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Rule the Waves - How do I shoot ship? (Spain)

HolyDragoon

HolyDragoon

Call Gespenst!
Location
Portugal
So, I finally surrendered and got Rule the Waves.

With my naval stategy being... well, Imperialism (those of you who played get the joke), I wonder how many gallons of gasoline will be fed to the fire before it all goes down.

I have only the faintest idea on naval tactics, technology, and... pretty much everything. I also don't know how to play this game, but that's the point of this let's play, so sit back, open a beer and laugh at my fails.

With no further delays, onwards!


Chapter 1: Countries and designs and ships, oh my!

So, let's begin.

First screen, the game gives me a list of options. Huh, all of them seem more or less interesting, but I don't feel drawn to any of them.

Oh wait. There's custom nations? Let's check it out.





Confederates or Spain? Spain it is. Fleet Size large, dunno what this is but it should be fun.


All right, so, a nice list of ships to check. Also, there's that almanac thingie that says...



Only Austria-Hungary is behind. Colour me surprised. Not. the CSA seems to have some kind of bone to pick against me, and it has more CAs. Another thing to worry about.

I have two kinds of battleship. Hmm... But, I also have ships underway... most of them belonging to yet another battleship class... which has more gun and less armor, packing 10-in guns instead of the 9-in of the heavier middle sister. I don't quite understand how this thing works, to be honest.

Okay, let's make heads or tails of this stuff... maybe try to design a destroyer. Destroyers are tin cans. I can do a tin can.

Uh... yeahhh... let's fold that for now. All my designs seem to end up in something worse. Then again, I'm trying to do an AOK design, which current destroyer ones aren't. Given that I have a fleet for now, maybe I should stick to the current designs and invest on researching.


All right, let's advance turns, and see how things roll to our side. Oh, and some intel for the Confeds.

One month into the game, and I start getting this kind of stuff.



Ah well, I picked a Latin country. This was expectable. :V

Oh, a proposal! Coastal subs. I like this idea. Let's put 4 of them already building, just because. I also forgot to take a screenie of it. Bummer.


And as 1901 dawns, my Armored Cruiser is now ready! Also, I eventually managed to get Krupp armour. I wonder how much difference will 1% make, but I guess it's a matter of the weights involved.




April 1901 gives me some bad news... sort of? Either way, I don't get a fast battleship, I get a fat one. I assume this will have repercussions in speed? Ugh, maybe it's time to get to the drawing board and try to see if there's anything else wrong with that default design.
On the other hand, another CA was completed in the same month. Maybe not all is bad.




This freeing up of the budget might be a blessing. Checking how the foreign forces are, I realize there's a gap when it comes to cruiser numbers. Logically, I need to build more. Let's see... maybe 2 CAs. I can squeeze a CL and a DD in there, and have a little bit of surplus. That will do, for now.

And as the last picture for this... guys, can't you just get along? You have a lot of space in there...




Okay, this is it for now. Let's see what this game throws at me in the next stretch. One year has gone, with no international conflicts too! This must be an achievement! :V
 
Like my first time playing as Russia, damn Naval Treaty scrapping my New York style BBs a month from completion. :(
 
All right, time for the second installment of, pardon my Spanish, '¿Dios mio, que coño estás haciendo?'

So, last time we checked, the Yankees and the... Southerners (what were they called, again?) were having fun trying to spy on each other.

Anyway, back to the trainwreck.



So, this is how we go. I'm still behind on CAs, though. Hmm. Going to try my hand at designing a CA... or let the computer generate a design and tweak it a little. Going to hold off on building any until my balance allows for it, though.



Hmm... no idea on whether this is good or not. Theoretically, it is a balanced design, 4,2/5000 and 3,5/8000 as the penetration values, I guess. Also, my docks just increased by 1000. And new research came in:



Very nice, more gun options are always good. Even better is what came right after:



Bigger destroyers, I guess it is back to the design table!



More crap designs! I can't fit a centerline gun without messing up the whole ship. This will need to do as a compromise, I guess.

Next up, Austria-Hungary asked for an alliance. I answered to a request for a naval conference. The results were... amusing, at least to me. This will have consequences, of course.



And as I was expecting, the UK just had to scrap three of them. Can't picture the Royal Navy being a happy camper right now.



Angola is making noise! Occupy Angola! It's not like I can't live the the increased tensions. Oh wait, France got there first. Bleh.


Also, the British wanted to sell me the double bottom tech. I refused... and ended up finishing it by myself in the same turn. Yay. On other news, my boss just told me 'Build 2 battleships, or else.'



"Sure thing boss!" :V My balance will go into the negatives for a bit, but I'll try to do some chicanery to avoid dipping into the red. I'm 1 million into the red per month, but as the ships in construction are finished, I expect to dip back soon.

Austria-Hungary comes back at it again. Guess what. :V

Nothing came of it, though. I admit it would be funny to force some countries to scrap a few more battleships. Still, as a consolation price, my spy uncovered some juicy intel from the USA. A few turns later... guess what happened again. Unfortunately, it was the same class, so no new designs for me to peek on. I do know that it has more (and bigger) primaries than mine, along with more armor in the conning tower. Hm.



A pleasant surprise along the way, another battleship at a discount! Given that it is my best class so far, I guess I should take it.


On bad news, Tension with the US raised to 8. This isn't good, as their navy could probably put mine in the back pocket. Over the next three or four months, it raised to 10, then it decreased to 9 when I told Britain to sod off.

Also, another CA design. Meet the Pinta. hopefully it doesn't blow up like the... was it a Ford?



And then these guys come:



Yeah, how about a big fat no?

Either way, a couple years go by, no interesting stuff beyond research improvements (and even then, it's more for cap ships than for destroyers or the likes)... And then 1915 comes, and the US declare war.

First battle! Why did they come to my home waters, anyway?



All right, here we go. Here's hoping my ships can do damage. Oh wait, they bailed out. :confused:

And a few months later, here they come again...



Uh... crap. This is not looking good, eating a torpedo already? And why is my force running north? Guys, Spain is the opposite way.



Eventually, my BB saved the day and seemingly got a kill under their belts. This is weird. Very, very weird. Next turn, they decide not to engage once again. Eventually, we decide to stop fooling around and just bury the hatchet...


... for now.


So, this is the end of today's chapter. I still don't understand how my fleet wasn't mauled, but I guess I'll blame the US being far away. Plans right now consist on getting some new ships that don't suck as hard. Of course, with my budget cut after the war, this might be harder than I expected.

Still, I can't complain a lot. My DD are at 1100 tons, I'm reasonably set on guns (well, I could use a few bigger ones and better turret tech, but...). Now, I only need to be able to handle my business in peace... or at least that my 'visitors' don't decide to come fool around and make me spend coal.
 
Neeeeeeeext chapter of this madhattery!


So, okay, I went and chacked Lord K's playthrough, so hopefully I'll have some kind of idea on what to do and what not to do...

Who am I kidding? There's no reverse gear on this out of control steamer! :D

Anyway, let's proceed with the state of things. In the Spring of 1915, there are no Battlecruisers in Spain.




More importantly, my fleet is outdated. Badly outdated. Might as well think about taking out those old battleships and replace them with BCs. The Destroyers can probably be rebuilt to serve as ASW ships. Expanding foreign bases/work on coastal batteries might also be worth a thought. About the old cruisers... eh, modernize FC, rebuild, but give a serious thought on a new class.




Come March 1916, my field forts are ready. I unstick my ships under construction (to balance my budget, I placed them on hold until the modernizations and the field batteries were done). I'm now almost in the positive. On the other hand, they're just light cruisers, who might already be obsolete (isn't that a central theme in RTW, anyway? :V). I think their only notable detail is that they lay mines.



Spaking on mines, designing a minesweeper might not be a bad idea.





Also, I am a hypocrite. After a few months of little to no news (apart from superimposed turrets on CLs and topedo advancements), French wanted Borneo, I decided to call everyone else to stop them. Right after that, Java had some problems... well, you can guess my answer to that. Java get! Coffee for everyone! And France pissed off!


... I guess that wasn't the smartest thing to do, was it?

And right after that, a budget increase and this little surprise:



Which means, back to the drawing board. Also, I burned some cash improving my Caribbean holdings, follwed by the Far East the the following turns. I now have a positive balance, but I'm unsure what to do.



Ah screw it, subs it is. Cheap and useful for defense in case the french decide to come to blows. Not that it will do much good, but at least it will give them some scars.



YES YES YES YES!

And some more of my old battleships are obsolete. Scrap them... also, prepare to refit the ships for director firing. BUT! Someone had a good idea, for once. Might be useful, so sure, it's just one of them.



I gained some research on damage control, but alas, not enough for a new tech. Okay. After that, I decided to improve my Argonauta-class with Director firing. I also noticed my secondaries were 6in, so I reduced them to 5in to deal better with any DDs it might eventually find.



The regatta event also triggered, with France as the host. Since I really don't want to get into a slugging match with them yet, I throw the race. Less tension, yay.



And then, my spy surreptitiously swiped specific ship schematics from the US. Meet the Congress!



Well, it is fast, but I have this feeling that the armour is too thin. Then again, it has freaking big guns. Don't want to mess with that one.

Unless it's via naval treaty. :drevil:

But in short? It has 27 knots. My older light cruisers and all my armoured ones would be battlecruiser fodder. Oh dear. Time to work on a new cruiser... in a few turns. For now, I take Sumatra, and France gets pissed at me again. I should know better, but it is not my fault they want to be conquered. :D

And a few turns later, superb spies swiftly sneak schematics once again. This time, from the BB Dunkerque



Huh, they sure do like their guns big and their armour thin. Aaand politicians want to cut my budget. Well, at least I lose some tension as well. Besides, it's not like I can't build some more subs. :V



How cute!



...

...

...



Yeessss. Let's see the results. They'll keep their bigger guns, yes, but this will be a nice brake to their expansion.



Now... now I can work on some redesigns.



Oh, it's 1920 already? Nice, oil for every ship! This particular cruiser feels underarmoured to me, though. Still, it should work. I picked 5' turrets over 6' because I figure this cruiser would pick fights with destroyers. Besides, it's quality 1 vs quality 0.

Well, it's 1923. During 1922 I had both a request for 20 destroyers and another for 30 subs. All while I was building new cruisers and refitting stuff with oil. Managed to do both requests with a bit of chicanery and lots of held constructions.

From 1923 to 1925... everything was boring, had a tech agreement with Austria-Hungary and an alliance with the CSA, and then the game ended. Just like that. No way, no dick swinging. Might have been the most peaceful quarter of century in Europe... ever.

Truth be told, this was quite underwhelming. I will continue playing but uh... I was half expecting someone to start escalating and trying to screw me, and then... It didn't happen.

Oh, and AON armor? Purchased it in 1926. Heh.

So... worth seeing how things go until the 50s?
 
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This is going by VERY quickly. Just how much time is covered by each update?
 
bdun140 said:
This is going by VERY quickly. Just how much time is covered by each update?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It really depends. The thing about this game, I've realized, is that you can either have 'interesting times', where there's a lot to tell, or you'll have a game locked in a silly season and nothing relevant matters. The latter, coupled with the fact I'm playing blind? Time went by very fast, even faster than I expected.

That 1920 thing? I only realized that because the auto-design picked oil as the fuel, else I'd probably chug along and completely miss that fact. That's how out of touch I was with time.


In the other hand, after reaching this point in this LP, I sniffed a bit around the RTW forum, mainly to check custom countries, and started a second file as Byzantium. I think that I'm around 1905 and I got into a war where the first action was a size 0 battle.

The pucker factor among my fleet was too damn high since it was pretty much 3-to-1 odds against them. Now that makes for interesting narration. :V
 
HolyDragoon said:


Hmm... no idea on whether this is good or not. Theoretically, it is a balanced design, 4,2/5000 and 3,5/8000 as the penetration values, I guess. Also, my docks just increased by 1000. And new research came in:
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It's shit :p

Also, you have 10" guns, it's better to just stick with 10" main guns for your CA's (unless your 9/8s are +1 against a -1 for your tenners) and just spam 5/6 inch guns as secondaries (whichever has better quality and/or fits the weight)

Also, a CA that slow is not going to catch cruisers and will be unable to outrun B's/BB's swooping down on it.
 
6 inch guns have a penalty to targeting DDs that 5 inchers don't have. So go with the fives.
 
*Look up, sees the design as it actually is*

... I actually made that shit a thing?

*checks game file*

Aaah, I saved it for later... more like never. I do concur, in hindsight it looks like shit, but I only checked Lord K's walkthrough after that.

By the way, that Byzantium game I mentioned in my last post. I only got to 1911, AH beat me black and blue, since I had too few ships, and my prestige dropped too much. I had a good track record against Spain back in 1905, but Captain mode really is OP. Circling crippled enemy battleships lobbing fishes every moment I could... well, at least there's a use for underwater torpedo mounts. :V

------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, I'll go and try to get to 1950. Who knows, I might get in a punch-out with someone!

So, this is February 1927, and I have neither BBs nor BCs in service. :eyebrow: Technically, I have two BBs undergoing refit, and I pretty much outmatch other countries on the smaller ships. Except Britain, but they're Britain. Now, do my ships have the quality to go with the quantity?

Diplomacy wise, the French and the Italians are mildly peeved with me. Ask me if I give a damn. :V




Am I the only one amused at the number of British BCs?

Right, so I have that naval treaty preventing large ship construction. Sure, let's try to work around that.



Okay, so bigger ships are out of the picture. I'm pretty sure that CA's are now crud, but let's try to raise on nevertheless. Should be on par with last year's British design. Not going to build any right now, though, my budget is for modernizing what I have. Most importantly, this is an experiment on AoN designs.



This is what I have building. Since I had 4 CLs still building, my rebuilds are still waiting. Damn, I really need a bigger budget. They aren't anything special, though, but meh, they'll do for now. I do have over 60 subs, though! :D



To build or not to build... eh, you know what, going to let them make it. After all, it's only a bit deeper into the red. Also, right after this, people propose a competition. Sure, I can take one month of extra maintenance... and my crew qualities are the pits, kupo!



In June, something happens.



Yeeeah, you can add Lord K's famous saying here. I take the tension hit, it isn't that bad. Italy and France are at tension 5.



And France got kicked out of the Angola Cup. They will now retreat home in shame. you know what? I'm happy with this.

The next month, one of my CL's finally finished construction. The Reina Mercedes is now ready to sail. My budget is still in the red, but having this one finished means the others should be closely behind. I expect to be back in the black in a few months.




November 1928, the USA sells me Minelaying subs. Sure thing, I like the idea of mining my fields if someone gets funny ideas, like trying to shank me. At least they might lose a few DD's against the mines. I'm going to build 10 of them. Also, compared with my medium range subs, my SSC's are... wimpy. Their reliability doesn't even reach the 60s (and some don't even reach the 50s, so I guess I'm going to get rid of them. Between constructions and scrappings, my total sub numbers shouldn't change that much.




While my research team are busy with the itches in their genital areas (and they can't even form a straight line to a whorehouse), the British make a killing by actually proposing the sale of useful stuff.



I did realize that CLs couldn't fit directors, but I never thought they'd be tied to the secondary ones. Makes sense, given the weaponry they carry.

May 1930, and my fleet is rusting itself apart as I finally make it back to the black. Yay.:rolleyes: Let's see what can be done. I heard opening and closing the design counted as a remodel? How large would the costs be? This more to gain time than anything else.

Also, shite, I still have my BBs on hold. Shiiite! And Building them now has a too damn high cost. My budget simply can't hold it. I'll try to mothball a few ships, but that also raises the problem that all I have is old ships. Ah damn it.



This is kinda hilarious. I'm in 1932, and I get the feeling that having this fleet is biting me in the arse when it comes to budget. On the other hand, if I have a smaller fleet, I get bitched at because Italy doesn't like me.


So, it's April 1933, the treaty expired, and I'm screwed. For the last stretch, I'll pray that I can make heads or tails on this shit, probably give up on the slower shits and replace them. This game really punishes you for turtling, eh.




I have no freaking idea of what I was doing when I started this game. I still don't, but at least I know that budget is a bitch and you will have to put up with her every. single. month.


Being Spain really is suffering.
 
This is it. The final chapter.

Yeah, let's stop with the melodrama. Instead, let's just check out how the heck do I get out of this unholy mess that is my fleet and budget.



Legacy ships crawling along? After a quick check on whether or not they could be rebuilt into something decent, I've decided to just toss them all to the bin. With their speed, the only reason I keep them around is for tonnage, and it's quite the expensive tonnage.

By the way, this is how things are with the other powers. I'm not too bad, compared to other nations, but my problems are evident: too many crap in the seas, and the smallest budget.



There's really not much to talk about. France took Angola again, after getting kicked out of there in the previous chapter. On the meanwhile, I work on a small update to my Lazaga-class destroyers, who were close to being outdated. Rangefinders were added, though their strength is in the torpedoes.

However, I realized something good. With the scrapping of my legacy ships and the finishing of other ships I had building, I finally have the budget to handle my battleships, at least one at a time. Good thing one of them is 4 turns from finishing its remodelling... +probably going to need another one right away, but such is the nature of RTW.



Novenber '34, Argonauta finishes the rebuild. Its sister ship is now receiving its (much-delayed) updates. There's another thing, though. I just realized I have a great number of 600-ton destroyers. Not that they're bad or anything, but I have minesweepers for ASW/Coastal patrol, and heavier destroyers/colonial cruisers would be better to meet the FS tonnage requirement effectively. I can't do a lot about it right now, but that's something to keep in mind.

... and I just forgot to take a screenshot of the event , but I got the Dominican Islands at the cost of some tension with the USA. Given the CSA are the ones with a boner against me, I can live with that. Besides, with the way things are going, I'll probably get into a scuffle with the CSA sooner or later.

And now, I realized I had some Aragon-class rebuilds on hold. Given their max speed was only 23 knots... yeah, scrap heap. Out with the old, and all that jazz.

And it's ship schematics time! This time, the Italians were the victims! The design itself is... enough to make my BBs not able to pen them at anything other than close range. Shit. :V



Yup, booring. The only thing worthy of notice is that all of the events seem to involve decisions that give me Catch-22 options. Either I raise tension, or I take a hit on my prestige.

And then this happens.



You little wanker. My finances are already in the crapper and you want two BBs. And it's not like I can refuse, since it's a Budget - Prestige - - option.
Urgh, stupid politicians. Oh, and accepting? Raising tensions, for what will probably be just a nominal budget increase and a point of prestige. As I said, postgame is a Catch-22 for Spain.



It is probably crap. My only worry was to give it enough deck armor to take plunging shells. I'll have to take the -1 quality, though, since my biggest guns with Q0 are just 12 inch. Wah wah. So, what will be the hit to the wallet?

...5,2 million per turn. GG, nice to know you. Then again, I kinda pushed it a bit. I guess I'll want a smaller, cheaper design.



At 3,6 million per turn, this one looks a bit more affordable, if undergunned. I'll still take one hell of a hit to the buget, but at least this way I can last a bit longer until I get to the red.



... I loathe you all. Even worse, it's the largest gun I can build. Very well, I'll take the plunge. Wankers.



A couple turns later, they're happy enough that I'm building them. Good, I'll now put at least one on hold. :V

Make that both of them, as yet another event that hits the budget no matter the choice gets me. AND NOW THEY WANT MORE BATTLESHIPS! WTF SPAIN?!

At least I only have to order the construction of a new one, since the other two also count.



About time, too. Tell them to hold again, and I'm pleased to find out that my balance only requires me to do that to two of them. Oh, and take a look at how things are.



Yes, my budget is less than half the one from other nations. And from here on, there wasn't much point to the game. I did get several budget increases, and tensions with AH started to climb, but we got to 1950 before we could get to open conflict.

So, 1950, and this is the status of each nation:



Yeah, my luck was pretty extreme on this mostly blind playthrough. I did try to avoid wars, but the game has its own way to shove one down your gullet even when you try to avoid it at all costs. All in all, it was a fun ride, but it is plain to see that I suck at this kind of stuff. Hahaha. At least it wasn't a Byzantium style game: Fast, plenty of wars, get clobbered by Great Britain.
 
Congrats on finishing a playthough! I will say, your Spain was quite fortunate to not live in 'interesting times' like my version last time I played, you chose to avoid wars and start arms limitation treaties to keep yourself from getting crushed by opportunists.

That said, I STRONGLY suggest that you play as the United States next game, and enjoy the ability to drown your enemies in tonnage from your growing economy! You have seen how rough it is to have a tiny economy, try the opposite. Great Britain is also a strong choice.
 
Hmmm... do you think it would be worth it if I tried to do a Let's Play on youtube, with a different nation (if I can get a screencap software working)? Maybe the US, or another smaller nation like Byzantium. My last US game actually turned out alright, so I'm experimenting with stuff to see if I can experiment a bit and make a shipbuilding style for myself.

My reasoning is... well, I'd be able to try and explain stuff as it comes to me, also a good practise for my English (I tend to mispronounce/trip over words when speaking).
 
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