Carmen's Imperial Russian Guide to Extreme Ship Makeovers

Dating back to the Romanovs, this shipbuilding journal shows how a French design evolved into the Borodino class battleship. Order yours today, while stocks last!

Prologue: "For the Needs of the Far East"

The year is 1898.

The Russian Tsar has signed a 25-year lease for Port Arthur in Manchuria, granting him year-round access to Pacific waters.

In response, Japan commences construction of a new battle fleet while Russia begins a major shipbuilding program including what is still known today as Russia's most numerous battleship class - the Borodino.

It is based on the French-built Tsesarevich, modified to use Russian equipment, increased armor coverage, a simplified hull shape, and heavier secondary armament.

In this guide, we will emulate the role of the Russian Naval Technical Committee in drafting our own version of Borodino, based off historical photographs and illustrations.



Unlike my previous FtD projects which closely followed historical plans, I will be aiming to give the shipbuilder some leeway in interpreting the concept of a Borodino-class conversion. This is arguably. more fun and interesting from the gameplay perspective, and we can make good use of the excuse that none of the five Borodino class battleships built were identical to each other!

Over the next several sections, you shall witness the evolution from the prototype Tsesarevich in the background...



To this menacing jet-black battlewagon that offers significantly greater attention to detail in exterior design. Pretty much every gun mounted on the Borodino can be fired from similar mount positions in the game.

Should you wish to view the completed Borodino class battleship before reading through the guide, feel free to visit this Workshop link:

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624294765

Step 1: Registering Change Requests

Before we begin modifying anything, it pays to have a baseline comparison between Tsesarevich ("the original") and Borodino, ("the objective"). Go here to view the Tsesarevich on Steam Workshop:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=619744227
Tsesarevich herself is based on an upsized template of an earlier French pre-dreadnought, Jaureguiberry. Here is an overview of her silhouette and deck plan, and for ease of comparison, Borodino right under.

Note the above plan indeed shows a Borodino class battleship but in the lightened 1917 configuration, with fighting tops removed and superstructure cut down.

We will be adding back the (impractical but cool) topweight using other diagrams and historical paintings and/or photos as a reference but for now, let's identify the main areas of change: -

1) The prow is broader on Borodino, and four 75mm guns are mounted in protruding casemates, 2 per side.
2) The side hull tumblehomes have been deleted, and additional 4 75mm guns added (2 per side). Two small exposed decks run the length of the ship starting from outboard of the fore 152mm twin turrets.
3) A 'Captain's Walk' has been added to the fantail, with an additional four 75mm guns covering the stern.
4) Borodino is about 3 meters longer than Tsesarevich. This can be used to correct some geometric and proportional difficulties encountered in my previous design.
5) Major differences in the superstructure including differently sized and shaped conning tower, deckhouses, cabins, boat cranes, and 47mm gun positions.
6) Minor alterations according to mood, season, and alignment of the planets.

Normally, you'd expect some kind of MS Paint diagram with ugly red boxes showing where the changes are, but since we're in the age of computer aided design, why not just 'draw' the proposed alterations in the game instead?


General shapes of the modified bow, side box armor and stern profiles are laid out in temporary wood 'scaffolding' serving as a visual reference point for each projected change location.

There's no pressure on where to start first so long as you're comfortable with the work and have a good idea of the end state, and on this basis let us start with the stern, where the changes are relatively localized and uncomplicated.

Step 2: Back-End Processing

We are going to start with the stern section of the ship, as the changes necessary to this section are relatively straightforward. We will also completely 'resurface' the aft section in order for the ship's deck profile to match period illustrations.

Aft Section Work List

1) Remodel the fantail, adding 3 meters to the ship's length, adding the Captain's Walk, repositioning the stern torpedo tube, and adding casemates for 4 75mm guns.
2) Correct the quarterdeck height, lowering by 1 meter to match new side hull profile and accurately portray the aft 6" gun barrels as just above the main turret's roof height.

We will be working on the fantail first, as this controls the quarterdeck's dimensions.

Before: Note the wood scaffolding to mark proposed changes.
Under Construction:
After:

Using a model kit assembly guide as a reference, I cooked up a tail end reasonably close in appearance while remaining functional in our block based building system.


The deck proved to be a lot of work! The main turret was shortened by one meter, by transplanting its design features one block down.


I remade the aft section as one deck level, as there would not be walking room if I insisted on two decks. This limitation from 1 meter thick floors is why Tsesarevich's stern profile is slightly taller than historical. Fixed in Borodino Extreme Makeover!

Step 3: Forward-Thinking Strategy

The bow is another important point of recognition for a Borodino, and I'm also going to use this opportunity to improve the level of detail and correct some proportioning issues from the previous design.

Bow Section Work List

1) Reprofile prow and anchor shelves to match Borodino's appearance in paintings and photographs.
2) Add four casemates, two per side, abaft the main gun turret, for 75mm anti torpedo boat guns.
3) Improve realism of hull profile by starting the tumblehome outboard of the fore 12" turret.
4) Add hydrodynamic 'bulge' under the bow, for which I'm sure there's a proper nautical term for that eludes my secretarial mind.

Unlike the aft section, the work here is more technical but straightforward; the bow affects hydrodynamic drag and visually 'sets the tone' when viewing the ship from the front and side. As I am by now more proficient in manufacturing tumblehome hulls I will attempt to shape the bow more aggressively than with Tsesarevich.

Before: Note once again the temporary wood scaffolding.
Under Construction:
Under Construction: OMG it's leaking edition.
After:

The casemates were relatively simple to construct using 1 meter blocks. Mounting the local weapon controllers in tight confines was a small hassle and ultimately resulted in them being crammed in shelves next to the guns.

Reconciling the edges of the tumblehome section is definitely challenging but not very time consuming. You need to use a combination of vertical and horizontal triangles, and sloped blocks of 1m and 2m lengths in order to maintain a reasonably smooth appearance.

It's manual work, but fudge the pieces together for long enough, and you get something lovely enough to deserve the gold Imperial Russian eagle emblem..

Step 4: Lateral Expansion

During the actual build process I saved this section for last due to the sheer scale of it: How you shape the boxed out sides of the Borodino could make or break the ship's appearance, but once I corrected bow and stern geometry, all that's left is to remove the tumblehome sides and build vertically from the waterline.

Notice then, that the hierachy of changes can be an important consideration, as with certain things in real life.

Top down or bottoms up is at shipbuilder's discretion, as FtD does not yet model shear stresses, bending moments, or other factors that send your ambitious construction projects tumbling down.

Side Hull Work List

1) Delete tumblehomes outboard of the superstructure.
2) Relocate side 152mm turrets 1m upwards for weather deck clearance. Clean up and improve turret internal structure.
3) Remove and reconstruct casemate 75mm gun mounts, positioning them as accurately as possible based on references and 1m block size limits.
4) Clean up remnants of old armor belt and reconstruct them anew with a flat sided profile.
5) Delete two extra broadside torpedo tubes 'accidentally' added to Tsesarevich (stop shooting me, building battleships at 4am does take its toll!).

Boxing out the sides of the ship may sound and look deceptively simple but an improper refit could either make the armor belt unrealistically strong, or add excessive weight.

Before:
Under Construction:
After:

Once I have the top and bottom edges of the new armor box fitted, I then cleaned up the interior of the box and installed internal spaces for the 75mm casemate guns.

I then plated over the sides with 2m of metal armor to serve as a main armor belt near the waterline, and 1m of deck armor on top. I had considered wood or light alloy plating on the new decks but that would be foolhardy, as plunging fire would then easily penetrate into the secondary gun magazines!

As a concession to gameplay and modern common sense I just presumed there would be some armor to defend against such a large gap between the main belt and the upper hull plating.

Now about those extra torpedo tubes being removed, I simply made that now unused space into a decorative storage bunker to liven up an otherwise undetailed section of the interior.

Step 5: The Borodino's New Superstructure

This section, I saved for last in the home improvement series, for good reason. Everything had to be redone, down to the kitchen sink and the toilet bowl.

Actually I'm kidding, this ship does not come with toilets. Potemkin does, however, and that's a necessary thing considering the reputation of borscht prepared in that ship's galley! Here's Battleship Potemkin below, in case you were wondering if any ships in FtD were equipped with toilets.

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=612055234
I used a succession of overhead deck plans to construct and position nearly all the numerous deckhouses, cabins and major fixtures present on the real ship, and the gun positions too, correspond to where the suoerstructure mounted 47mm guns were mounted. These guns were far too small to be of use in a full out naval battle, but it was fun to add them, all 20 of them, for authenticity in a pre-Tsushima loadout.


On the completed ship, you may notice the now-roofless fighting tops and the star-shaped crow's nests up top. I declined to upgrade the aesthetics of the yardarms as my previous ships all had wooden beams like so.

For the boat cranes, they were mounted on spin blocks and can be rotated using nearby Automated Control Block units.


Finally, in the pursuit of perfection I moved the entire front funnel 1 meter forward by knocking down the entire structure and rebuilding it from the boiler room deep within the ship. I had constructed void spaces around the funnels both as insulation, and for just this contingency. This preplanning meant none of the existing internal systems or fixtures had to be replaced when repositioning the funnels.


Note some of the structures on the boat deck are different from the actual ship; some details are very, very hard to verify as they differ between illustrations of individual ships, so I left the ventilation houses of my version of Tsesarevich in place. They do have a functional existence (in my dreams), after all.


You'd kind of notice these things if you fell asleep each night on the keyboard building your battleship in FtD...

Step 6: Implementing Hardware (and Firepower) Upgrades

Who ever said "firepower is the difference between life and death"? I can't remember where I heard it from - feel free to leave a comment to refresh my memory - but weapon systems performance is certainly of paramount importance in a first rate fighting ship.

Tsesarevich's weapon systems configuration were experimental and meant for gunnery training purposes, in Borodino I had made the following changes to the armaments:

1) 12" main guns now have the historical 8 meter barrel length, and fire 'double charge' flatter trajectory shells. The elevation is also restricted to 20 degrees maximum, limiting effective range to believable levels. 20 degrees elevation is plenty, when before the Battle of Tsushima, naval planners expected battle ranges to be somewhere below 2 miles!


2) High velocity shells for 47mm and 75mm guns; this was done by matching optimal shell and cartridge/propellant length to expected barrel lengths, leading to more efficient propellant combustion. Matched correctly, you can attain reasonably high muzzle velocities out of short barrels, whereas a long cartridge in a short barrel leads to huge wastage, excessive heat and recoil.


3) Overhaul of weapon traverse ranges. I realized it's a bad idea to leave the casemate mounts to 'fire at will' - if their traverse is left to 180 the gun will not fire on anything outside its traverse range, but neither will it fire at targets of opportunity besides what the ship's AI core is tracking.

By restricting field of fire for all guns, the individual weapon controllers will ignore anything outside of its engagement envelope, and fire on anything crossing its field of fire independently of the main AI. This allows for better multi-target engagement capability, making full use of the ship's absurd amount of secondary and tertiary weapons.

Note I don't use failsafes. They aren't necessary unless I'm working with amidships turrets intended to fire on both broadsides but blocked fore and aft.


4) Unguided torpedoes are also implemented - since it's a one click change between guided and unguided torpedo, I do not tend to enforce and nitpick on this topic. Arguably, letting the AI have guided torpedoes more realistically reflects the danger of a well plotted torpedo firing solution - the hit rate of a guided torpedo simulates that the torpedo crew of a ship had done its homework and laid in a good spread of torpedoes.

Whereas making the AI make do with unguided "One Turn" torpedoes means they will miss with every shot, all the time. Even if the target were stationary, because the AI is not programmed to handle gyro torpedoes of the period.

This is where players' discretion comes in - for historical accuracy, Borodino's torpedoes are unguided. For gameplay and AI effectiveness, Tsesarevich's torpedoes have sonar heads. Again, this is to illustrate the ever present 'gray area' between realism and gameplay.

If it were up to me, I'd focus on gameplay first. After all, you're looking at these ships to use them in battle against steampunk and sci fi AI units, and a variety of fantasy units constructed by other virtual shipwrights.

In any case, switching torpedoes from unguided to guided, is a one-click affair. Don't fret about it. It's impossible to please everyone when building a replica. Some prefer a '67 Mustang in its original technology level with all the vices, others prefer restomods - the same classic car with modern performance and all the safety of advanced suspension and tire technology.

Thanks to the flexibility of FtD's blueprints and weapon system configuration quick menus, the same hull can be configured both ways at the end-user level.

Step 7: Paint It Black

I don't see any red doors around here, at least not until the Bolsheviks took over, but you're going to paint everything black and this time there aren't any girls in summer dresses serving as a distraction. *

The Borodinos were historically rushed to service and sent to the far side of the world to do battle, ironically similar to the service life of a typical modern RTS game unit.


The Imperial Russian Navy at the time prominently featured menacing charcoal-black liveries for warships, contrasting with with bright yellow funnels and golden Imperial emblems.

For reasons of practicality painted only the exterior of the vessel, made easier by enabling longitudinal mirror symmetry - that is, look down the length of the ship, select a block in the centerline and hit the "N" key.

There are faster ways to paint the ship; change the base color, for instance, but I do not relish the thought of spending a night enclosed within black painted walls illuminated by the glow of coal fired boilers in the ship's bowel. Just no, thanks.


As finishing touches I added a Russian Imperial Eagle emblem to the bow and stern, to give a bit of historical flair. Finally, the ship's nameplate is mounted on the superstructure in a whopping 6.9 meter poster in Battlestar Rossiya splendor. I would have painted the ship's name on the stern the proper way if I could, but alas we do not have curved and angled banners in FtD.

* - This is a reference to the 1966 song "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones.

Epilogue: High Noon at Tsushima

On 15 October 1904, Knyaz Suvorov, flagship of the 2nd Pacific Squadron, and three other Borodino-class battleships set sail from the Baltic. Their destination is Port Arthur, a voyage of over 18,000 miles.

On 27 May 1905, they would meet the Japanese battle fleet and all four Borodinos were lost in combat. It was the first naval battle in history where large caliber long range gunnery decided the engagement, and the Russian battleships, significantly overloaded with coal and supplies, and equipped with inferior rangefinders and ammunition, were at a significant disadvantage against the fresh, and better equipped Japanese units with their more advanced rangefinders and dangerous shimose high explosive shells.


Link: Battle of Tsushima wikipedia article. [en.wikipedia.org]
Bonus: Here's a much more detailed account of the battle[www.russojapanesewar.com], from the Russo-Japanese War Research Society

There's no way to know how our Borodino class replica here will fare against the Japanese battle fleet, as I've not constructed their Far Eastern nemesis the Mikasa yet!

As I'm intending to create scenarios for both "Battleship Potemkin" and "Russo-Japanese War" in the near future, I hope this to be both an interesting exercise in gameplay and a good opportunity to learn about history in this time period. And what better way to learn than with 54 guns blazing!

In the meantime, I'm sure the Russian Tsar would be pleased with the following blueprints. It is, after all, to date still the most numerous class of Russian battleship ever built!

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=624294765

[Aikahona]

Nice build and well written writeup!

[Demonsunder]

Inspiring build, makes me want to build some "ship of the line" 250 cannon ships.

[Moon Truther]

I was kidding, jesus bro, just a prank bro!

[iSheep]

The 3 dozen or so active builders of my pre-dreadnought tournament, cc and community faction do not have the issue you do (I asked) . Clearly insolent commentary will result in no amendments nor response on my part.

Have a great day!

[Moon Truther]

This is shit, half of this stuff is gibberish, what is port and starbord?

[trgtdron]

It was probably custer in his last moments when someone rreminded him he had left the gatling guns back at camp.

[Unexcpected Spanish Inquisition]

Well i some how found this while wandering google for tumblehome concepts XD HI!! i didnt know you'd redone these two they look much better for it.

[Jett Quasar]

So this is what you've been up to.. All I can say is nice job!
JR