Missions and Challenges - Community Feedback

[DerRichtigeArzt]

for this mission I just created one CL with 3 quad torpedo tubes of the smallest guage since transports die in 1 torp anyway. then I just threw spreads into whatever I saw at about 80 of my torp range. The spread by then became so large that it hit multiple transports and at one point the CA itself. Before that I tried guns and mix of guns and torps but nothing worked as well as only torps.

[DarkMaid]

I'm down to a handful of Academy missions left to do but thought I'd mention that the combination of 18" guns, Super heavy shells, Gen II radar, Stereoscopic V in missions like "Numbers Don't Matter," "Modern Battleship", "There Can Only Be One" and "Heavy Duty" is so effective that it pretty much breaks these missions. I'm getting accuracy of over 25% at 34 km. Even with only 2 turrets of two 18" guns it's only a matter of minutes before you land devastating hits on enemy ships -- often only 2 or 3 hits are necessary and you get a message that "???? enemy sinks due to structural damage". TNT propellant especially. My "There Can Only Be One" and "Heavy Duty" missions were over faster than I can type this post. In "Heavy Duty" I sank a 100kt battleship (according to the mission description) with two 18" hits and it was all over in under 3 minutes. I didn't even get a chance to inspect the enemy ship.

After I've completed the Academy I'd like to put together some more detailed feedback for the missions but this warranted special mention. Conversely in earlier missions I noted that one lands too few hits at near point blank ranges (to the point that you're playing ramming games with dreadnoughts -- something that should never happen unless its pitch black darkness and no radar).

Nevertheless, I'm having a blast with this game although I could see myself purposely not using this 18" + radar combo if I want more interesting games.

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by DarkMaid

[Latur Husky]

9 hours ago, DarkMaid said:

I'm down to a handful of Academy missions left to do but thought I'd mention that the combination of 18" guns, Super heavy shells, Gen II radar, Stereoscopic V in missions like "Numbers Don't Matter," "Modern Battleship", "There Can Only Be One" and "Heavy Duty" is so effective that it pretty much breaks these missions. I'm getting accuracy of over 25% at 34 km. Even with only 2 turrets of two 18" guns it's only a matter of minutes before you land devastating hits on enemy ships -- often only 2 or 3 hits are necessary and you get a message that "???? enemy sinks due to structural damage". TNT propellant especially. My "There Can Only Be One" and "Heavy Duty" missions were over faster than I can type this post. In "Heavy Duty" I sank a 100kt battleship (according to the mission description) with two 18" hits and it was all over in under 3 minutes. I didn't even get a chance to inspect the enemy ship.

After I've completed the Academy I'd like to put together some more detailed feedback for the missions but this warranted special mention. Conversely in earlier missions I noted that one lands too few hits at near point blank ranges (to the point that you're playing ramming games with dreadnoughts -- something that should never happen unless its pitch black darkness and no radar).

Nevertheless, I'm having a blast with this game although I could see myself purposely not using this 18" + radar combo if I want more interesting games.

 

Try to finish Super US battleship with max 16” guns, I failed so far, DD’s are a real issue here but mission seems doable with that setting, though it’s super challenging.

[DarkMaid]

23 hours ago, Latur Husky said:

Try to finish Super US battleship with max 16” guns, I failed so far, DD’s are a real issue here but mission seems doable with that setting, though it’s super challenging.

Looks like I have a couple more missions to do before I get to that one but I'll give it try with the 16 inchers as you suggest. For enemy DD's a design with 36 kts, mounting most of my secondaries near the stern and turning away until they are destroyed by the secondaries usually works for me but I guess I'll find out.

[Strait Raider]

6 hours ago, DarkMaid said:

Looks like I have a couple more missions to do before I get to that one but I'll give it try with the 16 inchers as you suggest. For enemy DD's a design with 36 kts, mounting most of my secondaries near the stern and turning away until they are destroyed by the secondaries usually works for me but I guess I'll find out.

I actually found Meet the US Super Battleship to be probably the most annoying mission in the game. 18" radar-controlled guns would do a great job of taking down enemy ships to ~50% health fairly quickly from ~33km, but they just would not kill at range. The issue seems to be the combination of the AI probably running Barbettes IV + Citadel V, which basically negates any ammo detonation chance. Coupled with the guns at range being unable to penetrate deeper than the top layer of compartments and the damage seemed to max out at around half health.

At best I could kill 1 ship at range, even running extra ammo, super-heavy 18" shells and 5 triple turrets for more ammo storage I still could not kill more than one ship as past ~50% health the penetrations would just stop doing damage.

Then, I decided to throw all logic to the wind, and make what I'd politely term a yoloship. Strong horizontal protection, torpedoes for backup, maximum survivability modules. Won handily on the first round as charging nose-in makes you basically invulnerable. Getting close was required to get torpedo hits or horizontal gun penetrations which could damage more compartments and cause floodings.

[Strait Raider]

Now what I came here for: Mission Suggestion!

The Deadly Destroyer

Loosely based on the exploits of HMCS Haida in April to June 1944, where over the course of 3 engagements she sunk two Elbing-Class Torpedo Boats (More small destroyers really, 1750 tonnes each loaded), disabled a third, and combined with her sister ship to sink a Zerstorer 1936A (mob) in the Battle of Ushant.

"Take our powerful modern destroyers and conduct a sweep of the enemy coast. Engage and destroy the enemy as you find them. The enemy's destroyers are large and fast, but focused on heavy torpedo armament for destroying capital ships. Show them the power of purpose-built gunboats."

Enemy fleet - 4x large Torpedo boats (or small destroyers) AND/OR 3x large destoryers and 1 large torpedo boat/small destroyer

Tech level: 1940 with all the goodies.

Conditions: Night-time (All Haida's engagements happened at night)

Suggested budget (at current balance settings): $20,000,000 if facing one battlegroup (makes 2 Tribal Class clones or 1 Uber-Destroyer), or $40,000,000 if facing both groups of ships.

The only small-ship vs small-ship mission we have is Destroyer vs Torpedo boats, and it is an escort mission with old technology against a smaller class of ship. This mission would pit destroyer vs destroyer in a brutal knife-fight.

[1337JiveTurkey]

I'm new to the game but I've found the "First Casemates: CSS Virginia" to be inordinately difficult for its position in the list. It feels like the first missions are supposed to be tutorials of sorts, explaining certain concepts and then there's the two ironclad missions. I was able to make a turreted ironclad that eventually beat its opponent into submission but the other direction escapes my grasp and in any case it's just tedious attrition. They're cool and I appreciate the effort that went into making them but they're more of a challenge mode that makes sense later in the progression than an early mission.

Otherwise to make it more fun, I'd look at how to keep it from dragging on forever. Like don't even allow bulkheads beyond minimum and make damage control particularly bad considering the era. Especially for a ship with a foot or two of freeboard, flooding should just end them. Allowing full-size secondaries on casemate ironclads gives them more firepower or in a more historically speculative direction, sticking a spar torpedo on front or a plain old ram.

[DerRichtigeArzt]

5 hours ago, 1337JiveTurkey said:

I'm new to the game but I've found the "First Casemates: CSS Virginia" to be inordinately difficult for its position in the list. It feels like the first missions are supposed to be tutorials of sorts, explaining certain concepts and then there's the two ironclad missions. I was able to make a turreted ironclad that eventually beat its opponent into submission but the other direction escapes my grasp and in any case it's just tedious attrition. They're cool and I appreciate the effort that went into making them but they're more of a challenge mode that makes sense later in the progression than an early mission.

Otherwise to make it more fun, I'd look at how to keep it from dragging on forever. Like don't even allow bulkheads beyond minimum and make damage control particularly bad considering the era. Especially for a ship with a foot or two of freeboard, flooding should just end them. Allowing full-size secondaries on casemate ironclads gives them more firepower or in a more historically speculative direction, sticking a spar torpedo on front or a plain old ram.

These are April fools joke missions. If you can't do them don't feel bad they are about 30 years older than any of the ships you will build in campaign. Therefore balance is a little bit wacky on them. 

[Brenton]

Hi I think the AI settings are very challenging and sometimes impossible to beat, for instance the raider mission were you have to protect the Transports is virtually impossible . I have tried all kinds of set ups but the 3 enemy CA do not take hits but amazingly seem to brass up both divisions with ease , very frustrating .  I even set up missions with only the AI is controlling the divisions just to see the tactics last about 10 mins then whole divisions gets mauled .  I hope the balance between player and AI gets sorted , that is my only issue as yet .

[Alcar]

So far my record for "Mission Impossible" is to put 21 24-inch torpedoes into the BB and have it just smile back at me. The rest of the new ones have been easy enough. Any tips on this one?

Only needed one try to beat each of these:

Near Jutland

Modern vs. Old Destroyers

Torpedo Bonzai

[Radium_Bullet]

I've only tried one of the new DD missions so far but overall:

Favorites:

Both ironclad battles: Funny, and trying to find a solution to damage the enemy ship with low penetration was entertaining, used max penetration on monitor and max incendiary on virginia

German raiding squadron: Enjoyed having to choose between firepower, torpedoes, speed, and survivability to create small ships capable of sinking cargo ships in a timely fashion while avoiding the guns of their escorts

 Dreadnought vs modern cruisers: Liked how distinct the enemy advantages and my advantages were; had to make full use of armor and gun penetration knowing the enemy ships had torpedoes and more accurate, but less powerful guns. Focused on maintaining distance while weathering their low caliber guns before finally landing devastating hits.

Modern vs old destroyers: One of my favorite custom battles was to create one modern destroyer and place it against 5 or 6 ai destroyers. Put everything into firepower, accuracy, surviability and sonar, making short work of anything that came within 3km while dodging the older DD guns.

Hurry up: Enjoyed creating torpedo boats capable of quickly reaching battle, dodging high caliber guns and torpedoes, and doing torpedo hit and runs.

Least favorites:

US Super Battleship: If I invest everything into firepower, the japanese battleships hightail away at warp speed before I can inflict sufficient damage until the timer runs out. If I invest everything into speed, the japanese battleships still hightail away at warp speed until the timer runs out. Also personally not a fan of 1vs large fleet missions in general.

 

[admiralsnackbar]

I've beaten all missions except casemates USS virginia (in terms of missions before 6.0) (the ships seem impenetrable using the guns available... but i guess that's historically realistic?)

No luck with any of the destroyer missions. Playing as battleships you can mind-game: control distance and angling, etc. etc.  With destroyers It feels like it's much more a question of just having more total firepower since the thickest destroyer armor can only stop destroyer caliber guns outside the effective range of those guns. 

I'm not prepared to call these particular missions impossible but if anyone has any techniques they used to conistently get victories let me know. I'll keep trying different stuff in the meantime. 

*update*: i beat the modern destroyers mission. 

Torpedo Banzai: 
Both my torpedoes and my destroyers are undetected, i notice that the moment my destroyers launch torpedoes, the enemy ships are executing turns. WAD?
Was able to win this. 

Battle of Destroyers: 
Can't beat it yet. The game gives you a handful of stock destroyers that perform abysmally against the AI destroyers, then you can field a handful of good destroyers. AI destroyers are pretty good at avoiding torpedoes and in gunfights they tend to win as well. This is the sort of scenario where i wish they'd have given you maybe double the money but no extra destroyers. 

Contest in the black sea:
Won the battle without completing the objective (it didn't look like i destroyed the battleships but the game still said i won)

Mission Impossible:
A very accurate name. I tried leaving the escorts to their fate and dashing straight for the BB to launch torpedoes, but the damn thing ate multiple salvos and didn't sink. 
*Update*: I *was* able to sink it after a few more tries, but it's predicated on causing multiple ammo detonations because a flooding-kill doesn't work. 

Jutland:
*Was able to win after a few more tries, it's far from impossible*

Edited May 15, 2020 by admiralsnackbar

[Tycondero]

Cannot beat the Torpedo Banzai one. Unless someone is super lucky with the designed AI ships and their location, my destroyers cannot even get near enough to reliably launch torpedoes. Also the enemy BBs are so strong and accurate that they constantly hit my DDs, which mostly means a one shot kill. As the mission had the limitation of that 70% of ones own force must survive I feel like it is unbeatable atm without severe luck.

[admiralsnackbar]

4 hours ago, Tycondero said:

Cannot beat the Torpedo Banzai one. Unless someone is super lucky with the designed AI ships and their location, my destroyers cannot even get near enough to reliably launch torpedoes. Also the enemy BBs are so strong and accurate that they constantly hit my DDs, which mostly means a one shot kill. As the mission had the limitation of that 70% of ones own force must survive I feel like it is unbeatable atm without severe luck.

Having beaten it once or twice:

1. Create the lowest visibility destroyers you possibly can, i think in that mission i ended up with 3 or 4 of them. (Which usually means experimental hull plus high speeds (aim for 36+ knots)
2. Go for heavy oxygen propelled torpedoes to maximize your range
3. Ignore carrying guns on your destroyers, just put like 1 2cm cannon or something, everything else should be torps.
4. Stay out of detection range of the enemy fleet, wait until the enemy is sailing towards you to launch torpedoes, 

This doesn't guaranty victory but you'll reliably sink tons of ships without getting hit yourself, your odds of getting the battleships are very high using this method though. 
Also again it appears that enemies will execute turns against torpedos even when they can't see the torps or the destroyers that launched them. The good news is that the AI tends to spin in circles when it avoids torpedoes as opposed to sailing into or away from the spread and then going in a straight line. 
 

Edited May 15, 2020 by admiralsnackbar

[Ignominius]

Having trouble with the torpedo banzai mission for a very frustrating and probably unintended reason: because there are so many enemy ships, they keep getting too close to each other and swerving to avoid a collision, which as it turns out makes it very hard for the torpedo aiming AI to predict where the enemy ship will be in a couple of minutes when the torpedos reach their targets.

[Nuclear_Owl]

Big dislike on the "Build your own H class".

How in the name of anything that is holy is one suppossed to win this?

Scenario 1: Ballanced Battleship  -->  Enemy spots me first and I get blown out of the water within 2 minutes because of the laserlike accuracy of the enemy. Seems they start at 10% and warp themselves to 20% within a minute.

Scenario 2: Battleshipwith long range focus: --->  See Scenario 1

Scenario 3: Battleship with long range focus and 20 inch Deck Turret Top Armor that lacks everything besides guns and armor. --> Hurray I survive the first 2 minutes. Just to get blown the water after 5 min instead by a wall of torpedos. Which I cant defend against since I can't put on any torp protections since I need a huge amount of armor.

Scenario 4: Battleship from Scenario 3 but I focus the Destroyers as soon as I see them. --->  Possibility 1: I don't hit them and they get me. // Possibility 2: I get them, but then the Battleships pound me to dead since I needed to long for the DDs.

Scenario 5: By some mirakle and intervention by a higher power I manage to badly damage an enemy BB. ---> It just turns and drives of. Even if I had the speed to beginn with, which I cannot have since I need 20 inch Deck armor, I would have to go trough a wall of Torpedos to get him. And in most cases at that time my engine is damaged too. No way to get that guy.

 

So how the F is one suppossed to win this? I am all out of ideas.

[admiralsnackbar]

On 5/19/2020 at 3:55 AM, Nuclear_Owl said:

Big dislike on the "Build your own H class".

How in the name of anything that is holy is one suppossed to win this?

Scenario 1: Ballanced Battleship  -->  Enemy spots me first and I get blown out of the water within 2 minutes because of the laserlike accuracy of the enemy. Seems they start at 10% and warp themselves to 20% within a minute.

Scenario 2: Battleshipwith long range focus: --->  See Scenario 1

Scenario 3: Battleship with long range focus and 20 inch Deck Turret Top Armor that lacks everything besides guns and armor. --> Hurray I survive the first 2 minutes. Just to get blown the water after 5 min instead by a wall of torpedos. Which I cant defend against since I can't put on any torp protections since I need a huge amount of armor.

Scenario 4: Battleship from Scenario 3 but I focus the Destroyers as soon as I see them. --->  Possibility 1: I don't hit them and they get me. // Possibility 2: I get them, but then the Battleships pound me to dead since I needed to long for the DDs.

Scenario 5: By some mirakle and intervention by a higher power I manage to badly damage an enemy BB. ---> It just turns and drives of. Even if I had the speed to beginn with, which I cannot have since I need 20 inch Deck armor, I would have to go trough a wall of Torpedos to get him. And in most cases at that time my engine is damaged too. No way to get that guy.

 

So how the F is one suppossed to win this? I am all out of ideas.

Are you being detonated/extensive fire kills by plunging shells or being destroyed from structural damage?
If you're having issues with the former then you should focus less on armor and more on bulkheads and the other components that reduce the risk of catestrophic damage. 

Here's my H Klasse (I played 3 matches :

Displacement: Minimum
Speed: 31kts
Bulkheads: Max
Engine: Deisel propulsion, Semi fuel, forced boilers, AUX IV, Shaft II
Protection: Krupp IV, Barbette IV, Reinf Bulkheads II, AntiFlood III, Citadel V, All else at default.
Armament: Super Heavy Shells, Standard Ammo, Tube Powder,  Autoloading
Rangefinder: Stereoscopic Rangefinder V, RDF, Gen II Radar
Armor [center/extended] Belt = 10''/5''  Deck = 6''/6'' Conning tower = 11 Turret = 15'' turret top = 5'' secondaries = 6''

Main Battery 3 turrets of 18 [2 front 1 back] 
Secondary Battery: 8 inch twin turrets, 5 of them on the side, one on the back, for a 12 gun broadside. I could not fit another 18 inch gun on the back so basically the 8 inch takes its place.

Be sure to maintain your ship's cruising speed because that 30% accuracy bonus is very helpful. 

While that ship did give me wins more often then not [i tried it several times] victory isn't guaranteed. On one occasion I basically obliterated both ships in 1-3 salvos due to lucky hits causing explosions. Other times they'll get to like 60% HP and start sailing away, at this point the fight gets very difficult because they become impossible to sink without torpedoes or close range broadside hits with your main guns.  , you'll have to basically destroy the entire fleet to get to the ships. the 8 inch secondaries are very useful since they will open fire before you get within enemy torpedo range. 



 

[Elite06]

Most hated missions...  destroy full fleet, prove your might, Ive spent hours and hours on these 2 missions, attempted  at least 30 times, .. ive given up at this point on these missions.. just not worth the effort at this point, its more annoying than fun. i really like these kind of creative games, but not when its "create what the devs want" to succeed game... ive also found a massive bug, when launching torpedoes while in a formation, only the lead ship will launch, all the others refuse to launch, even when well within range, and set to aggressive... here is a perfect example, ive got 4x4 torp launchers, all loaded, set to aggressive, with an enemy ship inbound at 6km, with a 22km range on my torps, yet it absolutely REFUSES to fire. the lead ship fired, and the rest refused, i then broke them out of formation, hoping they would fire, still nothing.  they wont launch on the BB's who at this point are only 9km away, wont fire at literally anything. how is this mission possible if the DD's wont launch their torps?!?!?! ok so im literally done with this banzia mission.. literally rediculious.. you cant get ahead of the enemy convoy, as they somehow detect you at 19km away and turn away.. also, how in the hell do you hit a ship that is constantly turning? ive launched so many torp spreads attempting this mission, and the best ive done is sink 2 of the BB's with lucky hits... how are you supposed to possibly sink them all? you cant carry near enough torps to do that...

Edited May 23, 2020 by Elite06

[DougToss]

Many old training manuals are declassified, I would like to see tutorial missions that use the problems presented to cadets at the naval academies, if possible. 

I think it would aid player education and I believe that this work of historical preservation would be a worthwhile contribution to the study naval history and the hobby. 

For example, shooting a towed target of the correct dimensions at the speed and range used in Royal Navy gunnery trials. Player results could be compared to historical results, first to aid the devs in establishing the correctness of their modelling, and once that is established, secondly for players to aspire to match the performance expected of real ship's captains. 

“HOW GOOD MUST FIRE CONTROL BE? Because its trajectory curves, a shell aimed at slightly too great a range will still hit a target extending out of the water. The allowable error is the danger space. The flatter the trajectory of the shell, the longer the danger space and thus the less precise fire control has to be. The Royal Navy 1904 trials were based on 6in gunnery at about 4,500 yards (a danger space of 100 yards): required accuracy was fifty yards and the correction after spotting was one full danger space. The longer the range of the gun, the steeper the trajectory, hence the shorter danger space. Danger space depends on the height of the target: thirty feet for the Royal Navy in 1910 (ten feet in 1904), but different for other navies and other times. Heavier guns had flatter trajectories reflected in longer danger spaces, hence greater tolerance for error. This difference became more pronounced at the longer ranges desired to avoid the torpedo threat. At 4,500 yards, the 12in/45 had a danger space of 130 feet (175 feet by 1910 rules), compared to 100 feet for the 6in. Effective hitting at longer ranges thus became associated with the heaviest guns. Hence the all-big-gun ship”

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

“The gunnery revolution began in 1898 when Captain (later Admiral) Percy Scott RN, then captain of the cruiser HMS Scylla, found a solution to the rolling problem. On 26 May 1899 Scylla made fifty-six hits out of seventy shots at the annual prize firing, six times her performance the previous year. This result was so remarkable that few believed it before they had seen it in action. Just as important, Scott’s guns could hit at longer ranges because they were so much steadier. Scott had carefully observed gunners, some of whom achieved great success by continuously elevating and depressing their guns so that they were always on target. Scott called this technique continuous aim. It was no longer necessary to choose a point in the ship’s roll at which to fire. Waiting for the gun-sights to come ‘onto’ the target had always been a source of error, because no gunner’s reflexes were instantaneous. Moreover, firing only at a set point in the roll limited the firing rate.

Scott was stabilising guns in the line of sight but not across it (ie against cross-roll). This pre-World War I gunnery revolution extended line-of-sight compensation to heavy guns so that, by 1914, gunners firing at 10,000 yards could make many more hits than they might have at 1000 yards before Scott”

Excerpt From: Norman Friedman. “Naval Firepower: Battleship Guns and Gunnery in the Dreadnought Era”. Apple Books. 

In pure gameplay terms, those are important lessons to teach the player. It would be unreasonable to throw a player into action against a moving ship in action before they have mastered being able to hit a towed target of known dimensions, speed and heading. Of course unlike real captains, players' lives and those of their crews as well as missions of dollars of government property aren't on the line, so they can of course skip these tutorials and go straight into combat training or combat if they like. I think it would be great for historical immersion and player training for players who so choose and again, so the devs have a point of comparison for their ballistics model, and players have a standardized way to test and evaluate different armaments, mounting arrangements and fire control systems. 

Edited May 25, 2020 by DougToss

[shieldy44]

ok finally got to one that is driving me absolutely crazy, i think it is mission 24 Near Jutland, i have been able to get through everything up to here, well one other but i wont talk about that lol, anyways it seems impossible. I can easily get my ships up the the 3 BC i can pretty much always take the first 2 out then by the time I get the second one out no matter what i have tried the 3rd is running away and ends up getting screened by the 10 destroyers and i lose him. I have tried just about everything i can think of and pretty much end up with the same result. It's not even a accuracy or RNG thing it just seems impossible to chase the 3rd ship down

[Hellstrike]

"Cruisers needed" is badly balanced and the heavy cruiser hulls are very restrictive due to the large towers and the boats in the middle. The battleship I'm supposed to save sinks before my cruisers can show up in 1/2 of the cases, turning away takes too long (the BB is sunk or badly mauled before it can even try to run towards the cruisers). Torpedo cruisers are even worse because by the time a torpedo makes it to the French BB (long range shot) or you can get point-blank, the Italian BB is scrap. And as stupid as it sounds, simply slapping a pair of triple 18"s worked way better than any even slightly realistic (large) cruiser I tried to build.

[ozzy.88]

On 6/19/2020 at 12:41 AM, Hellstrike said:

"Cruisers needed" is badly balanced and the heavy cruiser hulls are very restrictive due to the large towers and the boats in the middle. The battleship I'm supposed to save sinks before my cruisers can show up in 1/2 of the cases, turning away takes too long (the BB is sunk or badly mauled before it can even try to run towards the cruisers). Torpedo cruisers are even worse because by the time a torpedo makes it to the French BB (long range shot) or you can get point-blank, the Italian BB is scrap. And as stupid as it sounds, simply slapping a pair of triple 18"s worked way better than any even slightly realistic (large) cruiser I tried to build.

I had a totally opposite situation today: the italian BB  I was supposed to protect sunk the french "largest-ever-seen Behemoth" with only few salvos before my CLs managed to even get there xD

I guess this just shows how the random designs need more consistency, because as of now a succes in many scenarios depends purely on what the AI is going to build...

 

Also, a new mission suggestion: one where you have to build cruiser/battleship according to the Washington/London Naval Treaty restrictions and fight against other treaty warships.

[madham82]

On 6/18/2020 at 6:41 PM, Hellstrike said:

"Cruisers needed" is badly balanced and the heavy cruiser hulls are very restrictive due to the large towers and the boats in the middle. The battleship I'm supposed to save sinks before my cruisers can show up in 1/2 of the cases, turning away takes too long (the BB is sunk or badly mauled before it can even try to run towards the cruisers). Torpedo cruisers are even worse because by the time a torpedo makes it to the French BB (long range shot) or you can get point-blank, the Italian BB is scrap. And as stupid as it sounds, simply slapping a pair of triple 18"s worked way better than any even slightly realistic (large) cruiser I tried to build.

I had luck exploiting some balance issues in game. Try this:

Build CLs. Only put the minimum number of guns and armor. You need speed (I did 43kts) and as many 5x torpedoes as I could fit. Go for fast torpedoes at least 21" size. Run immediately with your BB and keep stern on to the French the whole time. With a bit of luck your speed boat cruisers will overtake shortly. Now the fun starts.

Charge the BB. With my build, I had 3 CLs. Split them up from div for better control.  The idea is to close to with 5KMs at least then launch one side of torpedoes from 1 CL at a time. Wait for the hits before attacking with the next CL and so on. As long as you wait until close and get some hits on the 1st salvo, the French BB is doomed. As he slows down and loses maneuvering, make your follow up attacks from different sides. Most of my CLs never took more than a couple of secondary hits. One did get detonated by a lucky main gun shot (the only time his mains hit any of them). I ended up putting 40+ torpedoes in him before he sunk. 

[Skeksis]

Submarines.
"each campaign turn you will have the power to sink enemy merchant or military ships without any opposition"
https://www.dreadnoughts.ultimateadmiral.com/the-playing-modes

On the flipside, does this mean the AI can and will sink 'your' ships at random?

Gee I hope not, this type of RNG loss is going to be a very bitter pill to swallow!

Edited July 5, 2020 by Skeksis

[Rak1445]

That's how RTW handles it, I imagine it won't be much different.

To my knowledge, however, it does not usually kill off your heavies. You may see a 'battleship torpedoed in port, has to spend X months in dock for repairs' rather than 'your fleet's sunk, lol'.

Smaller shipping and especially merchants however will probably be kills.