A World of the Wars

Royal Ruberian Navy: 1st Battle Squadron
and 12th Destroyer Flotilla.

For the last several weeks I have been working on the armed forces for my Chromatic Wars. These feature the armed forces of Ruberia (RED) and Izumrud-Zeleniya (GREEN) on the one side, and Azuria (BLUE) and Turcowaz (TURQUOISE) on the other. The latter countries in the respective alliances featured in the Kavkaz Campaign of a couple of years or so back. The armies - especially the larger Azurian andd Ruberian - have been reorganised into Army Corps. Izumrud-Zeleniya has an extra Division, building up to four.

1st Battle Squadron: top to bottom of pic: HMSS 
Thunderer, Victoria and earlier 'Admiral class'.

But the major work has been the ship building. Here are the lists:

I had to build the Ruberian sea-going fleet from nothing. It now comprises:

• 1st Battle Squadron of 3 early ironclad and pre-dreadnought battleships
• 2nd Battle Squadron of 3 later pre-dreadnought battleships
• 8th Destroyer Flotilla of 1 'S' Class and 2 'R(iver)' class destroyer/torpedo boats
  
• 12th Destoyer Flotilla, ditto
• Protected Cruiser Endymion (Capt. Sir Horatio Trumpeter)

The powerful 2nd Battle Squadron:
HMSS Royal Sovereign (leading), Agamemnon and 
Commonwealth.

Ruberian cruiser Endymion

The Azuria Navy is much less powerful. It comprises:

• 2 early pre-dreadnought battleships
• 1 early ironclad battleship
• Destroyer/Torpedo boat flotilla of 4 vessels
• 2 'Flatiron' gunboats of the Acheron class

Azurian Navy: Hoche (leading), Carnot
and Amiral Duperre

This fleet is based upon the French of the pre-dreadnought era, a time at which its ship designers seemed to be exploring the 'steam-punk' genre of naval architecture. Very weird designs - and I had to find ships that had fewer than the five or six funnels they favoured. I may add a later pre-dreadnought to the fleet to give the Azurian Navy a bit more beef. 

ANS Hoche

An alternative might be to requisition at least some of the 'Hellenistic' navy - at least the French-designed Hydra class ironclad battleships. The difficulty there, is that Helleniya is hostile to Turcowaz, so an alliance there is out of the question. But if France retained some Hydra class units in its own navy, then they could justifiably be added.

ANS Carnot

Ironclad battleship Amiral Duperre

Azurian Torpedo Boat flotilla.

Finally, I gave the Izumrud-Zeleniya two pre-dreadnought battleships. The Ekaterina II is, of course, Russian, and a fine looking unit it looks, too.

Izumrud-Zeleniya battleship Tsarina Ekaterina II

Although the second ship has a Russian sounding name, it is derived, in fact, from the Austrian - one of the last pre-dreadnoughts ever built. It is the powerful Radetzky - match for any single ship in my Chromatic World.

The powerful Izumrud-Zeleniyan battleship 
Radetzky

The Izumrud-Zeleniya Navy comprises:

• Pre-dreadnought Ekaterina II (Bolshaya Katya - Big Kate)
  
• Pre-dreadnought Radetzky
• Light cruiser Elizaveta
• 3 small torpedo boats
  

The last two 'dot' items have been 'requisitioned from the 'Rhumbaba' navy, which is not itself an 'actor' in this drama.

The Turcowaz navy has featured in an earlier campaign, the First Blacklands War. As a reminder, here is its composition:

• 2 pre-dreadnought battleships of the Turgut Reis class
• 1 ironclad battleship
• 1 protected cruiser
• 4 Destroyer/ Torpedo boats.
  

Later, I will talk about the armies, and perhaps make some preliminary remarks about how the war looks to be developing.