The starting design combines awkward armour choices, inefficient machinery, and a confused secondary battery. The overlapping six-inch battery is removed, the numerous eight-inch weapons are retained, and the main armament is standardised at 15 inches so that the simulated opponent remains credible. The belt, deck, machinery, speed, and propulsion are then brought into a more coherent balance. The resulting 60,000-ton ship is formidable, although Spain building such a vessel in 1920 is treated as an extraordinary industrial proposition. The exercise shows why a paper battleship is a system of trade-offs among fighting power, machinery, displacement, and national capacity.
Notable Point · 9:17-17:25
Repairing a Spanish dreadnought design
A flawed game-generated Spanish capital ship becomes a practical discussion of balanced guns, armour, machinery, and displacement.