Ship Equip Guide! (Image Heavy )

[GUmby_Aaron]

I prefer to skip building heavy cruisers and use a speed buffed BattleCruiser instead, if you take modules that don't impact your speed stat and the highest engine you can out scout a standard cruiser (only take 1 tier for the following; BC armour, and Main Battery. For all the other custom slots you should put in dual purpose secondaries and/or scouting planes).

Pair it with destroyers to act as screen meat-shields and guard against sub and you are golden.

 

[Cavalry]

I find the naval wars usually to have been decided one way or the other by then (I play SP), so I would prefer to focus those dockyards on something more near term. Thoughts?

Naval toys are mostly not for winning but for "Fleet in Being"! Of course SH BB is not the best naval things to build, according to ww2. But against AI, it helps.

 

[noobermenschen]

Anyway, remember im not going super Min-Max on this guide.

WHat's the fun in that? Try out this bad girl for your one ship scouting fleet:

She sees you when you're sleeping, she knows when you're awake. ​

 

[Tavior]

WHat's the fun in that? Try out this bad girl for your one ship scouting fleet:

She sees you when you're sleeping, she knows when you're awake. ​

Don't you meant "Big Brother"? Right?!

 

[GUmby_Aaron]

That ship would only work if it was in a fleet with others of itself because detection averages out for all ships on recon duty within a taskforce

 

[noobermenschen]

Don't you meant "Big Brother"? Right?!

Actually Santa Claus, and to confuse things further Western nations refer to ships as she, while some cultures (Russia comes to mind) refer to them as he.

That ship would only work if it was in a fleet with others of itself because detection averages out for all ships on recon duty within a taskforce

@sterrius had mentioned a single fast ship with a bunch of seaplanes, set on never engage, was the ideal scouting fleet so I'm going to try it out. Japan is about to start the Pacific war, I have 8 "brawny' scouting fleets (2 CA with an extra floatplane, 10 DD, 2 subs) and have Chicken of the Sea in production.

Using this line of reasoning though would stealthy subs be the ideal scouting force for your Strike Fleet? That would not be terribly realistic as the doctrine was of marginal effectiveness at best for both the US or Japan.

 

[sterrius]

Actually Santa Claus, and to confuse things further Western nations refer to ships as she, while some cultures (Russia comes to mind) refer to them as he.

@sterrius had mentioned a single fast ship with a bunch of seaplanes, set on never engage, was the ideal scouting fleet so I'm going to try it out. Japan is about to start the Pacific war, I have 8 "brawny' scouting fleets (2 CA with an extra floatplane, 10 DD, 2 subs) and have Chicken of the Sea in production.

Using this line of reasoning though would stealthy subs be the ideal scouting force for your Strike Fleet? That would not be terribly realistic as the doctrine was of marginal effectiveness at best for both the US or Japan.

Just remember sometimes you need some extra ships (With same configuration), when i said that i was clueless about intelligency Effiency mechanics ^^. (Nothing that changes the ship design , on that its still right. Cruisers full of scout planes is the best detector).

Submarines with radar are also quite good at finding ships. (Not so much vs other subs as the sub detection is low).

 

[Tavior]

Actually Santa Claus, and to confuse things further Western nations refer to ships as she, while some cultures (Russia comes to mind) refer to them as he.

Erm that not what I meant.

https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Big+Brother+is+watching+you

Big Brother is watching you. A phrase taken from George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, meaning one's actions and intentions are being monitored by the government as a means of controlling and suppressing the will of the populace. ... Big Brother is watching you, after all.

It fits nicely with how much detection your cruiser has.

 

[Turak]

Chicken of the Sea is basically a Seaplane Tender with an overpowered engine. It should work pretty darn well in a scouting role.

 

[sterrius]

Chicken of the Sea is basically a Seaplane Tender with an overpowered engine. It should work pretty darn well in a scouting role.

a few more planes and that ship will use Air Mechanics instead of naval ones .


But i will someday get a Sub IV, with all doctrines and tech possible to go as low as possible
and look what is needed to find it without help in deep ocean.

 

[Kacper1234PL]

Helpful, but oh my god, what this escort DD is?! 1,6k IC for DDE that is going to spend majority of it's life never seeing enemy ship?
I for my DDEs use the cheapest hull, engine/guns 1, no torpedoes, no AA, depth charges and ASDIC. If you're going to escort convoys near enemy airfields you might wanna do the same design, but replace depth charges w/ AA guns and ASDIC with FCS as I'm pretty sure it helps with AA. The cost should stay below 1000.

 

[CrazyZombie]

How exactly works damn replacement and marking design as obsolete? I want to create two separate cruisers - one light and one heavy. So, obviously they would have different main batteries. I create light cruiser, then heavy one, using same base hull of same year - and light suddenly becomes obsolete. So... What the hell was that?

 

[Jamey]

How exactly works damn replacement and marking design as obsolete? I want to create two separate cruisers - one light and one heavy. So, obviously they would have different main batteries. I create light cruiser, then heavy one, using same base hull of same year - and light suddenly becomes obsolete. So... What the hell was that?

You have to use the "duplicate" button to not make the old ship obsolete. I find that mostly a problem with CA/CL and BB/BC and it took me a couple of tries (and too many XP) to get it right...

 

[CrazyZombie]

How much speed may I want for my battlecruiser? And what guns are suitable for such? 2 batteries of 3rd level or 3 of 2nd?

Right now I have this one, but may feel, it won't be enough.

Maybe something like this?

BC with speed of 38,9 knots looks like a thing, NOONE too serious will outrun.

As for beating heavy enemy BBs, how do subs work? I mean, high level ones, with good stealth, high attack and etc. Or should I not invent the bicycle and simply make a couple of CVs?

 

[sterrius]

@CrazyZombie
with some tests in speed that we carried out in other topics i would not try to worry too much about speed, not with a BB.

For a BB above 30knots is excellent, i would personally only place it above 20 knots and compesate with DD´s to cover him from torpedos.

 

[CrazyZombie]

@CrazyZombie
with some tests in speed that we carried out in other topics i would not try to worry too much about speed, not with a BB.

For a BB above 30knots is excellent, i would personally only place it above 20 knots and compesate with DD´s to cover him from torpedos.

Trick is, it is a battlecruiser, and while I want many such (original Soviet plan for Project 69 BCs was something about 8 ships till 1942-1943, if I remember it right), I'm not sure, I will actually get them fast (even SU program was cut when they saw, they aren't THAT good), which means - I'd have to be moderate in my shipbuilding. So, I can get a couple of raider capital ships in reasonable time to hit-n-run before enemy throws something big at me. After all, late BC armor is on the level with previous level BB armor, if I remember it right.

BTW, how is the second design in general? I had time to research-rush it as puppeted Germany in early two-front war, but as it was just a test run to check, if it will work or not, I hadn't much time to actually build it and test in combat.

 

[Cavalry]

Not sure if you need two version of cruisers for difference kind of sea terrain. The ship with heavier gun may still win against ship with lighter gun, even with penalty.

 

[Tavior]

Not sure if you need two version of cruisers for difference kind of sea terrain. The ship with heavier gun may still win against ship with lighter gun, even with penalty.

I am talking about this modifier I am hover over. Regular ocean don't have it. It is also the same reason why submarine are very efficient because your escort fleet will be make up of DD/CL and it hurt your surface raider to have a -25% to damage especially light guns and I presume torpedoes too. Unfortunately there is nothing I can do about the DD penalties so I just eat it.

Just so you know, you only need one heavy battery I for a cruiser to be counted as a CA and to nullify that penalty at a tiny loss of speed, -5% overall, and some visibility which is better than a flat speed -10% and -25% to attack/defense. I use an Italian CL to demonstrate this in the ship designer window in the spoiler tag below. Ignore the speed ski speed stat since I am still on the broken speed beta patch.

Spoiler

You can tell this is a CL because it is a screen ships and CA is a capital ship mechanics-wise.

This is the module you want. It does raise your visibility a little and -5% speed but since you are facing nothing but light gun mostly from DD. You are not too worried about HP but it is indeed a nice benefit.

Notice how I only touched the bottom left battery? It is now treated as a CA/capital ship instead of screening. Since you are most likely facing a few DD and CL hunting for submarines. You are not worried about proper screening for this CA at all.

 

[halvorni]

Bumping this thread because it's great, and also since I have a few questions/comments after looking through this and related threads.

It seems to me that a viable strategy as one of the majors, like USA and UK, would be to take all old DDs and CLs (and possibly CAs) that you start with, and split them into a large number of small ASW squadrons (ca 6 ships each?). And then, when war comes, give them convoy escort missions in all zones where you have convoys.

Also, before you have researched many techs, start building 'corvettes' - 1936 DDs with depth charges and a bare minimum of guns, as cheap as possible. Spam a number of these for ASW in remaining zones.

At this point, maybe also a few minelayers - the cheapest possible variant based on 1936 DDs with minelaying equipment and little else (later on you'd be able to lay mines with subs and planes).

And a few minesweepers, also cheapest possible 1936 DD hulls.

And then, with a few relevant techs researched, start building your fleet destroyers to be used in patrol squadrons and strike fleets as screens. Also with ASW equipment, but now with more guns and as many torpedo tubes that you can fit into them. Have a line of these going for the entire war.

 

[Cavalry]

It seems to me that a viable strategy as one of the majors, like USA and UK, would be to take all old DDs and CLs (and possibly CAs) that you start with, and split them into a large number of small ASW squadrons (ca 6 ships each?). And then, when war comes, give them convoy escort missions in all zones where you have convoys.

Also, before you have researched many techs, start building 'corvettes' - 1936 DDs with depth charges and a bare minimum of guns, as cheap as possible. Spam a number of these for ASW in remaining zones.

At this point, maybe also a few minelayers - the cheapest possible variant based on 1936 DDs with minelaying equipment and little else (later on you'd be able to lay mines with subs and planes).

And a few minesweepers, also cheapest possible 1936 DD hulls..

I think we have a lot of old DD I with depthcharge but without sonar. Can they defend against sub? Whatever I think we need not refit them but mix them with newer DD with ASW to form an escort team.

There are a lot of old sub I too. They are the best candidate for install mining equipment. Sub has large range than DD for mining, and much cheaper. Old DD is need to form escort anyway!

I see AI use minesweeper but not mine layer yet.