Thoughts on a German campaign

[theexecuter]

Ive played a lot of USA lately, and while it is fun to spend a large budget...you never really get into serious battles because no one can base a dreadnought fleet on the east coast and blockade you for long.

This means you really only play for cruiser battles, and your epic dreadnoughts never fire a shot.

So, I decided to take a stab at Germany. Plenty of foes in my home area.

Game settings:
Manual build
Game resources
Very large fleets

Initial fleet composition ratio:
2:1:2:4:4
B:CA:CL:DD:MS

I don't find destroyers useful until you get destroyer screens. Once that happens I'll double my destroyer force.

Cruisers spread equally across my regions with bases for maritime protection. Some destroyers as well. All battleships based in home waters.

I have spent a significant amount of money improving the bases in my biggest colonies, with the exception of northern Asia. Japan / Russia can always out base me here and I don't see much benefit to trying to take colonies there.

6 in batteries installed in south Asia and north asia.

Pretty typical predreadnought designs 11 in guns, 24 six inch guns...adequate armor.

CAs have four ten inch guns and sixteen six inch guns, with 25 knot speed and 5in belt, 1 in deck armor.

CLs have 12 six inch guns (single turrets) and 2 in belt and 2 in deck armor. 23 knots. Long range (for raiding).

DDs have three 3 in guns and two torpedo launchers.

All in all pretty standard stuff. Managed to get into a war with Russia in 1905...so still predreadnoughts predominantly and only slightly improved DDs coming out 4! Three in guns...

Early fleet battles are an exercise in chicken.

You know you are taking damage inexorably...but how much are you dealing out? Its hard to do anything fancy since signal errors are so common. You would think that there would be decisions to be made all the time...but not really.

You deploy so as to maximize your firepower and fire control. Changes screw that up, so once deployed you are committed. You watch the reports come in and fret about how much damage you are taking and wonder...should I do something about it? Will I miss my opportunity to get one of his battleships out there in the haze? If I change course, what will that do to my firecontrol?

Best to keep on. That battleship will catch up or limp back to port. The battle doesn't seem to be going too badly, and I trust my men are better trained than that Russian rabble...I hope. Damn, Preussen took another hard hit. That lead Russian ship has taken half a dozen hits in the last 10 minutes. Looks likes she's on fire? Ok, we stay the course.

Etc. Etc.

In my last battle, my lead battleship had her rudder jam amidships, and thus my whole battle line was locked onto the committed course. The range dropped to a few thousand yards. Absolute carnage as everyone's mains and secondaries were hitting. The Russians blinked first and fled the field, leaving one hulk which foundered after dark.

This is much different than a cruiser battle...and awesome, IMO.

I've got to head to bed as I have work tomorrow. Will update this thread with more detail about the game later.

Feel free to ask questions.

[zardoz]

I played a lo of campaigns with Germany. I start in most cases with 4 Bs and have a cheap class with 10 inch guns, one with 11 inch guns and one with 10 inchguns capable of service abroad. I started also with 10 inch CAs but in my opinion they are not worth the high costs. I have now a class with 9 inch guns and ac lass with 8 inch guns. I will test smaller CAs instead of the 8incher for service abroad.

Concernign lioght cruisers I set up a class of heavy armed and amoured CLs for combat purpose in the North sea with 6 inch guns, a a lighter version with 4 inch guns to garrison the colonies and a 2.100 t cruiser as pure raider.

By increasing this core force I am able to quickly blockade F, R and also Italy.

I never buy coastal batteries and rarely increase bases. I rely on capturing additonal ports in wars.

[theexecuter]

Oct 12, 2016 0:53:58 GMT -6 zardoz said:

I played a lo of campaigns with Germany. I start in most cases with 4 Bs and have a cheap class with 10 inch guns, one with 11 inch guns and one with 10 inchguns capable of service abroad. I started also with 10 inch CAs but in my opinion they are not worth the high costs. I have now a class with 9 inch guns and ac lass with 8 inch guns. I will test smaller CAs instead of the 8incher for service abroad.

Concernign lioght cruisers I set up a class of heavy armed and amoured CLs for combat purpose in the North sea with 6 inch guns, a a lighter version with 4 inch guns to garrison the colonies and a 2.100 t cruiser as pure raider.

By increasing this core force I am able to quickly blockade F, R and also Italy.

I never buy coastal batteries and rarely increase bases. I rely on capturing additonal ports in wars.

Considering that this is very large fleets I had 9 battleships at game start, and 14 by the time the war with Russia began. I'm also not playing historical resources, so cost is less of an issue.

This means I had roughly 10 battleships, five armored cruisers, 10 light cruisers, 20 destroyers and 20 minesweepers by 1901.

I really have no need of adopting a quantity over quality strategy.

Regarding cruisers, the high cost early on is driven by speed, not armament. Also, its cheaper not to lose ships...IMO. A bit of upfront investment more than pays off in the certainty of survival and of knowing that your enemy raider problem can be solved. No raider can possibly provide its number of victory points in merchant losses. Once your small, cheap raider is found by a hunter...you lose, permanently.

I see no reason to use smaller ships in the colonies. I just send my older cruisers there. Intentionally designing poor ships just leads to them being sunk, IMO. Besides, on very large fleets, you don't have enough initial base capacity in the german colonies to handle splitting cruiser types into specialties (and your captains don't recognize specialization anyway!). Far better to design ships that will be successful at what your captains will use them for then to try to manage everything from the top down. My early light cruisers are therefore survivable raiders (can take on anything but a big CA), with sufficient speed to act as screens for my battle line. Anything else in the early game I find to be a VP drain.

Basing:
I never base units in a zone in which I do not have a base. This is 1900, not 1944. We do not have practical underweigh replenishment. If you need to wage trade war against an enemy you can't reach...build Subs and AMCs. You won't lose as much through hunters and internments.

I like to have superior base capability to any enemy in a zone in which I have a colony. This allows me to bring more offensive force than anyone else to an area if I want to invade and seize colonies. It increases my strategic flexibility and improves the certainty of offensive success. It also means I can base sufficient forces to prevent any invasion of my colonies should I choose to do so. Base infrastructure is foundational to your ability to project power to that area of the globe. Neglect it, and your few little colonial cruisers will be overwhelmed by my squadron of battleships and support vessels.

[zardoz]

I play soley with historic resources.This makes a big difference between your and my approach.

 I start with 4 Bs, 2 cheap one, 1 11 incher, those all short ranged and cramped and 1 10 incher capable of service abroad. I have 2 9 inch CAs, one 8 inch CA, 1 or 2 CLs for service in the Nort sea (short ranged, cramped, 3 inch belt, 8x6 inch guns, 23 kn) and some CLs for abroad, typically a garrison cruiser for the colonies (10x 4 inch, 22 kn) and some raiders (2.100 t, 23 kn). The force is completed with some DDs and MS.

I augment than the force to a core force of 8-12 Bs, 4-5 CA till 1902-1904. Normally I create in this pase also a new B class with 11 incher and medium range for offensive actions abroad.

This force is normally large enough to blockade R, F, I and also J.

[ccip]

Last time I played a German campaign, I made the mistake of deciding to go for a rapid modernization after the 10-year point - which meant I scrapped a large part of my obsolete ships instead of doing rebuilds, and before most of the new dreadnoughts were finished. And this just happened to coincide with the French blowing up one of my ships at anchor and me having to go to war!

The problem was that in the interim, I was short of tonnage/ship numbers... which meant most of my colonies were left unprotected, and I was instantly under blockade from the French fleet. So, for almost a full year of the war, I was bleeding victory points - but held out for my new ships to come into commission. And then, just as I was poised to break out of the blockade and had a great opportunity with 2 of my new battlecruisers and a good-quality AC going against 2 of the enemy's slightly inferior BCs... I had an unlucky shell blow up my newest and most expensive BC, which totally destroyed that battle plan, cost me a massive VP penalty, put the French back on blockade - and started a vicious cycle of unrest and mutinies. Worse, they were by now invading my colonies with impunity. Took a few more months before the government collapsed in revolution and I decided to retire

Moral of the story: do what you need to, but make sure you've at least got your two main continental rivals (France and Russia) checked in Northern Europe, with numbers over quality if you have to. Britain is a separate case, but you really don't want to leave anything to chance with those other two!

[zardoz]

Yes, I have always a look on the almanach to check what the others do with their Bs. I keep the ocean-going ships longer and scrap the cheap 10 incher when the other nations have BCs or BBs. Then, they are only cannon fodder and deliver VPs to the AI.

To rely on few high quality ships causes also the problem you mentioned. Nevertheless, that approach is challenging and very exciting. I got a career with 84 prestige point till 1925 with the "high quality" strategy but I was very near to defeat bcause I was in the beginning in a war against F and R.

[ccip]

I think Germany is also interesting because at the start of the game it doesn't have any decisive advantages - you don't start out with a fleet big enough to outright beat France or Russia, though if you build yours smart you'll be able to avert blockade. Blockade and cruiser fights are more important in the first 10 years than later, because in all other ways points will be hard to come by until long-range gunnery ave torpedoes become more lethal. But before that happens, I tend to go for quantity in battleships (mainly for blockade/counter-blockade purposes) and reasonable quality in cruisers (mainly to go after other cruisers).

I find France to be the more dangerous early opponent, because they have a lot of colonies and can (and often do) spread out their fleet to start invading your possessions, but as with my last example, they can also blockade you if you're not careful. Russians tend to concentrate in Northern Europe, and you can at least mostly predict that you'll be fighting them over the Baltic (the only invasion I've seen then go for is Tsingtau). Both will annoy you with raiders. The French, with all their foreign bases, seem to have more cruisers in more places; while the Russians start out with smaller numbers of some of the biggest cruisers in the early game. It helps if you've got ships that can deal with them. For the first 10 years as Germany, I'd try to first make sure that neither Russia nor France are going to blockade you, then try and pick fights with one or the other (but not both at the same time!) to wear them down and boost your own prestige and budget. You may choose early on whether to focus on trying to blockade them yourself (in which case you may prioritize shorter-range Bs for home service) or take on their cruisers on the high seas (in which case you probably want to build more 6in CLs and a couple of strong, fast CAs). I do like the "colonial 10in battleship" idea too - can't say I tried that though! Personally, I would just try to spend the first 10 years or so focusing on balance of power in Northern Europe, which means beating up France and/or Russia, taking away some of their colonies if you can, and avoiding conflicts with powers outside the region - and with historical resources, I wouldn't even dare to take on Britain at this stage and avoid them at all costs. Granted, a fleet focused mainly on becoming the 2nd strongest in the home region probably makes for better chances in case you have an early problem with Britain anyway. But I don't think I've ever won a war against Britain as Germany in early game, or successfully blockaded an outside power. I do try to defend and expand Tsingtau as a base in case I decide to fight Japan or Russia in the Far East - though admittedly the best way to get a strong foothold there is win a big victory against Russians and force them to give you Port Arthur. If I want a foothold in the Med, I usually go by way of taking over some French possessions there first.

The only time it pays to play pacifist as Germany in early game is if you're trying to lower tensions with Britain (again, assuming historical resources here) - otherwise, beating up one or both of your continental neighbours is what I would try to do. Then as the dreadnought age proper starts rolling in and you get deadlier guns and torpedoes, I'd start focusing on quality (but without putting yourself into situation where you're blockade fodder for Russia or France!) German ships will have a bit of an edge in survivability, so I find that in the 1910s if I play my cards right, I often have the best (even if far from the biggest) fleets of BBs/BCs and can throw my weight around. And it's in this mid-game phase that I try to make my fame - going after quick, decisive victories, inflicting more losses on the enemy than they do on you. It's always a bit of a gamble, but it's a fun game for Germany at this stage if you've set yourself up well - at historical resources you're not going to be a superpower here, but your odds are as good as they'll get.

Then towards late game tech differences start to even out, big accurate guns and long-range torpedoes torpedoes cancel out any significant perks from better protection and damage control, and I tend to play it careful, especially if Britain or the US are involved.

So usually a Germany game for me is in three phases:
1) 1900-1910: Continental struggle - slow wars against Russia and France, win through blockade and cruiser battles, earn budget and force them to give up colonies
2) 1910-1920: Golden age of the Kaiser's Fleet - anything goes! Build a reasonably-sized fleet of good quality ships, use their superior toughness to win epic victories against similar-sized forces. Score prestige and colonies, take bold risks - if you're ever going to, now is the time, anyway...
3) 1920+ : The late days - consolidate your gains and avoid losing what you've earned. Wars are very deadly and costly now; can't rely on superior toughness anymore, so only fight where you have a clear advantage by the numbers. Avoid careless gambles, blockade or invade, finish off your weakest opponents, retire a hero!