Mike Dubost
Posts: 273
Joined: 8/24/2008
From: Sacramento, CA
Status: offline
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I don't want to sound like one of those who believe this game is a bad game, since I do enjoy it. However, I think that even absent the overhaul of the game system suggested by others, the naval part could stand some additional work.
I recently had a few spare hours so I wanted to start a game with the November patch. For the first time, I actually looked at the tech levels and compared them before choosing countries for human control versus AI control.
Tech level 3 for the Royal Navy in 1939 sounded a bit high at first, but OK, they were considered the best in the world at the time. I will grant you that one. But then I looked at the Regia Marinara, the Kreigsmarine, and the US Navy. I can see Italy at level 2, since they did have a fast, modern fleet, but there is no way the US and Germany were behind Italy in naval technology in 1939.
The US arguably should be the same level as the UK. The RN and the USN were different in many ways, but a lot of that was due to different missions. RN carriers were mostly designed to operate in relatively restricted waters near freindly and enemy air bases (e.g., the Mediteranian), for example, so they had armored flight decks and smaller air groups. The US CVs were intended to operate mostly in the Pacific and had larger air groups, unarmored flight decks, and longer ranges. Furthermore, I will admit that the USN Fleet Train was used in the Pacific due to the large distances from major bases, but nobody else had anything like it. I can see stretching a point for play ballance and giving the US only level 2, but no lower.
If Italy is level 2, Germany should be too. They had modern, well-designed ships but too few of them to challenge the RN.
This leads into my next point. I am trying to decide if the ghost of Mahan is shaking his head or his fist at your AI. It does not understand the concept of a "fleet in being". Inferior forces concentrated in one area for a specific operation can still be effective, and the threat of a fleet even in port can cause the opposing admiral to have to spread his forces out to guard against sorties.
The AI sends its ships to sea and leaves them there turn after turn while inferior forces concentrate on a sea area, lose a battle, retire to repair, and come back out again to slowly whittle down its forces. At least, can you have the AI actually return ships to port for repairs? Even if your poker opponent does not have an ace in the hole, if he has a two in the hole you can still find that you bet on two pair to his three of a kind.
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Naval Tech Levels and the Naval AI - 
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