Long range battlefleets? Effective raider placement?

[snwh]

So I finished my current game, and near the end I got into a total war with france. well, I was beating them pretty well, so that was good and all. But in the end, they decided to hide in their home waters with most of their fleet. I was able to take possessions in asia (I was playing as japan) but I wasn't really able to close out the war. I was planning on resorting to mass submarine warfare, but then GB joined, it was a hard fought battle, but I eventually was able to hash out a peace deal with them.

Anyway, it got me thinking about two things. one would be a long range battlefleet, as one of the powers disconnected from europe. it would be useful to be able to operate in theaters where I don't have much basing. Towards the end, I had really wanted to go blockade france, but I didn't want to risk ships by going into a battle in a zone that was completely overbased.

Is this just not an option for powers like japan? Or would a long range, reliable battlefleet actually be a useful too? I'd like to hear thoughts. You'd certainly be losing a lot of tonnage, but in mid game, when you would be building this sort of thing, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.


the other thing I wanted to ask, is if there is an optimal seazone to stick raiders. like.. the enemies home waters? places he has territories in? but I've had raiders sink my merchants in seazones i don't control. So could the correct route be just to spread out your raiders as much as possible?

[bobcarrierguy]

First, sea zone matters for Raiders. Raiders are going to find the most targets in the "home zone"  of your enemy. In my current game, as the USA, I went to war with Germany so I placed my Raiders in the Northern Europe zone. I devastated his economy and forced a favorable peace even though the VPs were not in my favor. The above being said you can find enemy merchants in any zone, but you are more likely, it seems to me and from my experience, to find them in his home waters and were his colonies are.

As for a long range battlefleet, I think it would be a lot to spend on Raiders. You are probably better off sending a few strong Raiders into the area instead of an entire fleet. One of the problems I also see is the example you have of playing Japan. So you build this fleet with long or extreme range. This takes tonnage, tonnage your enemy does not need to spend. This means your ships have the potential of being out gunned/out armored, so unless you have a strong technological advantage on the ships they would loose in a straight up fight.

[dorn]

You can try aliance with some European power.

If you have much large fleet, you can try blockade them end except higher losses.

[scheerpower]

I would consider a long-range battlefleet - I put long range on all my CAs, CLs and BCs. Would probably be worth considering on CVs and CVLs too so a long-range force could tangle with enemy BBs.

Overall I find the idea of a longer-range force appealing. Sure, it costs a bit of tonnage, but not too much in my experience, and straight tonnage is cheap. The ability to sail a whole fleet over and take the fight to the enemy has a lot of appeal. You can have the most efficient ships in the world, but they’ll be completely useless if they can’t reach the enemy.

[snwh]

May 25, 2019 11:37:24 GMT -6 scheerpower said:

I would consider a long-range battlefleet - I put long range on all my CAs, CLs and BCs. Would probably be worth considering on CVs and CVLs too so a long-range force could tangle with enemy BBs.

Overall I find the idea of a longer-range force appealing. Sure, it costs a bit of tonnage, but not too much in my experience, and straight tonnage is cheap. The ability to sail a whole fleet over and take the fight to the enemy has a lot of appeal. You can have the most efficient ships in the world, but they’ll be completely useless if they can’t reach the enemy.

it really is a fun idea isn't it? And i agree, once you get past early game, tonnage is pretty cheap. Not to mention that a larger ship is going to have better flotation, and more room for AA

About the only thing i would be worried about are CL's and DD's, which i usually find myself low on tonnage for. Tho it could be made up by sacrificing say, asw gear or floatplanes.

There's also the option of having two seperate classes. One for the expeditionary force, and one for waters closer to home.

In the end, it would probably be easier to get basing from an ally, but thats not always an option. But it is something ill think about next time an alliance comes up, not just how many ships they have.