Getting one's feet wet (RTW, USA)

[Jenny]

This is my first Let's Play on SV, and one of my first times playing Rule The Waves. Let's see how it goes?

Index:
September 1904: It Begins
March 1905: Battleship Action! (... is less exciting than it sounds)
September 1905: Bullshit Destroyer Hax
October 1905: VIVA LA REVOLUTION
December 1905: Blatant Lies
January 1907: Weak puns, heavy guns
June 1907: 'Remember the Rush' doesn't have the same ring to it.
September 1907: Hypatia Triumphant!
September 1908: Fanning Flames
September 1909: And now I'm corrupt. I'm just the worst, aren't I?
September 1910: Selling to my future enemies?
September 1911: Down with Empires! (Except the US Navy's own bureaucratic empire)
September 1912: It goes to eleven.
September 1913: Paranoid fantasies about Japan
December 1913: Of course you realize, this means war.
March 1914: Sinking Tourville
June 1914: Torpedoes are Incompatible with Survival
December 1914: 'Peace and Baguettes' doesn't have the same ring to it, either.
December 1915: Do You Hear the People Sing?
December 1916: The Secretary of the Navy continues to be a jerk.
December 1917: Blinded by the Light
December 1918: Well, I think I just won the naval arms race.
December 1919: Bullying France
December 1920: Triumph of the Tin Can Sailors
December 1921: Singing the Songs of Angry Men
January 1924: Double update. Dupdate?
December 1924: Let's close things out with another war with Germany.
December 1925: So long, farewell

Let's begin in September, 1904, when a naval war between the US (and her Japanese ally) and the Empire of Germany has broken out. The Germans have taken first blood, the cruiser SMS Furst Bismarck sinking an American merchant ship off the Carolina coast and damaging the pursuing USS Pittsburgh in her escape. (I'm not entirely sure what the precipitating event was, beyond simply high tensions with the Germans in general boiling over, so I presume it must've been some event on the German side).

Here's a comparison of the German and American fleets:

On one hand, we have a larger fleet (and a Japanese ally to secure the Pacific, though I think that in RTW terms that really just means they'll occasionally add VP to our score rather than engaging in actual battles?). On the other ... they already have their semi-dreadnought in service, so ... I dunno, a secondary battery of sixteen 9" guns, at 0 or possibly even +1 quality, makes me nervous.

Alright, a look at the US Navy:
The Asiatic Fleet, based in Manila - five ships.

All three ship classes here are part of my legacy fleet. The Columbia-class battleships were built in Britain.

The Caribbean fleet, out of Guantanamo - seven ships:

The Sappho-class is my large light cruiser class ... the Germans have a similar class, but with a lighter belt, fewer torpedoes, and two more 6" guns.

The remainder of the fleet is based on the East Coast, out of Norfolk, Portsmouth, New York, Charleston, and so forth. The battleline:

The Independence class is the only part of my battleline not from the legacy fleet; the final unit was refit with better fire control.

The rest of the fleet:

Well, there's also a single minesweeper in service. The Hurons and the Montgomeries all were built in the last three years.

I find I'm never quite satisfied with my protected cruiser designs. Thus, I've got six different classes of them. :|

And a look at the future of the fleet:

None of these semidreadnoughts will even be finished for a year and a half.

Of note, Britain already has two dreadnoughts building ... and a battlecruiser, ordered in German shipyards for some reason. I don't have three centerline turrets yet... though I do have crossdeck fire.

And here's the situation as things stand:


A few questions:
1) I think I probably ought to commit the battleline, now, to a blockade of the German coast - is there any reason not to, apart from nervousness/timidity? Should I refit my battleline with central firing first?
2) Alright, how bad a ship designer am I?
3) I can build 10" wing guns. Should I build a cruiser (or battleship) of about 23-25 knots, with eight to twelve 10" main guns and a belt of around 8.5"? Probably something like 18000-21000 tons in size, this would be kind of like a dreadnought? Albeit without as heavy guns or as good a layout... Still, here's what it might look like?
4) Admiral's mode, Rear Admiral's mode, or Captain's mode - how should I fight my battles? I've been mostly using Admiral's mode, mostly out of unfamiliarity with the tactical battle system.
5) Any ship names you'd like to see? I get a bit bored with the default names, so I'm going to probably start getting more exotic with them - I played one game where I named a cruiser class after trickster gods, and it was kinda fun seeing the USS Kokopelli taking on the Russians in the Baltic.

 

[Jenny]

Let's move forward six months, throughout which Germany has faced blockade.
To start, September 1904, which saw the US Navy laying down their first battlecruiser, the USS Hypatia. With a 24-knot speed, matching my fastest cruisers in service, and with an armament of two twin 13" turrets and four twin 10" turrets, armored between 9.5" and 11" on the turrets (both 13" and 10"), belt, and conning tower, she's a fine combination of cruiser and battleship... well, as fine as I can make, more or less. She'll enter service ... in 2.5 years.

[Thanks to @Grin_Reaper for design advice]

September also saw the heart of the US battleline move to blockade Germany. Five battleships, two second-line Brooklyn-class 'battleships', two Rochester-class armoured cruisers, two protected cruisers, and ten destroyers.


The blockade was soon challenged. First, on October 26, 1904, a German task force of two protected cruisers and three destroyers engaged in an inconclusive night action with the American cruisers San Francisco and Olympia.


November saw little action, with the Germans declining a possible fleet action between their Pacific squadron and the American Asiatic Squadron. December saw even less.



January 1905 saw the sinking of a German raider, notable action by the Japanese in support of the US, and the US government rejecting peace talks out of hand.


February saw the first real battleship duel of the 20th Century, off the coast of Emden. The American 'battleline' wasn't a line so much as a mob ... and yet the superiority of American battleships' survivability, and the generally inaccurate shooting of all ships, kept this disorganization from mattering. In fact, not a single warship was sunk - only a transport, sunk just before the main fleet action. The artillery duel lasted for hours ... yet nothing decisive occurred.

Still, the blockade fleet held. The wounded battleship North Dakota, and the somewhat weary battleship Freedom, were transferred home, with the Arizona-class battleships taking their place on the line.


March saw a cruiser clash off Pillau, with the protected cruiser USS Lesbos proving herself more than equal to a German force of three destroyers and a protected cruiser.

***
Something seems odd about my game. I've researched Superimposed B turret now, in addition to Cross-Deck Fire ... but I still haven't researched Three Centerline Turrets, and the B turret simply isn't an option, nor are wing turrets above 10", nor can I set up cross-deck wing turrets. As a result, I've had to build a mixed-battery 'battlecruiser'.

Fighting on Admiral's Mode might not be the best idea. My battleline got gravely disorganized, with two of my battleships getting separated from the other three.

 

[obssesednuker]

All these RTW let's plays are making me tempted to grab the game myself. I'm curious though: given that the games timeline runs into the 1920s, do early naval bombers and carriers make an appearance?

 

[Night]

Captain's mode is...almost mandatory, mainly because the AI can get really, impossibly, incredibly dumb handling damaged ships.

The tech tree does that sometimes. Without Three Centerline you can't build a dreadnought. Though I kind of wish you could, with superimposed B, build an all-forward predreadnaught as some kind of 1902 Richelieu/Dunkerque clone.

You could also try to build a three-turret ship with wing forward wing turrets ala a Badnought, only with dual turrets forward. I don't know if that's possible either at the moment but it was in previous versions of the game; it was justified by some Russian armored cruiser design.

 

[Grin_Reaper]

[Thanks to @Grin_Reaper for design advice]

Click to shrink...

And now I'll get to see if that advice was any good.

 

[Jenny]

You could also try to build a three-turret ship with wing forward wing turrets ala a Badnought, only with dual turrets forward.

Click to shrink...

Unfortunately, I can only put single turrets there.

Pretty quiet six months. I auto-resolved every single-ship cruiser interception.

April 1905 sees the Germans decline a coastal raid, and sees the protected cruiser USS Washington, DC sink the German protected cruiser SMS Niobe. It also sees the USN laying down her first two submarines.
May sees continued raiding activity from the German navy, but also sees my three long-ranged protected cruisers, en route to join the Asiatic Fleet, operating off the German colony of Angola with impunity, the German AMC present on station being unwilling to challenge them (80 VP for the enemy being unable to muster enough ships).
June sees the USS Baltimore sinking the SMS Gefion when she attempted to run the blockade, further reducing the German navy.
July sees the Germans declining battle in the North Sea, while their commerce raiders continue to strike abroad.
August sees SMS Hertha scuttle and sees the SMS Hansa sunk by USS Brooklyn.

September sees the Germans refusing to challenge two coastal raids in the North Sea ... and, on 9/10/1905, sees the USS Macdonough torpedoing the sole German cruiser still operating in the Caribbean.

My thoughts on starting the scenario and seeing my forces went, like, 'okay, two destroyers as a convoy escort, one CA estimated ... it'll be a CL or an AMC, right?' Then, when I saw that the enemy ship shooting up the convoy was identified as a CA ... and then confirmed as a Hertha-class of 9600 tons ... I was like, 'welp.' But I got in close, stayed in close, and got into a torpedo-firing arc ... and SUNK it on the first torpedo. Major victory!

 

[DezoPenguin]

Okay, what I have to ask is, why are the ships pink and blue here, while everybody else's LP has them in grayscale? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Iron Wolf]

My thoughts on starting the scenario and seeing my forces went, like, 'okay, two destroyers as a convoy escort, one CA estimated ... it'll be a CL or an AMC, right?' Then, when I saw that the enemy ship shooting up the convoy was identified as a CA ... and then confirmed as a Hertha-class of 9600 tons ... I was like, 'welp.' But I got in close, stayed in close, and got into a torpedo-firing arc ... and SUNK it on the first torpedo. Major victory!

Click to shrink...

"This is bullshit" muttered the german captain as his ship slipped under the waves.

 

[Exterminatus]

1) I think I probably ought to commit the battleline, now, to a blockade of the German coast - is there any reason not to, apart from nervousness/timidity? Should I refit my battleline with central firing first?
2) Alright, how bad a ship designer am I?
3) I can build 10" wing guns. Should I build a cruiser (or battleship) of about 23-25 knots, with eight to twelve 10" main guns and a belt of around 8.5"? Probably something like 18000-21000 tons in size, this would be kind of like a dreadnought? Albeit without as heavy guns or as good a layout... Still, here's what it might look like?
4) Admiral's mode, Rear Admiral's mode, or Captain's mode - how should I fight my battles? I've been mostly using Admiral's mode, mostly out of unfamiliarity with the tactical battle system.
5) Any ship names you'd like to see? I get a bit bored with the default names, so I'm going to probably start getting more exotic with them - I played one game where I named a cruiser class after trickster gods, and it was kinda fun seeing the USS Kokopelli taking on the Russians in the Baltic.

Click to shrink...

1. Waiting for FC refits is a legitimate reason to delay plans for battle given how much of a boost it gives. Main reason to be cagey about about blockading without bases is that damaged ships will have to be scuttled since there's no friendly port nearby, the risk of internment is higher than normal, and ships will get worn down by maintenance.
2. Battleships look fine for now. The cruiser designs seem to be all over the place to my eyes though. The 6" gun cruisers have a relatively small broadside that exceeds no more than 5 guns per broadside at most while the 5000+ ton CLs have a lot of 4" guns in comparison. A lot of them are also below 24 knots which may force them to be scrapped by the end of the first decade.
3. I prefer to wait to have the centerline turrets technology in conjunction with the main battery wing turrets because using wing turrets eats up a lot of weight that may go unused. It is a valid way of pushing out 8-gun designs though!
4. My personal preference is Admiral's Mode because Captain's Mode is cheating since the player can use torpedo armed ships way better than the AI. Rear Admiral Mode does not allow manual torpedo use but does allow for better positioning with DDs than Admiral Mode. Mind, the command types does change the tactics and strategies the player uses because of how the AI uses both the enemy and player's ships.
5. Inaudible, Incompatible, Indefensible, Inedible, Indigestible, Inexplicable, Inflammable, Inhospitable, Insatiable, Insolvable, Intolerable, Decoy.

 

[Jenny]

Okay, what I have to ask is, why are the ships pink and blue here, while everybody else's LP has them in grayscale? Inquiring minds want to know!

Click to shrink...

Simple enough: I chose those colors for the US and Germany.

An interesting development: The Kaiser has been overthrown, a revolutionary government installed, a harsh peace enforced. The question is ... what should I take?
Note that the less I take, the more reparations I get (meaning a stronger economic base, i.e. more budget).

I elected ultimately to take Germany's islands in Southeast Asia; Japan claimed Tsingtao.

 

[Iron Wolf]

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

Anon_Admiral destabilizing one regime at a time.

I elected ultimately to take Germany's islands in Southeast Asia; Japan claimed Tsingtao.

Click to shrink...

That's what I was going to suggest before I scrolled down and saw you did anyways. Great minds!

Although East Prussia was mighty tempting...

 

[DezoPenguin]

...I boggle at the fact that you are two points of value away from being able to take part of Prussia as war reparations.

I'd say to pick whatever areas give you an important foothold in the backyard of your next victim potential enemy.

Edit: Accurs'd edits, screwing up the utility of my replies before I can even make them!

 

[Jenny]

...I boggle at the fact that you are two points of value away from being able to take part of Prussia as war reparations.

I'd say to pick whatever areas give you an important foothold in the backyard of your next victim potential enemy.

Edit: Accurs'd edits, screwing up the utility of my replies before I can even make them!

Click to shrink...

I believe 10 is the maximum value you ever can get from a peace treaty. Thus, East Prussia's set at 12 so that people can't steal it from Germany.

 

[Jenny]

Short three-month update to take us to the end of 1905, and then tomorrow, I'll play through the year ahead.

Hooray, peace! Doves flying everywhere, couples kissing in the streets, all sorts of good things. Also budget cuts.
I'm running a four million dollar-a-month deficit... with only ten million left to spend. Luckily, one of my mixed-battery battleships is only four months from completion; more luckily, another is somewhat less than useful (21 knots seems slow when I can get similar better armor on a 24-knot BC by cutting down the secondaries to 10" guns) and can be halted (or possibly scrapped). Also, once the fleet moves home, it saves me close to half a million per month on maintenance costs!

In any case, I wind up running a million-dollar/month deficit.



I must come across as a paranoid idiot. I'm barely spying on anyone (I'd been spying on Italy for a while, and only in November 1905 did I also start spying on the Germans, French and Russians), and everyone seems nice and friendly. So either uninformed paranoia ... or blatant lies intended to protect my budgetary turf.
My unrest is now at 2, but my prestige (score, essentially) has gone up to 24!

In the meantime, what to do about my cruisers ...

Maybe this? Seems a bit light on the secondary armament, but 27 knots is knot bad!
I could make the engines prioritize Speed (and thus be less reliable) and get sixteen 4" guns instead of the ten 3" guns.
How much more prone to engine breakdown does setting priority to Speed make a ship?

 

[Night]

What's up with the two 2" secondaries?

Honestly, sometime in the near future 3" is going to stop being enough too, but it's probably good for now.

 

[Grin_Reaper]

What's up with the two 2" secondaries?

Click to shrink...

I assume it's a case of "there was some leftover tonnage and nothing else to do with it"

 

[Jenny]

I assume it's a case of "there was some leftover tonnage and nothing else to do with it"

Click to shrink...

Exactly.

Looking through, I can refit most of my cruisers up to 26-27 knots, but my battleline doesn't have much room for growth - I can squeeze a knot or two more (for 20-21 knots) out from upgraded machinery. Any more requires prioritizing speed, and even then none can hit 24 knots without major adjustments to the secondary battery.

Looking abroad, the fastest ship in commission (apart from destroyers) is the HMS Indomitable, the Royal Navy's four-gun BC, reaching 26 knots. The Brits also have the only 30-knot destroyers... and the only (six-gun) dreadnoughts. With 8.5" belt on Indomitable and 9.5" on HMS Venerable, I'm not quite as worried as I perhaps should be.

I could build an upgraded Sovereign-class BC of 23,000 tons with a 27-knot speed. If I went to 26 knots, I could instead upgrade the armor to 10" secondaries, 10.5" belt/turrets, 12" CT. The 13" gun that we and the RN both use penetrates 9.7" of armor at 5000 yards, incidentally.

Two light cruiser designs:
The Koi-class of large light cruiser, at 6000 tons. 26 knots, ten 6" guns (broadside of seven), max belt for a protected cruiser in this period.


The 4900-ton Potomac-class of destroyer leader, based on the Montgomery-class, with no less than fourteen 4" guns, a speed of 26 knots, similar armor, and five torpedo tubes.

 

[Night]

Exactly.

Click to shrink...

It's actually worthwhile to let some tonnage ride as reserve buoyancy if you've got it, and the 2" aren't going to add enough to the damage output for most things to care. It'll also help when it comes time to refit the ship.

Granted I'm not sure that's enough extra to matter on a ship that size.

 

[Jenny]

1906 was a big year for the US Navy. It started out without anything too dramatic, with construction of the USS Pacific being occasionally halted, and with a second Sovereign-class BC ordered in January at a 10% discount and a build time of 27 months ... but in July, things started to get interesting.

Oh, I never got 3 centerline turrets, but who cares about three when you can have four!

Soon enough, my first dreadnought design is starting to be built:

As the name shows, the Navy is not incompatible with a sense of humor!

Clearly, the American public appreciated the joke... to the tune of gathering $50 million to demand we build another. (Sorry for that indefensible pun).

I also ordered a unit of the Koi-class ... and of a new armoured cruiser, one taking advantage of centerline turrets:


That pretty much covers it for 1906; I did play through to January 1907, for the record. On the upside, we have the second-largest fleet, and second-largest naval budget, in the world. (No points for guessing who has the largest). On the downside, the Germans have two BCs laid down, of equal tonnage to the Sovereigns, along with a BB. I might need to develop a new, faster (and better-armed) BC design. Still, ours should commission first.
Also on the downside, Russia has better 12" guns, so there's that to be concerned about.

 

[MadGreenSon]

Why do you still have a predread building? Get rid of it and concentrate on the better stuff.

 

[Jenny]

Why do you still have a predread building? Get rid of it and concentrate on the better stuff.

Click to shrink...

It's a semi-dreadnought, and 13" guns are 13" guns? Not the best logic, though. To be fair, the Royal Navy in real life actually completed a few semi-dreadnoughts of their own (the Lord Nelsons) after HMS Dreadnought herself was already commissioned.
Still, I'm probably too reluctant to scrap a ship that's already begun production.

Speaking of, should I build the second Sovereign-class? On one hand, she's almost half-built; on the other, I'll need a new BC design anyways.

 

[Iron Wolf]

Speaking of, should I build the second Sovereign-class? On one hand, she's almost half-built; on the other, I'll need a new BC design anyways.

Click to shrink...

Regent-class.

 

[Grin_Reaper]

Why do you still have a predread building? Get rid of it and concentrate on the better stuff.

Click to shrink...

It's a semi-dreadnought, and 13" guns are 13" guns? Not the best logic, though. To be fair, the Royal Navy in real life actually completed a few semi-dreadnoughts of their own (the Lord Nelsons) after HMS Dreadnought herself was already commissioned.
Still, I'm probably too reluctant to scrap a ship that's already begun production.

Speaking of, should I build the second Sovereign-class? On one hand, she's almost half-built; on the other, I'll need a new BC design anyways.

Click to shrink...

I think keeping the second Sovereign and the Pacific would be a good idea. They're not the most modern, but you'll get them much sooner than you'll get a new battleship or battlecruiser and you have some battleships that are starting to get pretty outclassed.

 

[100thlurker]

Why do you still have a predread building? Get rid of it and concentrate on the better stuff.

Click to shrink...

Semi-Dreadnoughts best dreadnoughts.

 

[Gitaxian]

Captain's mode is...almost mandatory, mainly because the AI can get really, impossibly, incredibly dumb handling damaged ships.

The tech tree does that sometimes. Without Three Centerline you can't build a dreadnought. Though I kind of wish you could, with superimposed B, build an all-forward predreadnaught as some kind of 1902 Richelieu/Dunkerque clone.

Click to shrink...

But what if you got superimposed X first? Battleship Offensive Retreat reporting!