In 1914, Greece purchased two American Mississippi-class battleships. By the time of the 1941 German invasion, neither was operational due to their age and the expense of getting spare parts from the United States. The Mississippi-class were 13,000-ton pre-dreadnought vessels, which by post-WW1 standards would be too small to grace with the name "battleship." As pre-dreadnought designs, these were mixed-battery warships, with four 305mm, eight 203mm, eight 178mm, twelve 76mm, and six 47mm guns each. By 1941, Greece was in the process of dismantling one of the vessels to repurpose its still-formidable guns as coastal artillery. The second ship was retained as a floating battery. The Luftwaffe sank both ships early in the Greek campaign.
I coded the following events to reflect the possibility that, if the resources had been available, Greece may have done one of four things:
1) Nothing (historically the Greek choice);
2; Repair both vessels, and thus gain two capital ships equivalent to GW battlecruisers;
3) Cannibalize one to fix the other, and thus gain one battlecruiser, a 305mm coastal artillery battery, and a pair of heavy cruisers; or
4) Scrap both ships, repurpose all eight 305mm guns as coastal artillery (two batteries), and mount the lesser guns on four heavy cruisers.
Using the old battleships' guns for the coastal artillery batteries and/or the heavy cruisers would have netted significant cost savings, but the batteries would still have required the construction of concrete bunkers and the cruisers would still have required the construction of new hulls. Despite the cost savings, my calculations show that this still would have been prohibitively expensive for Greece, which is why historically the Greeks did not repair the vessels. However, to give players options, I coded the events accordingly.
Note that for calculating the cost of the coastal forts, I used the observed build time of 512 days. A player who alters the domestic politics of Greece (or who researches Advanced Construction) may derive a different build time.
I attached the code as a .txt file for your convenience.
As always, feedback is welcome.
Have fun and game on!
I coded the following events to reflect the possibility that, if the resources had been available, Greece may have done one of four things:
1) Nothing (historically the Greek choice);
2; Repair both vessels, and thus gain two capital ships equivalent to GW battlecruisers;
3) Cannibalize one to fix the other, and thus gain one battlecruiser, a 305mm coastal artillery battery, and a pair of heavy cruisers; or
4) Scrap both ships, repurpose all eight 305mm guns as coastal artillery (two batteries), and mount the lesser guns on four heavy cruisers.
Using the old battleships' guns for the coastal artillery batteries and/or the heavy cruisers would have netted significant cost savings, but the batteries would still have required the construction of concrete bunkers and the cruisers would still have required the construction of new hulls. Despite the cost savings, my calculations show that this still would have been prohibitively expensive for Greece, which is why historically the Greeks did not repair the vessels. However, to give players options, I coded the events accordingly.
Note that for calculating the cost of the coastal forts, I used the observed build time of 512 days. A player who alters the domestic politics of Greece (or who researches Advanced Construction) may derive a different build time.
I attached the code as a .txt file for your convenience.
As always, feedback is welcome.
Have fun and game on!