Käpt'n Korky

As a helpless oranjeboo, I consider every update with De Ruyter a win. Getting the expectation lowered from beta to trailer is a small downer. Overall a great update. I really liked the first look.

Kom en laat u verrassen (nein, heisst was Anderes) https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackchickenstudios/victory-belles/posts/3040220

It already payed off. I had to correct the address of the Kriegsmarineministerium. It relates to the story told in episode 5 about the second half of the First World War: The director tells what factors led to the sailor unrest of 1917 (not the revolutionary one in November 1918). And the concrete ignition for the important unrest is a cancelled movie theater show on the SMS Prinzregent Luitpold. Before that a plethora of military disobedience and protest by the sailors had taken place and one soldier on the SMS Friedrich der Große was especially well connected: Max Reichpietsch. In the wave of arrests and court martials following the "movie theater" protest altogether ten sailors were sentenced to death. 2 of those death sentences were executed: Albin Köbis and Max Reichpietsch. And the name "Reichpietsch" immediately rang a bell in my head. I wrote as address of the Kriegsmarineministerium "Reichpietschufer" ... and that didn't make sense after I heard that story. The Nazis and the Kriegsmarine would've never, NEVER, named a street after someone who was guilty of "completed high treason and rioting" against the officers corps of the Kaiserliche Marine. And I thought the whole time a "Pietsch" was something Berlinian, Prußian, idk of which I never had heard of. But no. I checked it and the thing is: The article about the old navy ministry building on wikipedia states only the current location, but not the old name for it. Luckily someone put an article about the street itself up. And what did I find? The street was named after Königin Augusta, the Königin-Augusta-Straße at first, but the name was changed after the death of admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in 1933 to Tirpitzufer. Its current name was given to it in 1947. So I went about and changed the address in my writings here in the forum.

Direct matches: Lexington 2-1 Saguenay INPF1 : The leadership finally changes after Chiyoda can't ramp up her form and Belfast equalises on points, but with fewer matches. Wichita surpasses the dormant Arizona. LMP on the other hand loses and thus gives the Russian sisters the opportunity to at least equalise the score. Conte however deals a double win to all of them and rushes past them all. Kongou uses her opportunity to get past Hood and Verdun. But with an unexpected double win AGS overtakes all three of them and pushes herself into the comfortable midfield, with the promise of further rise. Augusta had a bad short season and missed the playoff round of her league, so she falls dormant. Kumano scores wins for a change and squeezes herself into the pseudo-safe 16th position. INPF 2: At the top of the 2nd division, Exeter strengthens her position relative to her pusuers by an average performance, since Kaga and Takao fail almost completely to score, so badly even Kitakami can get between the two. Saguenay loses her match against first division Lex and because of it falls dormant. In the midfield PK uses the almost total failure of everyone around her to get into lead position of the "19p club". Dunkerque equalises with Scharnhorst. While Pola has no match, Only Nürnberg scores a win behind her, changing places with Bearn. For Aoba there will be a team switch: As you can see, Aobas team only scored 3 points. In the whole season it was 8pts. So they will be relegated into amateur level next year. For that reason Aoba will switch back to Kyoto Sanga, starting next week already, since their season is a bit longer. That will maybe change Aoba fate decisively.

Knick-knacks?? Oh, behave!

Now this is something I have to bingewatch and they already have some WW2 related content online. Downer for everyone incapable of German: It's in German. https://www.youtube.com/c/Marinemuseum/videos

Standard is the key here, I guess. I take the kickstarter thing as a sign of almost completion. Now I fully believe in a 2020 release again. Interesting intel about repair docks.

*hüstel* Hoch verehrte Mitglieder der Admiralität, meine geschätzten Mitkapitäne, verehrte Damen und Herren, liebe Kinder, diesen Sieg nehme ich mit Dankbarkeit und Demut entgegen und ich bin mir sicher hätte jemand mit einem echten Abschluss in Geschichte, wäre das Ergebnis anders ausgefallen. So aber möchte ich der Admiralität dafür danken meinen bescheidenen Beitrag über Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz zum besten Beitrag dieses Wettbewerbs ausgewählt zu haben. Was als ein harmloser Scherz über einen bis dahin geschätzten Admiral der Deutschen Geschichte begann, entpuppte sich entgegen meiner Erwartung zu einem Inferno der Inkompetenz, welches mir diesen Sieg beschert hat. Daher gebührt mein Dank zuvorderst Alfred von Tirpitz, der in wunderbarer Preußischer Hybris und Selbstüberschätzung das Kleindeutsche Kaiserreich in den wohlverdienten Untergang getrieben hat. Wenn man sich in Deutschland auf etwas verlassen kann, dann dass es ein Preuße für uns schon versauen wird. Weiterhin möchte ich der Person danken, welche damals das zweite Victory Belles Promovideo bei YouTube eingestellt hat, denn ohne sie wäre ich nicht hier. Fürderhin darf ich auch nicht diese wunderbare Gemeinschaft der letzten aufrechten VB-Gläubigen vergessen, denn wenn ich nicht zumindest denken würde, dass ihr es zu schätzen wüsstet, hätte ich gar nicht erst mitgemacht. Un ringraziamento speciale al mio alleato italiano. Non essere l'unico membro dell'Asse a volte mi dà la forza di cui ho bisogno tra tutti questi alleati. Ferner danke ich allen bei Black Chicken Studios, dass sie weiter tapfer an der Fertigstellung des Spiels arbeiten. Wir geben ja alle nur nicht auf, weil ihr nicht aufgebt. Darüber hinaus danke ich natürlich meiner Mutter, meinem Vater, meiner Frau, welche diesen Teil meiner Freizeitgestaltung nur mit Kopfschütteln aufnimmt und Odin, der mir offenbar hin und wieder die Schriftzunge silbern pinselt. Danke.

Metis; semper spectat.... Nice new art btw.

Off schedule, missed two... well. Life. It happens. At least a lot of potential points to throw around, eh? Direct matches: Takao 1-0 Nagato INPF1: Chiyoda only gets 3/9. At least she wins her 19th match, which means she's halfway there to end her season. Alas, now Belfast gets a chance to bite. And misses, but at least comes one point closer. Arizona scored nothing, unexpectedly, since her only match left (USL league final) was canceled. The opposition fell victim to Covid-19. No title will be awarded the match not postponed, but struck. Lady Lex follows the trend and played three matches with only one win. But that's enough to overtake Arizona. Tenryuu had four matches, pushing her to halt season, but also only one win (4/12), but it keeps her close to Lex. Only with Wichita we finally see more than one victory: Two matches, two wins! She too gets into position to attack Lex. La Motte-Picquet one the other hand joins the "single victory squad" and only gets 3/12 points. Conte also only wins once, but she has 3/3 points. Notice anything? And even the mighty Hood only scores 3/12..... but it always can get worse and Kongou only scores one measly point in all the time. I start to feel the time was cursed in the INPF 1. Maybe the lower half will bring more excitement? Right off the bat, Moskva scores a double-win and sends herself up a few places. Leni only loses one of her four matches -making yours truly VERY happy- and getting good 7 points out of her time on the pitch. She has now catched up with her sister. Verdun also does good and gets 4 points in two matches. Only with Admiral Graf Spee we return to the 3 points scheme of the upper half.Atlanta follows suit and Kumano even fails completely. INPF 2: The table leader of 2nd division, Kaga, returns with a mixed bag of 4 points out of 4 matches. Lucky for her, Nevada is dormant, but Exeter sees the gap and sails right through it to the top. Takao beats Nagato in the direct face off, but those are her only points she gains. which is more than Nagato, who only scored 1 point. All three IJN Walküren are now firmly over seasonal half time. Same for Saguenay, who at least gets 3 points overtaking Nagato, just on matches. In comparison, Kitakami had a swell time with 5 points in three matches and this enables her to sack the point twins in front of her. PK scored the "usual" 3 points. Which is more than Scharnhorst with her single point can say. Under those circumstances, Canarias sacks both of them with 5/9 points, putting her back into the upper half of the table. While Dunkerque and Pola score 3 points each and keep touch with the midfield, Nürnberg and Köln do the Scharnhorst thing and only take 1 point home. With Gneisenau scoring 3 points, it brings the Kriegsmarine almost back together into one place, but with Bearn winning as well, behind the French Walküre, not in front of her. Aobas team still performs mediocre and only brings one point home. She probably needs a miracle to not get stuck in last place when Axum eventually joins the league.

Also the song which basically started Rock'n Roll, the first version were aeveral interpretations, all by black musicians as early as the late 1930s. Lionel Hampton was one of the more prominent ones.

Continuing with "Chanson du marchand indien", de Sadko, by Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov

Posting some noticable songs. # Dans de la fee dragee, de casse-noisette, by Piotr Tchaikovski

Direct matches: none INPF 1: Chiyoda loses for a change while she is encroaching the half season benchmark of 19 matches and just like that Belfast gets with a single point into striking distance with 4 matches less under her belt. Arizona is the first team this matchday to secure a win. Making her way to the USL playoff finale btw. the victory also secures 3rd place for now, since Lady Lex stumbles with a slim 1/6 booty. LMP fails to score entirely, which is good news for basically half the table behind her. Conte and Kongou had no match this week, so couldn't take her up on the offer, but Wichita and Tenryuu did, while Leni and Hood* missed their chance, this time. Moskva even used the weakness of her sister to surpass her. In the lower regions, Augusta continues her disappointing performance so far with a defeat. Which Verdun and AGS use to get in touch with the lower midfield of the table. Kumano passes this day as well and the other teams just have to sit it out. *Hood had a special misery today as I checked the score and she actually did NOT score 3 points on the 17th day of the 10th month, but lost the match. Today she only gained one point, sending her down quite a bit. Sry, Mr. Wells. INPF 2: Tis' the season.... where the USN Walküren slowly fall dormant. The IJN will probably follow soon. Not sure though. That said, Nevada stops playing matches as table leader and will return, hopefully in March. And Kaga just narrowly jumps her benchmark by one point, while the other two IJN kamimaru miss their chance almost entirely, with Takao at least scoring one point to overtake Nagato. With Saguenay also failing, Exeter sees a chance and uses it, by securing two wins and jumping from the midfield straight into the top bunch, putting severe pressure on Kaga already. Kitakami on the other hand misses her chance to stay in touch with the upper echelons. With PK resting and Canarias scoring only one point, Scharnhorst finds herself back at exactly the middle of the table on par with PK. The lower half of the table shows a rather mediocre performance and nothing changes, with the notable exception of Bearn, who scores 3 points and climbs ahead of Gneisenau, who had a terrible match day with two losses.

Alfred von Tirpitz – All risk(theory), no plan Alfred von Tirpitz is best known as the ship. Really, more people know about the ship, but not its namesake. And in the collective mind of my fellow Germans -at least the ones who payed attention to the 5 seconds of history class he gets mentioned- he is the mighty Admiral who built the mighty Hochseeflotte for the Kaiser Wilhelm II. But in fact he was a stubborn idiot with a risky plan, which he based on a theory he himself coined (or let coin) "risktheory". Nomen EST Omen. I do not exaggerate if I say: The blood of every German seaman who died west of the Kattegat in World War 1 (WWI) is on his hands. But let me explain. His life begins 1849 in Küstrin, Province Brandenburg, but more importantly, his military career begins in 1865 unremarkably, but develops remarkably well. He joins the Prussian Navy in 1865 at the age of 16 and is apparently well enough educated to become a Kadett, officer in spe - Ensign in anglophone navies. He's not nobility at the time as the Prussian and later the German Navy accepts "Bürgerliche", well educated subjects of the king who are commoners, as officers from the get go. Unlike the army, which is forced to do so eventually, but that's of no importance here. He trains on the school ship of his time, SMS Musquito, where he makes a first visit to the Mediterranean. A few promotions later he sees "action" in the Franco-Prussian war on the Ironclad SMS König Wilhelm. Most of the time at anchor as the numerical superior French Navy semi-effectively blocks Wilhelmshaven. A few break out operations see no French opposition. After the formation of the Kaiserreich he serves quietly at sea, before developing the German torpedo, torpedo tube (still in use in WW1 according to a newspaper article I found), torpedo boats and the torpedo flotilla basically alone in the years between 1877 and 1888. He commands as Kapitänleutnant the first German torpedo boat "SMS Zieten", with which he sinks the first ever German flag ship of 1848 "Barbarossa" in a successful test. How very Prussian of him. He leaves the torpedo inspection which he built from scratch in 1888 as Korvettenkapitän, because "torpedo stuff" fell out of favour under the new Chancellor at the time. He requests to be put in command of a ship and is assigned as commander of the SMS Preussen and afterwards the SMS Württemberg. During that time he gets promoted to Kapitän zur See. Finally in 1890 he is assigned to be chief of staff of the "Marinestation Ostsee". Which hints at one thing, which I found echoes of in the articles about him: He is seen as much better at thinking and strategizing about naval affairs than actually commanding a ship or even a fleet at sea. And he also already had his fatal ideas in mind. But you don't need to lead from the front lines to doom your entire navy to losing a minor military encounter like WWI. Oh, you thought he is only responsible for all dead sailors west of the Kattegatt in WWI? No, all 34.836 dead sailors are on his tab. But who is counting, right? Since you might be wondering at this point: "What is that Korky person rambling about?", I'll get to the point. As early as 1890 Tirpitz promoted the idea of a strong battlefield fleet over a mobile cruiser fleet. Now, in 1890, chief of staff of the whole Baltic Sea for the German Navy he collected all sorts of stand-in battleships and even made a presentation of his plans with them to the Kaiser. Personally. Who was reportedly impressed. Big ships! Yummy! It even gained him personal access to the Kaiser. Which should've been way out of league for him at this point rank- and positionwise. An he's a commoner! Alas nothing immediately came of it as the time was not right. The reason being, the naval state secretary at the time, Hollmann, opposed the idea and favoured a "mixed fleet" and even the Kaiser was a bit more preoccupied with favouring cruisers for the moment, as they would provide better support and protection in over seas engagements. Like the colonies or supporting the Boers. Important to pretend to be a big mighty empire. The Kaisers heart was with Tirpitz, but his mind distracted. And the political setting was against a bigger fleet and the navy supporters rather clumsily missed their chance with the then current chancellor. They first fell out of favour with him and then even lost the bit of traction they had gained in the Reichstag. Which was equally bad, because the Reichstag had to approve the money to build the envisioned fleet, no matter what ships.. In any case Tirpitz had obtained the favour of the Kaiser and showed skill as chief of staff. So much so he became chief of staff of Naval High Command in 1892 and was promoted to Konteradmiral in 1895. The conflict between cruiser vs. battleship doctrine had further escalated in the meantime and Tirpitz asked to be relieved in late 1895. He was frustrated his superiors, the chancellor and the naval state secretary, still favoured cruisers and blocked him at every opportunity. But the Kaiser loved him. He loved him because Tirpitz was capable and shared the dream of a fleet with big ships. Big shiny battleships, with big shiny guns. After all size matters, right? And Cousin George of England had one. A fleet with a lot of battleships, I mean. The Kaiser wanted Tirpitz to be naval state secretary, but it was impossible, because sacking his predecessor during negotiations with the Reichstag AND a crisis in South Africa (remember, the Boers) the time just wasn't right. Soooo Tiritz was persuaded to first draft a few battleships and -after more political shenanigans- was sent off as commander of the Kreuzergeschwader Ostasien (not famous yet) to find a suitable harbour for the Reich to lease from the Chinese. He did, but was recalled home before a decision on the matter was reached. Tirpitz time had come, Hollmann and his incompetent band of losers had resigned, the Kaiser wanted Tirpitz, the Navy wanted Tirpitz and Tirpitz wanted the job to finally do what was right and inevitable: Challenge the Royal Navy! He had shown skill in fleet management, was well versed in the naval Reichspolitics, even developed a completely new type of naval weapon for the Reich. What could possibly go wrong? His strange obsession with Great Britain and the Royal Navy could. I told you I'd get there. The moment Alfred Tirpitz (still no "von") became naval state secretary in 1897 he went to work on two fronts. One was inside the Navy. He got rid of basically anyone in the way of the "Tirpitz-Plan". He also immediately published and actively circulated a seemingly standard memorandum about the state and composition of the German navy. But in it he basically abandoned cruiser based warfare and discredited it. He demanded a strong, battleship based fleet to be able to face the Royal Navy. From there he developed his "risk theory". That was his second front. The German Navy should at all times be at around 2/3rds the strength of the Royal Navy, effectively denying the RN the realisation of its "Two-Power-Standard". Thus the RN would not "risk" an engagement with the Kaisers fleet. A battle would, in theory, be too risky for the RN. Even if it managed to beat the Kaisers fleet, such a Pyrrhic victory would be the real risk. The then mightier fleets of France and Russia could make short work of British naval supremacy. Hence "risk theory". In only 20 years time this plan could be put into effect, afterwards the German Navy would surely be strong enough to fend off the RN and keep the North Sea shores safe and the trade routes into the Atlantic open. And the Kaiser and the Reichstag loved it. They swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Remember big, shiny ships! Rivaling England on the high seas! A bit of cunning coercing by an immensely successful propaganda campaign, led by Tirpitzs man for the masses Ernst Levy von Halle helped a fair share and soon the fleet frenzy of the Kaiserreich had broken out. Only a few critics saw the flaw in the Tirpitz-plan. Or rather the many flaws. What if the Royal Navy decided to NOT come out and fight? Tirpitz completely disregarded a fleet in being approach. His High Sea Fleet was there to bravely engage the Royal Navy (not allied with the French Navy at the time... as if THAT would ever happen). And if, just for the love of speculating, Britain would actively blockade Germany at sea? How could a fleet of slow battleships break that blockade? At all. If the home fleet would be beaten and the -even in Tirpitzs plans- inferior German Navy had survived the decisive battle, how would the problem of still having to sail past bloody Britain itself to get to the Atlantic be solved? Tirpitz never addressed this. He also denied the Naval commanders favouring a cruiser fleet enough resources to build a parallel raider/trader fleet to exploit the unlikely success. Then ther's the time frame. 20 years is actually a bloody long time. And Britain has a head-start in size and power. And the better and much more naval resources..... how was Tirpitz to achieve 2/3rds of the RN size and power if, let's say Britain got wind of it and decided to beef up its own Navy accordingly? Did I mention the Kaiser loved to brag about his fleet and exaggerated its power to impress Cousin George? No way Georgie (and everyone else like...dunno... the French maybe?) would panic and build even more ships! What if France and or Russia start to ally with Britain? Because the Kaiser also loved to brag how Germany would take "its rightful place" as an imperial superpower equal to them in might AND size. A bit problematic if no space of the world is unoccupied...... and the Kaiser insists. Talking about France and Russia: Tirpitz seemed to be strangely obsessed with Britain. He sent his daughters there to a reputated girls school, but also only ever fixed his mind on defeating the Royal Navy. Other Navies appear in everything I read about his plans only on the sidelines. Which is especially odd, because you payed attention, dear reader, and know his only battle experience was against the French. To top it all off, the army started to mention a slight underfunding problem, because military funds were pumped into very expensive battleships and not the modernisation of the army. Not to mention to keep it at the manpower levels laid out in the armys own plans and approved by the Reichstag. But who cares about an army, if he wants to wage a war in the distant future and only roughly 9/10th of the country borders are landborders? And who had EVER heard of a French or Russian army being a "thing"? The one thing I let Alfred von Tirpitz off the hook is HMS Dreadnought. He couldn't really foresee it. I assume in his favour he HAD spies in Britain. But he was warned prior to 1906 time and again about all the other fallacies. Even prior to 1900, when he was elevated into nobility. The HMS Dreadnought also did something else: It rendered all other battleships obsolete. So suddenly all efforts in regards of achieving 2/3rds of the RN strength evaporated with her. In the grand scheme of things the HMS Dreadnought effectively should've killed the German fleet program: Germany had to stick to its obsolete concepts, because those had to be finished. The new concept had to be adapted somehow first before ships akin to HMS Big D could be built. They also would require a renewed political battle with a now sobered up Reichstag and populous. This meant keeping old ships in the fleet, while Britain was merrily modernising its fleet. And did I mention everyone could see by 1906 how close Britain and France had become? And Russia and France? Punching another hole the size of a football goal into the Tirpitz-plan, which hinged on the idea of Britain having to fear those two Navies. And those are only the problems adding to the other problems I mentioned above. And those are only the obvious ones. If we go into detail we could spot many more, I'm sure. But naval details (like comparing fleet quality) is not my strong suit. But do you think Tirpitz (and his buddy the Kaiser) abandoned their HSF-risk plan over such minor concerns? Of course not. Even in the face of the army complaining about a slight underfunding problem, because someone in Germany was building big, expensive battleships and now on top of it was developing completely new ones. The army was delighted to loose even more funding as you can imagine. Things got so obviously bad, finally even a small opposition inside the Navy formed against the almighty Tirpitz, promoting cruiser warfare again. But it was discarded. And I think my point becomes clear by now. But I must insist to hammer it home. Because not only the whole Navy disaster was Tirpitz-made. In fact he lost Germany the whole WWI. Yep, the entire gig failed because of him and was doomed to fail even if von Moltke had been a better field commander. In fact every German dead soldiers and a lot of other dead soldiers blood is on von Tirpitzs bloody hands. Not all, because he did not kick it off, but his “preparations” doomed them all in the long run. As we are all hopefully aware, in 1914, all hell broke loose. Long story short: After Coronel the surface fleet and its doctrine failed miserably. In fact the most successful squadron of Germany was the East Asia Squadron (Kreuzergeschwader Ostasien, famous now). A cruiser based squadron and its most successful ladies, the Emden and Dresden are the stuff of German naval legends to this day. Remembered stories seem to only exist around raiders and cruisers, hinting already at how wrong Tirpitz was. Imagine if he had equipped the far away colonial outposts properly to support the cruisers? Because the German colonies were only equipped to handle the cargo ships to exploit colonial goods. If at all. Staffing, fortifying and equipping those colonial harbours to support cruisers would've meant to give a Mark (the German currency) for the cruiser doctrine. Not with Al von T.! Or if their numbers had been greater? And the Royal Navy would have been super busy guarding the North Sea regardless. And finding small, annoying German cruisers in the bloody oceans, made even harder by their ability to supply themselves properly. How devastating well supplied cruiser could wreck havoc on a superior enemy was proven by Göben and Breslau in Ottoman service. Of them there was even a very compelling argument made they were the most influential naval force of the whole first world war. <insert link to DYM post> Instead after Coronel, nothing came of it. The heavy cruisers were dealt with immediately and the light cruisers held out until they ran out of luck and supplies. The African colonies laid bare anyways and the North Sea blockade of the Royal Navy was super effective, because no one had thought to build small vessels as blockade runners. And the decisive battle in the North Sea? The HSF received one bloody nose after another most famously at the Doggerbank and at Jutland. Sure, the RN received wounds as well, but in relation the RN was demoralised to go on the offensive. The HSF was incapacitated to do so, which she desperately needed to do since she was the one being blockaded. The RN just had to hang in there and exist to stop and frisk some trade ships. And such the German Navy lost 34.836 men and gained nothing. Another immense failure of him was the Babylonian structure of the naval command. Naval command was split between the Kaiser, the chancellor, the cabinet and the supreme command of the army(!). It was so frustrating von Tirpitz actively resigned over the matter in 1916. How easily this issue could've been fixed was proven in 1918(!) be Reinhard Scheer, the German commander in the Battle of Jutland. The latter had apparently some similar realisations after the battle of Jutland on his time afterwards as supreme commander of the fleet trying to quell mutinies. He handed the keys to the fleet to Franz von Hipper on August 11th 1918, met with OHL on August 12th and had replaced all the administrative nonsense with a beautiful and effective Seekriegsleitung officially on August 27th 1918. So Tirpitz (and his successors, all his "followers" until Scheer) was a failure in fleet administration at wartime as well. He was so bad he resigned over an issue, Scheer solved in roughly two weeks. The only thing in which Tirpitz proved possibly right was his advocation of the unrestricted U-Boot warfare. He wanted to implement it in 1915 already, after German Naval command had first realisations that the many, many sunken British ships were a result of the U-Boote and not mines. Over the months and years a lot of German admirals endorsed the U-Boot warfare, including the aforementioned Admiral Scheer basically as a consequence of Jutland. But if you payed attention, you know why he was right there: Torpedoes were heavily involved in the topic. But you know. That's only the Naval failure of Alfred von Tirpitz in all its miserable scabbiness. I also now mentioned twice the impact of his policies to the army. And how he doomed them all to a long terrible manslaughter. I'm talking about his impact on the army that put up a 4 year fight to the combined strength of Italy, Belgium, Serbia, Russia, Britain, France, Hellas, Franz Xaver Josef Conrad von Hötzdorf and Romania. Also some US folks who eventually happened to come over. On every landborder the Reich had to offer and beyond (that's how Conny landed on the list). Well, most people reading this probably know about the Schlieffen-Plan. It was first introduced in 1893/94 and was changed several times by von Moltke until 1914. Well, prioritizing the Tirpitz battleship-fleet meant the war started and the German army was.... actually undermanned and underequipped. Yep, the mighty German army was actually going to war below the strength planned by Schlieffen and even Moltke. As a broad example: The army had prepared to equip and staff around 750.000 soldiers. Total. Prior to full mobilisation it had ~500.000 soldiers ready and equipped to face both France and Russia in the case of an attack. But the original Schlieffen plan had asked for ~790.000 soldiers alone for its initial offensive actions and additional soldiers to man the planned siege of Antwerpen, cut off French troops in southern Germany and encircle the bulk of the enemy force in or around Paris. On top of that it acknowledged the necessity for additional troops to occupy Belgium, to hold off Russia or if the British Expeditionary Force showed up. (They did not foresee Austrias incapability, just saying.) But the army had voluntarily restricted itself and settled for 750.000 men, because they wanted to tend to the Kaisers need for BIG, SHINY BATTLESHIPS!!! - courtesy of Tirpitz. So apart from one or two tactical errors, which Moltke had -at least mentally- prepared for, he had to throw the decisive battle of the Marne, because he had 750.000 men in the battle and realised: He had run out of steam. He couldn't fill a gap between his two armies and no HSF battleship would come to his aid. That realisation broke Moltke and he was relieved from command, deemed unfit for duty. His successor Falkenhayn suffered the long term consequences as well, when he only had freshly drilled regiments to start the race to the sea, while the Brits could use their best men to beat the young German soldiers. Because all seasoned men were needed to hold the line elsewhere, no reserves available. There simply were not enough, because of big shiny battleships anchoring in Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. Now you see why Tirpitz was the most incompetent military leader of all time. He was so bad, he sealed defeat for his whole country years before the war it had to fight even began. With all this in mind now, two ironic circumstances in regards to "his" battleship are remarkable in my opinion: Tirpitz got herself some nice torpedo launcher, endorsing the one thing her namesake was indisputably good in (apart from sweet-talking the Kaiser and almost everyone else into battleships) and he reportedly called his service at his torpedo fleet "the best eleven years of my life". Tirpitz service record proves her namesakes rejection of the fleet-in-being concept very wrong. And on top of that she was only one ship, hardly a fleet. Alfred von Tirpitz.odt

I wouldn't have guessed. It's not like Orion herself has a cute pet name for you or talks about it in any regard. I'm surprised and caught completely off-guard. Anyways. Last time I only joked about the iOS problem, now I'm really annoyed especially since I have an Anti-Apple bias since the 90s (look, you were either Pc or Mac and I wanted power, not style). But from a business perspective and with the US being probably your primary market, I get why you have to be obsessed with it. Is Orion Roman or something, that she uses "Greek"? And yeah, the Hellenic ones have gained my favour. Less nutty (see my Lebkuchen talk the other day). Sadly rare around here. Unlike the Turkic ones. Woah, the first look is a captains genesis! Everyone man the stations, but casually. And with a good book or something else to keep you occupied, in case urgency levels drop next week again. I totally wanna know who gets chosen by Mahan as worst commander.

Nice tins. And waaay too much nuts for my taste. But let's not start that conversation, because it could compromise "family secrets". Let's just say I will not mainly rely on Nürnberg for my Lebkuchen supply. But she definitively has objectively one of the top 3 Lebkuchen supplies in the Reich..... and another revealed Walküre has probably the worst, but that's subjective. I know people loving her over-sweetened, texture-less .....brown blobs. I don't. A Lebkuchen needs character and with my favourites.... I can probably shoot holes into a Nixe. .... Actually now I have to run a projectile design through Hannahs workshop..... gaaah! I have to look up the caliber.....

I'm really curious now, so if there are pics: I'm interested.

New York, huh? Sure it's not Lekach he sends? I have no doubt there is something resembling Lebkuchen in edible quality available in New York and imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Now here is a lively thread. I don't get the two startled and one happy cook thing. Apart from that nice update. Good to see Wichita getting a treat for a change. Good thing only 25% of EU citizens use iOS on their mobile devices. Even less on their other gaming hardware. #yankiiproblems *gets a broom and swings it over his various caches* If you want proper Lebkuchen this year, you can find me on the VB discord to discuss a care package. Just saying.

Direct matches: Nevada 4-5 Arizona after penalty shoot out, Arizona kicked Nevada out of the playoffs after Nevada and Arizona were #1&2 in the USL 2020 Western Conference table. Saguenay 2-3 Lexington Takao 2-2 Kaga Kaga 4-2 Nagato Kaga 0-1 Tenryuu INPF 1: Chiyoda takes off with 4 matches in which she "only" manages 6/12 points, but she's so far ahead at the moment, she can do whatever she wants. For now. Belfast actually made it better with 9/12 and the beautiful oddity because of her special treatment, of losing to and beating the same club in one week with both her teams. Arizona won twice, keeping her match advantage over Lex who managed to do the same. LMP and Hood also did well, so no change there as well, but Kongou only scored 3/6 possible points and Moskva blew her only chance, thus both created openings for their numerous midfield pursuers. Conte used this opening in the elite fashion which can be expected of her team and marches right past Kongou and Moskva with 6 points to her total. And doing it with only five matches under her belt. Only Walküre to be unbeaten in her first 5 matches and longest winning streak of the season so far on par with Chiyodas run from her 8th to 12th match. Unlike her sister, Leni used her only chance well and subsequently surpasses her. Wichita was also a busy bee and gained 7/12 points, which puts her right behind Conte on match count alone. Last seasons early darling Augusta however only got 2/12 points and misses out on climbing up the table, even losing two places. Tenryuu on the other hand makes 7/9 points and follows Wichita up the ladder. In the lower regions AGS loses her only match, Kumano even both of her matches, so Verdun gains 1 point and surpasses two rivals, but gains only one position. In from behind comes Houston, who parts ways with SLC, since Houston won and SLC lost. Also the league of both teams only had 4 matches(?) which confuses me. But apparently they will be out until March, when the 2021 season for their teams starts. Talking about teams waiting to play: Perth will start her season on Dec. 27th..... if there is no VB beta launch by that time, we should all get concerned. (Algerie starts on 28th of November, if there is no launch until then, we should demand a pillow fight with the devs.) INPF 2: As seen above, Nevada takes a hit by an INPF 1 Walküre. that leaves her with only 3/6 points and lets Kaga catch up to her with a mixed bag of 4/9 points. And Kaga battled everyone she could in the last two weeks. Drawing with Takao, winning against Nagato and losing to INPF 1 Tenryuu. Nagato herself had a rather weak 3/9 series, but Exeter and Takao miss es out to overtake Nagato with a 2/6 matchday bounty, even submitting her to a takeover by Takao who ties now with Nagato on points and matches after a 5/9 matchday. Busy bee of the matchday is Saguenay, who manages to get 6/12 points and ads insult to Exeters injury by sheer determination, if not skill. On the other hand Exeter has a comparatively low match count. The leading Kriegsmarine representant, Scharnhorst has a terrible match day with 0/6 points in a pretty vulnerable midfield position. And consequently, PK, Canarias, but especially Kitakami make short work of her. Only Dunkerque fails to score, making her now prone to hostile takeovers at the end of the table. Which starts with Pola who takes Dunkerque up on the offer and at least ties with her on points. Below Pola only Gneisenau manages to win, pushing her past Bearn and making her catch up with the other Kriegsmarine Walküren. Aoba also manages to at least score a point, bringing her on par with Bearn who lost. Axum won't join before December I assume.

This week is national match week, so I take a break as well.

Direct matches: Nagato 3-0 Tenryuu INPF 1: Chiyoda defends herself gallantly at the top with two more victories. Belfasts ladies conquered her 3 points. Lady Lex and Lady Hood have to make smaller steps, since they did not win and Hood in fact got no points at all. LMP seizes the opportunity, kinda-only a draw, and puts herself above Hood on match base. Arizona sees the others struggling in front of them and cuts through them easily, climbing from 6 to 3. Leni stumbled with only managing a draw against a Moskva club, but at least she did not blow it completely like Tenryuu and Kumano. And while Leni takes a severe hit from 7 to 11, Tenryuu and Kumano crash far deeper. For reasons becoming apparent below. Kongou and Moskva on the other hand scored victories, giving them a nice boost to the front of the midfield. Conte got herself a nice comeback with a rise from 12 to 9, but I'm glad I don't track the mens team. Oh, they too got 3 points.....just look up Juve vs Napoli. Awkwaaaard.... Anyhow, moving on with what is basically now the rest of the Americas in INPF 1....and Verdun. The latter threatening the yankii gals and AGS with 3 points. But Wichita put in some effort after her horrible last matchday and scored 3 points. Against "not Houstons team anymore". I changed her team description for the occasion. Houston herself also scored 3 nice points. And so did Augusta! Only SLC puts a dent in the merry US gal show with a draw, cementing virtual last place. Last, but not least AGS keeps up with everyone by also scoring 3 points. Algerié and Perth still waiting for their first matchday to happen. INPF 2: At the top of INP2, Nevada fights for her position valiantly with 4/6 points. that's barely enough to keep a splendid Kaga at bay, who has a 6/6 matchday, but well enough for Takao who continues her lacking performance. Scoring only 1 point in two matches. And it costs her dearly. Nagato beats INPF 1 competitor Tenryuu and secures 4 points overall and Exeter wins her match, so both, in addition to Kaga, surpass Takao. Somewhat remarkable in Exeters case, since she was the Walküre with the most matches last season and now gets ahead of Takao, because she has fewer matches. In the midfield, Sanguenay barely parries a 3 point attack by Scharnhorst with a point of her own, but Kitakami is not so lucky. In fact her 0 points make her even victim to Dunkerque and P-K, the latter two also surpassing an unlucky Canarias. She failed at the Baleares. In the bottom region, Pola gets ahead of Nürnberg with a draw, while the Kriegsmarine around her fails completely. Bearn manages to score a point, but it only keeps her in place, which is also true for Aobas loss, keeping her in last place.

Mmmmmh.... catchy jazz numbers.

Direct matches: Lexington 3-1 Saguenay INPF 1: With a little break between last matchday and today the picture slowly becomes clearer. Chiyoda continues her good run and gets some distance between her and her pursuers, which are now Belfast and Lexington, the latter getting some revenge for 1812 I guess. But both have Hood and LMP hot on their heels. Tenryuu had a terrible time with only 1/9 points sending her 3 places down from pursuer to midfield. Conte also plummets 6 places, but she will only rejoin next time, so she should be calm. Wichita was in for a ludorum diem perdidi moment, with 0/6 points, sending her down 4 places. Verdun finally scored, giving her good chance in the relegation region, she finds herself naturally in. Of our three joining Walküren, AGS gets out of port the farthest in her first two matches, with a respectable 4/6 points landing her as the only one of the three in front of Verdun, while SLC and Houston have to sail behind the grim French madame. Fans of Algerie and Perth have to be very patient as they will both certainly not join in October. INPF 2: What was kind of foreshadowed last matchday, now turns out to be true. The top looses steam hard. Takao and Kaga each get only 2/9 points. But that is nothing compared to Saguenay being so very polite as to leaving all the points to the opposition, with a 0/12 result. This catapults Nevada straight to the top with a very solid 7/9 score and making Exeter now the best of HMSs in the 2nd division. Sadly Canarias also had a bad time and thus gets overtaken a lot, since the 2nd division was much closer together. One ship which did not overtake Canarias however was Köln, since she also made a total of 0 points. the complete opposite however is Nagato, who had a 9/9 killing streak, putting her suddenly in front of Exeter and on par with Kaga in a battle for promotion ranks. She shoots up 8 places! Dunkerque and Gneisenau now are on par at the bottom of things, where Aoba finally scores her first point. I'm happy for her. In contrast Nürnberg and Pola perfom well this matchday, adding to Kölns misery and completing her 6 places drop. Axum is scheduled for December.