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Post by mikewatty on Mar 11, 2021 11:39:51 GMT -6
Recently purchased game and am really quite enjoying it, but have a few small questions if someone has a moment or two to clarify for me.
- I have started a game as Austria-Hungary, given their small budget is this considered a challenging start? I simply chose them so I had less to manage and could learn slowly?
-How do you stop other nations from invading you when at war? Do they first have to Blockade you for an invasion to occur?
-Should I be building coastal batteries? What do they do other than protect shore lines? Do they play a role in hindering invasions?
-If I am blockaded, do I just need to destroy enough of their ships so I have a higher ratio in that selected sea zone? Does this stop the Blockade?
-How do I invade?
-What role do Corvettes play? I put them on trade protection, but have no idea if that was the right call?? I was mostly concerned about their subs, but was not clear on if my corvettes did anything ASW wise?
-How do I lay mines?
-What does improving base do? I click it , but have no idea what it does?
That is probably enough for now. Any help would be appreciated.
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Post by director on Mar 11, 2021 11:57:45 GMT -6
Austria is indeed a challenging start. I recommend the US: their big budget and relative isolation makes for a very forgiving experience. Personally, I quite enjoy playing Germany since they can build a pretty good-sized fleet. And Japan, though very poor, is far enough away from the European powers that they can usually hold their own.
To mount an invasion you (or the AI) must have naval superiority and pay the cost. The region you (or the AI) want to invade must be within the invasion range - there's a button on the map to show that.
I build some coastal batteries in places like the Philippines. They do help slow down invasion - you may get a popup saying the batteries are contesting the enemy troops. But the only sure way to stop an invasion is to put naval assets in that sea zone and win missions against the enemy.
Blockade depends completely on a navy having a modest advantage in power over its opponent. Ships have different blockade values, with BBs worth more than Bs and so down to DDs. Blockades only happen in home areas - so for example you cannot blockade West Africa no matter how many ships you send there. If you sink enough enemy warships or somehow get them to move ships to other sea zones then the blockade stops.
On the strategic map, click the enemy flag on a possession, then in the popup box click on 'Invasion target'. You'll be told if the possession is in range, and a cost will be shown (main page - Target and Cost boxes). Try not to weep when you see the price... it may take several months before your invasion gets going, and then it may be delayed by weather or halted if you are blockaded. Then there will be a mission for you to shepherd the invasion convoy to shore, and probably several missions after that whose success or failure will help determine if your invasion succeeds.
Corvettes are suited for minesweeping and anti-submarine work (and better suited for the latter after you discover depth charges, K-guns and the like). All ships have an ASW value in your ship listing - you can check there. Generally speaking you want two or three times as many ships on TP as are required. You can use cruisers and even armed merchant cruisers.
You do not lay mines, you equip your ships for minelaying and they do it automatically and randomly.
Improving a base... at the start of the game, improving a base increases the tonnage of ships that you can support in that sea zone (check the Map tab). You may also build fortifications and, later, airship or airplane bases. Given how large your Home Area is, you probably won't need to add any capability there, so for Austria you would not want to spend money improving bases in the Mediterranean, but might want to improve a base in, say, the Indian Ocean.
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Post by hawkeye on Mar 11, 2021 14:38:14 GMT -6
One little addition with re. to corvettes. They can also make cheap ships to fulfill your foreign station requirements (when you have colonies outside you home area, you might be forced to have a naval presence there (showing the flag, supporting the governor, that kind of thing).
A 1600 ton corvette with the colonial service checkbox ticked counts as a 2000 ton ship for foreign station requirements and can be build really cheap (if you put them on trade protection during war, they will rarely be pulled into a fight but if they _do_ get pulled into one, they will die no matter what anyway, so putting armor or lots of guns on them or making them fast is not worth it)
Oh, and one more thing. Be careful with ticking the "minesweeper" check-box, as this halves the ship's ASW rating (basically, the ship spends half the time on sweeping mines and half the time on hunting subs).
Finally, 900 tons is the minimum size for a ship to mount 4 K-Guns, so if you want to build dedicated ASW ships, 900 ton KEs are the way to go.
Personally, I build a ton of 600 ton minesweepers and 1600 ton colonial KEs for my legacy fleet and later on build tons of 900 ton sub-hunters (all capable of 17 knots as speed is not of the essence for them).
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Post by wlbjork on Mar 11, 2021 22:27:35 GMT -6
A few points to make: Coastal batteries have multiple roles. They may occasionally spawn in the correct location to harass enemy shipping. More usefully, they're items the enemy has to account for in their invasion plans, which can result in at least one month's delay. Even once the enemy has successfully landed, they provide strong points and troops that can hold the enemy up. For KEs, the following points have been made: Fast ships have a better chance of catching a target. Granted, we don't know if submarines have a speed rating or not - but can you take the chance? KEs with more/larger guns seem to perform better in gunnery duels against submarines. Finally, a well handled and well armed KE can take down a convoy: Attachments:
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Post by mikewatty on Mar 12, 2021 8:48:23 GMT -6
This is all amazing. Thank you!!!
One last question for now. When you are in a battle , I see what looks like a sub marker and it might say SSCu34 or something like it. What does that marker mean?
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Post by aeson on Mar 12, 2021 8:50:23 GMT -6
It means that one of your submarines is at that position and may report or, less likely, torpedo enemy ships which pass nearby.
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Post by sittingduck on Mar 12, 2021 13:52:47 GMT -6
It means that one of your submarines is at that position and may report or, less likely, torpedo enemy ships which pass nearby. (As an aside - I have, in only one instance, seen a message during a battle where one of my own destroyers has attacked a sub and then an after battle notification that my sub displayed on that map was sunk!!!)
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