Help needed after hiatus

[seabass]

I seem to have forgotten how (or it's changed) several key things work. Note I am only into 1908.

1) Despite outnumbering my opponent in every ship type (except corvettes and AMC) I get 80% destroyer missions - legit except the enemy ALWAYS has cruisers and me destroyers despite the fact I out number him on cruisers. I can fix this by putting all my destroyers on trade protection but is this WAD now?

2) How to I get enemy merchant ships? Despite having more CA and CLs than the enemy in both my wars and putting have of them on raiding, they have gotten 1 merchantman while my enemy gets on average 4/turn in over 35 months of warring. Same with submarines: in my second war I have 20 on patrol and Italy has one - we each average 1 every other turn despite me doubling the required ships on trade protection. Is the problem I don't know how to stop this? Do I put CAs and CLs into trade protection or into AF in the zones? Please help me get any merchantmen and prevent the enemy from slaughtering mine

[axe99]

Hey Seabass I'm also coming back after a hiatus. I can't help with the first one (sounds like bad luck more than anything), but with the second, I find putting my CAs and CLs onto TP in the zones cuts down their raiding effectiveness (and also greatly increase the chance of intercepting their raiders as well). Best of luck, and enjoy

[seabass]

As in I can put ships in trade protection in other zones?

[hawkeye]

Jan 1, 2021 14:28:16 GMT -6 seabass said:

I seem to have forgotten how (or it's changed) several key things work. Note I am only into 1908.

1) Despite outnumbering my opponent in every ship type (except corvettes and AMC) I get 80% destroyer missions - legit except the enemy ALWAYS has cruisers and me destroyers despite the fact I out number him on cruisers. I can fix this by putting all my destroyers on trade protection but is this WAD now?

2) How to I get enemy merchant ships? Despite having more CA and CLs than the enemy in both my wars and putting have of them on raiding, they have gotten 1 merchantman while my enemy gets on average 4/turn in over 35 months of warring. Same with submarines: in my second war I have 20 on patrol and Italy has one - we each average 1 every other turn despite me doubling the required ships on trade protection. Is the problem I don't know how to stop this? Do I put CAs and CLs into trade protection or into AF in the zones? Please help me get any merchantmen and prevent the enemy from slaughtering mine

Yeah, 1) is really, REALLY annoying (I don't get destroyer engagement _that_ often, but I genuinely despise them). I'm not aware of a way to avoid getting them (and believe me, I have tried everything I could think of).
Putting all your DDs on TP is a bad idea, btw.
Behind the scenes (i.e. while the game is calculating the turn), those ships serve as escorts. If you have enough of them on AF, they will be the ones that take torps from enemy subs or hit mines. Without them, your cruisers and capital ships will be the ones hit.

2) When you blockade the enemy, your raiders (and subs) will hardly sink any merchantman - I mean, it makes kinda sense, you are blockading them, so there won't be a lot of merchants on the sea for you to sink.
Basically, what I'm saying is: Put your raiding cruisers where the enemy is raiding and put them on TP there. You might also try putting your subs on fleet support, which increases their chance to torp enemy warships.
To stop enemy raiders, have cruisers on trade protection. Those cruisers have to be in the sea-zones, the enemy is raiding - it still won't get rid of the enemy raiders fast, but help with protecting your trade quite a bit (you'll get a plenty of "cruiser XYZ prevents enemy raider ABC from...." messages).

[jwsmith26]

Jan 1, 2021 14:28:16 GMT -6 seabass said:

I seem to have forgotten how (or it's changed) several key things work. Note I am only into 1908.

1) Despite outnumbering my opponent in every ship type (except corvettes and AMC) I get 80% destroyer missions - legit except the enemy ALWAYS has cruisers and me destroyers despite the fact I out number him on cruisers. I can fix this by putting all my destroyers on trade protection but is this WAD now?

The bolded section may be your problem. The AI is generally reluctant to engage with your larger ships if your ships outnumber the AI ships of the same type. To encourage engagements you might want to consider sending your excess heavy ships out of the region, or mothball them, to bring your strength closer to that of the enemy in the region in which you want an engagement. You can win evenly matched battles (or even battles where you are overmatched) because you're smarter than the AI, but you can't win a battle if the enemy won't even come out to fight.

[JagdFlanker]

i used to hate Destroyer engagements but i'v been handing over control of my fleet to the ai recently to see how it handles it in different situations and it tackles DD battles just fine - check the FA box to resolve the battle fast and you can "get on with your game" lol

[seabass]

Excellent answers and help all!!! 

Not understanding what you mean by "FA button"?

[JagdFlanker]

Jan 3, 2021 17:26:25 GMT -6 seabass said:

Excellent answers and help all!!! 

Not understanding what you mean by "FA button"?

in the battle screen at the top right beside 'Game Speed' there's a checkbox - it keeps the time going at max speed through the entire battle

[seabass]

Turns out after I updated my registration number I went back to 1.00.... THANK YOU for helping!!!!