Baltic Sea and other issues

[vonfriedman]

Having fought, as the US, a disappointing war against Germany (see my AAR in its thread) I would suggest the following.
1) The Baltic Sea should become a theater of operations reserved only for possible wars between Russia and Germany, as historically confirmed ("Jackie" Fisher's Baltic Plan was a dream and would have become a nightmare after the advent of air power).
2) Before a battle, in addition to information on the presumed strength of the enemy, a forecast about the weather conditions should also be provided.
3) More space should be given to air power in trade protection duties (e.g. foresee some battles between escort / light a/c carriers with a few DDs against raiding CAs)
Finally, I would like to point out that also in my experience KEs suffer disproportionate losses compared to old or new small DDs used in ASW duties.

[oldpop2000]

Jun 9, 2021 9:26:57 GMT -6 vonfriedman said:

Having fought, as the US, a disappointing war against Germany (see my AAR in its thread) I would suggest the following.
1) The Baltic Sea should become a theater of operations reserved only for possible wars between Russia and Germany, as historically confirmed ("Jackie" Fisher's Baltic Plan was a dream and would have become a nightmare after the advent of air power).
2) Before a battle, in addition to information on the presumed strength of the enemy, a forecast about the weather conditions should also be provided.
3) More space should be given to air power in trade protection duties (e.g. foresee some battles between escort / light a/c carriers with a few DDs against raiding CAs)
Finally, I would like to point out that also in my experience KEs suffer disproportionate losses compared to old or new small DDs used in ASW duties.

I would go for a minor theatre of operations since it is a continental sea, shallow. It could be useful to Germany and Russia, possibly Great Britain, but I doubt it. As to KE, I am not buying them anymore, I use 500 ton destroyers that are old, after updating them... if the game gives me a chance.

[maxnacemit]

Well, it's quite obvious that any nation going to war with the USSR/Russia will have to fight in the Baltic. Moreover, some other country can, in theory, take over the Baltic States and move their fleet there to get a shot at blockading France, Russia or Germany, for instance. I agree with the second point, though.

[vonfriedman]

Quite right. I would therefore correct point (1) as follows: a theater of operations limited to any nation having bases in the Baltic

[charliezulu]

You'd only have to fight in the Baltic if you were planning military operations there. If you wanted to blockade Saint Petersburg, you could do so by blockading the exits into the North Sea much more easily, and the Baltic has no bearing on, say, the Kola Peninsula (which is irrelevant in-game, oddly enough, despite the entirety of the Arctic campaign of WWII), or on operations in the Russian Far East.

The bigger problem with separating out the Baltic is that sea zones are important for purposes of establishing blockades. Unless the Russian home area was expanded to also include a NEU sea zone as well as the Baltic, blockading northern Europe would not blockade Russia.

IMO, the best solution wouldn't be to separate out the Baltic into its own sea zone, but instead to make the penalty for refusing battles in the Baltic much lower unless they have a reason to be there (e.g., land combat in one of the relevant territories, or owning possessions there). However, this gets into a more general point about the battle generator throwing utterly nonsensical combat at the player a lot of the time and the VP not really reflecting the impact those battles have - a fleet battle way off at Iceland is silly if I'm, say, France and there's nothing otherwise happening up there, yet refusing it is a major blow to the war effort. Meanwhile, successfully defending a convoy while blockaded is a minor victory, yet battles like that were crucial in WWII.

[vonfriedman]

I am pleased that a discussion has begun on the Baltic Sea problem.
Still referring to my AAR, I would add a further point:
4) Allowing to use - perhaps with some limitations on the numbers - air bases of an ally.

[williammiller]

We can take a look at the Baltic, see what might be reasonable for that area.

[oldpop2000]

Jun 10, 2021 8:28:38 GMT -6 williammiller said:

We can take a look at the Baltic, see what might be reasonable for that area.

Just a suggestion. The narrowest point to the Baltic Sea from the North Atlantic is about 6.61 miles between the continental shelves. That is not much room for a fleet and that fleet would almost have to sail through that area either in line astern or two columns. If this narrow is mined and guarded, its over quickly. I hope this geographical situation is taken into account. Germany, Russia have it easy and possibly Denmark, Finland and Sweden. However, GB, France etc. are seriously in jeopardy if they really try to get through. Now the game doesn't have Alliances like Germany, Denmark etc. which could cause this problem, but if it does, then Germany will or should get no help. So far, I don't see this working well.