Question- coastal forces

[millsian]

Did I read that coastal forces are treated in abstract way ?

I don’t have RTW1 so apologies if a newbie question

What is the smallest combatant?

A set of wargame rules (GQ) treated an mtb as a slower aircraft limited to one dimensional move interested how you will deal with

[aeson]

Oct 24, 2018 10:25:56 GMT -6 millsian said:

Did I read that coastal forces are treated in abstract way ?

If you're referring to Fredrik W.'s post in the discussion thread, then yes, you did read that coastal/ASW forces are handled abstractly. I cannot speak for how it will be in Rule the Waves 2, but in Rule the Waves all ships assigned to coastal patrol and ASW work are part of a global pool; regardless of where the ships and the submarines actually are, the ships on ASW/CP duty all count towards combating the submarine threat.

MTBs in Rule the Waves are dealt with as flotillas that can be added to a possession in a manner similar to coastal batteries, and add a few 50t ships with three torpedo tubes to battles in the vicinity of the possession. I would guess that they will be handled similarly in Rule the Waves 2.

What is the smallest combatant?

Again, I cannot speak to Rule the Waves 2, but in Rule the Waves the smallest combatants are 200t minesweepers and 'destroyers' (really more of a small torpedo boat or gunboat), or in the late game 50t motor torpedo boats. That said, the lower limit on useful combatants, at least for fleet service, is probably roughly the 500-700t 'destroyer' (still more of a torpedo boat or a gunboat than what we tend to think of as a destroyer). Mind you, the little destroyers have very limited usefulness, and the 900-1500t destroyers are enough better than the 500-700t destroyers that you'd usually need to have a very specific purpose in mind to build one of the little destroyers after the early game period where you don't have the ability to build larger destroyers.

That said, the developer journal thread indicates that at least some of the little ships will be more ephemeral in Rule the Waves 2 than they are in Rule the Waves, which might push the size of the smallest combatants actually built in any reasonable quantity during the game upwards.

[millsian]

Many thanks for the informative answer much appreciated

[director]

I think the smallest combatants are the patrol-torpedo boats you can build for coastal defense after researching the tech. They are associated with a certain port and not controllable by the player.