I am creating this thread to propose and discuss a potential naval tech tree for a hypothetical Poland/Eastern Europe tech tree, which has been rumored in the past.
I’m not writing this as a suggestion because I have not done nearly enough research to qualify it, and I’m hoping that through discussions here I can find some decent sources to potentially expand this to a full suggestion in the future.
This tech tree is (currently) a composite of the navies of four nations: Poland, which is rumored to be the main flag of the nation; Austria-Hungary, a predecessor to many Eastern European and Balkan states; Ukraine, which has access to the Black Sea; and Yugoslavia, another predecessor nation with significant naval history.
Each vessel in the tech tree is labelled with its country of origin (PL, A-H, UA, and YU respectively). Also included tentatively are Soviet vessels of the Black Sea Fleet built in Ukraine. I don’t think Gaijin would go for this as it would be controversial, but these vessels would mostly be copy/paste from the current USSR tree and help fill lineups, so I’m including them. Other vessels of similar types could still be added to the USSR tree. Otherwise, all listed (UA) vessels were at one point or another controlled by independent Ukrainian forces.
I currently have two completed Bluewater lines:
Ranks I-II
Ranks III-IV
Ranks V, VI, VIII
Based on my preliminary research, the Bluewater section has fewer options than the Coastal section will, and I was pleasantly surprised with how much I was able to find!
Let me know what you think and offer me suggestions so I can keep iterating on this and hopefully one day turn it into an actual Suggestions post!
Not a bad idea here, though not sure how they’ll work Austria-Hungary, considering Hungary is an Italian Sub TT. As for the Ukrainian Stuff, I think you can leave Soborna Ukraina in your second TT. As for the Soviet ships built in Ukraine, I don’t think there’s a strong case to be made for adding those as part of the TT.
I think it’s fair to give their naval assets to this tech tree on the basis of need. The Italian TT is more robust without A-H than this tech tree would be without it. Plus, if this hypothetical tech tree contains Croatia and Yugoslavia as the leaks suggested, then A-H is also a predecessor to those states.
I could, and it would be another unique vessel for the tech tree. But I also think that’s the exact reason why it would be disputed. The Soviets technically held onto it for longer, and since it was a project, neither faction used it for anything.
Battleship VIII probably refers to the lead ship of the Ersatz Monarch-class. I don’t think they were actually laid down (the materials were all ready, but the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand delayed the laying down, then postponed due to World War I, and ultimately cancelled), but the guns that were designed specifically for the ships were built, so that might count under the “unique components” rule.
Soborna Ukraina was the Ukrainian/Soviet name for the Russian battleship Imperator Nikolai I, which was laid down and reached 60% completion before being scrapped.
If Battleship VIII/Ersatz Monarch is allowed on the basis of the guns being built, I think we could try to add a couple different designs of it that all still used the same guns. The January 1914 design had 13 guns, which could plausibly allow for a version to sit at 7.3 or even 7.7, since the 35 cm guns are fairly decent, with about 2 rpm fire rate and approx. 680 cm penetration at point blank based on Jacob de Marre calculations.
The old battleship? It seems like it would be a bit further out of WT’s purview than the other oldest ships here, but it would probably fit into Rank IV which could use some help.
Soborna Ukraina works under the “must be laid down” rule.
Battleship VIII would work if Gaijin allowed it to count since its guns were built.
As far as we know Gaijin is still following the “one version of each named ship” rule, so we could only pick one.
7.3 could work for that design (any more info on it?) but 7.7 feels like a stretch, Fuso is 7.7 and while one gun short, would be faster, more armored, and have more AA.
I got most of the information from Tzoli here S.M.S. Viribus Unitis - Austro-Hungarian Battleship - Preliminary Designs - Ersatz Monarch Class and also here KuK Kriegsmarine Capital Ship Projects | Secret Projects Forum. It’s the section called “Design XIII Pre-project (January 1914) - STT Project I”. Their information comes from some blueprints for that design that are also in the section. I have secondary confirmation from “Conway’s All the world’s fighting ships, 1906-1921” at page 335, where they call it “pre-project II”. The description there is exceedingly brief but fully corroborates Tzoli’s stats from the blueprints.
