Ship designer and long construction times would make for great potential for succession games.
Is that a proposal
?
About overall strategy, I concur with Coxwaggle that well-built CA are invaluable indeed in a lot of roles, even if they are tricky ships to use to the fullest.
Let's Play Rule The Waves: Docking procedure initiated
Good. We order two of the new BBs, the Objekt 3 model. Our politicians insist for a proper name, and so they are christened "Tsesarevich". The projected expense will be of roughly 176.000.000 Tsar Bucks, a
insanely high expense. Muh money. We will require three years to get them out.
In the meantime, I'll upgrade the older models and keep in shape the fleet.
As our ships get out of the docks and the refit ends, we can see that our economy and budget are good enough to keep both of the BB in the docks and upgrade the fleet. Very, very good.
The last hulls of our "Destroyers&Subs" program are getting out. I'll maybe build a few more, subs are effective and our tech level is good enough.
I check our roster for proper ships to upgrade. The Quintus , from the Gromoboi class, has served us well, but its design is a poorly thought mess. I don't think it's even worth the money to refit. I will upgrade our docks instead and get some money reserves. When the situation balances, I'll develop and build a new BC class for us to experiment with.
So, we sail forth quietly. I try to refit the Baardhaas, but the design is a mess and the hull can't take speeds superior to 24 knots. It will have to wait until we get better fire control systems before I waste money on a refit.
Great. Our BCs will be tough customers. 29k tons minimum!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
More tech to avoid the dreaded gap
Maybe someone will be asking
how we manage to be one of the leading powers in tech, despite being, well, Russia. The point is that budget is related to Prestige, and that the Research budget is always the 10% of the overall budget. It's a positive loop: we win wars and mantain our prestige, we get more money, we get better tech, we win wars.
And the people sometimes get unhappy that we waste millions in building juggernauts of questionable quality instead of giving them bread, and start to harbour socialist thoughts. The fools, they don't know that True Socialism requires
steel and machines to be properly estabilished.
Do we care?
No. (
Yes, most of our older fleet is mothballed. Keeping antediluvian Bs in service when there is no chance of a war is not good for our budget).
Yeah, no.
France is rebuilding like crazy all the surviving ships it has. Well, that means not
many. But they have to spend the money somewhere while they wait for something to be build, nay?
You crazies call it "
regatta" with two Ts? Insanity. Everyone knows the proper term is
regata. I even bet it's a Italian term the saxons borrowed when we were still relevant or something.
*checks*
Oh God, it's venetian. Discard that, Venetians are freakin' barbarians. Could you have not taken, I don't know, a Genoese term?
But we go for the win, of course. For Prestige! The US and Germany now both somewhat dislike us. A war with the US would be interesting, they are quite the equal for us. It would be a mess thanks to the fact that BOTH the Pacific and the Atlantis theater would need ships, but those are the risks.
No. No. And no. The same turn we get some sweet advances, like weight savings in armour and more effective secondary gun turrets for our BBs. Like,
just some months after we started building a new class.
Drat.
Defeating Austria would be a interesting thing. On one side, operating in the Med would be a mess, and we would need British bases (our alliance will expire soon, I fear) but, well, it's Austria.
Seeing how some of our older CLs are unrefittable and how the budget is still good, I order a new class. WE REQUIRE ADDITIONAL CRUISERS
WE REQUIRE ADDITIONAL CRUISERS
The
Griden is a bit weighty, but it's well armed and rather fast. I'll build two, at a slow pace. We still need money for our future BC project.
Greeeat. More space for the Motherland!
Greeat! More spies caught by the American secret services!
Well, now we can plan for our 30k tons Battlecruisers. At this point, I'd like to ask to my dear captains if they have any
design ideas for Battlecruisers. I freely admit it's a class of ships that I never "got", and even my late game fleets managed to truck on fairly well without them, bar the random failed battle when they caught one of my Cruisers alone.
For the overall strategical situation, we need a year and half to get our new BBs and CLs, andthe worst tensions are with Germany and the US. I reckon a war with ze Germans is the most propable outcome if we don't act, but the RNG REFUSES to give us chances to engage the Japanese.
So, another question:
1) Fuck the Germans. They want a rematch? They'll have a rematch!
2) Fuck the US. Death to the upstart anglo saxon monkeys.
3) Peace with both US and Germany. We will try to increase tension with ..... (don't say Japan, it will never happen).
Consider that the overall tension levels are rather low, so few chances of a war soon. And after 12 years and 8 months, we have now passed the midgame. And rather well, I may add: two wars won decisively, a tech lead and rather good ships. The problem is still that the economical strength of Russia is limited, particularly compared with the US juggernaut.
And goddammit, I truly managed to get a LP halfway in. Thanks, readers, at least someone bothers to read my ramblings.