Axis & Allies ForuMINI

lotharlutjens

Viribus Unitis
Austria-Hungary

Cost: $12.1 M
Available: Dec 1912

[code]Dreadnought battleship
20,013 t
152.2 m
20 knots

Armament:
12 x 12"/45 (4 x 3)
12 x 5.9"/50
18 x 66mm/50 (4 as AA guns post-1914)
4 x 21" TT (1 bow, 1 stern, 1 port, 1 starboard)

Armor:
belt 6-11"
deck 1.25-1.75"
main turrets 2.25-11"
casemates 4.75"
CT 2.25-11"

The four ships of the Tegetthoff class (Viribus Unitis, Tegetthoff, Prinz Eugen, Szent Istvan) were the only dreadnought battleships ever built by the Dual Monarchy. They were designed to counter the Italian navy's first dreadnought (Dante Alighieri), which was itself being redesigned after the launching of Germany's first dreadnought (Nassau). Desire to one-up the Italians led to these ships being the first in service to mount 12" guns in a triple turret; the Dante Alighieri was designed first and also had triple 12" turrets but was completed a month later than the Viribus Unitis.
Italy began construction of the Dante Alighieri in June 1909, so the Austro-Hungarian navy expected funding for the Tegetthoffs to pass with little trouble. When the money was not appropriated in 1910 the naval C-in-C, Admiral Graf Rudolph Montecuccoli, was forced to embark upon a campaign of deception and flim-flammery and at one time had to personally guarantee a loan of 32 million crowns in order to get the keels laid. The money was finally put into the 1910 budget.
Both ships of this class lost during the war were sunk by much smaller opponents. Szent Istvan was torpedoed by an Italian MAS boat in Dec 1915 and Viribus Unitis was sunk by Italian frogmen in Nov 1918, less than two weeks before the Armistice.

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Tiornu · Naval Historian Moderator Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 664

I always thought the Tegetthoffs were handsome ships, but they rate as perhaps the most flawed dreadnoughts of their time. I remember reading an article about them that was titled something like "What went wrong?"

lotharlutjens · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:24 pm Post subject:

If you can remember some of there flaws, please elaborate, I plan on statting out this ship tonight and any insights would be appreciated.
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Tiornu · Naval Historian Moderator Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 664

Well, there's probably a good SA in this one: when prepared for battle, the main battery gunhouses lacked ventilation and had only 15 minutes of oxygen. The secondary casemates were also poorly ventilated, so that any smoke that got in there stayed there.
Perhaps more famous was the vulnerability to torpedoes. The ships had a contiguous torpedo bulkhead, but it had been designed entirely by theory without any caisson tests. The result was a torpedo bulkhead that was right up against the side of the ship. The double bottom continued up the ship's side to the armor deck, and the space between the torpedo bulkhead and the inner bottom was about the same as the space between the inner and outer bottoms. The 15cm magazines were just inboard of the bulkhead....
To make matters worse, the ships were terribly topheavy. Stability was so poor that they could not afford to turn at high speed during battle--it would lift their belts completely out of the water.
They were slow. VU managed a top speed of just 17.5 knots during a raid near the Italian coast. Szent Istvan would probably have been even worse off. Built, for political reasons, at a yard that had never built a battleship before, she had significant workmanship issues, and her powerplant had special problems. The results have been shown on almost every History Channel show that has anything to do with battleships.
The armor was not laid out well, but on the positive side, the steel itself was superb, the best naval armor in the world at the time. The guns were also good with an advanced AP shell design.

lotharlutjens · Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

Thank you Tiornu, I am not an expert on anything Austro-Hungarian and your information will be a big help.
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lotharlutjens · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:09 am Post subject:

Alpha test series Viribus Unitis

Viribus Unitis 12.1 million dollars

Austria-Hungary Battleship/Dreadnought Dec. 1912

Spd = 1

Field of Fire Bow Broadside Stern
Mains */13/12/10 17/16/15/13 */13/12/10
Sec */3/2/1 6/5/4/2 */3/2/1
AA =2
TT = 1

Armor = 8 Vital Armor = 13 Hull = 5

EXTENDED RANGE 4

DEFENSIVE ARMAMENT 4

ALL AHEAD FULL

POOR TURRET VENTILATION

Poor Turret ventilation would be a new SA, Tiornu tells me that the ships turrets would fill with smoke so much that within 15 minutes or so visibility would be greatly reduced.

We will need to work out the wording of this new SA, but I would think something to the effect of giving this ship the modifier for firing through funnel smoke if it fires it's mains in consecutive turns.

Also Tiornu said this ship was slower than the 20 kts advertised so I pit it into the spd 1 All ahead full catagory.

If anyone wants to take a stab at wording this SA you wouldn't be hurting my feelings.
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Jesse_James · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:09 am Post subject:

Just a toss up... since I will not be hurting your fellings...

If this unit attacked on its previous turn, this unit recieves a -1 penalty per attack die.

Maybe just a -1 no matter what???

put the previous turn since I am not sure if the smoke and lack of air only effected it durring shooting???

other penalty options:

6s only count as 1s
reduce the number of dice rolled (example Broadside at range 2 the ship has 15 dice. but recieves a 3 dice penalty for attacking on the previous turn)
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Capt. Strange · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:17 pm Post subject:

How bout this for the SA:

Poor Turret Ventilation: After this unit's 1st main gunnery attack, all subsequent main gunnery attacks for the remainder of the game suffer a penalty of -2 dice.
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Brass · Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:36 pm Post subject:

lotharlutjens · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:08 am Post subject:

Beta (LMS) test series Viribus Unitis

Viribus Unitis 12.1 million dollars

Austria-Hungary Battleship/Dreadnought Dec. 1912

Spd = 1

Field of Fire Bow Broadside Stern
L Btty */13/12/10 17/16/15/13 */13/12/10
M Btty */3/2/1 6/5/4/2 */3/2/1
AA =3
TT = 1
DA= 4
Armor = 8 Vital Armor = 13 Hull = 5

ALL AHEAD FULL

POOR TURRET VENTILATION

Poor Turret ventilation would be a new SA, Tiornu tells me that the ships turrets would fill with smoke so much that within 15 minutes or so visibility would be greatly reduced.

We will need to work out the wording of this new SA, but I would think something to the effect of giving this ship the modifier for firing through funnel smoke if it fires it's mains in consecutive turns. But there are other ideas on this SA in this thread as well. Pick one and go with it or reword it as you see fit.

Also Tiornu said this ship was slower than the 20 kts advertised so I pit it into the spd 1 All ahead full catagory.
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Gaming for 36 Years.