Post by TheOtherPoster on Jul 26, 2022 8:52:37 GMT -6
I wonder If the programmers have looked into improving the strategic level in RTW3. We can make some choices when at war, like assign raiders or resort to unrestricted sub warfare. But mainly our strategy in most wars will be reduced to winning as many random battles as possible.
But we cannot, for example, decide a strategy based on advancing through the Pacific towards Japan; or crossing the Atlantic to gain a base in Europe if fighting a European power… In true most possessions are too far from our invasion range (like the Pacific islands), and even in Europe we have very limited options as we cannot invade enemy home ports and in any case it’s very unlikely we’ll get enough superiority in a sea area where the enemy has also his home country. Possessions being too far is anyway, very common. Even the USN cannot expel the RN from the Caribbean, doesn’t matter how big is the American fleet there: Trinidad is too far to be invaded so the Brits will always keep that foothold in the Caribbean. Very odd.
To be honest, I think any improvement in this area would require quite a few of changes, so it may not be fair to bring it up at such late date. Anyway, here are a few suggestions.
I) Key possessions should have an economic and operational impact: Gibraltar, Suez, Falklands, Singapore, Southern Africa… both to the country that gains the possession as to the one that loses it. The idea is that controlling those possessions improves our communications and commerce beyond their own value.
II) Invading a few preselected neutral territories (not all neutral territories, only small ones in key locations?): we would still face the enemy fleet if any in that area (they’ll gain the possession themselves if we lose the invasion battle, a bit like Norway 1940). Also invasion of neutrals will increase tensions with other nations risking they enter the war against us. Maybe they should revert to neutral status after the war?
A variation: we could also invade a possession owned by one of the still neutral nations in the game. We would need to fight the invasion battle against them. And that nation would join our enemy in the war.
III) Long range and extreme range ships to invade far off small islands. Well, this one needs a more detailed explanation, and if at all it may be something for a later date, maybe RTW4:
1) If the Island is in the same sea area where we also have bases: all our long range and extreme range ships in that area can be used in the invasion. For example, the USN invading Bermuda.
How could it work:
The possession will be attacked by:
1) All our extreme and long range ships present in the area if we also have bases in the same area.
The possession will be defended by any ships already in the island plus ER and LR enemy ships:
1) Taking into account the possession’s basing capacity (typically 10, but maybe they should be reviewed to 20), it will be defended by ships from the ones available in that area, up to the basing capacity of the island. Say 1 CL and a couple of DD for example if base capacity 10.
2) Plus all enemy extreme and long range ships present in that sea area.
This way, through the invasion of far off islands, we could practice a more active strategy than now, gaining key sea ports or advancing against the enemy home bases, even crossing the Atlantic or the Pacific. Also we would have better reasons to invest in long and extreme range ships, something not really required at the moment. I would suggest new islands be added like Azores, and Canary Islands. Also, it’s the issue of coastal batteries: now it’s not be very useful to spend money on costal batteries in locations we know they can never be invaded. But it shouldn’t be like this. To build coastal defenses at Midway, Singapore, Gibraltar should be a priority as it was in history. We could use our long range and extreme range ships ability to threaten invasion of these key ports to make it more realistic. It is a pity that we can build coastal defenses in so many places but it doesn’t make sense in the game because the ports cannot be invaded…
But we cannot, for example, decide a strategy based on advancing through the Pacific towards Japan; or crossing the Atlantic to gain a base in Europe if fighting a European power… In true most possessions are too far from our invasion range (like the Pacific islands), and even in Europe we have very limited options as we cannot invade enemy home ports and in any case it’s very unlikely we’ll get enough superiority in a sea area where the enemy has also his home country. Possessions being too far is anyway, very common. Even the USN cannot expel the RN from the Caribbean, doesn’t matter how big is the American fleet there: Trinidad is too far to be invaded so the Brits will always keep that foothold in the Caribbean. Very odd.
To be honest, I think any improvement in this area would require quite a few of changes, so it may not be fair to bring it up at such late date. Anyway, here are a few suggestions.
I) Key possessions should have an economic and operational impact: Gibraltar, Suez, Falklands, Singapore, Southern Africa… both to the country that gains the possession as to the one that loses it. The idea is that controlling those possessions improves our communications and commerce beyond their own value.
II) Invading a few preselected neutral territories (not all neutral territories, only small ones in key locations?): we would still face the enemy fleet if any in that area (they’ll gain the possession themselves if we lose the invasion battle, a bit like Norway 1940). Also invasion of neutrals will increase tensions with other nations risking they enter the war against us. Maybe they should revert to neutral status after the war?
A variation: we could also invade a possession owned by one of the still neutral nations in the game. We would need to fight the invasion battle against them. And that nation would join our enemy in the war.
III) Long range and extreme range ships to invade far off small islands. Well, this one needs a more detailed explanation, and if at all it may be something for a later date, maybe RTW4:
The idea is: can we devise a way to make possible the invasion of small islands and so the crossing of the oceans (sea areas) without changing too much the game? Gaining a base where we want to operate I think is pretty necessary or we would lose any damaged or broken down ship until the end of the war. Also, I think the programmers have long made the decision that they do not want RTW to become a game where we invade big stretches of land, and prefer to keep it mainly naval. I think it is a good decision. But we have moved a long way since RTW1 and invasions are a reality now. Adding the possibility to invade small islands that are too far away in the oceans to be reached now by our main fleet, I think would not distort their original aims for the game.
So my suggestion would be to use long range and extreme range ships for the invasions of those small islands too far from our standard invasion range.
2) If the island is in an area adjacent to another where we have bases. Only our Extreme range ships can be counted for that. For example, Japan could invade Midway (Central Pacific) because it has bases in the adjacent Northeast Asia area. But not, for example, the Falklands because it has not bases in any adjacent area.
The small island attacked (let’s say, not more than a base capacity of 10 or 20?) need to be too far from our normal invasion range and also from the enemy’s main invasion range from their main bases in that area: hence, neither our medium range fleet or the enemy’s can be used to invade/defend the island. Instead
1) All our extreme and long range ships present in the area if we also have bases in the same area.
2) Only our extreme range ships if our closest base is only in the adjacent sea area. First we need to move those ER ships to the area where the enemy island is.
1) Taking into account the possession’s basing capacity (typically 10, but maybe they should be reviewed to 20), it will be defended by ships from the ones available in that area, up to the basing capacity of the island. Say 1 CL and a couple of DD for example if base capacity 10.
2) Plus all enemy extreme and long range ships present in that sea area.
3) Plus all enemy extreme range ships present in any adjacent area. The enemy long range and extreme range ships work the same way as ours so they can be used to defend the attacked island as ours can be used to attack it
