29 replies to this topic

[Meatball]

Has anyone done any comparisons of fleet makeups? Would you rather have a few big monster ships or a bunch of smaller buggers.

Quantity or Quality? What do you guys think is the best?

[ChicO]

I believe fleets are usefull for one thing: Tranport. This means my fleets (if any) will be built mostly around merchant ships. Maybe a few escort ships.

The second use I see will be coastal bombardment. But since fleets are not as flexible as the airforce I doubt we will so much use of these fleets. I think it's a good idea to use the biggest guns available for CB fleets, that means Battleships and battlecruisers. Have you noticed how many supplies these monsters use?...

For historical reasons (I know, I know...) I allways try to build a somewhat balanced fleet. This means destroyers, tenders are built as well.


And don't forget the FIGHTER COVER!!!

[nfbeerse]

For building a balanced fleet, you will have to look at the numbers.
The screen ratings of ASW, HAA and LAA are important. Look up the rules for the calculation of these ratings.

Further, the building of your fleet is limited to your amount of supplies. When sailing, ships use a lot of FUEL. For A CB, a fleet uses 10 times the MUN consumption. Remember to supply a fleet after a CB. They will be a floating duck when attacked, if they are left without supplies.

Norbert

[ChicO]

Norbert is right. A BB holds 100 mun and uses 10x4 per CB. That's two turns of CB and you need to resupply. Tenders anyone?? If you survive for two turns that is. CB's tend to make people upset. Your ships will enjoy the sight of a lot of bombers.

By the way, the Missouri class BB's holds 1000 fuel... That's one nice supertanker...

[nfbeerse]

If you build tenders in your fleets, they have extra MUN supplies.

With big fleets, I use build-in tenders. And I have seperate fleets of tenders to bring supplies to my fleets at sea. These fleets are sometime nessesary if you forget to load a fleet with enoug supplies.

So far, I have been lucky. My fleets have not been bombed by airplanes. I do have encountered a lot of PTs harassing my fleets. DD work best against these toy ships...

Norbert

[the_mahdi]

Be prepared for a lot of attrition, unless you can hide them in the open Atlantic. An air fleet can make mincemeat of your expensively garnered ships. DDs can be handy for their AA capacity. Vospers/Pts can never find anthing to attack. Subs are largely a waste of time for the same reason. Minelayers are useful, as are Minesweepers (and they are so cheap as to be utterly expendible). I agree with the above - CBing and transport are largely all that ships are worth using for, though you will need sweepers to clear the way - minefields not only cause irritating damage, they stop your ships in their tracks for that turn - upsetting your plans greatly...

[ChicO]

I see one reason for building subs. Or should I say ONE sub. Getting those rangers to their target.

I once heard this guy complaining his 50(!) subs couldn't stop a Queen Mary. Now there's a surprise. This QM is doing 30+ knots while the subs do 5 knots. :lol:

I will build a small surface fleet. Just for historical reasons. Maybe a BB, some cruisers and a bunch of destroyers. I doubt I'll ever use 'm though.

[nfbeerse]

ChicO,

Have you considered PTs for delivering rangers? These ships are a lot cheaper to build and the are a lot faster.

Special operations aircraft are more flexible for delivering rangers, as they are not bound to coastal provinces.

Norbert

[ChicO]

PT's... Nice idea and also realistic.

Rangers are fun. The good part is you can build a few in the turns before war starts. And then you can have a massed ranger assault... Dead commanders, destroyed aircraft, sunken ships.

Fun!

[Ronald]

purrrrrrrrrrrrrr Queen Mary's nice ships.
they also have more hull points than any other ship, you even need a lot of good torpedo hits to sink one.

downside though.. they are friggin expensive and ya can never build more than 1 each turn.

[ChicO]

I guess only the USA, Canada and Iceland ever build QM's. Who else needs 'm?

[nfbeerse]

I do,

The QMs are great. You use less FUEL and GEN than with 8 AKs. If you need to transport large amounts of cargo, QMs are a must (if you can afford them).

Norbert

[Ronald]

Yep, used them as portugal as well to get divisions to Italie.
The are actually more cost effective than cargo ships, they use less supplies, they only are a bit more expensive at the time of building.

and like mentioned before they are bloody fast and almost impossible to destroy.

[ChicO]

nfbeerse, on Feb 24 2004, 02:10 PM, said:

The QMs are great. You use less FUEL and GEN than with 8 AKs. If you need to transport large amounts of cargo, QMs are a must (if you can afford them).

Interesting,

I just did the math and they indeed use less supplies. Freighters are less expensive but the QM has 24 SMR range, high speed and a nice damage rating.

Hmmmmm...

Still not enough to make it on time to Saudi Arabia and back.

But is't a nice floating supply depot!

[Ronald]

sure, i mean ya can load 4000 supplies into it.