Do you need several facilities, or is that just to speed up the production of the nukes themselves? Either way, I'm going to quote you in the previous chapter, if you don't mind.
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Do you need several facilities, or is that just to speed up the production of the nukes themselves? Either way, I'm going to quote you in the previous chapter, if you don't mind.
Honestly, I don't remember... I go for ten, which gives you better practicals and hence, speed, for bomb making then one does.
I've started another USA game (I'm sort of addicted here...) and will pay close attention to that.
And feel free to quote me whenever.
I've started another USA game (I'm sort of addicted here...) and will pay close attention to that.
And feel free to quote me whenever.
Chapter 12: And…here we go!
June 1939. I have explained last chapter why I am not going to research nuclear technology. Even in a real campaign, it usually arrives too late to be of any use, unless you’re planning on a war against the Soviet Union afterwards, or something similar.
Instead, I plan on researching Mechanical Computing Machine, because that has immediate benefits. Agriculture, Industry, Radar and Supplies are the other highly interesting techs right now.
At the end of the month, I get first level of radar. Since the next level is 1940 tech, I leave it in place, but I plan to implement all the techs it gave me access to, with the exception of the last two, who are submarine techs.
The Warship Radar techs increase the Surface Detection and Air Detection stats of capital ships, destroyers and light cruisers, while the ASW tech increases the Submarine Detection and Sub Attack stats of light cruisers and destroyers. Both are indispensable to keep up with the naval arms race that dominated the RL war as well.
Radar Training increases the Surface Detection on carriers and light carriers.
I was placing a bunch of factories that had come out of production, when this came along. This is a standard move for Germany in early August ’39 (I believe the AI has no option to refuse the decision). Three days later, they start mobilizing. About two weeks later, Australia joins the Allies. To my surprise, Canada has not joined yet, while they are usually the first Commonwealth nation to join.
The rest of my factories will finish half September. After that, it depends on when my various research projects finish. I have the 4 infantry techs going, along with Amphibious Warfare Equipment, and the 2 Engineer techs. Since I still haven’t made up my mind concerning the composition of my divisions, I might as well keep those up-to-date as well.
It’s showtime in Europe, but we benefit from it as well. When UK is at war with Germany, or if we would be at war ourselves, we can enact the decision to Gear Up For War.
The effects seem minimal, but don’t be fooled. It is huge. Not only does our Neutrality drop 5 points overnight (to 74.05), but the tax on our CG needs is now gone, as is the reduction of Manpower.
Here, let me show you. The US’ CG Needs is now 0. Gearing Up For War has freed up 36.78 IC overnight. It’s good to be the king. Or the president, in this case.
I put the IC to good use at once. Having over 1000 convoys is good. Having over 500 escorts protecting them is better. And yes, it does take a big chunck of IC and time, but that’s ok. It’s not like the USA is under iminent threat of invasion anyway. These are some of the basic things that new players tend to overlook, but you can't supply your troops overseas without convoys.
On the 14th, the same day we finish building our last factories, Canada joins the Allies. Here’s an old trick to use against the US if you’re playing an Axis nation. Increase threat on both UK and Canada right from the start of the game, and keep Japan out of the Axis (if you’re playing Germany) to avoid falling in the same trap yourself. Canada will always join the Allies when the war starts. This way, their threat levels multiply each others’ (not literally, but I have no other way to explain it to you), sending the USA spiraling away from them, towards the center of the Diplomatic Triangle. If you also wait until UK will, inevitably, DoW Germany because of threat levels towards them (usually by january 1940 or so), then they will be seen as the Big Bad Imperialist Thee Drinkers mugging Poor Little Beer Drinking Germany.
Couple that with over 3 years of constant Influencing, and you can be fairly certain that the US will never worry about you, or might even join you if you're really lucky (I never managed to do that last bit, but that doesn't mean it's impossible).
It’s been a number of years since I last tried it, but there’s no reason to assume it wouldn’t work anymore.
Anyway, back to our regular schedule. After the factories have been “repaired”, our effective IC rises to 220, all of which is going towards production, except 0.26 IC for reinforcements. And part of that are the 97 extra base IC we have now, compared to the start of the game. With the most crappy laws imaginable, the USA now has more IC than Germany starts the game with, and they start with just about the best laws possible.
New Zealand also joins the Allies. This could be important in the future. If the war against Japan goes badly, it might be interesting to have those extra bases to fall back to. IIRC, Eisenhower, who was working on the US Army staff at the time, considered it vital for the war effort to keep supply lines open between USA and Oceania. Who am I to argue with a guy like that?
On the 23rd of September, we begin reseraching Superior Firepower, which will allow us to add an extra brigade to our divisions.
Germany annexes Poland on the 27th. This is actually pretty good for us, and, potentially, for the Soviets as well, because when you annex a nation, you don’t gain as much IC, MP, LS and resources from the annexed provinces as you would under any other occupation policy (unless those are your cores). There will be a higher revolt risk, which will reduce the amount of supplies the Polish provinces can transport, and which will severely weaken the Wehrmacht, once they are far enough into the Soviet Union.
On that same day, 18 hours later, the Soviets demand Eastern Poland for themselves. The German AI always gives in to this demand. As a player, you could refuse, if you want to opt for a Soviet-first strategy. This requires a very tight security in the West, so that the Allies can only sit and watch, while you invade the Soviet Union first. It would require a fairly nonstandard build-up of troops and tanks, but the Soviets are much weaker in 1939 or 1940 than they are in 1941. It has been done successfully in the past.
I have noticed that I’m being influenced by Germany, so I begin Aligning myself to the Allies.
Germany takes Denmark in a matter of days. UK takes over Greenland and Iceland. In December, the Soviets launch the Winter War against Finland. All standard stuff. Note that the Soviets get a penalty to their Leadership after the Great Purge in '37. The Winter War allows them to get rid of that. Very important if you ever play the Soviets. Our Neutrality is now 73.35.
Enough IC has been freed up that I can initiate the next phase of my plan. Level-10 radar in both Hawaii and Midway will ensure a perfect early warning system.
Time passes. By March 1940, our research into Industrial Production has increased our available IC to 234.
Germany declares war on Norway on 5 March. This is the most unpredictable stage of the war for Germany. Sometimes, they will lose most of their ships, trying to make the crossing. If they do, their troops could be stranded there with no ability to receive more supplies than the ones they can steal from Norway. Sometimes it’s a cakewalk. If you remember “Take Two”, I adviced against invading Norway for this very reason. It becomes virtual suicide for the German convoys trying to reach Norwegian ports, while it’s useless for Germany anyway. Swedish metal trade does not depend on Narvik (or any other port for that matter, since they’re considered the same continent). US Lend-Lease will go through Vladivostok (I think) on the other side of the globe, and UK usually doesn’t like the SU enough to have massive trade with them. In other words, apart from the Heavy Water strategic resource, which is interesting for nuclear research as an alternative to Plutonium, Norway is just dead weight. The only thing it usually does, is to convince Sweden to give Germany Military Access, allowing them to send troops between Norway, Denmark and Finland without needing boats, once Finland joins the Axis.
By the 17th, all naval doctrines we need, except Radar Training (which is being researched), are up-to-date.
It takes Germany until April to gain a beachhead in Noway. For some reason, they always go for Trondheim, even though Oslo is both closer and a bigger port (more supplies per day), and the capital and only VP, but that's part of the Strategic AI and is not something that can be modded.
UK players can use this silly call to make a killing, ensuring that the Kriegsmarine will end then and there.
This time, I’m impressed. The Kriegsmarine has only lost 2 DD, 6 SS, 3 CL and 1 transport so far, which is well below their average.
Also ready by April, are the convoys I started a couple of months earlier, leaving just the forts, escorts and radar in production.
Germany is ready for more, it seems. Good. Very nice things will come to us if/when Paris falls. Ten days later, they declare war on Netherlands. US Neutrality has dipped below 73.
Almost a month later, I am ready to start construction of the first army units since the start of the game.
Meet our newest Garrisons. Strengthened by both artillery and an armour brigade, they will be able to keep up resistance much longer than they otherwise would. I'm hoping that they will face mostly marines (who have less Piercing than infantry) without AT ability. Not only that, but they will also give us Artillery and Armour Practicals when they finish, which will give me a great boost when construction on actual armour divisions will begin. I have begun construction of 15 of them. 2 Each for Hawaii, Midway, Wake, Guam, Johnston Island, Palmyra and Phoenix Island, and 1 for securing Iceland later on. And the best part is that I can later upgrade the Garrisons and artillery to mobile brigades after Japan has fallen, so that they can used in Europe or Africa as needed.
It takes Germany until the last week of May before they’re ready to declare war on Belgium, by which time almost all of the Netherlands is occupied by Germany. Our neutrality is now 72.04.
This time, Germany does not get stuck in Norway. On the 1st of June, they finish the Norwegian campaign successfully.
If you're wondering why Hungary had to die in our Romania-campaign, this is why. Both the Soviet Union and Hungary take a deep bite out of Romania, leaving them weakened and vulnerable.
When we come back, Italy will join the fun and make us even more powerful. How? Find out next time. See you then!
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I often don't get those Romania events. Does Germany need to take Norway for them to trigger?
Norway has nothing to do with that, though in retrospect, I can se how my sentence can be misunderstood. I will rephrase it.
About Romania: They almost always happen. The Soviets taking Bessarabia might have something to do with the MR pact, but I'm not sure. Let me get back to you on that one.
Edit: The parameters for the Bessarabia decision are that Germany and the Soviets must be at peace with each other, not allied and have the MR pact. If must be before 1942. Romania must be in control of Bessarabia and Germany must be in control of Warsaw. Obviously, Romania can't be at war with SU either.
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Some of these random events have never been properly thought through. Here we have a choice between a month of extra CG needs PLUS a drop in NU, or we could go for “just” the rise in CG needs.
Funny, how that is really no choice at all.
Funny, how you didn't read the event.
It isn't a choice of a month of extra CG need, plus a drop in NU, or just a rise in CG needs.
It's a 50% chance of more CG Need + NU drop vs a guaranteed increase in needed CG needs.
If you feel like taking your chances, take the first. Half the time, nothing happens. Half the time, you get worse. If you don't want to take risks, just go for the second.
Other than that, i dont see any glaring mistakes. Good tutorial overall I think.
You have a point, but since I always get unlucky with these things, I tend to go for the one that doesn't involve lowering NU, just out of principle. I have better things for my spies to be doing.
A minor thing that doesn't impact your industrial bingeing strategy, but did Australia truly join the Axis? That could shake up your Pacific campaign... I assume they joined their Limey overlords in alliance, but I could be wrong, of course.
Looking at the heavy garrison units you're creating, I take it Japan will run straight into a wall and quickly die after that.
Looking at the heavy garrison units you're creating, I take it Japan will run straight into a wall and quickly die after that.
A minor thing that doesn't impact your industrial bingeing strategy, but did Australia truly join the Axis? That could shake up your Pacific campaign... I assume they joined their Limey overlords in alliance, but I could be wrong, of course.
Looking at the heavy garrison units you're creating, I take it Japan will run straight into a wall and quickly die after that.
No, that was a typo. I meant the Allies, obviously.
edited to add: My plan is to keep them too busy to worry about their backs. If you really want an ampibious assault to fail, add Harm to the garrisons, not Arm.
I experimented this weekend and had an interesting time playing around with builds.
I decided to go over-the-top USA to start. Honolulu got maxed, Midway, Wake, and Guam all got maxed with airfields, ports, coastal forts, 10 AA, and infra. Johnston was added later, but stopping at 6 for airfields.
When war hit with Japan, they invaded Guam first and faced 3 divisions of 3xINF/1xART, and a corps-level HQ (Wake, Midway, Honolulu and Johnston all have this, too). Whatever the starting garrisons were also stayed there. With a level 10 fort, the Japanese lost 12,855 men, to the USA's 325. My fleet got beaten up a bit, but mostly the heavy cruisers I kept sitting offshore (I put the old rank 2 CAs in squadrons of 4, simply to hopefully tag a transport or two). I lost no ships, surprisingly, and sent eight marine divisions running for their lives.
Level 10 fort on level 10 infra. I never saw my morale drop.
I should add that even with all of that investment in buildings, I had 630 IC when I went to the best laws. I had four modern carriers coming online and two already built, two modern battleships at sea and a half dozen more being built, and more CLs and DDs than you could shake a stick at either built or ready within six months. My air force is rocking, too. I haven't built any infantry yet, but added ART to all, and am slowly upgrading my cavalry units to armored for Europe. Five marine divisions are in the works, three of which are already out of basic training.
This might be the first time I hit war's start with all of my naval doctrines up to date, along with the air. My fighters are still being upgraded to '41, as are the bombers, but I'm more than holding my own.
The USA is a blast.
I decided to go over-the-top USA to start. Honolulu got maxed, Midway, Wake, and Guam all got maxed with airfields, ports, coastal forts, 10 AA, and infra. Johnston was added later, but stopping at 6 for airfields.
When war hit with Japan, they invaded Guam first and faced 3 divisions of 3xINF/1xART, and a corps-level HQ (Wake, Midway, Honolulu and Johnston all have this, too). Whatever the starting garrisons were also stayed there. With a level 10 fort, the Japanese lost 12,855 men, to the USA's 325. My fleet got beaten up a bit, but mostly the heavy cruisers I kept sitting offshore (I put the old rank 2 CAs in squadrons of 4, simply to hopefully tag a transport or two). I lost no ships, surprisingly, and sent eight marine divisions running for their lives.
Level 10 fort on level 10 infra. I never saw my morale drop.
I should add that even with all of that investment in buildings, I had 630 IC when I went to the best laws. I had four modern carriers coming online and two already built, two modern battleships at sea and a half dozen more being built, and more CLs and DDs than you could shake a stick at either built or ready within six months. My air force is rocking, too. I haven't built any infantry yet, but added ART to all, and am slowly upgrading my cavalry units to armored for Europe. Five marine divisions are in the works, three of which are already out of basic training.
This might be the first time I hit war's start with all of my naval doctrines up to date, along with the air. My fighters are still being upgraded to '41, as are the bombers, but I'm more than holding my own.
The USA is a blast.
Quantity has a quality all of it's own.
Especcially when you can keep things up to date.
Well, that is if you actually test the damn thing: Looking at you, BuOrd. You too William V. Pratt. You knew that ship was being scrapped as is and that BuOrd needed to do live fire exercises to make certain the M14 Torpedo actually worked.
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I can't recommend enough a book called "Silent Victory: the U.S Submarine Victory against Japan" by Clay Blair Jr. It basically tells the story of the pre-war US Sub program up through where all the commanders ended up in command, post-war. Pretty much every single patrol is written up, and all of the political and greater war shenanigans are put into perspective through the lens of the submarine service.
It's ridiculous that BuOrd was so damned sure they were right and the skipper wrong about the failures of the torpedoes.
It's ridiculous that BuOrd was so damned sure they were right and the skipper wrong about the failures of the torpedoes.
Chapter 13: Gearing Up.
Italy has answered the call to arms from Germany, stabbing their former allies in the back. Believe it or not, but that is a good thing.
Well, good for us, anyway.
It allows us to fire another decision, losing Neutrality and gaining IC and LS. What’s not to like?
The next day, as Germany occupies all of Belgium and starts to head into France, we can get a new law because of our reduced Neutrality.
Basic Mobilisation removes a lot of the IC-related peacetime penalties we have been living with and is what we’ve been after all this time. All those factories we have been building in the past 4 years are now finally going to pay dividents in spades.
We now have 40.11 Leadership, allowing me to have 38 research projects at a time, but even more interesting is the fact that we have 360 IC to play with. I place the extra 49 IC into Upgrades for now, because we are still researching the next level of some of our carrier techs.
While we wait for that to finish, I might as well get started on reorganising the divisions I have. All of them are square infantry divisions (meaning they have 4 Infantry Brigades).
By splitting off 1 brigade from each division and grouping these into triangular (3xinf) divisions, I go from having 18 divisions to having 24 of them.
All they need now is to receive some support brigades, but that will have to wait as well, because Artillery Carriage And Sights is scheduled to finish researching on the 13th of July.
With all of the CV techs up-to-date, we can finally begin producing the stuff that will help us win the war.
By removing the checkmark for “add CAGs”, I can queu up 1 carrier. I then go to the airplane tab in the production screen and queu up 2 CAGs IN SERIAL BUILD. The carrier will take us about 19 months, while the CAGs will take about 13 months in total. They will be ready when the CV is done. Doing it this way, allows me to save a substantial amount of IC, enabling me to build more carriers at the same time.
I place 3 of them in the queu for starters and adjust my IC sliders to match. My Aircraft Practical is at 4.9 right now, and it will continue degrading until these carriers can be launched. By being able to launch 3 of them at the same time, I can turn this around easily enough.
An alternate way would have been to start off with 5 Light Carriers and no CAGs. These finish building in about a year, so the Practicals would have gone up sooner. But, unfortunately, we only have about 2 years before going to war, and I still have to get started on planes, artillery, tanks, and other good stuff (all of whom have barely any Practicals left to speak of). If you have to time, however, that would have been a more efficient way of doing things.
A week later, I add another carrier, adding the CAGs in the same way as before. This carrier will eventually take advantage of the Practical gained from the first carrier, so that it will probably be finished only 1 day later than the rest. This is what experienced players on the forum call "a staggered build". The amount of time you leave between builds of the same kind depends on the IC, time and Practicals, so it takes some practice to master.
Advanced Aircraft Design is done, freeing up Small Air Search Radar in the Fighter tab and Medium and Large Air Search Radar in the Bomber tab. Having our fighter planes with better air detection is a no-brainer. For our bombers, we need these to open up Navigation Radar, which allow them to improve their bombing aim.
As upgrades get done, I add a Multi-Role on the 24th of July.
France falls on the 4th of August. This allows us to fire the Destroyers For Bases decision. In real life, it was a deal between UK and US, where the UK would receive a ton of (old) destroyers in exchange for giving the USA the right to station ships and planes in British bases all around the world for the next 100 years. Nothing so fancy here. Just a relations bonus with the UK and another 2-point drop in Neutrality.
Still, it’s enough to get us to One-Year-Draft. More MP and Officers in exchange for making reserve divisions more expensive. A price worth paying.
There is a sudden increase in reinforcements needed, but these don’t take very long. Note that I am keeping some IC in upgrades, because destroyers and light cruisers are still under research. Ship engines, armor and main gun never upgrade once they have been build, so if we want the best, we’ll just have to wait a couple of days.
As soon as those techs are done, I put 5 Light Cruisers in the queu.
When the destroyer techs are done, I can begin researching Landing Craft. These are an addition to TFH. Transport ships can still be used for amphibious landings, but they are incredibly slow and vulnerable. Landing Craft allow for much faster debarkation. They are somewhat less vulnerable and have a slightly higher weight limit, but they require some additional research to really come into their own. Invasion Tactics improve the speed of the atttack, while Landing Craft Support improve the defense they offer to the soldiers while landing.
I also place 5 detroyers in the production queu. I will need at least 10 to get the Pacific Fleet fully functional.
As usual, Italy is struggling in North Africa, but it doesn’t prevent them from declaring war on Greece in August.
In September, the first radars go up. I place these on Kaua’i Island (one of the Northernmost islands of Hawai'i, because it is sitting on the border between 2 sea zones, maxing out their usefullness. Since it doesn’t have a naval base, any Japanese units landing there would not be able to reinforce, while the defenders on Honolulu can attack (or defend) across the strait. Using these natural defenses is just good planning.
The IC freed up goes into Upgrades for now.
All of our armour techs are now up-to-date. Time to start planning our armour divisions.
There are several options, but first a major difference between FTM and TFH. In TFH, a new combat mechanic was introduced. Every brigade has 2 new stats: Piercing and Armour. A division uses the highest value of any single brigade for the entire division.
In combat, Piercing and Armour are compared. If Piercing is equal to or higher than Armour, then combat is resolved normally. If Armour is higher, damage is halved. This makes Heavy Armour more powerful than ever, since you need to be ahead in AT-gun techs to Pierce them. As a result, a lot of experienced players swear by them. Even though they definitely are worth it, I have always found their slow speed to be a major hindrance, since my standard battle tactic involves encircling and overrunning enemy strongpoints, which requires speed and firepower more than anything else.
Planes always do Piercing damage when bombing. Tanks also have good Piercing ability. Of course, AT and TD are invaluable here.
We could go with 2 Arm/Mot/Spart/TD. Solid, powerful units that can take on just about anything, but they need a lot of fuel.
These units (exchanging 1 Arm for 1 Mot) sacrifice some Soft Attack, Hard Attack and Toughness for reduced fuel needs and slightly higher Defensiveness. A good all-round armour division.
This version (using the Engineers) would have a nice bonus for crossing rivers (and there are a lot of rivers between the French coast and Berlin), but I find their actual combat stats to be somewhat mediocre.
Instead, I am going to go with these babies. Their Combat Width of only 2 allows me to use 5 of them in any battle at a time. Their Attack values ensure that anything they meet in combat will be hard-pressed to stay put. The Tank Destroyer brigade ensures proper Piercing at all times against anything except Harm. They have a softness of just below 50%, which means that Soft Attacks will be less than optimal against them, and they have reasonably good defensive stats as well. They still need quite a lot of fuel, but not so much as the first one (2 Arm/Mot/Spart/TD).
IMPORTANT NOTE: For those of you following along, I do not build any tanks yet. This was just the planning stage, to determine what I will need, so never mind the fact that some of these pics mention a production line of 15 divisions.
As you can imagine, there are more ways of building a tank division than you can shake a stick at. In the end, as with all units, it depends on what you need them for and where you want them to operate.
I have 20 screenshots already, so I am going to end this chapter here. See you next time.
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Well, I learned something just now - your carrier/CAG builds. Can I just say, "DUH!"
Once you get mechanized infantry, that armored division is going to be even more impressive. I love using double-SPART.
Once you get mechanized infantry, that armored division is going to be even more impressive. I love using double-SPART.
I also like using MECH/MECH/TD/SPART/ENG for some divisions to run parallel with an armored division built like the one above. I just like ENG a ton. I add them to all of my marine divisions, since Japanese islands often end up fortified.
How do your organize your fleets?
I usually try to keep mine pretty lean (6 size so that a 1 star admiral can command them and get more experience) with 2 capitals and 4 escorts, with the exception being submarines( I keep 2 in each flotilla) and transports (I use 6 per squad just to have everything standarized) and I just combine them into 12,18 and 24 sized fleets depending on what I scout (and they coincide with admiral stars so its easy to remember) and I can cover a much wider area if I wish to.
I read your thread on Panzer divisions and I pretty much agree with your choice, sure its a very heavy Division supply wise, but I guess you will be using it on the high infra areas of France and Germany so its not that much of a problem. I´d ditch the TD and add another SPART, but tbh I have never seen much need for them. Sure piercing could be an issue but I can deal with HARM with my airpower.And its not like TD can always pierce HARM anyways.
A panzer divisions I liked quite a lot was 1 Mot 1 Arm 2XArmored cars, pretty cheap ICwise, pretty god stats for the supply it consumes and has the added advantage of a 20% speed boost in plains. I´d say this is ideal for Germany to take into low infrastructure USSR. It has pretty good stats too for its cost.
TD from my spreadsheets only seem to add a big logistics burden for kinda meh stats and armor penetration that is just OK.Won´t save you if you are not ahead of timein Antitank tech. The very low softness is nice though.
I usually try to keep mine pretty lean (6 size so that a 1 star admiral can command them and get more experience) with 2 capitals and 4 escorts, with the exception being submarines( I keep 2 in each flotilla) and transports (I use 6 per squad just to have everything standarized) and I just combine them into 12,18 and 24 sized fleets depending on what I scout (and they coincide with admiral stars so its easy to remember) and I can cover a much wider area if I wish to.
I read your thread on Panzer divisions and I pretty much agree with your choice, sure its a very heavy Division supply wise, but I guess you will be using it on the high infra areas of France and Germany so its not that much of a problem. I´d ditch the TD and add another SPART, but tbh I have never seen much need for them. Sure piercing could be an issue but I can deal with HARM with my airpower.And its not like TD can always pierce HARM anyways.
A panzer divisions I liked quite a lot was 1 Mot 1 Arm 2XArmored cars, pretty cheap ICwise, pretty god stats for the supply it consumes and has the added advantage of a 20% speed boost in plains. I´d say this is ideal for Germany to take into low infrastructure USSR. It has pretty good stats too for its cost.
TD from my spreadsheets only seem to add a big logistics burden for kinda meh stats and armor penetration that is just OK.Won´t save you if you are not ahead of timein Antitank tech. The very low softness is nice though.
Thanks. I just prefer building CV and CAGs this way. Like it says in the chapter, though, if you have the time, you can always start out cooking your practicals with Light Aircraft Carriers if you have the time. But this is the USA, and with my industrial potential only at about half power, I can build 4 fleet carriers, which will help a lot in case things go ugly later on (naval warfare can be a bit unpredictable)
I mostly build my mot and mech divisions the same way I do for my infantry. For the ones in Europe, I plan to go for 3 mech/art/TD
I find that 6 CV+6CL is a nice balance between size and firepower. I usually have 3 BB+4DD as SAGs. The rest depends on what country I'm playing.
My usual armor division doesn't have TD in them either, but then I don't usually research Superior Firepower, so most of the time, TD are a bit of a luxury. In this case, however, luxury is what the US does best.
Hmmm, but aren´t you hitting pretty bad stacking limits with so many CVs? I mean I knos CAGs have a reduced penalty when on CAG duty but still thats 12 CAGS per task force no?
And doesn´t that hurt the speed of fleets quite a bit? I always thought speed was very important, hence my 1:2 ratio for capitals to escorts.
Haha, yeah USA is pure luxury, 40 leadership and war hasn´t even started. A pretty big lead over Romania no?
And doesn´t that hurt the speed of fleets quite a bit? I always thought speed was very important, hence my 1:2 ratio for capitals to escorts.
Haha, yeah USA is pure luxury, 40 leadership and war hasn´t even started. A pretty big lead over Romania no?
You have to remember that CAGs only have half the stacking penalty of land-based planes. So those 12 CAGs only have the same stacking penalty as a regular squadron of 6 planes, which can be overcome with good commanders.
As for speed, yes, it's important. In combat, the average of the ships involved is used to determine who gets closer into firing range. It doesn't bother the CVs, because they're fast enough by themselves to stay out of trouble most of the time.
For battleship-based fleets, your approach works just as well as mine. It's a choice between combat speed versus firepower. If I have 3 ships, blazing away with 12" guns, then most smaller squadrons will get hit pretty badly before they manage to get away or get really close. If it works for you, then go with it and nevermind what I say. There's hardly ever a one-solution-problem in this game. That's why I love it so much.
edited to add: another thing to remember is that having 12 CAGs at your dispsoal, gives you tactical options. You could send some of them out to bomb a damaged fleet sitting in port, while the rest stay to protect your own fleet.
As for speed, yes, it's important. In combat, the average of the ships involved is used to determine who gets closer into firing range. It doesn't bother the CVs, because they're fast enough by themselves to stay out of trouble most of the time.
For battleship-based fleets, your approach works just as well as mine. It's a choice between combat speed versus firepower. If I have 3 ships, blazing away with 12" guns, then most smaller squadrons will get hit pretty badly before they manage to get away or get really close. If it works for you, then go with it and nevermind what I say. There's hardly ever a one-solution-problem in this game. That's why I love it so much.
edited to add: another thing to remember is that having 12 CAGs at your dispsoal, gives you tactical options. You could send some of them out to bomb a damaged fleet sitting in port, while the rest stay to protect your own fleet.
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I've been going with a 3xCV/6xCL task force lately, paired with a 3xBB/6xDD fleet. I keep them together, but under separate commands. They decimate just about anything if they're of current tech. It's not hard to get Halsey and Nimitz up to a rank 8 command level within a couple months of war's start.