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Description
NOTE: Writeup incomplete as it is waiting on details from Skibud98 's BC class.

Length: 742 feet/ 226 meters
Width: 100 feet/ 30 meters
Draft: 30 feet/ 10 meters
Displacement: 26,200 tons
Crew: 1,750

Armament:

x14 203mm guns (2x4 & 2x3)
x8 2/127mm DP guns
x10 2/50mm AA guns
x24 4/20mm AA guns

Armor:

Belt: 254mm/10 inches
Main deck: 127mm/5 inches
Splinter deck:76mm/3 inches
Turrets: 305mm/12 inches
Secondary Turrets: 127mm/5 inches
Conning tower: 305mm/12 inches
Bulkheads: 203mm/8 inches

Propulsion:
x4 geared turbines
x12 Type 20 boilers, developing 200,000 shp

Max speed in trials: 34 knots

Introduction

The protracted development of the Compelling class can be traced back to 16AF, when the uff de Laurent royal family begrudgingly acknowledged that while their best efforts at pacifist policy may hold great sway within the confines of the Greater Confederation, the alarming military expenditures abroad left the kingdoms woefully ill-equipped to defend themselves. Accordingly, the GCK embarked on an eight year plan to create a fresh fleet of capitol ships for their navy: in the interest of fulfilling the ranks sooner rather than later, construction efforts between 16AF and 20AF were to be focused on cruiser development, while battleships and aircraft carriers were to be the focus of the second half of the construction programme between 20AF and 24AF. Accordingly, the Urgent and Insistant class cruisers were slated to be launched in 18 and 19AF respectively: originally slated to be eight Urgent class cruisers, the order ultimately morphed into four Urgents and three Insistant classes, while the remaining Insistant class hull was augmented with a second order and ultimately emerged as the Mason class light carriers.

The battleship programme's research and development program, which ran from 16AF through mid 18AF, was anticipated to result in six battleships to replace the obsolete or obsolescent Honourable, Righteous and Dignified class semi-dreadnaughts, dreadnaught and superdreadnaughts, respectively. In order to field a design competitive with the large fleet of equally large battleships being built by the fascist and highly militant Aerah Empire, the naval architects would be required to field a design for a similar 45,000 to 55,000 ton design, likely fielding 457 to 508mm main guns: in comparison to the 406mm main guns arming the two Pious class battleships, this project would be exponentially more expensive, requiring new shipyards to accomodate the size of these massive fleets.

Ultimately, two factors resulted in the surprise cancellation of the GCK's battleship program in 18AF; first and foremost, the annexation of the Maktak and Pongatar Island s that spring meant that the grecken now had considerably more territory it needed to patrol, which pushed emphasis away from battleships towards the destroyers and other small vessels. While the navy's need for modern capitol ships undeniably remained, it was more prudent to focus attention on producing more ships rather than larger ships, and the costly battleship program would only be keeping the fleet's size in terms of ships available the same. Secondly, the liberal Nathan-Lee government balked at the costs involved in producing this new class, and instead directed the second half of the program be focused on expanding the cruiser fleet further as well as developing a small number of proper fleet carriers. The grecken admirals once again seemed deprived of a chance to field a proper modern capitol ship.

But the research work for the uncompleted battleships found new life as the naval office, substantially in response to directions from admirals to give them the biggest ship reasonable for the role, turned its attention towards increasingly large cruiser designs for what was at the time to be the penultimate cruiser development as part of the GCK's modernization process. Through this process, the grotcruiser concept was born: much as a battleship traded speed for heavy armament and armor, and a battlecruiser would trade armor for speed and armament, the greatcruiser traded armament for battleship armor and cruiser speed. While formally not a capitol ship in the strictest sense, this paradigm puts the greatcruiser on a similar footing to other capitol ships in terms of capabilities and prestige.

Design & Construction

Fielding the same 203mm cannons (albeit in remarkably larger numbers due to the increased scale of the design) as previous cruiser classes, the greatcruiser concept sacrifices penetrative ability for increased staying power and speed: a point of some controversy in the naval theory community. Some foreign organizations consider the greatcruiser as a "weak battlecruiser" lacking the firepower of a proper battlecruiser or battleship, while others (the grecken being one of them) consider the greatcruiser as a cruiser with the staying power of a battleship. Indeed, considerations were made to arming the type with ten 254mm guns as oppose to 14 203mm, as both could be readily fitted to the barbettes of the type: ultimtely though, the weight conservation involved in the design's paradigm won out.

While this means that the Compelling is decidedly disadvantaged against other battleships in terms of penetrative ability, that is not to say that the type is in any way toothless: in the same time an Aerah XXXXXX class battlecruiser (or for that matter, a Briesch class battleship) could fire XX shells weighing a total of XXXXXX pounds while pursuing a Compelling class greatcruiser, the Compelling's seven aft facing 203mm guns alone could return 28 shells in the same time, weighing in at a respectable XXXXX lbs; furthermore, in a true two-sided engagement the difference becomes all the more apparent, as the Compelling could fire 56 shells as opposed to the Briesch's XXX. While penetrating the Brieschs's citadel may prove challenging at longer ranges, the sheer devestation that could be wrought on an enemy vessel's superstructure cannot be under estimated: the ultimate volume of shellfire involved certainly addresses any real concerns of the greatcruiser being outgunned by a more well established capitol ship.

Additionally, as was established by the P and G2 class destroyers and heavy destroyers, an intermediate layer of anti-aircraft armament was implemented in the form of twin 50mm cannon mounts; prior designs typically relied on the quadruple 20mm batteries for close range defence and HA 102mm pieces for long range defense, leaving middle range defensive armament decidingly lacking. Similarly, the wider hull of the greatcruiser design allowed for considerably enhanced level of secondary armament, something nearly nonexistent on the previous cruiser classes. Anti-aircraft armament was a decided priority for the design on account of its large size, and accordingly the type's anti-air specifics are among the most formidable of any capitol ship thus far launched. Furthermore, as an effort at freeing up deck space, it was decided that the majority of the ship's boats would be in raft form, doing away with the traditional whale boats and storing the ship's few motorized launches underdeck just forward of the ship's aircraft facilities.

Following a protracted development process, construction began at the navy's Neuu-Greckenyard facilities at Nordburg Bay in 19AF, with some minor adjustments along the way: the immigration of noteworthy Aerah naval architects XX & XX XXXX in that year resulted in some small modifications to the design, notably the inclusion of Voith-Schneider drives as the grecken was impressed by the engineer's reports of the mechanism's inclusion on Aerah's Kaiser Zeppelin class aircraft carriers. Compelling was finally launched in summer 21AF, and was undergoing trials in the Uthen Sea when Demanding was launched towards the end of autumn; the final ship, Forceful, is expected to follow suit early in 22AF.

SCK Compelling
(service history goes here)

SCK Demanding
(service history goes here)

SCK Forceful
(service history goes here)

for Thin-Red-Line

Description
NOTE: Writeup incomplete as it is waiting on details from Skibud98 's BC class.

Length: 742 feet/ 226 meters
Width: 100 feet/ 30 meters
Draft: 30 feet/ 10 meters
Displacement: 26,200 tons
Crew: 1,750

Armament:

x14 203mm guns (2x4 & 2x3)
x8 2/127mm DP guns
x10 2/50mm AA guns
x24 4/20mm AA guns

Armor:

Belt: 254mm/10 inches
Main deck: 127mm/5 inches
Splinter deck:76mm/3 inches
Turrets: 305mm/12 inches
Secondary Turrets: 127mm/5 inches
Conning tower: 305mm/12 inches
Bulkheads: 203mm/8 inches

Propulsion:
x4 geared turbines
x12 Type 20 boilers, developing 200,000 shp

Max speed in trials: 34 knots

Introduction

The protracted development of the Compelling class can be traced back to 16AF, when the uff de Laurent royal family begrudgingly acknowledged that while their best efforts at pacifist policy may hold great sway within the confines of the Greater Confederation, the alarming military expenditures abroad left the kingdoms woefully ill-equipped to defend themselves. Accordingly, the GCK embarked on an eight year plan to create a fresh fleet of capitol ships for their navy: in the interest of fulfilling the ranks sooner rather than later, construction efforts between 16AF and 20AF were to be focused on cruiser development, while battleships and aircraft carriers were to be the focus of the second half of the construction programme between 20AF and 24AF. Accordingly, the Urgent and Insistant class cruisers were slated to be launched in 18 and 19AF respectively: originally slated to be eight Urgent class cruisers, the order ultimately morphed into four Urgents and three Insistant classes, while the remaining Insistant class hull was augmented with a second order and ultimately emerged as the Mason class light carriers.

The battleship programme's research and development program, which ran from 16AF through mid 18AF, was anticipated to result in six battleships to replace the obsolete or obsolescent Honourable, Righteous and Dignified class semi-dreadnaughts, dreadnaught and superdreadnaughts, respectively. In order to field a design competitive with the large fleet of equally large battleships being built by the fascist and highly militant Aerah Empire, the naval architects would be required to field a design for a similar 45,000 to 55,000 ton design, likely fielding 457 to 508mm main guns: in comparison to the 406mm main guns arming the two Pious class battleships, this project would be exponentially more expensive, requiring new shipyards to accomodate the size of these massive fleets.

Ultimately, two factors resulted in the surprise cancellation of the GCK's battleship program in 18AF; first and foremost, the annexation of the Maktak and Pongatar Island s that spring meant that the grecken now had considerably more territory it needed to patrol, which pushed emphasis away from battleships towards the destroyers and other small vessels. While the navy's need for modern capitol ships undeniably remained, it was more prudent to focus attention on producing more ships rather than larger ships, and the costly battleship program would only be keeping the fleet's size in terms of ships available the same. Secondly, the liberal Nathan-Lee government balked at the costs involved in producing this new class, and instead directed the second half of the program be focused on expanding the cruiser fleet further as well as developing a small number of proper fleet carriers. The grecken admirals once again seemed deprived of a chance to field a proper modern capitol ship.

But the research work for the uncompleted battleships found new life as the naval office, substantially in response to directions from admirals to give them the biggest ship reasonable for the role, turned its attention towards increasingly large cruiser designs for what was at the time to be the penultimate cruiser development as part of the GCK's modernization process. Through this process, the grotcruiser concept was born: much as a battleship traded speed for heavy armament and armor, and a battlecruiser would trade armor for speed and armament, the greatcruiser traded armament for battleship armor and cruiser speed. While formally not a capitol ship in the strictest sense, this paradigm puts the greatcruiser on a similar footing to other capitol ships in terms of capabilities and prestige.

Design & Construction

Fielding the same 203mm cannons (albeit in remarkably larger numbers due to the increased scale of the design) as previous cruiser classes, the greatcruiser concept sacrifices penetrative ability for increased staying power and speed: a point of some controversy in the naval theory community. Some foreign organizations consider the greatcruiser as a "weak battlecruiser" lacking the firepower of a proper battlecruiser or battleship, while others (the grecken being one of them) consider the greatcruiser as a cruiser with the staying power of a battleship. Indeed, considerations were made to arming the type with ten 254mm guns as oppose to 14 203mm, as both could be readily fitted to the barbettes of the type: ultimtely though, the weight conservation involved in the design's paradigm won out.

While this means that the Compelling is decidedly disadvantaged against other battleships in terms of penetrative ability, that is not to say that the type is in any way toothless: in the same time an Aerah XXXXXX class battlecruiser (or for that matter, a Briesch class battleship) could fire XX shells weighing a total of XXXXXX pounds while pursuing a Compelling class greatcruiser, the Compelling's seven aft facing 203mm guns alone could return 28 shells in the same time, weighing in at a respectable XXXXX lbs; furthermore, in a true two-sided engagement the difference becomes all the more apparent, as the Compelling could fire 56 shells as opposed to the Briesch's XXX. While penetrating the Brieschs's citadel may prove challenging at longer ranges, the sheer devestation that could be wrought on an enemy vessel's superstructure cannot be under estimated: the ultimate volume of shellfire involved certainly addresses any real concerns of the greatcruiser being outgunned by a more well established capitol ship.

Additionally, as was established by the P and G2 class destroyers and heavy destroyers, an intermediate layer of anti-aircraft armament was implemented in the form of twin 50mm cannon mounts; prior designs typically relied on the quadruple 20mm batteries for close range defence and HA 102mm pieces for long range defense, leaving middle range defensive armament decidingly lacking. Similarly, the wider hull of the greatcruiser design allowed for considerably enhanced level of secondary armament, something nearly nonexistent on the previous cruiser classes. Anti-aircraft armament was a decided priority for the design on account of its large size, and accordingly the type's anti-air specifics are among the most formidable of any capitol ship thus far launched. Furthermore, as an effort at freeing up deck space, it was decided that the majority of the ship's boats would be in raft form, doing away with the traditional whale boats and storing the ship's few motorized launches underdeck just forward of the ship's aircraft facilities.

Following a protracted development process, construction began at the navy's Neuu-Greckenyard facilities at Nordburg Bay in 19AF, with some minor adjustments along the way: the immigration of noteworthy Aerah naval architects XX & XX XXXX in that year resulted in some small modifications to the design, notably the inclusion of Voith-Schneider drives as the grecken was impressed by the engineer's reports of the mechanism's inclusion on Aerah's Kaiser Zeppelin class aircraft carriers. Compelling was finally launched in summer 21AF, and was undergoing trials in the Uthen Sea when Demanding was launched towards the end of autumn; the final ship, Forceful, is expected to follow suit early in 22AF.

SCK Compelling
(service history goes here)

SCK Demanding
(service history goes here)

SCK Forceful
(service history goes here)

for Thin-Red-Line