Cant' beat NA "Destroy a Full Fleet"

[Armchair_Admiral]

First off, kudos to the developers for a fun game and hi to the forum!

I am stuck on my last Naval Academy mission: Destroy a Full Fleet. The maximum I can build are two battleships, which apparently is not enough to beat the two enemy battleships, a battle cruiser and their escorts. Is this mission currently slightly off-balance and should be left till reworked, or should I try harder/smarter?

Cheers

[RedParadize]

 Maybe we can give you some advise. Can you show us your design?

[Armchair_Admiral]

Here we go..

[HusariuS]

So i designed a ship for you, i don't know if it will work for you because, ships in academy missions are generated randomly, so you will never face same designs.

I almost managed to complete the mission with this ship, but i made a mistake and didn't use increased ammunition, and i lost because i couldn't shoot at anything XD

My tips are that, you are gonna keep enemy ships at distance, eliminate both Battleships out of fight (you don't need to sink them, just force them to run away, and also you need to only destroy 70% of the Fleet), when you do that, just focus your fire on smaller ships like Battlecruisers, Light Cruisers etc. and sink them.

Watch out for Destroyers because they can easily torp you.

Type of hull: Battecruiser III - Because i like Battlecruisers.

Main Guns: 4x2 381mm - you can also use 406mm but you must consider increased Weight.

Secondary Guns: 6x2 127mm - if you want to be better protected against destroyers, you can also put casemates guns.

Displacement: 34,300t - To increase the length of the ship to maximum for more space.

Speed: 35kn - necessary to increase chance to dodge enemy shells, don't use lower speed than 34 knots.

Range: Very Short - useless in academy missions.

Bulkheads: Maximum - For maximum survivability. You can also use Many bulkheads.

Engine: G.Turbines - because they are better than old ones.

Fuel: Oil - because Coal is for poor guys.

Boilers: Balanced - because Balance.

Aux Eng: Aux III - For maximum survivability, if they managed to hit your ship, there is lesser chance to damage your propulsion system and keep high speed.

Shaft: Shaft III - For maximum survivability, if they managed to hit your ship, there is lesser chance to damage your propulsion system and keep high speed.

Armor: Krupp IV - Weight saving and better protection.

Barbette: Barbette II - Barbette III is also good choice.

Antitorp: Antitorp II - Antitorp III is also good choice if you are scared of they torpedoes.

Hull bottom: Double - Triple is also good choice.

Bulkheads: Reinforced II - Maximum survivability.

Anti-Flood: III - Maximum survivability.

Citadel: V - Maximum survivability.

Shells: Super Heavy - Heavy shells are also good option if you want to keep high reload speed.

Ammo shells: Standard - I also recommend Increased ammunition (i actually failed to finish this mission because i run out of ammo XD).

Explosives: High TNT - or standard TNT for additional penetration.

Turrets: Adv.Hydraulic - The idea is to keep them at distance.

Reloading: Auto - Because more shells.

Range F: Rng S-V - Battlecruisers usually have weak armor, so it's good to keep your enemy at distance and still have good accuracy.

Radio: None - you can also use RDF as it works as Radar I generation.

Belt Armor: 240mm - Light armor, high speed.

Belt Extended: 80mm - Light armor, high speed.

Deck: 50mm.

Deck Extended: 25mm.

Conning Tower: 380mm - To protect your Commander.

Turret: 285mm.

Turret Top: 105mm.

Secondaries: 50mm.

 

Also Happy New Year 2020

[HusariuS]

Ah yes, i also used Increased Firepower bonus.

I used Three funnnels to make sure that i will keep up high speed in the case one of them will be damaged or destroyed, two funnels in the middle are Enhanced Funnel (Small) and the one in the Tower is Standard Funnel.

Main Tower: Advanced Tower VII - Better accuracy.

Rear Tower: Rear Tower VIII - Better accuracy and additional placement for gun.

Edited December 31, 2019 by HusariuS

[Steeltrap]

[If you use Windows print screen instead of the in-game screenshot, you get all the interface stuff; I can't remember who it was (sorry!) but someone was kind enough to answer my question about that some time ago.]

@Armchair_Admiral here are some things I consider when doing designs. @HusariuS has, obviously, also given some good specific feedback.

When it comes to guns, it's very important to check the 'mark' rating. A mark 3 14" will be superior to a mark 2 15" in pretty much every respect, and we'll save weight and money as well. Bigger is not always better.

When it comes to design, especially following the hotfix, speed and "target signature" are important things to consider.

"Target signature" (in shipyard it's under "Stats" ---> "Detection") is what generates the "target ship size" modifier. The higher our detection, the easier we are to hit. It's why DDs are such pains to hit as they might have a -70% penalty for shooting at them due to their very low Detection value. If you put the mouse over the Detection value you can see what it does; in fact one thing I really like is how much info is shown to us about how things alter in-battle performance, such a good game design choice IMO.

Max speed will determine the speed at which we can travel to maximise the "own cruise speed" bonus. We want to run at the highest speed that will give a good "own cruise speed" bonus. At the same time, we might choose to go faster than is ideal from the bonus perspective because our speed also applies a penalty to our enemies' shooting. So we're trading off making our own shooting as accurate as possible against making ourselves a harder target by going faster.

Armour is a bit all over the place with this hotfix, so I suspect it's worth minimising the chances of being hit but not getting rid of so much armour we're screwed if we are. Then it's "simply" a matter of checking the enemies' chances of hitting us vs ours of hitting them and finding the ideal range at which we have a good enough chance and they don't.

IF our armour is decent, we can afford to take a few more hits, so we can afford to tend in the direction of maximising our hit chances.

IF our armour isn't good enough, OR we're facing too much incoming fire, we might have to sacrifice accuracy to increase our survival.

That's another reason why speed is SO important, and why navies around the world were always looking at it as one of the 3 major components of any ship's design (the others being protection and firepower, although other things such as endurance - how far a ship can travel at various speeds without running out of fuel - also were relevant). It gives us the ability to control the engagement if fast enough. Too many enemies? Back off or try to lure some ships away from the rest and defeat the enemy in detail. Better at close than long range? We can control range, too. And so on.

The top speed of 20 knots in the design shown is not going to cut it. You don't have the ability to control the engagement. The AI might be dopey enough, but a human player would definitely use that against you.

The only real way to see what's going on is to watch a video of you playing the scenario. As @HusariuS pointed out, the scenarios can be a bit of a crap shoot in terms of what the AI shows up with. With your speed of only 20 knots maximum, however, you're pretty much going to be at their mercy.

Just some thoughts. Hope some might prove helpful.

Cheers

[Evil4Zerggin]

1. Pick Enhanced Firepower.
2. Design a destroyer with at least 35 kt speed, some torpedoes, and a triple 5" so they can gun down other destroyers.
3. When the battle starts, split into 2-ship divisions and put them all on AI, unless you like pausing every 5 seconds to individually micro 15-20 destroyers around each other and enemy torpedoes.
4. Click x5 speed.
5. Come back in half an hour and hope you got good rolls.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Evil4Zerggin

[Armchair_Admiral]

Thank you all for your suggestions!

I got the mission on the first try with HusariuS’s design, plus the suggested Increased Ammo, plus some micromanagement of evasive manoeuvring and fire distribution. My own design (see above) was flawed in many respects. It had weaker weapons on a slower ship with I lot more armor. This formula just did not work in this scenario.

Hey Evil4Zerggin, got to try this out.

I wish you all a healthy and productive New Year!

[Steeltrap]

We might have some quite "spirited" discussions around here, but we also tend to help each other out with ideas etc.

Glad it worked. Happy new year to you, too.

Cheers