The next step in Amphibious warfare

[Earl822]

Following a number of landings made by UKA forces using conventional methods, the UKA developed new techniques for landing troops on enemy shores.
As a part of this, in 1906, 2 identical coastal trading craft will be requisitioned, and will be refitted to serve as training ships to help further investigation into Amphibious warfare, at the newly established Royal Marine's Amphibious Warfare training Centre, just outside Falmouth

HMS Exmouth, United Kingdom Coaster/Landing Ship laid down 1892

Displacement:
   329 t light; 337 t standard; 348 t normal; 357 t full load

Dimensions: Length overall / water x beam x draught
   150.00 ft / 150.00 ft x 25.00 ft x 5.00 ft (normal load)
   45.72 m / 45.72 m x 7.62 m  x 1.52 m

Armament:
      1 - 3.00" / 76.2 mm guns in single mounts, 13.50lbs / 6.12kg shells, 1906 Model
     Quick firing gun in deck mount
     on centreline forward
      4 - 0.50" / 12.7 mm guns in single mounts, 0.06lbs / 0.03kg shells, 1906 Model
     Machine guns in deck mounts
     on side, all aft, all raised mounts - superfiring
   Weight of broadside 14 lbs / 6 kg
   Shells per gun, main battery: 150

Machinery:
   Coal fired boilers, complex reciprocating steam engines,
   Direct drive, 2 shafts, 99 ihp / 74 Kw = 8.00 kts
   Range 2,000nm at 5.00 kts
   Bunker at max displacement = 20 tons (100% coal)

Complement:
   39 - 52

Cost:
   £0.015 million / $0.062 million

Distribution of weights at normal displacement:
   Armament: 2 tons, 0.5 %
   Machinery: 18 tons, 5.1 %
   Hull, fittings & equipment: 160 tons, 45.9 %
   Fuel, ammunition & stores: 19 tons, 5.5 %
   Miscellaneous weights: 150 tons, 43.1 %

Overall survivability and seakeeping ability:
   Survivability (Non-critical penetrating hits needed to sink ship):
     586 lbs / 266 Kg = 43.4 x 3.0 " / 76 mm shells or 0.6 torpedoes
   Stability (Unstable if below 1.00): 1.10
   Metacentric height 0.7 ft / 0.2 m
   Roll period: 12.2 seconds
   Steadiness   - As gun platform (Average = 50 %): 68 %
         - Recoil effect (Restricted arc if above 1.00): 0.02
   Seaboat quality  (Average = 1.00): 1.69

Hull form characteristics:
   Hull has raised forecastle, raised quarterdeck
   Block coefficient: 0.650
   Length to Beam Ratio: 6.00 : 1
   'Natural speed' for length: 12.25 kts
   Power going to wave formation at top speed: 27 %
   Trim (Max stability = 0, Max steadiness = 100): 40
   Bow angle (Positive = bow angles forward): 0.00 degrees
   Stern overhang: 0.00 ft / 0.00 m
   Freeboard (% = measuring location as a percentage of overall length):
      - Stem:      10.00 ft / 3.05 m
      - Forecastle (20 %):   10.00 ft / 3.05 m (5.00 ft / 1.52 m aft of break)
      - Mid (50 %):      5.00 ft / 1.52 m
      - Quarterdeck (35 %):   10.00 ft / 3.05 m (5.00 ft / 1.52 m before break)
      - Stern:      10.00 ft / 3.05 m
      - Average freeboard:   7.75 ft / 2.36 m
   Ship tends to be wet forward

Ship space, strength and comments:
   Space   - Hull below water (magazines/engines, low = better): 67.8 %
      - Above water (accommodation/working, high = better): 70.2 %
   Waterplane Area: 2,873 Square feet or 267 Square metres
   Displacement factor (Displacement / loading): 175 %
   Structure weight / hull surface area: 40 lbs/sq ft or 196 Kg/sq metre
   Hull strength (Relative):
      - Cross-sectional: 1.37
      - Longitudinal: 2.58
      - Overall: 1.46
   Hull space for machinery, storage, compartmentation is excellent
   Room for accommodation and workspaces is cramped
   Excellent seaboat, comfortable, can fire her guns in the heaviest weather

HMS Exmouth and Falmouth

Landing ships

[Desertfox]

Interesting. I should start looking into landing ships too, seeing NS has had the most experience with amphibious attacks.

[Earl822]

Oddly I actually had the UKA research it.

[P3D]

Desertfox, you should try researching the tech first

[Desertfox]

There's a Tech for it? Does previous experience help?

[P3D]

There WAS a tech for it. There were even people who bothered to research it.

[Earl822]

It helped me, to be making landings all over the place.

[maddox]

You get the chance to research it Desertfox, when Earl, or another player with the right history publicly demonstrates it.

You can look at it as a continuation of the hidden tech tree.

(you still have the HUGE advantage of having all ships -except the smallest and oldest- having Marconi.)

[Desertfox]

Ah OK, I dont need it at the time being, but I sure do have alot of experience with it (Fuzhou, Xiamen, Qingdao (now Manila), etc)

[maddox]

In all cases you just overran the harbor. And used the port facilities.

[P3D]

Well, deserfox was making landings in the Northern Philippines in 1901.

[maddox]

Rowboats.  Lifeboats. Beached vessels.  No lesson learned. 
No questions asked, not met the requirements needed for a "new tech".

Sorry, New Swiss doesn't have anything that could lead to the technology needed.

[Ithekro]

To be fair, Rohan also does not have a case for this technology, as they too took ports for their assaults.

[Earl822]

The UKA learned its lesson beaching Destroyers at Ceuta

[Desertfox]

Something I just found diffing around old news, its from 1899:

Naval Excercise Brief Summary
Most information will remain classified (Im just too lazy)

The Excercise was divided into 2 main parts. There was a purely Naval engagement between the Constitution and Alaska groups. During the night, torpedo squadrons conducted torpedo attacks on both groups. The second part was an amphibious operation. The ships providing fire support.

Results:
Troop Transportation to Beach: Poor

Plenty of lessons were learned during the amphibious operations. The first and main one is that current transportation methods are woefully inadequate. The troops are excellent, but how to get them ashore and keep them supplied is a problem. Unfortunatley there is no boats capable of doing this mission. Fire support as mentioned earlier is also poor. We can only hope that our troops will not be called upon to do an amphibious assault against defended positions without these problems being resolved.