Dayyālu
Arcane
Welcome to my first LP (and probably last), people.
It's a neat little game I found in the depths of the Internets, and I'd like to share it, so, let's start talking: welcome to Rule The Waves: I have No Idea What I am Doing Edition.
Rule the Waves can be described as a "Admiralty Simulator": you get in the role of the powerful and all-seeing Admiral of a Great Power navy between 1900-1925, for roughly 300 turns (every turn is a month). You have to design your ships, build them, deploy them and then fight with them against the other bastards. Furthermore, you will have to endure a wide number of random events and problems both with foreign powers, spies,the Government and the People themselves.
The game is roughly divided in three sections:
The Main Map, where you decide to build ships, subs (when you get the tech for them) and local defenses, and where to deploy your ships. The spying budget and the relationships with other nations (alliances and wars) are quite clearly shown there with those columns: higher they are, worse the relations are, and if they get too high, it's war. You also set up the research budget, the training levels and check the other Power's capabilities.
The Design Screen, where the magic happens. You take your techs, and build by yourself (or helped by the automated scripting) those new shiny warships that you will lead into battle. After you wait five years for them to get built by those lazy Communist workers. Despite it looking to be overwhelming at first, after a bit it gets almost intuitive: furthermore, the program helps you by pointing out suboptimal choices or simply unfeasible designs. We'll look at the Ship Design menu more in-depth on one of the first updates. If I manage to do updates.
The Battle Screen. Here we fight. The battles are dinamically generated based on the situation on the Main Map, and the system has a rather big "random" element. You can find yourself at the command of a mere squadron of destroyers that attempt to stop a marauding Armoured Cruiser, or get to lead your Dreadnoughts to obliterate some obsolete enemy cruiser and its escorts. We'll play on the Rear Admiral mode, giving us some control on the squadrons but leaving the microing (firing and targeting) to the AI captains. We set the course and the speed for the lead ships, and let the destroyer screens and our gunner do the job alone.
The basic objective of the game is to gain Prestige, while balancing Tension and Budget. Prestige is a symbol of your worth as an admiral, and if it gets too low you get sacked: failing to keep up your international image, to act decisively or let colonies slip out of your control will damage Prestige, as it will losing battles, wars or big ships. You gain it for the opposite, of course: sink a dreadnought and you'll gain points. Budget is what keeps your ships afloat, your sailors fed and trained and your building&research program going. We'll have to balance the thing, and we have quite a few ways to do so (mothballing or scrapping obsolete ships, Reserve Fleet personnel, research cuts). Tension is a measure of the overall political situation, and it will influence your international standing and who we get to shoot next.
First of all, this is a I Have No Idea of What I am Doing edition. I'm not that good at this game, and my knowledge of early 20th century naval warfare is limited at best. I'll try to explain the mechanics and the peculiarities as we go. However, I'd like also some partecipation: in that regard, I'd like for the general public to Choose a Nation first, and I'll leave the broad policy to the thread posters. With that I mean that I'll give you several options to where we want to take our Glorious Navy, and I'll try to follow your suggestions. Want to go to war with Great Britain? Ehr, welcome!. As a last thing, I can name both Ship Designs and individual ship. I'll post the Legacy Fleet (the ships we have when we start a game) and you will be able to claim your model or your own vessel. Don't take Destroyers. It's not worth it.
For the sake of simplicity, I'll play with Game Budget (Historical Budget is harsh for some nations) and with the Small size for fleets, giving less chances for big engagements but more fine control on expenses and deployments. I'd consider upping it to Medium if I feel confident enough. I would like to get 1-2 updates par week, a update covering a single game year.
First of all, guys, Choose Your Own Nation:
Britain
The leading superpower of the age, Britain is rich, advanced and powerful. With a worldwide empire and a stable government, it can manage to rule the Seas quite effectively. It's a safe choice, and its national advantages are many and well-rounded, with the Hidden flaws giving us however the chance of some random negative quirks (like ships exploding after a single hit or inefficient turrets). Our Global Naval power requirement forces us to have 10% of our tonnage on foreign station to keep the colonies happy and we can't use the Cramped Quarters build option. All in all, a solid if boring choice.
France
France is another solid choice, with a big colonial empire, an adequate budget, and some asshole politicians trying to make your life impossible with random requests ( the Inconsistent Naval Policy Quirk). France was the birthplace of one of the most influential naval schools of thought of the age, the Jeune échole ("Young School") that theorized the use of small, heavily armed units to engage quickly the enemy battleships and the massive use of commerce raiders to wreck their economy. If you want to test such theories in the rightful place, choose France.
Germany
Germany is rich, powerful, with good tech (muh Krupp Steel) and it has a Bombastic head of state (extra chance of stupid) and a Cautious policy (meaning their AI-controlled ships will avoid aggressive engagements). Historically, Germany went for a dick-waving contest with Britain by building newer, bigger ships in the foolish attempt to gain parity with the Royal Navy: a huge expense of resources that ended with the only "serious" battle that in our timeline tested the mettle of Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers: Jutland, that had a rather unsatisfactory result for both sides. Can we do better than the historical Germans, expand our colonial empire and avoid a dire fate?
Italy
Nothing like home. Italy is poor, corrupted, with retarded politicians and bad tech. It has a ton of possible enemies in the Mediterranean (France, Britain, Austria) and it lacks the resources or the focus to fight properly. Historically, Italy failed pretty much every attempt to gain naval prominence and in both World Wars the only good results were obtained by the borderline suicidal frogmen. We can't use them here, so if we're going Ita Ita we'll have to employ better theories and better strategies than the historical Regia Marina.
Austria-Hungary
The K.u.K. fleet was always an afterthought. Poorly funded and rather small, it was a mess of eleven nationalities (Italians, Balkanites, Germans, Hungarians and whatever). However, despite the limited resources, here we have a solid budget in Game Mode, only the Cautious drawback and the tactical advantage to work only in the Adriatic, so with the more lenient Mediterranean conditions. Plus, our main objective will be to fuck with Italy. God is on our side, and He loves multi-ethnic empires!
Russia
Russia is big, poorly industrialized and poorly educated. It's not that poor, and it has some nice positions thanks to his size. Historically, everyone knows the Russian Navy in this age for their little debacles during the Russo-Japanese war: despite their strategical and tactical failures however the courage of the Russkie sailor was never put into question. With a broad range of bases and options, we can do better this time.
Japan
(Sorry, had to do that)
Japan is poor, backward and lacks building power. However, like the historical Japan, an aggressive policy, alliances and surprise attacks can balance the situation, and let you make gains in the Pacific area against more unfocused powers. Historically, the Japanese won their big naval confrontation with the Russkies in this age: this convinced them of the possibility of another Decisive Battle against more powerful foes like the US in WW2, and created monsters like the Yamato Class. We all know how it went.
USA
The US gets a good budget, good tech, good traits and will become a superpower in the lategame. Its position is also quite flexible, but until Panama is built the travel between the East Coast and the West Coast will be a bit difficult, so planning is essential. I don't know a thing about the historical US Navy in this age, but as a gameplay choice is fun and rather easy. You can easily crush the weaker powers, and if you are insane enough engage Britain to decide who is the most hardcore Anglo around.
Spain
A "mod" nation of sorts, if we choose it the Russkies will be left out. Poor, small, underdeveloped, in this age Spain is a mess. It has some holdings in the Caribbean and lacks the means to defend them. They should be quite a challenge. Like, same problems that France has but a fraction of the budget and small docks.
ALTERNATE HISTORY CORNER
CSA
Yeh, Alt-history mod with a CSA surviving into the 20th century. Nice position and adequate budget, despite poor industrial capabilities. It will be difficult to challenge the proper US and the other powers, but we will fight for the Right of the States and for the Right to ownslaves happy productive black people.
Other mods exist for a Westernized China and Byzantium, but that would feel a bit too much.
So, people, Choose! When we get a nation, I'll try to explain a bit what kind of deviant machinery those bastards a century ago dumped in the seas and how you, dear Codexers, will influence the LP.
It's a neat little game I found in the depths of the Internets, and I'd like to share it, so, let's start talking: welcome to Rule The Waves: I have No Idea What I am Doing Edition.
Rule the Waves can be described as a "Admiralty Simulator": you get in the role of the powerful and all-seeing Admiral of a Great Power navy between 1900-1925, for roughly 300 turns (every turn is a month). You have to design your ships, build them, deploy them and then fight with them against the other bastards. Furthermore, you will have to endure a wide number of random events and problems both with foreign powers, spies,the Government and the People themselves.
The game is roughly divided in three sections:
The Main Map, where you decide to build ships, subs (when you get the tech for them) and local defenses, and where to deploy your ships. The spying budget and the relationships with other nations (alliances and wars) are quite clearly shown there with those columns: higher they are, worse the relations are, and if they get too high, it's war. You also set up the research budget, the training levels and check the other Power's capabilities.
The Design Screen, where the magic happens. You take your techs, and build by yourself (or helped by the automated scripting) those new shiny warships that you will lead into battle. After you wait five years for them to get built by those lazy Communist workers. Despite it looking to be overwhelming at first, after a bit it gets almost intuitive: furthermore, the program helps you by pointing out suboptimal choices or simply unfeasible designs. We'll look at the Ship Design menu more in-depth on one of the first updates. If I manage to do updates.
The Battle Screen. Here we fight. The battles are dinamically generated based on the situation on the Main Map, and the system has a rather big "random" element. You can find yourself at the command of a mere squadron of destroyers that attempt to stop a marauding Armoured Cruiser, or get to lead your Dreadnoughts to obliterate some obsolete enemy cruiser and its escorts. We'll play on the Rear Admiral mode, giving us some control on the squadrons but leaving the microing (firing and targeting) to the AI captains. We set the course and the speed for the lead ships, and let the destroyer screens and our gunner do the job alone.
The basic objective of the game is to gain Prestige, while balancing Tension and Budget. Prestige is a symbol of your worth as an admiral, and if it gets too low you get sacked: failing to keep up your international image, to act decisively or let colonies slip out of your control will damage Prestige, as it will losing battles, wars or big ships. You gain it for the opposite, of course: sink a dreadnought and you'll gain points. Budget is what keeps your ships afloat, your sailors fed and trained and your building&research program going. We'll have to balance the thing, and we have quite a few ways to do so (mothballing or scrapping obsolete ships, Reserve Fleet personnel, research cuts). Tension is a measure of the overall political situation, and it will influence your international standing and who we get to shoot next.
First of all, this is a I Have No Idea of What I am Doing edition. I'm not that good at this game, and my knowledge of early 20th century naval warfare is limited at best. I'll try to explain the mechanics and the peculiarities as we go. However, I'd like also some partecipation: in that regard, I'd like for the general public to Choose a Nation first, and I'll leave the broad policy to the thread posters. With that I mean that I'll give you several options to where we want to take our Glorious Navy, and I'll try to follow your suggestions. Want to go to war with Great Britain? Ehr, welcome!. As a last thing, I can name both Ship Designs and individual ship. I'll post the Legacy Fleet (the ships we have when we start a game) and you will be able to claim your model or your own vessel. Don't take Destroyers. It's not worth it.
For the sake of simplicity, I'll play with Game Budget (Historical Budget is harsh for some nations) and with the Small size for fleets, giving less chances for big engagements but more fine control on expenses and deployments. I'd consider upping it to Medium if I feel confident enough. I would like to get 1-2 updates par week, a update covering a single game year.
First of all, guys, Choose Your Own Nation:
Britain
The leading superpower of the age, Britain is rich, advanced and powerful. With a worldwide empire and a stable government, it can manage to rule the Seas quite effectively. It's a safe choice, and its national advantages are many and well-rounded, with the Hidden flaws giving us however the chance of some random negative quirks (like ships exploding after a single hit or inefficient turrets). Our Global Naval power requirement forces us to have 10% of our tonnage on foreign station to keep the colonies happy and we can't use the Cramped Quarters build option. All in all, a solid if boring choice.
France
France is another solid choice, with a big colonial empire, an adequate budget, and some asshole politicians trying to make your life impossible with random requests ( the Inconsistent Naval Policy Quirk). France was the birthplace of one of the most influential naval schools of thought of the age, the Jeune échole ("Young School") that theorized the use of small, heavily armed units to engage quickly the enemy battleships and the massive use of commerce raiders to wreck their economy. If you want to test such theories in the rightful place, choose France.
Germany
Germany is rich, powerful, with good tech (muh Krupp Steel) and it has a Bombastic head of state (extra chance of stupid) and a Cautious policy (meaning their AI-controlled ships will avoid aggressive engagements). Historically, Germany went for a dick-waving contest with Britain by building newer, bigger ships in the foolish attempt to gain parity with the Royal Navy: a huge expense of resources that ended with the only "serious" battle that in our timeline tested the mettle of Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers: Jutland, that had a rather unsatisfactory result for both sides. Can we do better than the historical Germans, expand our colonial empire and avoid a dire fate?
Italy
Nothing like home. Italy is poor, corrupted, with retarded politicians and bad tech. It has a ton of possible enemies in the Mediterranean (France, Britain, Austria) and it lacks the resources or the focus to fight properly. Historically, Italy failed pretty much every attempt to gain naval prominence and in both World Wars the only good results were obtained by the borderline suicidal frogmen. We can't use them here, so if we're going Ita Ita we'll have to employ better theories and better strategies than the historical Regia Marina.
Austria-Hungary
The K.u.K. fleet was always an afterthought. Poorly funded and rather small, it was a mess of eleven nationalities (Italians, Balkanites, Germans, Hungarians and whatever). However, despite the limited resources, here we have a solid budget in Game Mode, only the Cautious drawback and the tactical advantage to work only in the Adriatic, so with the more lenient Mediterranean conditions. Plus, our main objective will be to fuck with Italy. God is on our side, and He loves multi-ethnic empires!
Russia
Russia is big, poorly industrialized and poorly educated. It's not that poor, and it has some nice positions thanks to his size. Historically, everyone knows the Russian Navy in this age for their little debacles during the Russo-Japanese war: despite their strategical and tactical failures however the courage of the Russkie sailor was never put into question. With a broad range of bases and options, we can do better this time.
Japan
(Sorry, had to do that)
Japan is poor, backward and lacks building power. However, like the historical Japan, an aggressive policy, alliances and surprise attacks can balance the situation, and let you make gains in the Pacific area against more unfocused powers. Historically, the Japanese won their big naval confrontation with the Russkies in this age: this convinced them of the possibility of another Decisive Battle against more powerful foes like the US in WW2, and created monsters like the Yamato Class. We all know how it went.
USA
The US gets a good budget, good tech, good traits and will become a superpower in the lategame. Its position is also quite flexible, but until Panama is built the travel between the East Coast and the West Coast will be a bit difficult, so planning is essential. I don't know a thing about the historical US Navy in this age, but as a gameplay choice is fun and rather easy. You can easily crush the weaker powers, and if you are insane enough engage Britain to decide who is the most hardcore Anglo around.
Spain
A "mod" nation of sorts, if we choose it the Russkies will be left out. Poor, small, underdeveloped, in this age Spain is a mess. It has some holdings in the Caribbean and lacks the means to defend them. They should be quite a challenge. Like, same problems that France has but a fraction of the budget and small docks.
ALTERNATE HISTORY CORNER
CSA
Yeh, Alt-history mod with a CSA surviving into the 20th century. Nice position and adequate budget, despite poor industrial capabilities. It will be difficult to challenge the proper US and the other powers, but we will fight for the Right of the States and for the Right to own
Other mods exist for a Westernized China and Byzantium, but that would feel a bit too much.
So, people, Choose! When we get a nation, I'll try to explain a bit what kind of deviant machinery those bastards a century ago dumped in the seas and how you, dear Codexers, will influence the LP.
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