Arata Amagi Class Battleships

Warning Spoilers through Straits of Hell. The Arata Amagi Class Battleships are the backbone of the Grik Empire Navy and (later) Kurokawa's Japanese Empire Navy. They are large, steam-powered wooden-hulled battery ironclads, roughly similar to the middle XIX-century ironclads (specifically the CSS "Virginia"). Powerful and durable, they are generally superior to the majority of Alliance vessels in surface actions, but they are also slow, and vulnerable for aerial and torpedo attacks.

Description: "800' x 100' 26,000 tons twin screws powered by double expansion engines, maximum speed 10 knots crew 1,300. Armament 32 x 100 pndrs." [SS Hb. p 464] See talk on discrepancy in books on width.

Design:
The "Arata Amagi"-class were based on the design of middle XIX-century ironclad CSS "Virginia"; hovewer, it must be noted that Kurokawa's knowledge about the actual ironclad was very limited, so the "Arata Amagi"-class actually based on the Kurokawa's description of the ship, not on the actual type. They are more similar to the USS "Dunderberg" battery ironclad.

They still follow the similar lines; their main hull is largely submerged, with only a small part of freeboard above surface, and all their artillery is placed in the central casemate, with sloped armored walls. They are wooden-hulled, probably with some metal frames. Four funnels are placed on the roof of casemate, which is armored to protect ships from HE and incendiary bombs.

The "Arata Amagi"-class are enormously big for their relatively primitive design. Their displacement is about 26000 tons. They are 800 feet long and almost 100 feet wide, which made them larger that any ironclad actually build. They are considered top-heavy and not very sea-capable due to relatively shallow draft (probably necessarily to give them ability to operate from average Grik ports, not fitted for the ships of that size).

Armament:
The main armament of "Arata Amagi"-class consisted of 32 cast-iron smoothbore 100-pdr guns. Their artillery placed on the two gundecks (probably to let their guns work in the heavy seas) - 13 in each boardside, and 3 as bow and stern chasers. Their guns are relatively crude, but by the time of commissioning, they were clearly superior to any Alliance-made gun - not counting out-world samples, of course.

The ships have some anti-aircraft armament, represented by thirty light 3-inch mortars, used for firing canisters from the roof of casemate. Their effectiveness is questionable, because they have slow rate of fire and very limited range, and thus may be used only to deter the attacks of dive-bombing aircraft. Some ships probably were fitted later with anti-aircraft rockets or other weaponry.

Armor:
The "Arata Amagi"-class are armored with relatively brittle, cast-iron plates of uniform six-inch (150-155 mm) thickness. The complete belt protected the hull, and the casemate are similarly plated. The quality of armor is, however, poor, and in actual battle it proved to be too ineffective; some of the ships were damaged by the constant fire of the Alliance frigates, armed with only 32-pdr cannons. Later, the cast-iron plates were replaced by wrough-iron.

The decks and the roof of casemate were additionally armored, when the Alliance air threat became clear. The roof of casemate have protected doors for the anti-aircraft artillery to fire. The armor proved to be effective against Alliance incendiary bombs, dropped by "Nancy"'s, but the additional upper armor made the ships top-heavy and dangerously unstable.

The initial design weren't compartmentalized, because their designers were completely unaware about Alliance's torpedo-making program. Subsequent modifications to the design include compartmentalization to render the craft less vulnerable to hits below the waterline.

Power plant:
The "Arata Amagi"-class are powered by two double-expansion steam engines. They are twin-screwed, and have four stacks venting 16 boilers. Their powerplant is often described as crude and prone to malfunction; still, it is able to propel the ships up to the significant 10 knots. Their coal supply is limited, which limit the ship's range, especially if thy forced to operate in heavy sea.

Modifications

 * Arata Amagi-class battleships - the basic design.
 * Arata Amagi Kai-class battleships - the improved design, refitted by Grik Empire. Armor & weapon upgrade of unspecified scale.
 * Akagi-class carrier - build on the hull of "Arata Amagi"-class battleships. Radical conversion with total removal of the casemate and all artillery armament.
 * Adamaan-class armored seaplane tender - single ship; rebuild from the captured battleship by Alliance.
 * Sular-class armored troop transport - single ship; rebuild from the captured battleship by Alliance.

Grik
Initially all warships of this class were commissioned under the banner of Grik Empire. They played pivotal role in India counteroffensive, being the most powerful naval units that Empire have, and only one that could really stood against superior Alliance weaponry. Still, a large number of those battleships were lost due to prolonged aerial attack (due to the lack of anti-aircraft weaponry), and some were disabled in surface engagements with Alliance warships (due to the low quality of cast-iron armor).

The "Arata Amagi"-class battleships didn't act particularly well in the defense of Madagascar (generally due to the complete surprise style of the attack). After this campaign, Grik naval administration, obviously dissatisfied with the limited usefulness of those large battleships in the situation of limited resources available, shifted the production toward the more capable (and significantly cheaper to build) "Azuma"-class cruisers. Some uncompleted battleships were used as decoys for Alliance, to divert the attention from other operations. Still, the Grik Navy is known to maintain a few of this large battleships for future actions.

It became known later, that Grik Empire put a lot of effort in refitting the remaining ships of this class, by providing better armor protection and re-arming them with smaller number of larger guns, some in barbette mounts.

Kurokawa's Japan
A fleet of about eight ships of this class was in Kurokawa's own service. They were refitted to unspecified degree. Several of them were rebuild into "Arata Amagi"-class carriers. All remaining units were lost during Operation Outhouse Rat.

Alliance
At least two ships of this class were captured intact by the Alliance (and unspecified number could be salvaged) in Maadras.

See: modifications.