General Advice for a Newcomer

[fallenworldful]

Hello! I'm a relative newcomer to the game, despite having it for almost two weeks now. I've run into a couple of issues that I finally haven't been able to puzzle out on my own and I'm coming here to ask.

First: Is there any way at all to reduce the chance of getting terrible force organizations, like having the oldest and newest battlecruisers be arranged into a group that majorly limits speed? It makes it really difficult to use ships properly when a 31 knot super battlecruiser gets paired up with a 25 knot "battlecruiser" that's more of a dreadnought.

Second: How do I stop destroyers from firing torpedoes into my fleet? I lost three dreadnoughts (one of them that had just been commissioned too) in a chaotic night battle to my own torps that way overshot their intended targets, and I know for a sure it was my own destroyers because I had annihilated all the enemy torpedo carriers before that happened. It turned a sure victory into a defeat. Yet manual firing prevents you from firing even if a ship is nowhere near the intended torpedo path. 

Thirdly: Do gradual improvements require a rebuild of existing ships to take advantage of them? I habitually rebuild ships once they reach 8 years unless they're too old to be useful again, but if it requires rebuilds to take effect I might shorten that period slightly.

Fourth: How many ships should I keep abroad? When managing massive fleets it gets incredibly expensive, especially super battleships that are over 40k tons. 

Fifth: Is it necessary to have more than 3.5 inches of deck armor? I've never seen the AI use 18" guns and they hate staying at range, which means most of their shots tend to hit belt or turret.

And finally, Sixth: Is there any way to reduce the amount of turret jams a ship experiences in combat? I had all 6 turrets jammed on a Fuso-style dreadnought multiple times despite it not getting hit and it was frustrating to watch all these ships sail in front of it and take no damage.

Despite these little things I've really enjoyed the game! Being able to design your own fleet and test it in battle has been something I've always wanted to do and it's satisfying to watch the ships respond to commands.

[director]

1). The program will draw your battle force from the assets you have in the area. Sometimes you get a decent setup and sometimes you get a divided mess. If the latter then you can either rise above or decline to fight the battle.
2) If you get within torpedo range, they will try to torpedo you. Keep scouting and screening forces out, and if your battleships stumble on something in the dark, don't keep steaming on the same course and speed. There is a 'turn together' check-box in your squadron box - jinking right and left will throw off your gunnery, but also their torpedo accuracy. But mostly, remember to scout and screen, and if you blunder into enemy destroyers, turn away. (Sometimes your battleships will turn away without you, which is a clear sign).
3) I think all ships get gradual improvements. Ships require a rebuild to get a better kind of fire control (or a secondary director), improved main battery range, better quality guns or new machinery (perhaps moving from coal to oil).
4) The program will tell you if you have too-few ships overseas. I usually wait for war before moving large forces overseas, but remember that you can't move short-ranged ships in wartime. I do post a number of long-ranged raider types overseas, ready to go after his merchant ships.
5) Deck armor wasn't terribly important before or during WW1 because the guns were relatively short-ranged and the trajectories fairly flat, which meant that most shots would hit the side of the ship. Later, as range (and gun size) increased, the trajectories got steeper and it was possible to avoid the thick side armor and plunge through the thinner deck (like a bomb).
Deck armor is expensive in tonnage because it has to cover a large area and because it is relatively high-up in the ship (and needs a lot of weight lower down to balance it for stability). Thick deck armor early on won't do you much good; thin deck armor later on (after gun ranges increase) will get you blown apart by critical hits.
6) I have no idea how to prevent a turret jam. I've resigned myself to always starting an action with one turret down and then immediately getting a turret hit and an engine-room hit from the enemy. If I get through that, my gunnery usually improves later in the battle, but early on the AI scores a lot and I can't seem to hit him back.

I have at least once put my fleet under a 'hold fire' and forgot to take it off until we were in close contact... that was embarrassing.

[JagdFlanker]

1 - i'v gotten to the point where i pick a speed for all my BBs to run at and i design them all to go at that speed from game start to game end. it used to be 25/26kts when you could build BCs from the start but now i start at 21kts since that's the fastest a ship classified as a B can go at game start and then 24kts for all subsequent BBs afterwards. i then keep the fleet speed in the tactical battles at 18-20kts and let the ships use their extra speed for station-keeping


3 - if you want to build a new ship with the newest tech included you have to create a new class - if you build a ship class you created in 1905 in 1915 it will use the 1905 tech. rebuilds only free up space if you replace machinery, but that's VERY expensive to do so i don't do it very often if ever. i only use rebuilds to upgrade my barrel quality and fire control, but you can also do a 'blank' rebuild where you don't upgrade anything but the ship gets an 'overhaul' so it's good for another 10 years. i do this with my MS - i build 40+ at game start for coastal patrols/ASW and i use the same ones until the end of the game but i never upgrade anything in them


4 - you can right click on a ship and put it on 'foreign station' to help meet your foreign station requirements automatically. you can also look at the left tab on the map screen that shows your ships/possessions - if there is a red ! that means that sea zone needs ships to fill the foreign station requirement. you can manually do that instantly while you are building your initial fleet before the first turn of the game too.


5 - i keep deck armour at 2" from beginning to end game and i do just fine. 2" is the magic number to prevent damage from shrapnel or fragments or something


6 - pretty sure it happens less and less with newer built ship classes, as tech and reliability improve as the game progresses

[gornik]

1) There are no way to influence force organisation, but some tricks may reduce problems from it.
Firstly, try to keep old ships at secondary theatre, if you have it. Old BC are good in raider hunting, BB are best colony protectors from invasions, and others support them.
Secondly, rebuild old ships to increase their speed a bit. In your example, 27-28 knot rebuilt BC will be more handy than 25 old one.
Thirdly, standardise your designs! As I can see, game loves to group fast ships in three, so if you build 4 BC with close characteristics (my usual standard is 2+2), it would be more chances to get division of them in battle. For BB, you may set rather high standard speed early on and then just keep it in newer designs.
Last but not least: there is trick, allowing to detach slow ship, even undamaged. Turn your division together (may not actually turn, just check its box and set new cource) and set speed to maximal possible. Slow ship will be detached soon. (Note: in bad weather/night there is risk that other ships may loose each other too).

2) Not only "torpedo carriers" launch torpedoes at night Cruisers and dreadnoughts are dangerous as well, especially at short range. (I had B in CSA fleet which sunk 3 USA ones that way, two of them-in single battle!) Real owner of torpedo is revealed in ship's log after battle. (so if it was your ship, you may punish culprit, sending his DD to suicidal mission far away, for example ) Also, once you got message "XX launches torpedoes", check, where this happens! If your ships are near potential target, turn them away immediately - better lose contact than lose ships. Director's advices are very useful too. Anyway, night is a time of chaos, and there is no safe way to fight in dark: first warning about enemy presence is often broadside or torpedo, though you may surprise enemy as well.

3) Gradual improvements in gunnery, subdivision and ammo are implemented immediately, in machinery - after replacing it, others - only at newly laid ships.


5) I had several ships with such armour, badly damaged from 16 in deck penetrating hits, so I think safe level is 4 in or higher. But this make ship weaker in other important parts, so I nearly never make deck thicker.

6) Were the turrets double or triple? If last, it's probably lack of technology, if first... It's really bad luck. I saw some ships with all their turrets down, but usually this happen after repetitive non-penetrative hits.

[fallenworldful]

Okay! Really quick responses, thanks!

1: Okay. I actually tend to standardize all my Bs around 22 knots and my BBs around 21-24 knots depending on the nation I'm playing and what tech I have available, favoring protection and speed over firepower. It's with BCs that it really becomes a problem since refitting machinery is expensive and early BCs are not really that fast. I'll use that detaching trick, it sounds really handy when you get two 31 knot BCs matched up with a 26 knot one.

2: Heh, I know enemy B, BB, and BC often carry torps, it was one of the first things I figured out and early game I use my B's torps to sink ships instead of wasting ammo and time using guns since they're not particularly quick at sinking enemy ships until later. As a ship buff I understand how you're supposed to dodge torpedoes, it's just my own ships are firing torps in crazy angles that often strike my own ships during brawls and I was curious if there's a way to disable DDs and CLs from firing torp launchers into the rest of your fleet while shooting at a target. I did a few trials and manual steering of the DD squadrons seems to be the best way right now to do that, but it's tedious and also only works in captain's mode. Also, to gornik, is there a way to find messages in the log quickly? During big brawls the log can be so full it can take several minutes to locate everything that's going on.

3: Good to know. I know structural stuff requires major rebuilds or a whole new ship, but having all other advantage stuff being implemented automatically is great.

4: I know about foreign stations, I'm curious how many ships people tend to keep abroad when not fighting a war besides the ships required for foreign stations. Later on I try to station at least one BB, a BC, a pair of CLs and 3-5 DDs in whatever region so I have a quick response force.

5: Hm, I've never lost a ship to deck impacts. I guess part of that is me loving to close the distance. It is good to know that you don't need the 5+ inch decks that real life warships often had.

6:They were double turrets :\. I guess all I can do is hope for the best then. I almost never use quadruple turrets because the doubles and triples fail often enough already even with technology upgrades.

One more question: Is it worth it to build coastal forts? I noticed they all tend to spawn in the same location and don't actually provide that much all around coverage for spotting raiders and the like, which is what I was hoping they would do.

[JagdFlanker]

4 - other than basic foreign station numbers just keep an eye out for who you have the highest tensions with and where their colonies are and deploy forward forces near them. if you outnumber their naval forces in an area where the enemy has a colony your troops have a random chance to invade (and vice-versa so careful).  hover your mouse over sea zones on the map  every few turns to get an idea of possible hostile force dispositions

i just finished a war with Japan as UK and i didn't have enough navy in Northern Asia so Japan invaded my only N. Asian colony and took it within 2 turns, leaving me with no port in that area and making blockading a LOT harder. i literally had 60% of my capital ships interned in neutral countries by the end of the war because they were getting damaged in battles and unable to retreat to SE Asia (still kept the blockade going and won, thank god haha)

[gornik]

2) You may find torpedo hits fast as there are usually many "limits flooding" messages after them, like this:

Or it is the last message in ship's log... 

About torpedo angles - couple of times I saw DD launching torpedo from "wrong" board, usually when enemy tried to break through my line at high speed, crossing her course. I think it's problem of aiming algorithm (too concerned at right pre-emption, even if it is clear, that enemy will turn away after a minute or two). Also sometimes they tried to fire torpedoes THROUGH my battleline between capital ships, though I didn't see this in last games. But if situation is like here, your ships are in danger unless you are sure that torpedoes don't reach battleline:

(DD chase enemy battleship at night and lose contact with rest of fleet).

4) At the begining I usually send CA or CL to every zone where ship is required, to fight with enemy raiders. If I have special raider design, they are sent there too. After dreadnought race starts, worst B, reclassified to "Very Big Colonial Gunboats" , form colonial task force to take enemy possessions and protect my own. Once they scrapped, better B take their place etc. Also first dozen of my DD usually have medium range, so all which stay afloat after first war then support colonial TF.

Coastal forts are useful now, as possession with them has less chance to be invaded during war.

[fallenworldful]

I know how to deal with flooding damage. Actually, on that subject, is there a way to get ships taking flooding to stop moving? I set their speed to zero but every now and then they reaccelerate to try and catch up to the main squadron, increasing flooding and occasionally sinking them.


On that note, what does bulging a ship do? I know in real life they were part of the torpedo protection system, how do they work in game? I noticed after I bulged a CA it lost 3 knots of speed from 31 to 28 and I'm not sure if the nebulous protection is worth the cost.

[gornik]

At admiral difficulty the only way is to slow down whole fleet to at least 10 knots before ship's captain understand that he should go home, at lower levels you may take direct command and slow down detached ship. And try to turn her out of main body to avoid reattaching! (This problem is main reason why I usually play at R-A level)

Bulges seem to be equivalent to 2-3 level torpedo protection, so they worth some speed, at least for me.

[fredsanford]

For detaching damaged ships: Go to the OB tab, and right click on the ship you want to detach (it must have "sufficient" damage to do so), and select the detach option. If the ship is slowed by damage, you can avoid it reattaching by speeding up the rest of the TF. If you play on RA or Capt mode, you can take manual control of the damaged ship and slow it way down.