The low key understatement and subtle wit of some of your comments (like the potential of Italy joining the war on your side in a most unwelcome way) are very humourous and enjoyable!
Unfortunately doing a refit instead of a repair, tends to fragment the fleet in many subclasses unless you're then doing the wartime refit on all other classes. I hope the devs let us rebuild ships of different sub-rebuillds to the same rebuild in the future. On another note, the actual blockade strength should be listed below the theoretical one. This seems to be another case of hidden multipliers in RtW3. Your on paper blockade value in the Baltic is 84, but the actual value is 53 (63%). The Soviet Union has 75 on paper, which means 48 (64%) in the Baltic. The minimum blockade strength is 72 so your fleet would have to be quite a bit larger to achieve that.
Looking at how much information is available with the aid of digital technology in this game alone, isn't it amazing that admirals were able to coordinate entire fleets over entire oceans with just pen and paper to record all the data?
22:54 There, on the left, an airship with a parasite fighter spotting enemy ships at night. Now you can keep airships forevermore. (Now I want airships with entire squadrons of parasite jet fighters, and equipped with both anti-aircraft and anti-airship missiles. One can dream, I guess.)
You may have hit upon something very important! The enemy will NOT engage if they have NO CLs at all! I had a war where they declined everything, and thinking back, yeah, I am pretty sure I had wiped out the CLs! So ALL that they would (could?) accept were light forces with only DDs and the odd blockade runner CA vs my TP ship. As it seemingly won't put naked BBs into battle... Not often you CAN wipe out all their CLs, but I sure am going to make sure to target them with extreme prejudice next time I can! So how close are they to getting CLs commissioned? And yeah, get just a few more blockade points and then you really put the screws to them!
"I sure am going to make sure to target them with extreme prejudice next time I can!" If you only like the management aspect of this game (and not the combat one), or if your fleet is outmatched by the enemy and you'd rather not decline every battle, sure.
Very nice as usual, I hope that total war doesn't mean that Italy and Britain get dragged in when you aren't really ready. Did you intentionally not refit the Bremen LC when it was damaged and in dock for 4 months or did you just miss it? Oh, the irony if you did forget after the start of the video 😀
We've got a Tension spiral, due to being unable to peace out other states will get dragged into a world war. Well that navy build program has to be accelerated man you and the soviets will be beating steel into ships under fire, in one year the Graf Zeppelin you'll be having carrier battles with them the question is there room worth investing into a Modern Battleship for the ship of the line or are your Graf Spee class Battlecruisers the foundation of your fleet? Light Cruiser and Heavy Cruiser designs you mentioned the poor performance of the Berlin and the crippling the Blucher took in the cruiser engagement? The performance limit breakthrough for aircraft we'll need the finest aircraft to arm our Graf Zeppelin to maximize its performance is a New Fighter, Dive Bomber on the design table? your aircraft company has given you a good Torpedo Bomber upgrade. Greece has put you in the Mediterranean thunder dome but you possess good aircraft bases and have the possibility of threating the Suez Canal and a U-Boat base.
Yes, it's all very uncomfortable with Stalin going all Total War maniac on me. The only unexpected bonus I'm seeing is that the Italians are doing some interesting new builds.
18:45 I've seen AI having trouble with maneuver like that a lot, especially with big fleets. I've encountered British Battlelines completely stalled at 0 knot in NB like it's a traffic jam, usually it untangles as soon as the AI can officially see me again, so there's been only one time I was able to actually take advantage of it.
They did get themselves in a pickle. I think it primarily affects their gunnery - masses of friendly ship interference, smoke, radical changing of course, all leading to huge negative mods on their shooting - not to mention making my shooting quite difficult too.
Honestly... go Greece. As well as getting a base so you lose less ships to break downs it gives you time to establish coastal defence, airbases and in peactime coastal subs. (technically move them anywhere in peace but I move them only to where I have bases). Also you are likely to get Italy or Austria-Hungry as an ally against the inevitable France and UK fighting in the med. A base makes it safer to send your main force, should the situation arise, to help the allies.
But the costs mount up: Coastal defence batteries and MTBs Airbase expansion Extra air squadrons Foreign station requirement Minesweeping force Expansion of the naval base Naval squadron based there It could all add up to the cost of a BC equivalent.
20:45 ...you're trying to finish off an enemy DD. You should consider slowing down from 29 knots, down to 5 knots. You will triple your hit chances, and finish the battle much faster.
I can't remember now. Usually it depends on how viable the enemy still is, which can be very hard to assess. Torpedoes, in particular, remain a danger to a slow moving ship.
@@RvTWargames - Fair enough. As you can see, I am working my way through your entire series, and thoroughly enjoying it. I have been a wargamer (boards, mostly), for about 60 years.
I am resisting the temptation to say a thing but I will say that I called it regarding Greece. Now you should be wary of blitz options as I think the second time you go for it tends to piss more people off. Kind of a Czechoslovakia vs Poland type deal. That being said I have far less experience with getting multiple blitz events in a single war so it could just be anecdotal. As far as Italy goes I think it gives you the option to keep the wars separate, at least in some cases. Like if Russia declares on Italy the Italians will come to you saying that you should join forces and you can tell them to sail on. If Italy joins your war directly though it could go a bit pear shaped. @soulmuse6129 did mention that the total war popup seems to come up only a few months from peace and I have seen the same thing, I think it is an unrest decreasing thing so it could be a good sign.
In reality I don't think the Soviet Navy would need to help out all that much with the invasion of the Baltic States...but in all seriousness it's likely the Soviets are declining every battle because they lack escorts. The AI has to know it couldn't practically escort 6 battleships with just 13 destroyers assuming all 13 aren't on TP. It's possible your own land based airpower is also convincing them not to sortie and if not that that's at least a convenient realistic excuse. It's frustrating as a players but it is resulting in a very realistic German-Soviet Union conflict.
Your Blitzkrieg was Greece - I got Norway, but Russia got Finland. That's the only good news, a 5 year war 1936-1940 with Italy solely fought by subs and ASW - which I'm loosing as I didn't start building until the second year 😞
Another great episode, i must admit I'm taking a break from actually playing RTW3 for a bit (playing Europa Barbarorum for a change of pace) as I've been somewhat disappointed in the game's rather "meh" attempt at an 1890 start. I'll doubtless return to it in a bit but needed a break. Your thoughtful and intelligent play throughs are the beacon that will be guiding me "home". Keep up the, always splendid, work!
1890 is a tough start with such unbelievably crude weapons compared to even 10 years later on. Ridiculous lack of control over your ships (this is, after all, the era of the loss of HMS Victoria in 1893 by an admiral who made a special study in fleet control). Semi-suicidal combat ranges. Ships that become obsolete as soon as you commission them!
@@RvTWargames actually i was rather annoyed they didn't make them worse! Some of the battleships were reasonably archaic but most of the cruisers the game gives everyone are much too good! I did wonder what they'd do about the existing navies in an 1890 start, but I didn't guess they'd just pretend all those steam and sail things didn't happen! I made a start on a better RN but the size of the task was a bit depressing so I'm taking a break until I feel inspired enough to do the rest of the world's navies justice.
@@RvTWargames I posted a bunch of the British stuff on the forum but I'll get my head around the French, Italians and Germans in due course. The question will be what to do about folks like the Japanese and Americans? They are both tiny forces in 1890 and only really get into their stride towards the end of the decade. One of the designers hinted they'd not wanted to "upset people" with too much reality early doors, thus the masses of rather too fast and powerful cruisers that they give everyone?
As many times as I played this game, the concept of refitting while doing a big repair never occurred to me. Probably because I'm OCD about doing all ships of a class at once. Worth thinking about though ;p
I think so. On the subject I always take careful note of the total build cost once the first sub comes off the ways just to see how much continuing the build program is costing me.
It is. Though it's a shame you cannot build a sub every X months, to build at a slower rate. But during war you have to build one or two a month to replace the monthly losses.
I really hope that you havent handed Greece to the UK on a silver platter. IMO you should have told the General Staff to continue to import their olives for their martinis for a bit longer. I suspect that the Soviet heavy fleet hasnt come out to play for two reasons. One is your not having heavy forces for the battle generator to match them with. Two is your air superiority against a stunted Soviet Air Force. I would imagine that the Soviets air is still using late 20's tech aircraft. Either way good luck in the game. I seriously think you are going to need it soon.
So here is the thing, if the UK does wind up joining the war and taking Greece... so what? Germany loses nothing it didn't already have and the UK gains nothing it didn't already have. Even better, if the UK takes Greece in a peace deal that means they wont have the points to take the baltic states so taking Greece indirectly protects the baltic.
Funnily enough, every time I've seen the total war popup it has been only a few months from peace.
Fingers crossed that's the case.
The low key understatement and subtle wit of some of your comments (like the potential of Italy joining the war on your side in a most unwelcome way) are very humourous and enjoyable!
Less is more 😉
Unfortunately doing a refit instead of a repair, tends to fragment the fleet in many subclasses unless you're then doing the wartime refit on all other classes. I hope the devs let us rebuild ships of different sub-rebuillds to the same rebuild in the future.
On another note, the actual blockade strength should be listed below the theoretical one. This seems to be another case of hidden multipliers in RtW3. Your on paper blockade value in the Baltic is 84, but the actual value is 53 (63%). The Soviet Union has 75 on paper, which means 48 (64%) in the Baltic. The minimum blockade strength is 72 so your fleet would have to be quite a bit larger to achieve that.
I think the refit is a named thing, so I could apply the same refit to others in the class.
These videos are invaluable, thank you as always.
You're very welcome, Eddie. Glad you're getting something from them.
Looking at how much information is available with the aid of digital technology in this game alone, isn't it amazing that admirals were able to coordinate entire fleets over entire oceans with just pen and paper to record all the data?
Filing is more powerful than most people imagine 😁
Plus the telegram and later radio.
And several thousand underlings at the Admiralty of course...
You'd think, but actually staff at the admiralty was surprisingly small, at least in peacetime.
I've played global pen and paper naval campaigns myself so I've an inkling... Plus I used to work in logistics "back in the day".
22:54 There, on the left, an airship with a parasite fighter spotting enemy ships at night. Now you can keep airships forevermore. (Now I want airships with entire squadrons of parasite jet fighters, and equipped with both anti-aircraft and anti-airship missiles. One can dream, I guess.)
Yes, dream away. Certainly in my previous France game they continued to be useful. But in RtW3 you get repeated messages to scrap them.
Fun times! Thank you. Here's hoping you can bag a couple battleships before peace, if they fight.
I guess I could send a couple of ancient battleships to garrison Greece. Or use them to beef up my blockade score versus the UK.
You may have hit upon something very important! The enemy will NOT engage if they have NO CLs at all! I had a war where they declined everything, and thinking back, yeah, I am pretty sure I had wiped out the CLs! So ALL that they would (could?) accept were light forces with only DDs and the odd blockade runner CA vs my TP ship. As it seemingly won't put naked BBs into battle...
Not often you CAN wipe out all their CLs, but I sure am going to make sure to target them with extreme prejudice next time I can!
So how close are they to getting CLs commissioned? And yeah, get just a few more blockade points and then you really put the screws to them!
Yes. Without cruisers to scout or DDs to escort the BBs are left high and dry.
"I sure am going to make sure to target them with extreme prejudice next time I can!"
If you only like the management aspect of this game (and not the combat one), or if your fleet is outmatched by the enemy and you'd rather not decline every battle, sure.
Very nice as usual, I hope that total war doesn't mean that Italy and Britain get dragged in when you aren't really ready.
Did you intentionally not refit the Bremen LC when it was damaged and in dock for 4 months or did you just miss it? Oh, the irony if you did forget after the start of the video 😀
If I recall correctly, the Bremen is c. 1916 CL and near the end of life without a good refit option.
Probably need to check that 😁
@@RvTWargames thought that might've been the case, sorry if I missed it.
No worries, thanks for being a second pair of eyes (I miss things while playing + commentating + recording at the same time).
We've got a Tension spiral, due to being unable to peace out other states will get dragged into a world war.
Well that navy build program has to be accelerated man you and the soviets will be beating steel into ships under fire, in one year the Graf Zeppelin you'll be having carrier battles with them the question is there room worth investing into a Modern Battleship for the ship of the line or are your Graf Spee class Battlecruisers the foundation of your fleet?
Light Cruiser and Heavy Cruiser designs you mentioned the poor performance of the Berlin and the crippling the Blucher took in the cruiser engagement?
The performance limit breakthrough for aircraft we'll need the finest aircraft to arm our Graf Zeppelin to maximize its performance is a New Fighter, Dive Bomber on the design table? your aircraft company has given you a good Torpedo Bomber upgrade.
Greece has put you in the Mediterranean thunder dome but you possess good aircraft bases and have the possibility of threating the Suez Canal and a U-Boat base.
Yes, it's all very uncomfortable with Stalin going all Total War maniac on me.
The only unexpected bonus I'm seeing is that the Italians are doing some interesting new builds.
@@RvTWargames ooOOoo might be worth highlighting those builds then.
18:45 I've seen AI having trouble with maneuver like that a lot, especially with big fleets.
I've encountered British Battlelines completely stalled at 0 knot in NB like it's a traffic jam, usually it untangles as soon as the AI can officially see me again, so there's been only one time I was able to actually take advantage of it.
They did get themselves in a pickle. I think it primarily affects their gunnery - masses of friendly ship interference, smoke, radical changing of course, all leading to huge negative mods on their shooting - not to mention making my shooting quite difficult too.
Good video!
Do you perhaps have a discord server?
I don't, but I am toying with the idea, as lots of people are talking with each other in these comments, not just to me.
Honestly... go Greece. As well as getting a base so you lose less ships to break downs it gives you time to establish coastal defence, airbases and in peactime coastal subs. (technically move them anywhere in peace but I move them only to where I have bases).
Also you are likely to get Italy or Austria-Hungry as an ally against the inevitable France and UK fighting in the med. A base makes it safer to send your main force, should the situation arise, to help the allies.
But the costs mount up:
Coastal defence batteries and MTBs
Airbase expansion
Extra air squadrons
Foreign station requirement
Minesweeping force
Expansion of the naval base
Naval squadron based there
It could all add up to the cost of a BC equivalent.
20:45 ...you're trying to finish off an enemy DD. You should consider slowing down from 29 knots, down to 5 knots. You will triple your hit chances, and finish the battle much faster.
I can't remember now. Usually it depends on how viable the enemy still is, which can be very hard to assess. Torpedoes, in particular, remain a danger to a slow moving ship.
@@RvTWargames - Fair enough. As you can see, I am working my way through your entire series, and thoroughly enjoying it. I have been a wargamer (boards, mostly), for about 60 years.
@dennissvitak5475 me too. Well 53 years, let's not over claim my gaming seniority!
@@RvTWargames - I have spent vast amounts of time with the old Avalon Hill game, Wooden Ships & Iron Men.
Time well spent!
I am resisting the temptation to say a thing but I will say that I called it regarding Greece. Now you should be wary of blitz options as I think the second time you go for it tends to piss more people off. Kind of a Czechoslovakia vs Poland type deal. That being said I have far less experience with getting multiple blitz events in a single war so it could just be anecdotal. As far as Italy goes I think it gives you the option to keep the wars separate, at least in some cases. Like if Russia declares on Italy the Italians will come to you saying that you should join forces and you can tell them to sail on. If Italy joins your war directly though it could go a bit pear shaped. @soulmuse6129 did mention that the total war popup seems to come up only a few months from peace and I have seen the same thing, I think it is an unrest decreasing thing so it could be a good sign.
Your restraint is admirable!
Good tip re: second blitzkrieg.
And nice to get a second 'peace after total war' story.
@5:28 WU ships that are moved go onto AF so audio "continue working up" is incorrect
Continue working up in the sense of improving their crew quality, rather than be in WU status.
In reality I don't think the Soviet Navy would need to help out all that much with the invasion of the Baltic States...but in all seriousness it's likely the Soviets are declining every battle because they lack escorts. The AI has to know it couldn't practically escort 6 battleships with just 13 destroyers assuming all 13 aren't on TP. It's possible your own land based airpower is also convincing them not to sortie and if not that that's at least a convenient realistic excuse. It's frustrating as a players but it is resulting in a very realistic German-Soviet Union conflict.
That is true. It is very realistic. The Soviets hiding behind the Great Mine Barrier.
I suspect a human controlled Soviet navy may have behaved with rather more vigor?
Absolutely. Make those BBs earn their keep!
@@RvTWargames be a bit hard to ask for funding for the next lot if they spend most of the war hiding in port!
Your Blitzkrieg was Greece - I got Norway, but Russia got Finland. That's the only good news, a 5 year war 1936-1940 with Italy solely fought by subs and ASW - which I'm loosing as I didn't start building until the second year 😞
Hang tough! You can power through to victory.
Another great episode, i must admit I'm taking a break from actually playing RTW3 for a bit (playing Europa Barbarorum for a change of pace) as I've been somewhat disappointed in the game's rather "meh" attempt at an 1890 start. I'll doubtless return to it in a bit but needed a break. Your thoughtful and intelligent play throughs are the beacon that will be guiding me "home". Keep up the, always splendid, work!
1890 is a tough start with such unbelievably crude weapons compared to even 10 years later on. Ridiculous lack of control over your ships (this is, after all, the era of the loss of HMS Victoria in 1893 by an admiral who made a special study in fleet control). Semi-suicidal combat ranges. Ships that become obsolete as soon as you commission them!
@@RvTWargames actually i was rather annoyed they didn't make them worse! Some of the battleships were reasonably archaic but most of the cruisers the game gives everyone are much too good! I did wonder what they'd do about the existing navies in an 1890 start, but I didn't guess they'd just pretend all those steam and sail things didn't happen! I made a start on a better RN but the size of the task was a bit depressing so I'm taking a break until I feel inspired enough to do the rest of the world's navies justice.
I'd like to see the results of that, what you're ready to give it a go.
@@RvTWargames I posted a bunch of the British stuff on the forum but I'll get my head around the French, Italians and Germans in due course. The question will be what to do about folks like the Japanese and Americans? They are both tiny forces in 1890 and only really get into their stride towards the end of the decade. One of the designers hinted they'd not wanted to "upset people" with too much reality early doors, thus the masses of rather too fast and powerful cruisers that they give everyone?
Rewatching
As many times as I played this game, the concept of refitting while doing a big repair never occurred to me. Probably because I'm OCD about doing all ships of a class at once. Worth thinking about though ;p
After watching the last video I did this in my current game, works a treat.
Yes, you can always give the rest of the class the same refit as soon as peace arrives, or if they need repair themselves.
@5:10 FYI you are autobuilding 1 sub. Is that intended?
I think so. On the subject I always take careful note of the total build cost once the first sub comes off the ways just to see how much continuing the build program is costing me.
It is. Though it's a shame you cannot build a sub every X months, to build at a slower rate. But during war you have to build one or two a month to replace the monthly losses.
I really hope that you havent handed Greece to the UK on a silver platter. IMO you should have told the General Staff to continue to import their olives for their martinis for a bit longer.
I suspect that the Soviet heavy fleet hasnt come out to play for two reasons. One is your not having heavy forces for the battle generator to match them with. Two is your air superiority against a stunted Soviet Air Force. I would imagine that the Soviets air is still using late 20's tech aircraft.
Either way good luck in the game. I seriously think you are going to need it soon.
So here is the thing, if the UK does wind up joining the war and taking Greece... so what? Germany loses nothing it didn't already have and the UK gains nothing it didn't already have. Even better, if the UK takes Greece in a peace deal that means they wont have the points to take the baltic states so taking Greece indirectly protects the baltic.
That's the optimistic spirit, Tim!
Greece might be a colony too far, but if the UK take it they won't gain anything significant. Just another burden.
@@RvTWargames Exactly!