The Water Country Naval Academy

The Naval Academy of the Republic of the Water Country is a multi-level structure built on an outcropping at the edge of the water in the city of Asakaga in the North of the Main Island of the Republic. The Academy boasts nearly thirty rooms for learning, it's own small docking area capable of housing twenty ships and two repair yards adjacent to it. The Naval Academy of the Republic is renowned for the qualified officers it creates with each student being run through a long and arduous battery of classes and tests before they are considered a graduate and a fully fledged officer in the Republican Navy.

### Classes

At the Academy, classes are not voluntary and those that decide to attend it and are accepted are expected to take and pass all the classes for each year of attendance which totals to four years. This means every students time at the Academy is spent more or less the same, taking the same classes and learning the same skills. A class of Students consists of forty men and women, all showing significant promise in academics and fitness as well as the capacity for leadership. By the end of the four years twenty or less will graduate.

#### First Year Students

First Year classes consists of basic seamanship such as sailing terminology, repairs both underway and in port, and learning each and every job there is aboard a ship of the Republic. First Year students spend a good portion of the end of the year of classes working on ships docked and in for repairs, they shadow veteran sailors and shipwrights as they go about their work on the ships of the Academy and learn their skills and gain knowledge from these valuable sources.

#### Second Year Students

The Second Year of attending the Naval Academy consists of molding the student into a prime candidate for command of men and eventually their own ship, with courses on naval law, naval tactics and strategy, and other important skills required of a ships captain. A small portion of the end of the year is spent shadowing Fourth Year students as they go about training their crews and planning out their month long war game that takes place in August.

#### Third Year Students

The Third Year of classes consists of mostly sea trials in which the students knowledge and proficiency in what they've been learning is put to the test. They act as crew members and junior officers acting under the Fourth Year students who have command of the ship itself. They spend time training and acclimating to ship life and tactics on the sea and in August follow their Captains orders in a war game that takes place in August. Especially promising students are given Junior Officer positions by their Fourth Year Captains and are included in planning sessions for the war game and undertake important tasks delegated by their Captains. Twenty students deemed not capable of leading a command or showing particularly abysmal skill in one or more areas are at this point washed out of the program and forced to serve in the Republican Navy as crew leaving only twenty students in the class for the coming year.

#### Fourth Year Students

The final year of study at the Naval Academy of the Republic consists of the Fourth Year students being drilled on the finer points of Naval strategy and Tactics, much of it is refresher in preparation for the war game at the end of the year but some of it does delve deeper into aspects of combat they have yet to glimpse. With half a nine months left, the Fourth Year Students are split into two teams of ten. Eighteen of the students are given command of smaller Triremes and Akiyama Rammers, split evenly between both teams as to avoid any advantage for one side and the final two students are given command of the large Quinquereme ships of the Academy Fleet and are designated as the overall commanders of their respective team.

The Fourth Year students are then introduced to their junior officers and sergeants made up of Third Year Students and the rest of their crews made up of Republican Sailors assigned to the Academy Fleet. They run their crews through orientations and exercises to increase their cohesion for the next few months. With only four months to go before the war game begins the "Fleet Commanders" are given the story and scheme of the war game and their respective objectives. It is at this point that each fleet will begin to plan out their overall strategies and begin practicing finer tactics and maneuvers. With only a week until the one month long war game begins, each team is sent to one of the many small uninhabited islands of the Republic separated by over fifty kilometers from each other they are given provisions and told to wait for a signal that the war games have begun.

Once the war game has been signaled and begun the teams go about their objectives. The war game itself is closely monitored by experienced Officers on each ship and points are given to ships that would, through superior maneuvering and command, have been able to successfully ram an opposing ship. These "rammed" ships must then raise a large checkered white flag to signal they are out of the current engagement, at the end of each engagement the "Checkered" ships as they are referred to are assessed by their experienced Officers and given a time frame until they'd be repaired or told if they have been taken out of combat or sunk completely for the duration of the remaining time.

The Team that wins the war game receive a small bonus for two months and are normally assigned junior positions at particularly prestigious ships or port commands. The losing team is regularly assigned junior positions among lesser ships and smaller port commands.

### The Academy Fleet

The Academy Fleet, used as a training apparatus for promising students is in actuality a ready weapon of war. If the Republic were to need it, the twenty ships and their crews consisting of dedicated sailors, and third and fourth year students that would be given war-time commissions are able to join larger operations or conduct their own separate operations to support a war effort.

Consisting of twenty ships, ten smaller triremes, eight Akiyama Rammers, and two Quinquereme's the Academy Fleet is a sizable and strong force for any enemy to have to engage.