I've read about the Cruizerg-tactic on the wiki now (hadn't even heard the term before) but I won't be using that approach.
I wan't to build a navy that reasonably realistic and at the same time effective
Besides, what I'm planning for is HOI3 and the exploits of the older games probably won't work there.
I think you are right (with both). I hope they need to make as less rules as possible. Lets see what they say in the development diarys: in DD#10 they say that light ships are best suited to detect enemy ships and that there are multiple detection levels. So, if you don't have light ships, only your enemy can initiate battles. And if the detection also determines how surprised you are (means the combatrange), that could get rid of the rule: have the same number of screening ships as capital ships. Because you are screwed build in if you can't manage to detect the enemy. So, based on strategy and tech, you have to build screening units of your own (or have to work around it if you can). Basicly this means if the realworld advantages are mirrored ingame, you come to realworld solutions.
In the DD#18 they stated that each ship determines it's own position. That gives away the advantage of the Cruizerg: that all ships can fire at the same range, i. e. cheap firepower. If your light cruisers are a suitable part of your firepower, and they get spread instead of concentrated (positioning error), the tactic is dead.
I also hope that BB's get the most bang for the buck (vs surface units, means not vs aircraft and submarines); historically big, powerfull armored ships have evolved because light couldn't compete with them. Heavy cruisers have another function: to work around big battleship fleets and get the job done in small groups or alone, and because they are faster than battleships, they can evade them. Battlecruisers have been build to hunt CA's.
Yes, these concepts are World War One, and are a little bit outdated in WW2, and during the war the function of these ships change with advancing techs.
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Lets see what and why germany planned his fleet (1938, don't sweat if you find other numbers, this plan was constantly changed):
10 BB's
4 aircaft carrier
15 Panzerschiffe
5 CA
44 Atlantik "screening ships" with high range (CL and very large DD)
158 DD and Torpedo boats (i think they mean ships bigger than S-Boote/E-boats)
249 U-boats
+ smaller units
There where two school of thoughts (and neither one got enough influence to get the whole budget):
- the first school demanded a large battle fleet capable of taking on the most powerful opponents (Britain and France); they are responsible for the BB's and CV's
- the second school signs responsible for the large force of U-boats and medium-sized warships such as the panzerschiffe for destruction of the enemy's commercial shipping.
It was also noted that the amount of fuel needed to keep the units runnung was more than immense, and it was scheduled to store 10 million tons of fuel (more than one and a half year of germanys consumption at that time).
Conclusion: even if they could have build the fleet until 1947 as planned, they have frittered themself in two different directions; the load on the industry would have been immense and the amount of fuel needed was also. Also, they would have violated the treaty with GB and they knew it and were not keen to find out how GB would react.
