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Ok, lets talk about an ATL Germany that decides to embark upon a one-ups-manship naval arms race with the UK with the POD being 1906 and the all big gun HMS Dreadnought.

ITTL, Germany suspends any and all work on OTL pre-dreadnoughts and dreadnoughts, and instead takes the time to plan out classes of 'Super-Dreadnoughts", that are to out-gun all existing RN battleships built or building at the time they are laid down.

So as a starting point;
HMS Dreadnought, 10x12" guns, 20,000 tons, 21kts, 1906.

Germany needs some time to set things up, and therefore doesn't lay down any new battleships till early 1908, but these ships are a far cry from the OTL German ships;

Nassau class, 8x15" guns, 36,000 tons, 24kts, 1912.
Helgoland class, 12x15" guns, 50,000 tons, 24kts, 1912

Germany plans to keep up-gunning, and increasing speed on each new class after this, with 1.5" incremental increase in main armament, as well as a corresponding 1.5kt incremental increase in speed.

So, the idea is to play leapfrog with the RN. In OTL, the UK is starting to build the Orion and King George V classes, with 10x13.5" guns, so Germany building 15" guns is 1 increment better than the new ships, and two increments better in speed.

Now, Germany is looking to take this way beyond anything that they actually plan to build, as the point is not to spend themselves into
Bankruptcy, but rather to force the UK into negotiated consessions once Germany has made all of the RN battleships obsolete a time or two.
To this end, what should the tonnages be for the bigger and bigger ships?
12x15" + 24kts = 50,000 tons or so (and if not, tell me what instead?)
12x16.5" + 25.5kts = ???
12x18.0" + 27.0kts = ???
12x19.5" + 28.5kts = ???
12x21.0" + 30.0kts = ???
12x22.5" + 31.5kts = ???
12x24.0" + 33.0kts = ???

So basically, just tell me what the tonnages of these monsters would nave to be to have balanced firepower/protection, and the speed listed. The idea here is that Germany is going to one-up the RN each time the British make a qualitative improvement on their battleships, thus forcing ever more expensive ships to be built, and eventually making the issue of who could build more ships based upon shipbuilding capacity moot, as now each side is more limited by how many they can afford to build.
Any thoughts?
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