Personally I’d say the best starting nations for rule the waves are Italy and Austria-Hungary, specifically because you are limited to the med and you can just focus on trying to best the other rather than thinking about anybody else, the relative parity and not needing to care about other sea zones makes for a good tutorial nation. The USA is a great shout for somebody who is starting to get the hang of the game and wants to try out having a dominant navy with its many commitments and can grow into that role with the USA through a save. Japan is the nation you pick if you really don’t want to get punished while learning the game because its isolation means that you will rarely have a full fleet chucked at your home region(only China and Russia have the basing possible to achieve this in the early-mid game, and Russia will be distracted with Europe a lot of the time)
@@RvTWargames ah the days when campaigns were just 1900-1925, and by 1920 armour was nearly worthless because guns got way more tech boosts than armour
Excellent. True, RtW3 is full of details, but, design ships, build ships, sink ships (hopefully not your own). How hard can it be! Glad you had a great time.
Feel like playing this game again. Gotta play this game while listening to Drachnifiel's videos about building a navy. "Naval strategy is a built strategy," as he says
Top-notch beginner introduction. Your knowledge and enthusiasm carry us apprehensive ones (and those of use who are detail averse) over the breach. Good job!
Yes. Didn't help that they had a lot of instability in their development team and disagreements over the direction of the game. Having one very committed developer has certainly helped RtW3.
Current for me its the AI systems and how nations choose to declare war on you, You can have no colonial holdings and still have a war being declared on you every 2-4 months by a random nation. Beating them does nothing, They prepare to fight again while becoming hostile. Not to mention the dog water army combat systems. You could be winning a war and have the entire enemy navy destroyed and blockade ports and still have your cores taken from you by land armies. Even when you out number them, better power rating and army logistics… Nadda. It ultimately needs a huge redo, something along the line of DIP project.
@@LoderryPlaysPVP it doesn't help that every single project this developer has taken on remains unfinished. They have UA: age of sail that released a dlc before being 1.0 and remains very buggy and frankly boring UA: dreadnoughts which is in the state that it is. This land is my land that was never finished Ultimate general civil war that they are allegedly still working on. Also every game they make has terrible balancing and game design aims at punishing good results. I bought 2 games from that dev and I will never buy more.
As someone who lightly played Rule The Waves 1 many a year ago and is excited for the new game, this video and upcoming(?) video series is perfect. Thank you.
I was waiting for you to make a video about this! I'm ecstatic that they gave you an early copy to play around with, it means we'll get some great rule the waves content from you sooner rather than later which is always good. I'm very excited to see your guides for this game, I know they'll be great, I'm especially excited to see you talk about the brand new features like helicopters , anti-ship missiles, missile submarines, and new jet aircraft to name a few. It'll be very interesting to see how all of these effect the combat and the fleet composition. Also, I hope that you're continuing to recover well from your surgery and that some of your lingering issues from it have ceased since your last upload!
Thanks, Zook. I'm looking to do a 1935 start exactly because so many of the interesting new features you mentioned cover the late post-1940 game. And yes, I am continuing to recover very well :-)
Only discovered Rule the Waves and was really intrigued but a bit intimidated as well. You delivered a good overview that definitely helped me. Thank you! Love your enthusiasm as well.
You're very welcome. Have a look at the tutorials I did following on from this video that should break it down more for you. ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html&si=VQtRpsHk0eVSQg57
You a very welcome Mykyta. I've been watching RtW3 go through its beta testing for a while and it is lovely to be able to finally share the results of all the hard work that has gone into it.
I played RTW not long before RTW 2 came out and have played the series since. Looking forwards to reaching the missile cruiser era in my current game, a shame there's no 1950 start date so I can get right into jet fighters and building heavy missile cruisers.
Hey, i just bought the game and it was a bit overwhelming for me. Im glad i found your video and channel because of that. Its always great to learn stuff from someone who is really passionate about the subject at hand. Thank you a lot!
You're very welcome. Glad you found them useful. When you're ready, check out the Rule the Waves 2 tutorials which are still relevant (RtW3 was an expansion, not a replacement for RtW2) which cover a lot of aspects of the game in more detail. Good admiraling!
Fantastic overview! I purchased the game on steam about a month ago, downloaded it, and uninstalled it quickly because it looked so daunting. The way you explained it, made me want to reinstall it and start playing it right away. Thank you for the great introduction and explanation! Can't wait to see more of your training videos. Take care!
Welcome aboard! Enjoy learning and being absorbed into the game: sinking (and being sunk), planning, designing, fighting. It's all there for the new budding admiral.
I'm recovering nicely, Shawn. Probably 95% better, though the last 5% will take a couple of years it is in no way life limiting. Thanks for asking after me.
Thanks for the intro video, I subscribed to your channel! I've never played this game due to the graphics but am really interested and look forward to your additional guides.
I've seen a couple of guides and yours is my favorite because it had just enough details, leaving more to explore in future videos or on my own. Thank you!
Thank you! That's just exactly the Goldilocks level I was aiming for. Not too little. Not too much. I have done a mini-tutorial series that shows what I explain here in practice. Managing a small French fleet, designing your first battleship, going to war and fighting a cruiser battle (a chase) and a major fleet battle. Which might help you see how the game plays out.
Great video, I just bought the game and now I need to learn how to play. I have hundreds of hours in Ultimate admiral, but thats completely different game. Gonna watch all Your vids and hopefully get better at the game, cheers!
Excellent. Check out my RtW2 tutorials as well - they are still 95% true (RtW3 is an extension in time, from 1900-1950 to 1890-1970, so the main core is much the same with the biggest changes to accommodate late ironclads and pre-dreadnoughts at one end, and jets and missiles at the other.
Hi there, this was a great tutorial and intro to the game! Im unsure if you know this already, but the letters next to the officers are their French ranks! CV is Capitaine de vaisseau and CF is Capitaine de frégate, or Cdr and LtCdr in RN ranks. I always loved how their ranks are a call back to the age of sail where corvettes and frigates were considered junior command positions.
Thank you. Have a look at my mini-tutorial playlist too. They go into everything in a bit more detail, using a real example: ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html
Well, it's got a Steam page... How long you think it will be before someone writes a review on it saying "They just ripped of Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts without the graphics" 😆
I noticed in the "history" of your battleship, it said "laid down" in 1897, instead of 1887 (presumably). Probably a bug, but not sure if it can be fixed, as the laid down date is outside the scope of the game.
Excellent spot. If RtW3 is anything like RtW2 I expect there to be a number of bug sweeps, fixes and revisions based on actual play. I think RtW2 when to 26 free updates.
@@RvTWargames would love it if the speed/displacement bug showed up again lol, was always funny making 35+ knot superbattleships that had 0 engine weight due to that bug
Great video for newcomers. Not going into too much depth and leaving that for later makes for a nice quick guide. One question: You are judging the ships armor, armament, speed etc. Do you recommend any resource where someone with little naval/ship experience can get a overview over the typical properties. Like what was "average" in the 1900s. Maybe there is something that covers the whole time-span of this game? I would prefer some book recommendations but any resource is fine.
Thanks, Tagman. naval-history.net and the dreadnought project.org are full of details, while Wikipedia is actually quite good at the bare facts of each class. For books, Norman Friedman's Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology is reasonably priced (though it is quite visual so I don't recommend the Kindle edition) and takes through every bit of naval technology in World War One. Which is a good starting point.
@@RvTWargames Thanks for taking the time to respond. It might be asking for too much, but do you also have some book recommendations for WW2 ships and also for the 'modern' era?
Aside from Norman Friedman? Actually any of his books are great, but perhaps at too greater depth. Convoy's and Jane's all the world's ships used to be a thing. But they don't seem to have been republished in a while. But you can pick up old Ian Allen warship books on ebay for a reasonable price, for example www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224562469422?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=7101533165274578&mkcid=2&itemid=224562469422&targetid=4584826055637456&device=m&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=412354546&mkgroupid=1299623041023876&rlsatarget=pla-4584826055637456&abcId=9300541&merchantid=87779&msclkid=7aee8426b3861492d3d5e05d8c6990f4
Thank you for the guides! superb video, even though I'm not yet playing this but I'm sure I'll go for it on the next sale, this looks good as for someone who just got into wargame thingy.
You're very welcome. There is a whole playlist of depth guides if you ever want fun take your admiraling skills further, or you can just enjoy designing your beloved ships and blowing up stuff! The game is in active development, BTW, with a major DLC slated for summer next year. Which naturally I'll cover in depth.
So great to see you giving the new game your attention (not that I doubted you would!) And looking to produce beginners guides to help newbies aboard! Does the 1890 tech system have evolving Quick Firing guns over the decade? Do they have Barbette ships? Your 1890 French fleet looks VERY cutting edge, with mid decade looking "Lozenges of Death"and no clutter of late ironclad Central Battery and Barbette stuff? I am itching to get a look at it myself!
I've only played with the 1890 navy a couple of times (I'm more interested in the 1935-1970 navy, where most of the developments are going to be. And yes, this is easily the most modern and coherent looking legacy fleet I've been given. Probably because it's so small. It'll interesting to see the techs unfold.
@@RvTWargames I suspect the 1890 start will make the potential 1900 fleets more interesting but I did wonder if they'd really have the weird and wonderful collections of ironclads and masted cruisers that IRL made up the bulk of the world's navies in 1890...
I sure look forward to having carriers take it a bit more chill with those extra settings. From watching lets plays of RtW2 I don't think the air-war is something I will find as satisfying to manage. Though, one of the things I would love to know is how much and in what way "slow aircraft development" changes things up.
Slow aircraft development literally slows the rate of air technology advances, so you get to play with biplanes for a lot longer and the introduction on monoplanes and jets gets delayed. If you lower the research rate (which impacts everything) you can cause aircraft technologies to be delayed even further.
Thanks for creating these videos, 1-7 so far. I'm a new player, just started my first campaign and enjoying it much more than I believe I would without your guidance. Please keep these excellent videos comming. Thanks Dickie. Question: I'd like to increase the text size on my PC due to vision challenge. Is this possible?
Oh thank you, Leo. I'm delighted to hear you're enjoying the game and that my efforts helped. I'm about to start a big 35 year campaign that will cover all the later technologies. Fighting with carriers is quite different. Sadly I don't think that there are any text size changes under preferences. You'll need to try and use the Windows controls. But you're not the first to mention it so I'll rise it with the developers.
Do you have any recommended reading material or videos for someone interested in military history but who has never dove into naval armaments? I can tell you all about USArmy armaments but I don’t have a clue why certain inch guns are good or bad or what the hell a knot is!
Norman Friedman is a great place to start for the early dreadnought era naval technology. Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology amzn.eu/d/gVz4p2E
KEs, ideally designed for colonial service, are the backbone of foreign stations for countries with large empires, espeically the UK and France. KEs are a portmanteau classification for gunboats, minesweepers, sloops, frigates and any other small ship that isn't a destroyer. It would be nice if this was reflected better in the game, but equally, it does simplify the game a lot.
this game plays like that text based baseball game or any fifa manager game where we just stare at the 2D football field with circles running around...
Thanks for a great review. I'm interested in buying the game but am slightly worried by the criticism I've heard that fleets get split up when battles are generated and smaller fragments of the fleets end up engaging. Is this something that happens a lot and, if so, does it detract from the game?
The antidote to having your fleet split up is to put your ships into divisions and to give them roles that support the lead ships. So, you have a battleship division as your flagship, and a second battleship division as a core that follows your flagship. You have a couple of light cruiser divisions that scouts for your flagship. An armoured curiser division that might be independent (or in its own separate scounting force 50mn ahead of the main fleet). Then destroyer divisions that are in support of or later screening the battleships, cruisers and light cruisers. You build up your fleet (or fleet and scouting force) with these interconnected divisions all doing different roles according to their type. Note: 1. the divisions do need to be same type of ship. 2. it helps if they have the same or very similar speed 3. the roles grow over time with the development of more sophisticated fleet tactics And yes, sometimes the battle generator will throw something odds, because shit happens and fleets get caught on the hop. But generally, the fleet you design with its divisions and roles will be very similar to the fleet that turns up for battle.
@@RvTWargames Thank you for explaining that. It sounds like a decent system... I also saw in one of your other videos that a new system was added allowing further allocation of ships, pre-battle. So overall, doesn't sound like it's too bad. I think I'll get the game :)
@allthiswasfields, I'm sure it'll give you hours of fun / challenge (aka frustratation, but in a good way) to become the admiral you've always wanted to be 😉
By any chance you got a video on how to use carriers? The manual seems very bare bones and a lot of options aren't quite explained well. Great video by the way!
Hiya, I covered it a bit - at least for early 1920-1935 era carriers in this fleet tactics guide: ua-cam.com/video/8pwzg1R-m6M/v-deo.html And a bit more in this one, analysing the end of my 1920-1955 playthrough with France ua-cam.com/video/vt_VmyJHurM/v-deo.html
Just found this game and started playing. China was my first nation and I won like 2 battles against Japan before not having enough ships to fight their fleets lol
Played this game a lot and found the ship design and building a fleet side a lot of fun despite some strange mathematical bugs along the way. The combat less so. Visually it is uninspiring and could benefit from some graphical improvements. The A.I was also not great. So I hope this has been improved. I also found it a shame you could not have real fleets as history dictated. They were all made up by the A.I. This is ok but a proper historical fleet as an option would have been nice. Some modders have done this however but it still would have been good to have the real thing as an option. I also found the weight system to be badly off when designing your ships. They came out way too heavy as they should have been. Try designing the Hood to it's historical specs and it comes out way too heavy. I hope this is also fixed in the new version. Anyway I look forward to your next video. Keep up the good work.
I believe the game has been tightened up in most areas. I too would love the user interface to be upgraded with something more attractive. Though of course, once I am are in the middle of playing, I hardly notice. You can now autoplay your battles. Though I've never tried it.
Strange. I generally found the designer to be lenient compared to historical designs. You might have been designing the Hood replica with an insufficient level of weight saving technologies.
Another observation. On the simple design overview it said your battleship has 4 x 5" guns. In the design view we see that it's actually 4 twin 5" turrets, so 8 guns total, not 4. Another small oversight / bug.
Yes, I noticed that too. 4 x 5in would be the real figure. The visual representation is not the source of truth here. They did just release an initial guide to doing the ship graphics (you can edit them yourself extensively) but it's not an area I've concentrated on. In RtW2 it mainly got the visuals correct and I suspect that will be fixed soon too. (This is a pre-release press copy I'm working with).
@@RvTWargames oh, the window in the bottom left where it says "mount 1 2 guns, mount 2 2 guns" ect. is only for generating the graphics then? Looking at it again, that makes sense, hadn't caught that fact.
I didnt even know they were developing RTW3! And seeing that its on Steam makes it much easier to keep track of/update. Will definitely be nabbing it when I've got the spare money to!
Yeetus, you haven't been keeping your finger on the pulse! Never mind. You'll be able to enjoy it fully from the 18th and no annoying digital rights management software nonsense to bother about.
I will add, Austria-Hungary, at least in prior RTW games, is a decent starting choice. Might be bad in 1890 though. Japan may not be a terrible choice.
But the being blockaded by two row boats and a canoe, NoName117Spore! Yes, you can have a lot of fun designing Mediterranean only warships and fighting the Italians and Spanish. But I'd still recommend either France (interested to see how your new series goes), Germany or Italy.
The worst 1890 start should probably be the US! Rather like a 1920 German plus Versailles limits though with trash afloat but everything to play for and a budget that's just not going to stop growing!
@@RvTWargames The game world is much more belligerent though (it'll be interesting to see how many "NPC" wars we'll see kicking off in the background?) so treaties are rarely very long lasting...
I found the Harpoon francise to be better and Command: Modern Operations to take it's place. What does Rule the Waves 3 offer over them? RtW looks more like being an accountant then a strategist.
Rule the Waves offers: - longevity covering multiple naval revolutions - detailed ship design and fleet design - commanding at the CNO / First Sea Lord level - commanding as the fleet admiral in battle - working within economic and political constraints to manage your navy - control over the doctrines and research you want to emphasise - operating strategic geographic restraints - planning on upgrading naval infrastructure - keeping your aircraft upto date I don't know either Harpoon or Command: Modern Operations. But my hunch is that they do a brilliant job at the next level down, making you feel like you're in the bridge / in the combat command centre, at the very heart of things. Rule the Waves offers a more Admiral of the Fleet perspective.
Well, been waiting for this. Long time player of WarInThePacfic and similar games so lack of graphic isn't an issue. But how about the issue on earlier version of RTW. Will the other nations now battle each others or is it still only battles between you as a player and whatever AI nation you get to tangled with ? It was talked to be in this version, but you don't mention it and I haven't yet looked at details of the game elsewhere. This video popped up with a surprise for me. It was a lot of Hoo-ha for it to release in the spring, but such promises never stand, so gladly see 18th May.
Yes, AI nations will fight each other (and ally together). You might have an option to join in or stand clear. Equally importantly, when you are at war with a nation(s) - all the peacetime nations will not get a giant wartime lift to their naval budgets at the same time (without any of the risks). They've been going through a lot of Beta releases to fix all the bugs and make sure all the key features are working as intended. No doubt there will be some extra releases to come (one was today!).
@@RvTWargames Eager to see how the AI will handle this much more complexed situation. Looking forward to your series and hope you can swiftly settle the issue that they have managed to make the AI smart enough. (It's a big task even with new modern times with jets and such. AI must have improved big time)
Never had a problem with autosave. Resetting in the middle of a battle was annoying, but it never took too long to find the target (and it both ways - free AI lost its straddling too).
I know I clocked in a lot of sea hours in game. Currently playing from 1890 and now it’s 1948 in game and my IJN thankfully survived world politics. It’ll be interesting if they have South Americans in game. I would disagree on IJN being cul de sac. Its quite beginner friendly albeit you have funding woes.
You could view it as a sort of kindergarten for new admirals. And the surprise attacks at the start of a war are very exciting (especially in Captain's mode).
See my tutorials playlist, especially episodes 5, 6, and 7, which show two battles being played out. ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html Within the Preferences menu, you have a choice between: Admiral mode - you only control the flagship and the other ships are under AI control Read Admiral mode (default) - you control the flagship and optionally can take control of other divisions Captain's mode - you control all ships, including when to fire torpedoes
Lol. Yup compared to the hundreds of hours of fun, this is just grazing the surface. BTW, I have a 99 episode game playing France for 35 years using Rule the Waves 2!
Battle damage repair is handled by the AI. It takes a few months, 1 - 6 usually, to repair the damage, at an increased maintenance cost. This is often a good time to have a look at the repairing ship and decide if you want to do any upgrades (typically fire control, gun quality, improved anti-aircraft defence, improved anti-submarine defence) because it is already out of service for a few months for the repairs.
@RvT Wargames I wasn't aware that you could simultaneously do repairs and a refit at the same time! Is there any extra added cost for the refit while you're repairing, an extra time bonus, or do they simply run concurrently?
They run concurrently. Obviously it is most effective if the repair takes roughly the same time as the refit. That way you save on the higher dockyard maintenence cost as it is already in dockyard hands.
@@RvTWargames that makes sense. I found a lot of the game to be incredibly intuitive despite the mildly offensive UI, but your tutorial videos have helped me out a ton. Kudos!
The Habsburg ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire is a starting country in both the 1890 and 1900 starts. The land borders on maps on both maps country picker screen and fleet management screen have no effect on the game. As an alternate history game the game does not try and anticipate all the wide variety of outcomes on land. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire continuing to exist beyond 1918.
It "might" have presented the information in a less overwhelming way 🙄 But it doesn't actually take long to find your way around, if you already have a bit of naval knowledge.
Personally I’d say the best starting nations for rule the waves are Italy and Austria-Hungary, specifically because you are limited to the med and you can just focus on trying to best the other rather than thinking about anybody else, the relative parity and not needing to care about other sea zones makes for a good tutorial nation.
The USA is a great shout for somebody who is starting to get the hang of the game and wants to try out having a dominant navy with its many commitments and can grow into that role with the USA through a save.
Japan is the nation you pick if you really don’t want to get punished while learning the game because its isolation means that you will rarely have a full fleet chucked at your home region(only China and Russia have the basing possible to achieve this in the early-mid game, and Russia will be distracted with Europe a lot of the time)
Yup, Italy and Austro-Hungary are excellent starting countries. Italy was my first ever game, back in Rule the Waves 1 days.
@@RvTWargames ah the days when campaigns were just 1900-1925, and by 1920 armour was nearly worthless because guns got way more tech boosts than armour
I went in to RTW3 completely blind and play as Germany. No RTW1 or 2 experience. Ive had a great time.
Excellent. True, RtW3 is full of details, but, design ships, build ships, sink ships (hopefully not your own). How hard can it be! Glad you had a great time.
Feel like playing this game again.
Gotta play this game while listening to Drachnifiel's videos about building a navy.
"Naval strategy is a built strategy," as he says
It is indeed. This game is the embodiment of that wise saying.
@@RvTWargames With the rage inducing multiplayer game that is WoWs… RTW is a welcome respite
Oh yes, very very different games.
I don't really think of Wow as a naval game, more naval themed.
Top-notch beginner introduction. Your knowledge and enthusiasm carry us apprehensive ones (and those of use who are detail averse) over the breach. Good job!
Enjoy Mucologist. Go crazy and sink and destroy!
Thank you for introducing me to this game.
That is very kind of you. I really appreciate it. Enjoy being the best Admiral.
Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts is proof that just because a game looks nice doesn't mean that it's a good game
I say this as someone who loves that game as well
Yes. Didn't help that they had a lot of instability in their development team and disagreements over the direction of the game.
Having one very committed developer has certainly helped RtW3.
Current for me its the AI systems and how nations choose to declare war on you, You can have no colonial holdings and still have a war being declared on you every 2-4 months by a random nation. Beating them does nothing, They prepare to fight again while becoming hostile. Not to mention the dog water army combat systems. You could be winning a war and have the entire enemy navy destroyed and blockade ports and still have your cores taken from you by land armies. Even when you out number them, better power rating and army logistics… Nadda. It ultimately needs a huge redo, something along the line of DIP project.
@@LoderryPlaysPVP it doesn't help that every single project this developer has taken on remains unfinished.
They have UA: age of sail that released a dlc before being 1.0 and remains very buggy and frankly boring
UA: dreadnoughts which is in the state that it is.
This land is my land that was never finished
Ultimate general civil war that they are allegedly still working on.
Also every game they make has terrible balancing and game design aims at punishing good results.
I bought 2 games from that dev and I will never buy more.
As someone who lightly played Rule The Waves 1 many a year ago and is excited for the new game, this video and upcoming(?) video series is perfect. Thank you.
Thank you, Grimelex. Check out my mini-tutorial series to refresh your memory on how to play. A lot should seem very familiar!
I was waiting for you to make a video about this! I'm ecstatic that they gave you an early copy to play around with, it means we'll get some great rule the waves content from you sooner rather than later which is always good. I'm very excited to see your guides for this game, I know they'll be great, I'm especially excited to see you talk about the brand new features like helicopters , anti-ship missiles, missile submarines, and new jet aircraft to name a few. It'll be very interesting to see how all of these effect the combat and the fleet composition. Also, I hope that you're continuing to recover well from your surgery and that some of your lingering issues from it have ceased since your last upload!
Thanks, Zook. I'm looking to do a 1935 start exactly because so many of the interesting new features you mentioned cover the late post-1940 game.
And yes, I am continuing to recover very well :-)
Looking forward to another spreadsheet filled series!
😅
I'm just going to do a mini tutorial for new players and then get into a proper long series.
Only discovered Rule the Waves and was really intrigued but a bit intimidated as well. You delivered a good overview that definitely helped me. Thank you! Love your enthusiasm as well.
You're very welcome. Have a look at the tutorials I did following on from this video that should break it down more for you.
ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html&si=VQtRpsHk0eVSQg57
@@RvTWargames Yes, thank you!
Great that you can preview the next RTW for us all! Looking forward for a new series. Thank you for your work and enthusiasm.
You a very welcome Mykyta. I've been watching RtW3 go through its beta testing for a while and it is lovely to be able to finally share the results of all the hard work that has gone into it.
I played RTW not long before RTW 2 came out and have played the series since. Looking forwards to reaching the missile cruiser era in my current game, a shame there's no 1950 start date so I can get right into jet fighters and building heavy missile cruisers.
Yes, I agree, I'd have preferred to have started in 1950.
I recently found your channel and guides on RtW3 and enjoy them very much. Thank you for these videos!
Your very welcome, Klaus.
I'll be starting a new playthrough series in two weeks time, BTW.
Wonderful to see you looking so well and the bonus of a whole RTW 3 episode. Great introduction to RTW 3 and roll on the next playthrough :)
Thank you, Richard. I'm feeling much better, though still recovering!
Hey, i just bought the game and it was a bit overwhelming for me. Im glad i found your video and channel because of that. Its always great to learn stuff from someone who is really passionate about the subject at hand. Thank you a lot!
You're very welcome. Glad you found them useful. When you're ready, check out the Rule the Waves 2 tutorials which are still relevant (RtW3 was an expansion, not a replacement for RtW2) which cover a lot of aspects of the game in more detail.
Good admiraling!
Fantastic overview! I purchased the game on steam about a month ago, downloaded it, and uninstalled it quickly because it looked so daunting. The way you explained it, made me want to reinstall it and start playing it right away. Thank you for the great introduction and explanation! Can't wait to see more of your training videos. Take care!
Welcome aboard! Enjoy learning and being absorbed into the game: sinking (and being sunk), planning, designing, fighting. It's all there for the new budding admiral.
Incredible guide, dude. Looking at picking the game up. This video is incredibly helpful.
Thanks very much, Kong. You won't be disappointed. Despite its ancient looks it is an incredibly immersive game. Enjoy
Thanks Dickie - your passion for RTW comes across. I always enjoy listening to you and watching you play. Hope you are doing well. Cheers.
I'm recovering nicely, Shawn. Probably 95% better, though the last 5% will take a couple of years it is in no way life limiting. Thanks for asking after me.
I will wait for your videos on Rule of the Waves 3. I have recently discover your channel throught RW2 and I'm amazed by your videos. Great work:)
Thank you, RBarrososj, that is exactly my aim for my channel. Glad you're enjoying it.
Thanks for the intro video, I subscribed to your channel! I've never played this game due to the graphics but am really interested and look forward to your additional guides.
Don't be put off by the graphics. The depth of naval knowledge underpinning the game goes far beyond games I won't mention that have lovely graphics.
I've seen a couple of guides and yours is my favorite because it had just enough details, leaving more to explore in future videos or on my own. Thank you!
Thank you! That's just exactly the Goldilocks level I was aiming for. Not too little. Not too much.
I have done a mini-tutorial series that shows what I explain here in practice. Managing a small French fleet, designing your first battleship, going to war and fighting a cruiser battle (a chase) and a major fleet battle. Which might help you see how the game plays out.
@@RvTWargames I'm on part 3 right now with the game open and following what you did. Fun!
Great introduction to this game; looking forward to learning much from this series...thank you.
Thank you, Eddie. It is a great game to get stuck into.
This is great! Love your passion and enthusiasm, subscribed!
You're very welcome, Dave. I'm just organising the start of a major new campaign which I hope you'll enjoy.
Going to purchase this now! Thank you for the videos!
It'll give you hundreds of hours of pleasure! Enjoy.
Great video, I just bought the game and now I need to learn how to play. I have hundreds of hours in Ultimate admiral, but thats completely different game. Gonna watch all Your vids and hopefully get better at the game, cheers!
Excellent. Check out my RtW2 tutorials as well - they are still 95% true (RtW3 is an extension in time, from 1900-1950 to 1890-1970, so the main core is much the same with the biggest changes to accommodate late ironclads and pre-dreadnoughts at one end, and jets and missiles at the other.
Hi there, this was a great tutorial and intro to the game! Im unsure if you know this already, but the letters next to the officers are their French ranks! CV is Capitaine de vaisseau and CF is Capitaine de frégate, or Cdr and LtCdr in RN ranks. I always loved how their ranks are a call back to the age of sail where corvettes and frigates were considered junior command positions.
Thanks. I did learn later but when I recorded it Officers were a new feature. Since then, Officers have matured nicely.
This was really helpful to someone that has never touched many games like this before. Great job!
Exactly what I was trying for. I hope you get playing, Sir Prodigle.
Thank you for your excellent videos on Rule the Waves ! I'm a beginner and this helps me a lot ! 👍🏻
Thank you. Have a look at my mini-tutorial playlist too. They go into everything in a bit more detail, using a real example:
ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html
I really appreciate this very, very helpful video. Great Job!
Thanks Kevin. Check out the rest of this tutorial playlist to take you to the next level of detail.
Thank you! Very interesting!
Glad you liked it and found it helpful!
Well, it's got a Steam page...
How long you think it will be before someone writes a review on it saying "They just ripped of Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts without the graphics" 😆
Lol.
And yes, putting it on Steam does it much easier to buy and play and the game. Farewell DRM software, no one liked you.
I noticed in the "history" of your battleship, it said "laid down" in 1897, instead of 1887 (presumably). Probably a bug, but not sure if it can be fixed, as the laid down date is outside the scope of the game.
Excellent spot. If RtW3 is anything like RtW2 I expect there to be a number of bug sweeps, fixes and revisions based on actual play. I think RtW2 when to 26 free updates.
(Actually, an update is being applied now!)
@@RvTWargames would love it if the speed/displacement bug showed up again lol, was always funny making 35+ knot superbattleships that had 0 engine weight due to that bug
Great video for newcomers. Not going into too much depth and leaving that for later makes for a nice quick guide.
One question: You are judging the ships armor, armament, speed etc. Do you recommend any resource where someone with little naval/ship experience can get a overview over the typical properties. Like what was "average" in the 1900s. Maybe there is something that covers the whole time-span of this game?
I would prefer some book recommendations but any resource is fine.
Thanks, Tagman.
naval-history.net and the dreadnought project.org are full of details, while Wikipedia is actually quite good at the bare facts of each class.
For books, Norman Friedman's Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology is reasonably priced (though it is quite visual so I don't recommend the Kindle edition) and takes through every bit of naval technology in World War One. Which is a good starting point.
@@RvTWargames Thanks for taking the time to respond.
It might be asking for too much, but do you also have some book recommendations for WW2 ships and also for the 'modern' era?
Aside from Norman Friedman? Actually any of his books are great, but perhaps at too greater depth.
Convoy's and Jane's all the world's ships used to be a thing. But they don't seem to have been republished in a while.
But you can pick up old Ian Allen warship books on ebay for a reasonable price, for example
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224562469422?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=7101533165274578&mkcid=2&itemid=224562469422&targetid=4584826055637456&device=m&mktype=&googleloc=&poi=&campaignid=412354546&mkgroupid=1299623041023876&rlsatarget=pla-4584826055637456&abcId=9300541&merchantid=87779&msclkid=7aee8426b3861492d3d5e05d8c6990f4
Thank you for the guides! superb video, even though I'm not yet playing this but I'm sure I'll go for it on the next sale, this looks good as for someone who just got into wargame thingy.
You're very welcome. There is a whole playlist of depth guides if you ever want fun take your admiraling skills further, or you can just enjoy designing your beloved ships and blowing up stuff!
The game is in active development, BTW, with a major DLC slated for summer next year. Which naturally I'll cover in depth.
So great to see you giving the new game your attention (not that I doubted you would!) And looking to produce beginners guides to help newbies aboard! Does the 1890 tech system have evolving Quick Firing guns over the decade? Do they have Barbette ships? Your 1890 French fleet looks VERY cutting edge, with mid decade looking "Lozenges of Death"and no clutter of late ironclad Central Battery and Barbette stuff? I am itching to get a look at it myself!
I've only played with the 1890 navy a couple of times (I'm more interested in the 1935-1970 navy, where most of the developments are going to be.
And yes, this is easily the most modern and coherent looking legacy fleet I've been given. Probably because it's so small.
It'll interesting to see the techs unfold.
@@RvTWargames I suspect the 1890 start will make the potential 1900 fleets more interesting but I did wonder if they'd really have the weird and wonderful collections of ironclads and masted cruisers that IRL made up the bulk of the world's navies in 1890...
Possibly when you play with a very large fleet. I have seen some strange designs.
@@RvTWargames "Send in the Popovkas!"
I sure look forward to having carriers take it a bit more chill with those extra settings. From watching lets plays of RtW2 I don't think the air-war is something I will find as satisfying to manage. Though, one of the things I would love to know is how much and in what way "slow aircraft development" changes things up.
Slow aircraft development literally slows the rate of air technology advances, so you get to play with biplanes for a lot longer and the introduction on monoplanes and jets gets delayed.
If you lower the research rate (which impacts everything) you can cause aircraft technologies to be delayed even further.
Thanks for creating these videos, 1-7 so far. I'm a new player, just started my first campaign and enjoying it much more than I believe I would without your guidance. Please keep these excellent videos comming. Thanks Dickie.
Question: I'd like to increase the text size on my PC due to vision challenge. Is this possible?
Oh thank you, Leo. I'm delighted to hear you're enjoying the game and that my efforts helped.
I'm about to start a big 35 year campaign that will cover all the later technologies. Fighting with carriers is quite different.
Sadly I don't think that there are any text size changes under preferences. You'll need to try and use the Windows controls.
But you're not the first to mention it so I'll rise it with the developers.
@@RvTWargames Looking forward to your 1935 campaign, will vote now. Cheers, Leo
Thank you! Just bought the game.
I hope you have a wild time with it! More victories then defeats.
I'm posting this everywhere but I'm just so excited for this game!! 2 weeks can't go by quickly enough.
Thank you, Goose. That's very kind of you.
Not long now!
Do you have any recommended reading material or videos for someone interested in military history but who has never dove into naval armaments? I can tell you all about USArmy armaments but I don’t have a clue why certain inch guns are good or bad or what the hell a knot is!
Norman Friedman is a great place to start for the early dreadnought era naval technology.
Fighting the Great War at Sea: Strategy, Tactics and Technology amzn.eu/d/gVz4p2E
23:15 You may consider those early KEs, especially the big ones, to be a sort of colonial gunboat / unprotected cruiser.
KEs, ideally designed for colonial service, are the backbone of foreign stations for countries with large empires, espeically the UK and France. KEs are a portmanteau classification for gunboats, minesweepers, sloops, frigates and any other small ship that isn't a destroyer. It would be nice if this was reflected better in the game, but equally, it does simplify the game a lot.
this game plays like that text based baseball game or any fifa manager game where we just stare at the 2D football field with circles running around...
It's all it really needs
I can imagine this should help me play Steam and Iron. Its interesting but not sure Admiral mode feels like I lack control.
Rear admiral mode is usually recommend.
Thanks for a great review. I'm interested in buying the game but am slightly worried by the criticism I've heard that fleets get split up when battles are generated and smaller fragments of the fleets end up engaging. Is this something that happens a lot and, if so, does it detract from the game?
The antidote to having your fleet split up is to put your ships into divisions and to give them roles that support the lead ships.
So, you have a battleship division as your flagship, and a second battleship division as a core that follows your flagship. You have a couple of light cruiser divisions that scouts for your flagship. An armoured curiser division that might be independent (or in its own separate scounting force 50mn ahead of the main fleet). Then destroyer divisions that are in support of or later screening the battleships, cruisers and light cruisers.
You build up your fleet (or fleet and scouting force) with these interconnected divisions all doing different roles according to their type.
Note:
1. the divisions do need to be same type of ship.
2. it helps if they have the same or very similar speed
3. the roles grow over time with the development of more sophisticated fleet tactics
And yes, sometimes the battle generator will throw something odds, because shit happens and fleets get caught on the hop. But generally, the fleet you design with its divisions and roles will be very similar to the fleet that turns up for battle.
@@RvTWargames Thank you for explaining that. It sounds like a decent system... I also saw in one of your other videos that a new system was added allowing further allocation of ships, pre-battle. So overall, doesn't sound like it's too bad. I think I'll get the game :)
@allthiswasfields, I'm sure it'll give you hours of fun / challenge (aka frustratation, but in a good way) to become the admiral you've always wanted to be 😉
By any chance you got a video on how to use carriers? The manual seems very bare bones and a lot of options aren't quite explained well. Great video by the way!
Hiya, I covered it a bit - at least for early 1920-1935 era carriers in this fleet tactics guide:
ua-cam.com/video/8pwzg1R-m6M/v-deo.html
And a bit more in this one, analysing the end of my 1920-1955 playthrough with France
ua-cam.com/video/vt_VmyJHurM/v-deo.html
Subscribed! This was awesome
Thank you. Hope you enjoy the rest of the guides and the Germany starting in 1935 playthrough I am doing.
Just found this game and started playing. China was my first nation and I won like 2 battles against Japan before not having enough ships to fight their fleets lol
@@justinsanchez6255 excellent. I'd recommend Italy or Austro-Hungary for your next game. China is actually very hard!
Played this game a lot and found the ship design and building a fleet side a lot of fun despite some strange mathematical bugs along the way. The combat less so. Visually it is uninspiring and could benefit from some graphical improvements. The A.I was also not great. So I hope this has been improved. I also found it a shame you could not have real fleets as history dictated. They were all made up by the A.I. This is ok but a proper historical fleet as an option would have been nice. Some modders have done this however but it still would have been good to have the real thing as an option. I also found the weight system to be badly off when designing your ships. They came out way too heavy as they should have been. Try designing the Hood to it's historical specs and it comes out way too heavy. I hope this is also fixed in the new version. Anyway I look forward to your next video. Keep up the good work.
I believe the game has been tightened up in most areas. I too would love the user interface to be upgraded with something more attractive. Though of course, once I am are in the middle of playing, I hardly notice.
You can now autoplay your battles. Though I've never tried it.
What may be relevant when looking at displacement is whether you're using standard or full load. I believe the game uses full load.
@@captainloggy140 Even taking that into consideration the weights are still too high.
Strange. I generally found the designer to be lenient compared to historical designs. You might have been designing the Hood replica with an insufficient level of weight saving technologies.
What a magnificent beard! Suits you very well!
I'll mention your appreciation to my wife, who trims it for me, and who is fashioning it to be like an Edwardian beard.
very much looking forward to it
Thanks. Me too.
Just curious, have you ever tried Aurora 4x? It's the closest experience I can think of at face value.
No. It's been mentioned before, but I've always shyed away from it as I already have enough video projects on my plate!
Great Video!
Glad you enjoyed it, Uriel
Another observation. On the simple design overview it said your battleship has 4 x 5" guns. In the design view we see that it's actually 4 twin 5" turrets, so 8 guns total, not 4. Another small oversight / bug.
Yes, I noticed that too. 4 x 5in would be the real figure. The visual representation is not the source of truth here.
They did just release an initial guide to doing the ship graphics (you can edit them yourself extensively) but it's not an area I've concentrated on. In RtW2 it mainly got the visuals correct and I suspect that will be fixed soon too.
(This is a pre-release press copy I'm working with).
@@RvTWargames oh, the window in the bottom left where it says "mount 1 2 guns, mount 2 2 guns" ect. is only for generating the graphics then? Looking at it again, that makes sense, hadn't caught that fact.
HOI4 is the first game that make me fall in love with navy management, so great that i discovered this game.
Good choice in HOI4. RtW3 is much more grounded in history and naval technology. Enjoy
looking to get into wargames and this guide is very helpful, thanks!
This is an excellent choice if you want to get into something with great depth.
love your intro thanks so very much :D
Glad you liked it. Enjoy the game.
I didnt even know they were developing RTW3! And seeing that its on Steam makes it much easier to keep track of/update. Will definitely be nabbing it when I've got the spare money to!
Yeetus, you haven't been keeping your finger on the pulse! Never mind. You'll be able to enjoy it fully from the 18th and no annoying digital rights management software nonsense to bother about.
@@RvTWargames I'm really glad to have gotten into RTW, even if it was after the game had been pretty much finished and no longer patched.
Me when the quick guide is 32 minutes long (God I love this game)
Quick to the point of almost being cursory.
When the game take you to watch 100 videos, that a good game.
Undeniably so! (Ditto making them)
Are the country borders always modern day or do they change with the years?
They stay with their starting points, as it is up to you to expand (or contract) your Empire. The politics of your country might change.
Are those initial ships random or historically accurate?
Both. They are randomly generated but within historically accurate constraints. It's not the actual fleet of 1890. But it is a plausible one.
I will add, Austria-Hungary, at least in prior RTW games, is a decent starting choice. Might be bad in 1890 though. Japan may not be a terrible choice.
But the being blockaded by two row boats and a canoe, NoName117Spore!
Yes, you can have a lot of fun designing Mediterranean only warships and fighting the Italians and Spanish. But I'd still recommend either France (interested to see how your new series goes), Germany or Italy.
The worst 1890 start should probably be the US! Rather like a 1920 German plus Versailles limits though with trash afloat but everything to play for and a budget that's just not going to stop growing!
The 1935 start for Germany is a bit dire, unless you like mid century pre-dreadnoughts!
@@RvTWargames The game world is much more belligerent though (it'll be interesting to see how many "NPC" wars we'll see kicking off in the background?) so treaties are rarely very long lasting...
i can finally die happy seen missile destroying ship on my microsoft excel
You can! I had a lot of fun with SAMs in my RtW2 France 1920 series. I can't wait to have a go with anti-ship missiles.
I found the Harpoon francise to be better and Command: Modern Operations to take it's place. What does Rule the Waves 3 offer over them? RtW looks more like being an accountant then a strategist.
Rule the Waves offers:
- longevity covering multiple naval revolutions
- detailed ship design and fleet design
- commanding at the CNO / First Sea Lord level
- commanding as the fleet admiral in battle
- working within economic and political constraints to manage your navy
- control over the doctrines and research you want to emphasise
- operating strategic geographic restraints
- planning on upgrading naval infrastructure
- keeping your aircraft upto date
I don't know either Harpoon or Command: Modern Operations. But my hunch is that they do a brilliant job at the next level down, making you feel like you're in the bridge / in the combat command centre, at the very heart of things.
Rule the Waves offers a more Admiral of the Fleet perspective.
Well, been waiting for this. Long time player of WarInThePacfic and similar games so lack of graphic isn't an issue. But how about the issue on earlier version of RTW. Will the other nations now battle each others or is it still only battles between you as a player and whatever AI nation you get to tangled with ? It was talked to be in this version, but you don't mention it and I haven't yet looked at details of the game elsewhere. This video popped up with a surprise for me. It was a lot of Hoo-ha for it to release in the spring, but such promises never stand, so gladly see 18th May.
There is new button "all relations" so I hope it didn't get cut.
Yes, AI nations will fight each other (and ally together). You might have an option to join in or stand clear.
Equally importantly, when you are at war with a nation(s) - all the peacetime nations will not get a giant wartime lift to their naval budgets at the same time (without any of the risks).
They've been going through a lot of Beta releases to fix all the bugs and make sure all the key features are working as intended. No doubt there will be some extra releases to come (one was today!).
@@RvTWargames Eager to see how the AI will handle this much more complexed situation. Looking forward to your series and hope you can swiftly settle the issue that they have managed to make the AI smart enough. (It's a big task even with new modern times with jets and such. AI must have improved big time)
Just bought this game!
That will be hours of your life lost to building fascinating ships and fighting them in complex wars!
This game looks more realistic, than real life itself, lol.
It does neatly show what a pain being First Sea Lord or Chief of Naval Operations was like in terms of many of the competing pressures.
Did they get rid of the CSA's Navy?
Yes, the brought in China and Spain more fully and let go the fantasy CSA.
RTW2 was a great game, but it screwed me over one too many times with resetting autosave and forgetting spotting when saving 😢😢
Never had a problem with autosave. Resetting in the middle of a battle was annoying, but it never took too long to find the target (and it both ways - free AI lost its straddling too).
Have you played or looked at Aurora 4X?
People have mentored I might like it, but I've never had the time to investigate it properly.
Thank you!
You're very welcome, Griswel.
I know I clocked in a lot of sea hours in game.
Currently playing from 1890 and now it’s 1948 in game and my IJN thankfully survived world politics.
It’ll be interesting if they have South Americans in game.
I would disagree on IJN being cul de sac. Its quite beginner friendly albeit you have funding woes.
You could view it as a sort of kindergarten for new admirals. And the surprise attacks at the start of a war are very exciting (especially in Captain's mode).
How to manual control the navy in the battle?
See my tutorials playlist, especially episodes 5, 6, and 7, which show two battles being played out.
ua-cam.com/play/PLezw_SV-XtA0iOGtrPYf9BtEMSAL1RejP.html
Within the Preferences menu, you have a choice between:
Admiral mode - you only control the flagship and the other ships are under AI control
Read Admiral mode (default) - you control the flagship and optionally can take control of other divisions
Captain's mode - you control all ships, including when to fire torpedoes
I would have gone with the waves and splashy explosions...
Nice to have both but, for me, less important.
Does the AI behave near the shore now? Or does it keep running into land?
Better. But you can still herd into the shore and trap it there.
@@RvTWargames That's a bit disappointing
I'm guessing that the logic is exceptionally hard to do in a dynamic battle environment.
Easy buy :)
Very easy no brainier!
Gonna be Austria Hungary, might be fun
Nice limited country to play. You certainly know who your enemy is.
“Quick guide”
-Is 30min long.
Yup, this is going to be one of THOSE games.
Lol. Yup compared to the hundreds of hours of fun, this is just grazing the surface.
BTW, I have a 99 episode game playing France for 35 years using Rule the Waves 2!
There is no ship repairing simulation and requirement in this game ? .. if so thats really very disappointed for a ship simulation game ..
Battle damage repair is handled by the AI. It takes a few months, 1 - 6 usually, to repair the damage, at an increased maintenance cost. This is often a good time to have a look at the repairing ship and decide if you want to do any upgrades (typically fire control, gun quality, improved anti-aircraft defence, improved anti-submarine defence) because it is already out of service for a few months for the repairs.
@@RvTWargames ok, thank you , i am glad to hear this :)
@RvT Wargames I wasn't aware that you could simultaneously do repairs and a refit at the same time! Is there any extra added cost for the refit while you're repairing, an extra time bonus, or do they simply run concurrently?
They run concurrently. Obviously it is most effective if the repair takes roughly the same time as the refit. That way you save on the higher dockyard maintenence cost as it is already in dockyard hands.
@@RvTWargames that makes sense. I found a lot of the game to be incredibly intuitive despite the mildly offensive UI, but your tutorial videos have helped me out a ton. Kudos!
1890 ? The maps and borders are wrong. Poland did not exist. What about Austria-Habsburg ?
The Habsburg ruled Austro-Hungarian Empire is a starting country in both the 1890 and 1900 starts.
The land borders on maps on both maps country picker screen and fleet management screen have no effect on the game. As an alternate history game the game does not try and anticipate all the wide variety of outcomes on land. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Empire continuing to exist beyond 1918.
👌
You're welcome, Oldy!
battleships are so damned cool, shame they are mostly useless now.
They had a good run, from 1890 to about 1955 or even up to 1970 with missiles.
Wow. This game seems to be information overload. As interesting as it seems I will probably stay away from this one.
It "might" have presented the information in a less overwhelming way 🙄
But it doesn't actually take long to find your way around, if you already have a bit of naval knowledge.
@@RvTWargames
I'm surprised you replied to my comment. Maybe IF it goes on sale I'll try it.
I'm not so big a channel that I can't keep up with all the comments, and I like to engage with everyone who has taken the trouble to say something.
Why was the Alternate navies removed? Any idea?
No idea. Only the Confederacy seems to be removed. China and Spain are now regular navies.
@@RvTWargames Thank you for the answer.
I suspect because they were incorporated into the regular lineup. The selection was probably kept to allow for modding.
@@captainloggy140 I was really asking about the missing CSA Navy. I suspect it was removed for other reasons. Thanks for the reply.