Best ACR for the Germans at Falklands 1914

Is there any class of armoured cruiser then in service that would have done better than Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at the Falklands 1914? My initial thought was Blucher, with her uniform armament ensuring consistent hits, but she got smoked by BCs herself.

Rurik, Tennessee would each bring four 10" guns to the battle, plus significant secondaries. Meanwhile, the Ibuki-class would field four 12" guns, more than sufficient to penetrate a 1st gen BC while carrying heavier armour protection than the Brits.

My vote's for the Japanese ACRs.

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Well the Japanese ACRs were later reclassified as Battle Cruisers which does make sense as they were intended to dominate other armoured cruisers which was why Invincible was built so apart from their relatively slow speed they are not really Armoured Cruisers (they are only 3 thousand tons lighter!)

However with a 4.5 knot speed advantage and twice the armament the Invincibles are in turn still going to dominate the Japanese vessels.
 
On a horrible technicality, same ships they were fighting... Invicible-class vessels were at the time formally classified as Dreadnought Armoured Cruisers.
:openedeyewink:
 
Garabaldi class, rather inferior in every respect to the Scharnhorsts, but Argentina has 4 of the things, and two of them showing up at Port Stanley for a visit would not be an excessively improbable occurrence. With luck they could be in Torpedo range by the time the British figure out they aren't Argentine ships
 
Well the Japanese ACRs were later reclassified as Battle Cruisers which does make sense as they were intended to dominate other armoured cruisers
Wasn't every ACR designed to dominate other ACRs? The Ibuki class are not battlecruisers because they field only two battlecruiser-type turrets, while their remaining armament of 8" and 4.7" guns was no better than that of other ACRs.

If a battlecruiser is not defined as having a dreadnought-type single-size main armament, then we can classify anything as a battlecruiser, like Blucher. Just because you've got the baddest ACR, doesn't mean it gets kicked out of the rankings.
 
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The Pisa and San Giorgio classes are good options, too. 4 10" like Rurik and the Tennessees, with superior armor protection and speed. Hell, those armored cruisers had thicker belt armor than the Invincibles themselves!
 

GarethC

Donor
San Giorgio yes, Pisa no - it's got bunkerage for a shorter steaming range than even Nurnberg, the shortest-legged ship in the East Asia Squadron, which adds to the logistical problems for Spee to get from Tsingtao to Stanley.
 
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