
•  Destroyer Squadron 3 (3 ships, Stolz class)
•  Destroyer Squadron 4 (3 ships, Stolz class)
•  Frigate Squadron 1 (3 ships, Arminius class)
•  Frigate Squadron 2 (3 ships, Arminius class)
•  Frigate Squadron 3 (3 ships, Arminius class)

Under the rules of the campaign we each create a 1500 point list and choose our game fleets (of 600, 900, or 1200 pts) out of these units. The list above is my complete 1500 points.

During the Battle of the South China Sea in November all of our destroyer squadrons took heavy damage, and some light damage was inflicted on SMS Mjolnir. However the damage Mjolnir was repaired at our fleet bases, and additional destroyer units were able to be transfered to the Eastern Fleet. I advise that construction of new destroyer and frigate hulls begin immediately - casualties in these squadrons are high!

In my game against Jason I lost 9 destroyers (2 squadrons fully wiped out) so I have to spend 2 RP to replace them, plus another 3 to repair the non-crippled dreadnought SMS Mjolnir. So out of the 7 RPs my territories generated I had to use 5 to bring my fleet back to strength, leaving 2 aside for possiblely buying new units. There has been talk of putting restrictions on saved RPs, but for the moment I am assuming these to be just "in the bank". 

The Battle of the Eyrie was a major blow to our forces. We lost Squadron Elso, destroyer squadrons 1 and 2, and frigate squadrons 1 and 2. More significantly SMS Mjolnir was boarded and captured by Japanese forces! I must urgently request the transfer of another Blucher class vessel if we are to maintain our position in South East Asia. I have already discussed the matter with Admiral Von Tegetthoff of the South Atlantic fleet, and he has agreed to make SMS Budapest available to us if high command allows. Fortunately I have a plan that may allow us to recapture SMS Mjolnir - the Japanese position in Brunei is at the end of their supply chains, and I believe a raid to be viable.

The battle of the Eyrie was a disaster for me; I lost around 900 points worth of units. Thankfully I now have 6 territories giving 11 RP, which with the 2 I have gives 13 RP to replace loses. Unfortunately the dreadnought by itself is 11 RP, so I can only replace two of my 4 small ship squadrons and not the cruisers. 

As of this writing (the 8th of January, 1871) the strength of the Eastern Fleet is as follows;

• SMS Szent Istvan (Blucher class)
• SMS Budapest (Blucher class, pending approval)
• Cruiser Squadron Második (2 ships, Revier class)
• Destroyer Squadron 1 (3 ships, Stolz class)
• Destroyer Squadron 2 (3 ships, Stolz class)
• Destroyer Squadron 3 (3 ships, Stolz class)
• Destroyer Squadron 4 (3 ships, Stolz class)
• Frigate Squadron 1 (3 ships, Arminius class)

So after two games my fleet is struggling to maintain their ground, let alone gain any new units. Thankfully I think the Battle of the Eyrie was a bit atypical - losing a DN really hurts the RP budget. Unless we do another mega-battle I don't think I'll lose another this campaign. I intend to keep my cruisers sitting in a back corner not involved in battles, so each game I'll have to spend 3-4 RPs to replace my small ship loses plus 3 RP repair minor damage to a dreadnought, leaving 4-5 RPs spare. This gets worse if two dreads get damaged or one is crippled, but even in these cases I should still have enough RPs to bring the fleet back up to strength.