In Progress Let's Play: Rule The Waves

[ValeVelKal]

I go for speed first, firepower second, armor last (though I am making sre I can shrug off 8 inch and similar

Both an low armored or an heavy armored BC can destroy a CL or a CA. The question will be vs BC and BB :

- If the BB is gunned similarly to you, whether you have an heavy armor (relatively to a BC) or not is moot, it is a battle yo should avoid.
- If the BB has smaller guns than you, can you pummel this from a distance… but you need to sink her before she brings reinforcement, before the night falls, etc...
- If you meet a faster BC, it is presumable not that well armored, so you'll want more guns than her, and also, you'll want aft guns if you try to break away,
- The one advantage of an armored BC is probably if you want to fight in formation with BB - there it might make sense, but with only one gun you are not bringing much firepower, and still have a relatively weak spot in your line (except if you manage to match its armor with a BB armor). Might be worth it if you play with a large part of your fleet as Battlecruisers, but I rarely have more than 2-3.

For obvious reasons, I still make sure the deck armor is significant enough (4 or 5) so a lucky CA or CL does not pierce through, and it will be useful in case of a CVL conversion. Belt armor is really secondary though as the BC is not supposed to come close

 

[AgentFransis]

Just read this thread and enjoyed it immensely. Bumping in the hope that others might also read and enjoy. I will buy RTW2 soon so I can have my own go at having my ships horribly sunk.

As an actual contribution to the thread I give you this excellent narration of the voyage of the 2nd Pacific squadron and the battle of Tsushima. A hilarious tale full of incompetence, madness, despair, rage and tragedy. In short, a typical Russian story.

 

[Galdred]

Is CV vs CV combat done well?
That is what interests me the most, but I could not find any open-ended game (ie, no replaying 321 times the battle of Midway) with satisfying CV vs CV action.
I liked the way it was done in Gary Grigsby! World at War: both were high level, with little details, but the most important part was to guess where the opponent CV would be, and decide where to focus your research (on plane range, atomic bomb, CV range, land based air, ...), but I don't really like the way it simulates land warfare (there is not enough room to maneuver, and the guess work element is not present in ground warfare).

 

[Andnjord]

Is CV vs CV combat done well?
That is what interests me the most, but I could not find any open-ended game (ie, no replaying 321 times the battle of Midway) with satisfying CV vs CV action.
I liked the way it was done in Gary Grigsby! World at War: both were high level, with little details, but the most important part was to guess where the opponent CV would be, and decide where to focus your research (on plane range, atomic bomb, CV range, land based air, ...), but I don't really like the way it simulates land warfare (there is not enough room to maneuver, and the guess work element is not present in ground warfare).

We didn't have any major CV vs CV battles in our succession game but I posted about a major battle where numerous CVs on both sides played a major role:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-electric-boogaloo.127698/page-7#post-6231953

TLDR: It's a lot of fun, although the AI had a tendency to send its strike groups separately rather than all at once to overwhelm your defences (though that might have changed in later patches, it's been a while).

Keep in mind though that the predominance of CV vs CV fights in the Pacific was in part due to a combination of the Washington Treaty and the US battlefleet being neutralized at Pearl Harbour. As both are unlikely to happen at the same time in your typical game of RTW, you'll see a lot more Battleships sailing around than you might expect.

 

[Mitleser]

Mediocre. The Computer will often magically know where your Carriers are and bomb them as soon as they are able to. Both sides send their recon planes at the same minute and will spot the enemy, then bomb them into oblivion. The scenarios just dont handle the cat-and-mouse part that well and it just degenerates into spamming airstrikes on the last known position of the enemy.

 

[Joined on the 4th of July]

Is CV vs CV combat done well?
That is what interests me the most, but I could not find any open-ended game (ie, no replaying 321 times the battle of Midway) with satisfying CV vs CV action.
I liked the way it was done in Gary Grigsby! World at War: both were high level, with little details, but the most important part was to guess where the opponent CV would be, and decide where to focus your research (on plane range, atomic bomb, CV range, land based air, ...), but I don't really like the way it simulates land warfare (there is not enough room to maneuver, and the guess work element is not present in ground warfare).

Have you checked War in the Pacific Admiral's Edition? It's pretty cumbersome and tedious, but the air war and carrier group action feels quite believable.

 

[Mitleser]

The greatest problems are probably the cumbersome UI plus that the Engine was not built with carrier battles in mind. Gun battles you just need to adjust speed and heading and sometimes launch torpedo attack. Strikes always need to be configured singly in a separate UI which is cumbersome and not that elegant - in practice you will always spam as much planes as you can to the location of the last enemy contact, this like 100x per battle. Also the enemy always launches its recon on minute 1 and invariably finds your carriers. There just is not that much finesse needed - it usually becomes a battle of attrition whose planes last longer. Due to planes being fast and ships being slow, no local weather phenomena and good computer recon you can never break contact with the enemy and just try to spam planes and pray your CAP and Flak are good enough to handle the enemy.
Also the game inevitably becomes broken once light carriers are researched. AI ships have no air defense early in the game while you can spam dirt cheap carriers and torpedo bombers. Slower Speed, range and reliablity of early planes still do not prevent 100 plane TB strikes in 1925 that will annihilate any AI battleline with ca 30 torpedo hits.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Sadly I have to agree that I am grateful we stopped before there were too many aircraft carriers around.

RtW3 will move the start date to 1890, and I expect more from that than on the addition of missiles and late game tech. Except if they improve air combat, of course.

What brought you here AgentFransis ? I recommend our Rule the Waves 2 AAR by the way ; it was succession game so every time a new player arrived he raged at whatever decision the previous guy had and try to change the doctrine, with mixed results given the ships were built for the previous doctrine. Lots of fun.

 

[AgentFransis]

What brought you here AgentFransis ? I recommend our Rule the Waves 2 AAR by the way ; it was succession game so every time a new player arrived he raged at whatever decision the previous guy had and try to change the doctrine, with mixed results given the ships were built for the previous doctrine. Lots of fun.

Was bored and trawled the playground for something to read. I have a certain interest in naval history so this caught my eye. Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out.

 

[Luka-boy]

I wonder if the new store will be more convenient.

 

[Comte]

I wonder if the new store will be more convenient.

I had a board game on order from nws really doubt I will be getting it now. Crazy that I spoke to Christopher several times on the phone over the years when I ordered stuff. His wife died a few weeks ago apparently.

 

[mondblut]

Wasn't NWS basically THE site to buy wargames from? Pretty scary when your entire hobby hangs on the well-being of one man.

 

[Comte]

Wasn't NWS basically THE site to buy wargames from? Pretty scary when your entire hobby hangs on the well-being of one man.

The entire wargaming hobby is a old mans game. I am in my mid 40s and dudes i do pbem with are all in their 60s or 70s. Unfortunately a few guys i played with and had correspondance with have died

 

[mondblut]

Wasn't NWS basically THE site to buy wargames from? Pretty scary when your entire hobby hangs on the well-being of one man.

The entire wargaming hobby is a old mans game. I am in my mid 40s and dudes i do pbem with are all in their 60s or 70s. Unfortunately a few guys i played with and had correspondance with have died

Yeah, well, it's more like not putting all eggs in one basket. If Gaben dies, not much would change (except for Steam eventually going full SJW). This guy died, and suddenly all wargame developers have nowhere to sell their stuff.

 

[The Dopamine Cleric]

With all the wrist slitting I think it's time for a gothic revival.

Fags.

 

[abnaxus]

Mikasa senpai

lel how the fek did this even happen