Your favourite start date (and why)

[Futurebot]

I'm having some trouble getting my campaigns going as I always start regretting not picking a different start date and / or country and end up restarting.

I feel like the sweet spot for me is somewhere around 1910 with a small / mid sized navy power but it always feels "half-hearted" when it's not an 1890 start.

What are you hot takes? What start date and which country do you enjoy the most and why? 

What's your best campaign experience so far?

🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️ 🏴‍☠️

 

 

[mk4m]

1890. Hate later game because torpedoes spam and too fast and too massive battles. Love old school ironclads.

[MishaTX]

I would prefer 1890 starts because I like to watch things unfold as much as possible, but the almost mandatory rush for Induced Boilers every game so I can build even halfway useful ships annoys me, so I tend to start in 1900.

[Suribachi]

I prefer a 1890 start even though things don't really "pick up" until around the 1910 mark in terms of interesting hulls and tech to work with.  The reason for this is that I like to build up my economy to a point that I like.  My fleets are typically very small but very powerful, used for home defense.  Once I have an economy going and a war chest (usually $1 billion plus by 1905) I make my moves.

[Vilab]

1910 because it avoids most of the boring parts where ships can't hit each other.

But by 1920ish torpedoes start being an issue due to their crazy performances, please prevent them from going reaching over 50 knots... 

[Kothra]

1890 would be great if there were more hulls/parts, but the early hulls are usually so limiting that after playing it once you've basically seen it all.

[Felime]

I prefer the 1900 start date. You get to play through the transition to dreadnoughts, but you get to skip the most limiting design section. 1910 isn't a bad one either, and you start getting the interesting CA and CL hulls in the 1910-1920 period.

[Wowzery]

I will admit, I starting enjoying starting in 1890 with 0 ships.  Then working my way up to a functioning fleet.

[Käptn_Flitschauge]

1890, because pre-dreadnaughts are awesome

[Panzergraf]

1910, because in my experience the AI really can't handle the pre-dread to dreadnaught transition. With the 1910 starting date you start on a more equal footing in terms of BB/BC's, though the AI typically still lags behind a bit when it comes to cruisers.

I also like the idea of my early 1910's BB/BC's serving on into the 20's and 30's with refits. It adds a bit of narrative to the campaign, IMHO.

[HistoricalAccuracyMan]

Me personally, I like to start in either 1900 or 1920 because in 1900 everyone is still more or less on equal footing when it comes to tech/hulls. I like the 20s because that's when things start getting interesting, and you finally get access to more "modern" cruisers and not those semi-armored/armored cruiser hulls. Really the only detriment to me that keeps me from starting more "early" campaigns is the fact that the earlier you start, the more ships the AI nations keep which in turn will inevitably turn into a sort of "pseudo doomstack" as I call it. For instance, I started a US Campaign in 1890. I took the "neutralist" route to try and grow my economy and tech as fast as possible to try and outclass the enemy and it worked for several years. Well, now here we are in 1920, three wars later, and the Royal Navy now has a fleet that numbers 587 ships...36 of which are still torpedo boats from the late 1890s/early 1900s (they have lots of other museum pieces too). But...even though there is now a limit to the number of crew members you can command in a task force, the Royal Navy can still throw a "pseudo doomstack" at me because all these pre 1910 designs have such low crew counts that they can literally out number me 2:1 easily (in one case it was over 3:1) because they have so many ships that they just don't retire...and it isn't easy nor is it fun to try and sink hordes of torpedo boats zipping around at 30+ knots with a dreadnought sporting 14 inch mk 2 guns.

Kinda got off topic a bit there, but that's the trade-off I have to deal with: I like early starts as much as the next person, but if you don't exist in a constant state of war with everyone (or at least your main adversary) for the duration of the campaign and therefore keeping their numbers down and basically forcing them to upgrade their navy...you will wind up like me in a situation where my 86 ship navy is fighting navies that are 587, 234, and 186 ships strong...all at once.

TL;DR I like starting in 1920 or earlier...but it's not fun fighting wars against multiple nations that, combined, can outnumber you 10:1 easily just because they refuse to scrap their museum pieces/obsolete ships from 20 years ago.

[Sandermatt]

1890 with my personal rule to never build more than 1 ship of any type.