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Post by hawkeye on Apr 4, 2021 7:53:36 GMT -6
This isn't going to make me any friends, but my advice to that would be just don't play on Rear Admiral's mode. I know, I know, but truthfully - between such lovely features as my best battlecruisers constantly being stuck uselessly escorting my carriers while my oldest battlecruisers are getting torn up by the enemy's, ships staunchly refusing to slow down to deal with fires or flooding, and the "detach and return to port" prompt literally being a lie (all it actually does is set the detached ship to independent, which does not mean "return home", but rather "wander around aimlessly, often straight into the entire enemy fleet"), I just find Rear Admiral's mode too frustrating to be worth it, quite frankly. ^^; Agreed. I started with playing in Rear Admiral mode (obviously, since it's the default setting) and was kinda happy with it. The issues you list made me reconsider this but the straw that broke the camel's back was when I got my first surprise attack as Japan - oh the horror! Have been playing in captain's mode ever since and am not going to go back. I can still put everything I don't want to control directly on AI control but I can also control everything manually if I want to.
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Post by captaintrek on Apr 4, 2021 8:03:57 GMT -6
I'll admit the only time I've done a surprise attack was in Captain's mode. What happens in a Rear Admiral surprise attack?
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Post by palpatine on Apr 4, 2021 8:33:40 GMT -6
I am actually playing at admiral, the highest one (I was sold on the "realism" thing).
What happens on surprise attack? On my Japan try, the destroyers were hours away from the main force and went for the port. The steamed back & forth and only two may have fired a torpedo. It was most anti-climatic... Then the Russians steamed up and left before my main force could arrive.
I guess I will switch to captain.
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Post by hawkeye on Apr 4, 2021 14:08:12 GMT -6
I'll admit the only time I've done a surprise attack was in Captain's mode. What happens in a Rear Admiral surprise attack? It's been a while ago, so my memory is a little bit fuzzy, but I had between 12 and 18 DDs rushing in, torping a merchantman and a DD or KE at the entrance of the harbor and spend the rest of their time circling around those two ships because every time they got close to the capital ships in the harbor itself, some secondaies shot at them and they got afraid and went back. I was getting so furious at the lack of "Spirit of the Samurai" in those crews that, if the game would've provided me the mechanics, I would have the entire bunch executed on the spot. As it was, I just ended the game without saving, switched on Captains mode and sunk the entire Russian fleet at Port Arthur with manual control.
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Post by captaintrek on Apr 11, 2021 9:22:44 GMT -6
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Post by jwsmith26 on Apr 11, 2021 10:16:46 GMT -6
Select the OB tab, right-click on "Friendly Main force" and then select "Status".
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Post by vonfriedman on Apr 12, 2021 8:16:14 GMT -6
I am actually playing at admiral, the highest one (I was sold on the "realism" thing). What happens on surprise attack? On my Japan try, the destroyers were hours away from the main force and went for the port. The steamed back & forth and only two may have fired a torpedo. It was most anti-climatic... Then the Russians steamed up and left before my main force could arrive. I guess I will switch to captain. It would be useful to be able to control in captain mode only the ships strictly necessary for a success of the mission (eg the DDs in a surprise attack) without having to operate a micromanagement of the entire fleet.
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Post by aeson on Apr 12, 2021 8:38:00 GMT -6
It would be useful to be able to control in captain mode only the ships strictly necessary for a success of the mission (eg the DDs in a surprise attack) without having to operate a micromanagement of the entire fleet. Even in Captain's Mode, you can set subordinate divisions which you do not wish to control to AI; I believe there is also a setting in Preferences to have subordinate divisions default to AI controlled.
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Post by palpatine on Apr 13, 2021 2:28:04 GMT -6
It would be useful to be able to control in captain mode only the ships strictly necessary for a success of the mission (eg the DDs in a surprise attack) without having to operate a micromanagement of the entire fleet. Even in Captain's Mode, you can set subordinate divisions which you do not wish to control to AI; That's exactly what I do in most battles, now that I am playing captain's mode : direct control of the main battle line and the rest under the AI. Except when there is an opportunity for torpedoe strike as the AI destroyers are quite shy and easily scared.
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Post by palpatine on Apr 19, 2021 8:56:29 GMT -6
Hello Guys,
Playing now up to the BB era, mid 1915. I see some design on the AI side with really big guns (15"). Is it viable to choose to stick to lesser calibre? My own tech won't allow me such ships in a reasonnable tonnage and price.
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Post by aeson on Apr 19, 2021 10:42:40 GMT -6
Yes, sticking with lighter guns can be viable. I will however comment that sticking with lighter guns will not necessarily keep costs down very much, if at all - since you're designing against ships armed with 15" guns, you probably want your ships to be protected against 15" guns rather than against whatever lighter gun your own ships may be carrying, and since lighter guns tend to have worse armor penetration you'll probably want to design your armor scheme for a shorter-range engagement and your ships for higher speeds than would be the case were your ships armed with heavier guns as you will probably want to be able to force engagements to occur at shorter ranges where your relatively light guns will be effective against the armor on your opponents rather than at longer ranges where your guns will be relatively ineffective.
Additionally, as you can expect less damage per hit by a relatively light gun than by a relatively heavy gun as a result of the lower penetration chances and smaller bursting charges of the lighter shells, you may want to compensate for this by carrying more guns and possibly also more ammunition per gun when you design a ship using relatively light guns than you would carry had your design used a heavier gun, which cuts into any weight savings you may gain through the use of a lighter gun. For example, using weight-of-broadside as a firepower metric, three designs with similar 'firepower:' 12x12" ~= 7.5x14" ~= 5x16" and 6x16" ~= 9x14" ~14x12" by volume-approximated weight-of-broadside. The 16" design carries the fewest and heaviest guns of the three designs, is the most capable of defeating the armor protection on the three ships, and is both smaller and cheaper than either of the designs using lighter guns despite having the most firepower by weight-of-broadside and all three ships having similar absolute armor protection.
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Post by palpatine on Apr 19, 2021 11:49:53 GMT -6
Thanks! I must say I didnt expect such a precise answer. Another one : how to keep up with the AI, budget wise? They seem to get very high budget and I am struggling, even with a power such as France. I understand being limited as the CSA or Japan or Austria... But I barely keep up with Italy!
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Post by jwsmith26 on Apr 19, 2021 13:51:02 GMT -6
Hello Guys, Playing now up to the BB era, mid 1915. I see some design on the AI side with really big guns (15"). Is it viable to choose to stick to lesser calibre? My own tech won't allow me such ships in a reasonnable tonnage and price. You probably want to devote some thought to keeping your battle line consistent. Your capital ships will be more effective if they share a common armament and speed. Speed is obvious. A battle line will be limited to the speed of its slowest member. Consistency of speed means your ships will operate better as a unit. Building a battleship with a faster speed is potentially wasteful if that ship is destined for the battle line. If adding heavier guns to a design means that ship has to accept a slower speed than the other ships in your line, then those big guns may not be much of a bargain. Consistency in your battleship's main gun size and armor are less important but should be considered. If you are trying to optimize your fleet to fight at a specific distance from the enemy, adding ships that use a different size gun, especially a smaller gun, can make that difficult. Keeping a consistent level of armor protection is not as important, unless it is substantially different (as in early BCs). Personally, my first priority when building battleships is to settle on a speed for my battle line and then build every battleship to match that speed. As long as I can achieve that speed, the other characteristics in a battleship can vary quite a bit. For instance, even if it breaks the consistency of the ideal engagement range, I generally try to use the heaviest guns available to me, as long as I can maintain battleline speed. Of course, technology marches on and you don't want to be left behind. At some point you will have to make a break with your old battleline parameters and establish a new set. A 19 or 20 knot battleline is not going to cut it in 1935, nor will a 13" gun, but you can't wait until 1935 to make that decision. If you want a faster, better armed battle line in 1935, you are going to need to build ships to a new standard beginning in the 20s. It is almost a certainty that your building efforts will create a mismatched battle line, but it is worth the effort to keep as much consistency as possible. The reality is that technology advances so quickly that building a consistent battle line can be quite difficult, especially if you are playing a poorer nation or playing with a smaller fleet size, where you struggle to build more than one or two capital ships at a time.
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Post by palpatine on Apr 20, 2021 0:50:10 GMT -6
Most insightfull, thanks.
I indeed struggle with the pre-BB/BB transition for now... It usually happens around the first war when I can't really spare money and have some difficulties building even one BB or BC whereas the AI just print them out like there is no tomorrow.
Other questions: - How not to get left behind with the budget? Even with sizeable powers such as France I struggle and lower rank countries such as Italy have better numbers than me. Am I too... cautious with the tension events?
- Is there a point to build CA when BC are around? Doctrinaly-wise, should such ships be built and how to use them?
Thanks!
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Post by t3rm1dor on Apr 26, 2021 16:34:31 GMT -6
Most insightfull, thanks. I indeed struggle with the pre-BB/BB transition for now... It usually happens around the first war when I can't really spare money and have some difficulties building even one BB or BC whereas the AI just print them out like there is no tomorrow. Other questions: - How not to get left behind with the budget? Even with sizeable powers such as France I struggle and lower rank countries such as Italy have better numbers than me. Am I too... cautious with the tension events? - Is there a point to build CA when BC are around? Doctrinaly-wise, should such ships be built and how to use them? Thanks! If you don't intend to use the navy in the next month, put it on reserve, or better yet, mothball half of it. Active ships consume a lot of resources and I suspect it is what makes you go under Italy in ship capacity. Tension managment also matters, but you can usually trade prestige for resources if needed (increase tension for budget and then lower it thought prestige). I prefer to stay around yellow level to not get the low tension reduction, but AFAIK Ai budget is related mostly to the tension level. Also early wars can be a good source of resources, so sometimes is crucial to figth them. As for CA, I build a few when BC start becoming to expensive. Under treaty conditions they are also not bad buy. An I had games where after aircraft become dominant I stopped building capitals all together and went for CA for the carrier support. As most things in this game, it depends on the situation.
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