Thanks for such nice review. May be I did not express myself best way, I do not understand why game show me in almanach sometimes "behind". The second thing is I would expect to be much more ahead in technology with such large budget than an other nation. I know that it is not historical budget, but game budget but I have quite advantage in "real budget" and in similar games I am quite advanced.
I will do my review a little differently, nation by nation as there is no particular threat at this moment. I would not take in any considaration that I can face 2 nations as I cannot, may be except if one of these nations is non-european.
Relating to Kiautschau Bay, you are right I took it because of basing rights. However If I knew it would cost 6000 tons for foreign station I would not take it. I expect 3000 tons maximum.
I think this should be looked at in RTW2, it is too harsh for small fleet setup.
Lesson learnt from war with Germany (a little roleplaying as we know RTW quite well)
- blockade is key to fight any European nation
- difficult to sink enemy cruisers. It has 3 reasons:
a) my armoured cruisers were slightly inferior
b) I do not have enough cruisers
b) game did not give any chance of interception in several months even if German raiders were quite active. I get a lot of battle to support invasions, attack or defense convoys in last year however almost all of them was denied by Germany or Germany had not sufficient force. After that no other battle was offered
- destroyers are still not usefull enough, they are unable release torpedoes on target - I hit only on ship dead in water and I got hit one time unexpected by enemy protected cruiser
- my battleships were quite superior together with better accuracy
- all my ship has usually better accuracy opening fire however a lot of time did not make significant damage and sometimes even one enemy hit has devastating effect (HMS Arethusa blew up, HMS Diadem aft turret destroyed, several times power disabled). This means that actually numbers are more important than quality
Review of Royal Navy status - free available ship (out of active duty) to compare with foreign fleets as expected to be in future (including ship in construction)
variant 1 (actual) - blockade points: 72
Battleships: 3
Armoured cruisers: 2 (one with 12" guns)
Protected cruisers: 6 (1 Arethusa class, 5 Amphion class)
Destroyers: 20
Submarines: 6
variant 2 - blockade points: 74
Battleships: 4
Armoured cruisers: 1 (Diadem class)
Protected cruisers: 6 (2 Arethusa class, 4 Amphion class)
Destroyers: 19
Submarines: 6
Comparison with foreign nations
Germany - 3 B, 4 CA, 5 CL, 17 DD, 4 SS - blockade points: 76
- blockade Germany should not be an issue as long as German raiders is not used to counter the blockade however Germany advantage of cruisers as they do not need any ship for foreign stations is threat
- Weissenburg class battleships will be probably better than ours however we have numerical superiority and HMS Athena that could serve even with our battleline
Suggestion: to build 1 CA, several CLs
France - 2 B, 6 CA, 5 CL, 13 DD, 2 SS (1 CA and 2 CLs in foreign stations) - blockade points: 63
- blockade France should not be an issue however France advantage of armoured cruisers is threat
Suggestion: to build 1-2 CA as one of their armoured cruisers is probably inferior to Arethusa class protected cruiser
Russia - 2 B, 4 CA, 10 CL, 22 DD, 4 SS - blockade points: 88
- 2 Pamyat Azova class armoured cruisers are inferior even to Diadem class
- to blockade Russia there is need to sink several ships first. Their battleships are on par with ours, their armoured cruisers are a little behind except 2 Gromoboi class armoured cruiser under construction. Their protected cruisers are mostly large and powerful however they have weakness that their 6" guns as not as much numerous and has no shield so we expect that even Amphion class are on par with them and 2 Comus class on foreign stations should handle on of such cruiser
Suggestion: to build 1 CA and some other CLs
Italy - 3 B, 2 CA, 6 CL, 15 DD, 6 SS - blockade points: 61
- to blockade Italy should not be an issue
Suggestion: there is no need for additional ships, actual force should handle Italy
Japan - 1 B, 2 CA, 7 CL, 9 DD, 3 SS - blockade points: 48
- to blockade Japan there is only limitation of large enough bases in Northeast Asia
Suggestion: in case of increase threat from Japan start to invest into local infrastructure for the fleet
USA - 7 B, 1 CA, 7 CL, 9 DD, 3 SS (1 CA and 4 CLs in foreign stations) - blockade points: 74
- blockading USA could be done however their most dangerous threat is large battleline, opposite to any other state so there is possibility to fight USA by attacking weakest points
- their cruiser force is relatively weak and could be eliminated if war starts
- their battleline could be dangerous, we should think as HMS Athen enhance battleline capabilities even if she does not have posses heavy armour comparable to battleship. But she can face any of 3 New York class battleship and probably have upper edge
Suggestion: to build at least 2 battleships
Summary:
European threat - in case of threat by any European nation we need more cruisers, against some nations more armoured cruisers, against others more protected cruisers
Far east threat - non exist
American threat - there is no threat of White fleet could start actively blockading our trade however eliminating their battleline is probably out of possibility for Royal Navy. Strategy of evading main battle and focusing on local advantages should be taken
Conclusion:
1. start program of installation central firing on ships of the fleet (expected costs 22M, so 1 M per month for 2 years)
2. start of construction program of armoured cruisers or protected cruisers
3. no more submarines needed, actual submarines could serve as attrition for enemy main force
4. be ready to start enlarge of Northeast Asia basis in case of increasing threat from Japan
5. start having budget reserve to focus on needs by particular threat which could arise (to have surplus of 500k per month)
Budget constraints:
- actual situation of only 7.8 M
- to generate reserve 0.5 M/per month
- refit program 1 M per month
==> Expected budget for new construction 2.4 M per month in September which is either 2 protected cruisers or 1 armoured cruiser