Campaign 1920 Germany- what am I doing wrong?

[Admiral Unterhosen]

I just cant win... I managed victory for  Britain 1890 and Germany 1890, 1900, and 1910, but I have tried maybe 6-8  G1920 campaigns and they all fail, mostly from a lack of funds...  Last game the British blockaded me on the FIRST TURN and the war was over by may 1921... I've tried using only computer generated ships, thinking that maybe I'm just a lousy architect. but it made no difference.  I sink twice as many tons and crews, but still lose.

[akd]

My guess is your not supposed to be able to win the 1920 German campaign if it starts in an at war condition.  I mean, it should be unwinnable if historical starting conditions are used.  You are basically starting a war as an already defeated naval power with a wrecked economy.  I’d just edit the files to get the 1930 start as the whole unlocking thing is stupid.

[Admiral Unterhosen]

lol... I suppose you are correct from a real historical perspective, but in `my` world Germany kicked England's butt in 1919 and received several hundred millions in reparations... 

anyway, I made this post in regards to game playability/enjoyment, as I've noticed that all enemy crews start as fully trained yet my crews never rise above cadets, even after YEARS of combat.  No matter how many transports I sink in an actual battle, it does not change the outcome of the campaign... 

[Grayknight]

It is actually very easy just build 10 BBs and keep 3 of them in sea combat role, if you have trouble with money just lower reserch to nothing and crew training to almost 0, from then on build 1-3 smaller ships a year max. Current meta makes sure you cannot win any later campaign with smaller ships. If you are bloced then you have 0% chance of wining becouse you cannot force engagment with the one blocking you. On the other hand BBs power projection is so big that even if enemy have 4x or 5x ships he will most likly be unable to do so

 

So over all just start with bbs or go bbs only that solved all problems for me

[Skeksis]

95 transports lost, nation starving.  

Note 'sea area' where transports lost, move ships into that area, if still losing then set to "Sea Control" to increase protection range. Build ships with greater range to increase protection range. Fight all convoy battles, win and save transports. 

[STARLIGHTSOCIALIST]

I would second Greyknights view that you need more capitol ships, but personally I would not recommend such an extreme. It might very well be effective, but it feels cheesey and might not be viable in future versions of the game or in different era. Actually, the most important criteria for evaluating a strategy, IMHO, is enjoyment. If you think 10 battleships is fun and awesome, go for it.

 

On a more general note, I recommend balanced fleet composition and cost effectiveness. I don't think either principle should be taken to it's absolute limit, but I do think they should guide your decision making. For the former that means designing one ship of every class and building atleast some of them. Spend some fraction of your budget that way (anything between 40-80%). With the remainder, build whatever ships you think provide the most combat power for their cost. 

As far as ship design, my approach is to put together something that I consider decent and then experiment with changing specific aspects to see how much that affects the total cost. Like switching to a more advanced armor quality and using the weight savings to lower the ships displacement. Same thing with engine technology: a more advanced engine type might let you keep the same speed while making the hull smaller. (With engines specifically, that will be more expensive, but if the cost effectiveness increase is small enough you may find it justifies the increase in performance). Another approach with engines is to downgrade the engine type and lower the speed until it fits. In some cases you can trade a few knots for a substantial savings, (great!) other times the savings will be minor or the tonnage will balloon to a level where it's just not workable. (Not great).

[RedParadize]

@Admiral Unterhosen Build cheap large BB/BC at least 12 of them. No destroyer no CL. Then if you want to (as I do) build some CA. Even on hard its a garantee victory, you do not even have to fight the battle if you do not want to. Oh, and do not forget to move your ship from the eastern port to the west, otherwise you will lose the transport war.