Meet the American battleships

[Hardlec]

Played Meet the American Battleships 4 times.  To account for confirmation bias, I had the AI play the AI.  Above is the Chinese warrior.

The Americans won all 4 times.  The longest the Chinese lasted was to 1:36.

Battle 1  Over at 1:36.  Americans hit first.  Chinese battleships sunk by torpedoes.  Americans scored 616 hits.  Chinese: 4 hits.

Battle 2:  Over at  1:43.  Americans hit first.  Chinese battleships sunk by torpedoes.  Americans scored 616 hits.  Chinese scored 4 hits.

Battle 3: Over at  1:43.  Americans hit first.  Chinese battleships sunk by torpedoes.  Americans scored 112 hits.  Chinese scored 2 hits.

Battle 4: Over at  1:43.  Americans hit first.  Chinese battleships sunk by torpedoes.  Americans scored 444 hits.  Chinese scored 6 hits.

I think this illustrates pretty well how one-sided this scenario is.  And how one-sided combat is, in general.  The Chinese ships can't score hits.  They can't protect themselves from the American destroyers.  The same AI is running both fleets. It's not due to the inability of the human player to play.  It's playing against loaded dice.

Oh, but I was able to win this scenario!!  How?  What difference does it make when the "human" side can't score any hits?  

The world wonders.

 

[Jatzi]

So I just did this mission and I didn't really think it was that hard. If you're having issues with the destroyers drop one of the main turrets and increase the caliber of your secondary turrets from 4 to 5 inches and make them double or triple mounts. I had a similar design actually, entirely by accident really or just the kind of hull you're given (I think it's the latter which kinda pisses me off but not gonna get into that), except I used double 14's rather than triples. You often take an accuracy penalty from triple mounts so I don't always like using them. So I had one less turret and less guns per turret. Use the weight savings to get max torpedo protection and whatnot. Add more secondaries as I said. Add a torpedo mount maybe? My biggest issue during the mission was that one of the American BB's had 28.1 inches of base armor on the citadel. I didn't bring torpedoes so I had to close to like 1km to get good hits in. But yeah I sank the destroyers without even trying. They didn't even get within 5 km of me

[Zak MacKay]

FWI alt screenshot to take pictures of windows without your desktop

Are you sure its not your ships? You seem to be using protection and maneuverability focus right?

Your using 8" casemate, mk1 guns, 7.1% fore weight,  and a far ends of the ship. Your ship has many features which almost make it as inaccurate as possible. Just because you have 14" does not make them the best weapons. You are using mk1 instead of mk3 guns. Also are you sure you did not hit and failed to penetrate. Without the better gun option you need to get dangerously close to have a chance to penetrate instead of hitting from far.

Ships of the biggest size tend to have weight issues. I am preferring smaller to mid range ships now instead of biggest possible.
Casemate guns tend to cause excessive roll especially 8". On the ship details scroll down to see how insane your roll is. Your also investing a lot of money into something which probably makes your ship worse. 5 or 6" are my most used secondary sizes because their cheap, and effective. 8" secondaries are more useful against cruisers and battleships instead of destroyers. Or at later tiers where you need extreme ranges for oxygen torpedoes.

Just because the AI is bad at piloting does not make it a unbalanced mission. Destroyers are easy to counter if you know what you are doing. AI are often bad so would have issue dealing with them.
Here is a ship I made with firepower focused. When I let the AI have control I hit on the first salvo of the fight for a penetrating hit. In fact I absolutely stomped the enemy ships in every category with no need for a second chance as they where just utterly devastated. No torpedos where shot as the destroyers where torn apart as soon as they where spotted. The Americans scored their first partial penetration when they where half dead. They only did minor damage with 99% structure remaining on one ship. I possibly could have resisted these as my deck was on the lower end.

But I have been playing this game for a while and am a min-maxer so I know the ins and outs of ship design. You may just need to better know what aspects of ships are needed and not needed. I cut many things from my ship which allowed me to get 3 of them. It also lets my invest in things that actually matter and not just meaningless fluff.

The reason I picked firepower focus was just for more firepower. In the majority of scenarios its just the better option. In some protection is nice but firepower is better here. Theirs also a lot of accuracy benefits added by firepower focus while survivability is more weight. Things like auto loaders and super heavy shells can make a massive difference and. My 14" guns fire like 10" guns giving me more chances to hit. With the higher penetration from shell weight and tiers my 15km belt penetration is comparable to 5km. Getting better armor just lets you get closer. Where with better guns you don't need to get closer.

I did not pick the biggest but picked the most economical guns I could find. In this case it was mk3 14" vs mk1 so it was a easy decision. 15 and 16" where mk1 so where just inferior weapons. 2 gun turrets are more cost/weight efficient over 3. I will often only have 4 turrets but was kind of forced to have room for the fifth turret. 15x2 will shoot faster and more accurately over 10x3.

Destroyers are fragile the most important thing is hitting them instead of destroying them with a single shot. 6" where historically one of the most used calibers as they packed a good punch while being quick to fire. My ships can fire at 66.88rpm per side each. If I used 8" I would only be able to get 29.22rpm with 8" guns. Another advantage 6" have is their mk4 over mk3. This means their only a bit less accurate over 8" which is compensated for by volume of shot. The cost and weight savings of 6" are about the same as a 2 vs 3 gun 14" turret. 6" are often the best secondary as they just work with a reasonable cost.

[Jatzi]

I didn't even notice he had MK 1 14 in guns. Yeah that's a big deal. I also used the firepower option here and used the dual Mk 3 14 inchers and yeah they did really well. I would have had an extremely easy time of things if the enemy hadn't had almost 30 inches of armor and torpedoes making closing hard. I used 8 in casemates and dual 5 inch turrets besides the towers and the single forward barbette I used. I have never payed attention to the casemates affecting roll before that's good to know. I do wish smaller vessels had the option for large casemates though. I like putting 7 or 8 in casemates on armored cruisers in RTW 2 for some extra punch against rival cruisers. But that's not an option here in this game sadly.

[Zak MacKay]

On the ships being samey that is more a issue for dreadnoughts. Fast battleships have a lot more customization. Older models also tend to be a lot more restrictive then newer ones. But many of my ships tend to be similar as ships just seem to trend towards a few designs. Things that don't show in the picture tend are where the main customization is. Theirs probably quite a few major differences between are ships. But on a surface design they are similar with similar towers, weapons, and secondary layouts.

Armored cruisers are kind of in a weird place they should be closer to battlecruisers which can get 8" casemate. They have not gotten much love and attention yet so it may just be time before justice is given to them. It is a alpha game.

Plunging fire can be kind of important. Its not always the best idea to close in. In the mission the US ships do seem to have high armor but most of my damage comes from deck penetration it seems. So closing in against them may actually reduce damage not increase it. You can also soften them up from a range and once they have some damage close in. If you have a advantage in long range gunnery you can really exploit it. Same with maneuverability you can often use it to get a advantage. I am often liking to put 1 torpedo in to disrupt their formation and give tool to help finish them off.

Many of my battles are determined more by plunging and long range gunnery then closing in to finish them off. Some I will just bum rush them though. Slow heavily armored ships I often defeat by maneuvering to reduce their accuracy. Moving in a straight line would increase your accuracy but that may not be in your favor. It may sound cheesy but I will often cross the T when attempting to close in. From both the front and rear of the enemy line. But shooting and moving at a long range is probably the majority of it.

8" secondaries are a interesting conundrum. I know many of my early ships had a very big secondary battery but I am now heavily cutting it down. I think I had a ship with 20 barrels of 8" secondaries per side in a combination of turrets and casemates. When I realized how insane roll was it dramatically changed my designs. Roll is actually kind of insane at times.

[Hardlec]

I can't reproduce the design you have. 

I am not allowed to put a main gun turret on the rear tower barbette. 

I can't choose between marks of gun.  I can choose dual turrets.  

If I select one funnel, even the biggest funnel, I get about 60% engine efficiency. 

Q turrets are problematic for me.  They never seem to be able to bear.

My 8 inch guns are in the center of my ship, 4 inch guns are at the bow and stern.  

Your design is better than mine.  My ship designer won't create it.

[Kommandant Flauschige]

Some tips:

a.) Balance your ship as much as possible - provides great bonuses to accuracy

b.) At least in this mission, use only the dual gun turrets. For some reason the triple gun turrets have ABHORRENT accuracy.

c.) Try to have the highest possible calibre of secondaries.

d.) Place your fore and aft guns as far away from the superstructure as possible - grants amazing firing arcs, enabling angling to more commonly bounce enemy shells.

These are the things that helped me win.