Hello everyone!
Another request to increase the forces available to Gandvik's Baltic Fleet during this campaign, as it seems like Gandvik maybe ought to have a few more destroyers. Namely, I would give all the Spica-class torpedo boats and Sella-class destroyers to Southern Baltic Naval Command and add another eight-ship destroyer flotilla to Force A. This is a big increase, granted, though Cass and other Oakist actors are certainly welcome, as far as I'm concerned, to increase their air strength proportionally. I know Cass did not want, for eminently practical reasons, to give Cassanos a terribly large surface fleet, but I'm thinking that, with Aventine ships operating largely beyond the effective range of land-based fighter cover, except for Amberland's own probably dwindling air group, Oakist dive bombers and torpedo bombers probably amount to the operation's biggest obstacle, from a navy perspective, preventing the Baltic Fleet's big and powerful, but relatively slow, coastal battleships from approaching anywhere near the Amberland coast in daytime.
A prospective second destroyer flotilla might be composed of four older Kotka-class (RL Ehrenskjold) and four of the relatively new Wachtmeister class (RL Goteborg), both of them armed primarily with three 4.7" QF guns and two triple torpedo tube installations, displacing around 1,000 tons, and capable of 35 and 39 knots respectively. This would give the Baltic Fleet eighteen modern/semi-modern squadron destroyers (including the two Roman-built Sellas, fitted out as fast minelayers), albeit not terribly large ones by international standards and, lacking a dual-purpose main battery, less than stunningly well-armed, and twelve coastal or escort destroyers, essentially fleet torpedo boats.
In any event, not a major concern, not by any means, but I've been trying to flesh-out Gandvik's historical navy a little bit OCCly and it just seems like there should be more destroyers kicking around at that point in time, especially in the Baltic. Could probably lose at least some of the cruisers, conversely, especially the Fylgia-class ships. And if reality is any guide, the operation will doubtless see Gandvik's destroyer fleet decimated before its conclusion.
