|
Post by deeznuts on Jun 7, 2019 10:19:12 GMT -6
Legacy cl’s are only good for making up colonial obligations, the first truly viable CL’s I would say come around the 1910’s when you can get them up to 28 knots, at which point they can run from any encounter, but even then only really worth it for colonial commitments, personally I stick to using armoured cruisers for my actual fleet screens
|
|
|
Post by warlock on Jun 7, 2019 13:39:25 GMT -6
Lol it has nothing to do with skill, man. In fact if it has to do with anything, is with the opposite. Lack of skill. Because I've lost far too many ships in the very early stages of technology to torpedo to keep ignoring torpedoes (And their bearers) in the early game . As for AI destroyers making a serious contribution in the early game...well, as you might have guessed by this stage, the bottom of the virtual world oceans have far enough wrecks of my ships for me to say that they're VERY dangerous if you let them close to your big ships . My CLs are tailored for just that: giving a helping hand in keeping them far away from my big ships, and I just decline any kind of night fleet action whenever I know the enemy has strong numbers of DDs. If they happen to appear close to my Predreds I know what comes next... and I've had faaaaaaaaaaaar enough of that Yeah I feel the same way. In fact I feel CLs are invaluable to have at all times in the game. I use them as a hard DD counter in the bigger fleet engagements but they also are very good in the smaller engagements as well. I don't think I ever played a game where I didn't have at least a dozen light cruisers as part of my fleet.
|
|
|
Post by alsadius on Jun 7, 2019 13:44:47 GMT -6
CLs are often a lot like DDs that can actually survive to get to torpedo range, because they can carry armour. And they can be in scout formation, too, as well as countering enemy DDs pretty well. Those are all pretty handy, though you do pay more for the privilege.
|
|
|
Post by mycophobia on Jun 7, 2019 18:45:13 GMT -6
I find old CAs a big liability once they are past their useful life( granted, with good design they can last quite a well). But they quickly become expensive to maintain, dead fish to BC in a fight, and cost-ineffective for foreign stations. They can possibly make decent CVL conversion candidates.
CL are different, early 22-23 knots protected cruises can be retained for colonial duty for a very long time. Faster early CL can have a much longer service life as fleet scouts as well.
|
|
|
Post by ramjb on Jun 7, 2019 20:04:45 GMT -6
Same here. Most CA weapons are far too much for anti-DD work too, you don't want 4x10'' to deal with early 500 tonner DDs... but a CL with eight 6'' and a decent number of smaller 3''s are ideal for the job...and much, much cheaper.
Also, the smaller the ship, the more agile in general in turns,acceleration, etc, which tends to benefit smaller ships for the role.
|
|
|
Post by splashell on Jun 7, 2019 21:04:04 GMT -6
I find old CAs a big liability once they are past their useful life( granted, with good design they can last quite a well). But they quickly become expensive to maintain, dead fish to BC in a fight, and cost-ineffective for foreign stations. They can possibly make decent CVL conversion candidates. CL are different, early 22-23 knots protected cruises can be retained for colonial duty for a very long time. Faster early CL can have a much longer service life as fleet scouts as well. Yeah, like the Blücher at Dogger Bank. It's speed was less than other German or British BC and they ran to a withdrawable encounter = inevitable bad things happen. It was incorporated to supplement Hipper's BC scouting force because it was "relatively" fast and another BC was under repairs. The Germans where under threat of being cut off from their base, )being west of a north-south running blockadable minefield), or at least that is what their commander perceived might happen and thus ran. A few lucky hits can slow down a ship and make it drop out of line. In my game as Germany I converted the old 21-22kt armored cruisers into 12 aircraft 24kt CVLs. Too bad you can't strip the belt armor, 6" is a bit heavy but anyway, their still quite useful in the early-mid stages of air development.
|
|
|
Post by klavohunter on Jun 8, 2019 8:07:08 GMT -6
In my 1920 Germany Versailles start, I am cherishing the surviving 3 legacy CLs I have, even though they are utterly inadequate as combat vessels. I credit one of them with helping me seize the Angola colony a few months after the start of the game, and they helped my desperately-fought early game war with the Soviets. Now they sit and help provide foreign station tonnage, and I happily press Decline Battle on the rare occasion that an enemy (Read: The UK ) wants to fight out by Africa. The museum ship event is unlikely to fire, so I'm keeping them on the fleet rolls as a tribute.
|
|
|
Post by rob06waves2018 on Jun 8, 2019 8:54:20 GMT -6
I like CLs. They don't do much other than sink in the early game but I build them anyway. It's easy to use CLs as colonial gunboats and they can hold their own against everything that can outrun them in the early game. Just don't expect miracles in fleet battles.
In the later game, they're really useful. They are generally very quick and function as an overpowered armoured destroyer. I've sunk multiple 30kt BCs with a pair of 8000t 1924 CLs before the rest of the fleet is even in range.
|
|
|
Post by arminpfano on Jun 8, 2019 10:16:56 GMT -6
I find CLs pretty useless for home areas and battles, I couldn´t find a suitable role for them up to now. I am perfectly happy (and successful) with some capitals (big CAs, then BCs), and a swarm of 500 and 600 ts DDs. So CLs are for fulfilling foreign station tonnage requiry only, because in most wars I am able to block the enemy soon, after one or two decisive battles - so very few cruiser battles happen abroad.
|
|
|
Post by fleet5 on Jun 8, 2019 10:50:10 GMT -6
This split is very interesting to follow.
|
|
|
Post by splashell on Jun 8, 2019 13:10:19 GMT -6
I find CLs pretty useless for home areas and battles, I couldn´t find a suitable role for them up to now. I am perfectly happy (and successful) with some capitals (big CAs, then BCs), and a swarm of 500 and 600 ts DDs. So CLs are for fulfilling foreign station tonnage requiry only, because in most wars I am able to block the enemy soon, after one or two decisive battles - so very few cruiser battles happen abroad. CLs are to support DDs to counter other DDs, scout for the main fleet, raider/anti raider duty, foreign station duty, and to counter other CLs which most likely others will have. In most games I find them probably the most important ship in early game, later in the game their role depends on what other nations do and whether any Washington style treaties take place or not. I usually keep the first models extremely long into the game, packing full of 5" guns and upgrading their speed (as AP develops, speed is their best weapon for outrunning anything they can't overgun as their armor becomes insufficient against everything except DDs mostly), until you get the proper CL configuration. Later in the game you can really pack a punch on them, sometimes get additional 4 x 4 torpedo mounts per one side. Hell of a rain on the enemy battle line or any concentration for that matter.
|
|
|
Post by L0ckAndL0ad on Jun 9, 2019 9:54:11 GMT -6
Has anyone actually tried experimenting with big CLs in 1.03 past 1940? I scrapped all mine during the big war because they were a liability, but now wanted to see if I can make some better ones (with autoloaders). Thing is, in my game, it is 1947, but the CL tonnage limit is still at 10kt, and not 12, like the patchnotes say. Can anyone check that?
I'm getting the impression that I may have installed the patch incorrectly or something, because this is not the first time patchnotes don't align with what happens in the game. Not the first time when patchnotes are just false either, but I gotta know which case is it now. So, can anyone try building CL of 12kt in 1940+ game of 1.03?
|
|
|
Post by dorn on Jun 9, 2019 11:26:59 GMT -6
Has anyone actually tried experimenting with big CLs in 1.03 past 1940? I scrapped all mine during the big war because they were a liability, but now wanted to see if I can make some better ones (with autoloaders). Thing is, in my game, it is 1947, but the CL tonnage limit is still at 10kt, and not 12, like the patchnotes say. Can anyone check that? I'm getting the impression that I may have installed the patch incorrectly or something, because this is not the first time patchnotes don't align with what happens in the game. Not the first time when patchnotes are just false either, but I gotta know which case is it now. So, can anyone try building CL of 12kt in 1940+ game of 1.03? I check it in my 1956 save and it is possible to build CL up to 12000 tons. However there is still warning incorrectly about 10000 tons. Just ignore it.
I am right now in 10s in my playtrough and in my first playthrough as UK I have a lot of CLs between 4800 and 7400 tons. I have even larger 12900 tons considered as CA. I find the smaller cruiser much more better as large cruiser was better but not bring addtional value being more than 2 times more expensive.
|
|
|
Post by arminpfano on Jun 11, 2019 12:48:59 GMT -6
I find CLs pretty useless for home areas and battles, I couldn´t find a suitable role for them up to now. I am perfectly happy (and successful) with some capitals (big CAs, then BCs), and a swarm of 500 and 600 ts DDs. So CLs are for fulfilling foreign station tonnage requiry only, because in most wars I am able to block the enemy soon, after one or two decisive battles - so very few cruiser battles happen abroad. CLs are to support DDs to counter other DDs, scout for the main fleet, raider/anti raider duty, foreign station duty, and to counter other CLs which most likely others will have. In most games I find them probably the most important ship in early game, later in the game their role depends on what other nations do and whether any Washington style treaties take place or not. I usually keep the first models extremely long into the game, packing full of 5" guns and upgrading their speed (as AP develops, speed is their best weapon for outrunning anything they can't overgun as their armor becomes insufficient against everything except DDs mostly), until you get the proper CL configuration. Later in the game you can really pack a punch on them, sometimes get additional 4 x 4 torpedo mounts per one side. Hell of a rain on the enemy battle line or any concentration for that matter. 1) I do not care to counter enemy DDs, they are notoriously bad with torps. 2) Scouts are not necessary, in early game the fleet will meet soon, later on planes are more suitable. 3) I find fast CAs way better to hunt Raider. 4) I rarely use Raiders but Blockade. 5) Upgrading machinery is very expensive (in RTW2 more than in 1 I think), so it seems better to replace ships. 6) Havent tried torpedo CLs yet - thanks for this Idea!
|
|
|
Post by ramjb on Jun 11, 2019 12:55:52 GMT -6
1) I do not care to counter enemy DDs, they are notoriously bad with torps. 2) Scouts are not necessary, in early game the fleet will meet soon, later on planes are more suitable. 3) I find fast CAs way better to hunt Raider. 4) I rarely use Raiders but Blockade. 5) Upgrading machinery is very expensive (in RTW2 more than in 1 I think), so it seems better to replace ships. 6) Havent tried torpedo CLs yet - thanks for this Idea! 1-ohhhh boy sooner or later the game will teach you better 2-Not sure about your experiences, but in mine I've had quite a good deal of encounter battles not happening because the fleets never made contact...and in all of them there was a common denominator - I had no scouting forces. 3/4-well, yes, but CLs are the best raiders themselves. And blockading is not always an option, if you play with smaller nations it's not an option at all 5- unimportant depending on your building approach. Personally I don't upgrade CL machinery. Either they get the needed speed from the get go (by the 30s is perfectly possible to make them fast enough anyway), or they go to the scrappers and I build new ones. 6- haven't tried them yet, but having a CL with a couple triple launchers per side and torpedo reloads....never hurts
|
|