When should you rebuild and how contract foreign construction

[mmoaorrke]

2 more questions:

1. In addition to the when to scrap question, when should you re-build vs just building new?

2. I can't find how to contract a foreign country to build a ship. The manual says you can but I didn't see how. Anyone know how you do this?

Thx in advance

[stormbringer3]

Look at the down arrow at the right where it says Build at Yard. Click on it and all the choices will appear. Don't build at a country you at which might go to war during the build time frame.

[EwaldvonKleist]

1. No general answer possible. US decommissioned Alaaka class in 47 but rebuilt Iowa several times.
Rebuild ship if it is still useful and new ship doesn't give enough extra capability for increased price tag.

[EvanJones]

On Scrapping: I don't claim this is the best way (what are the odds?). But it works.

From 1890. Don't be too quick to scrap. Them thar "useless hulks" are the blockade points that could be the margin between triumph and tragedy. You'll never break 200 prestige if your government collapses under blockade. Or if you can't slam the doors when you need to. You can keep those old Bs in mothballs in the meantime. You will be scrapping them (possibly in dribs and drabs) after real torpedo protection becomes available.

Don't waste the $/time on engine or main gun refits for the legacy stuff, but do a 3-month upgrade whenever a new fire control is available. That way, they are not helpless when they have to fight, and have a big leg up on anything of equal age the enemy hasn't upgraded.

Forgo the engine upgrades on your own early builds, but probably upgrade the guns. You really want to hold off on building new Bs until you have a -1 12" gun.

You'll need formal torpedo protection for your real battle line, and when you have that, you will scrap those you had to build without TP (and at least 14' guns). You may be doing gun and/or engine rebuilds on those. You can either scrap them around 1950 (replaced by new cruisers) or yank out turret(s) and do the 8-month missile rebuild(s). They are magnificent missile platforms.

The non-Torpedo protected armored cruisers you built will have served well. You can scrap them when your permanent battle line is established (after 1920). Cruisers are a lot cheaper as the game progresses, so it's not worth their maintenance/vulnerability. Not a few ill likely have been lost to attrition by that time, anyway.

As for carriers, your CVLs will not be worth converting to jets, but most of your CVs will. So eventually scrap the CVLs, as they become unable to defend themselves. But you can keep the CVs.

A final fleet might consist of a good battle line (BB/BCs) covered with missiles, a bunch of missile cruisers, rebuilt CVs, and some nice monster CVs. You can scrap the BBs and build cruisers, but those 16" guns benefit from all that radar, and it's great to be able to pick off missiled victims at range.

[mrchuck]

I'd like to propose an alternative view.

With the 1890 campaign, I usually don't like to build very small Bs with pipsqueak armament. What I prefer is to parry any early game opponent with starting Bs and the meanest possible cruisers, until I can build a series of Bs with the following main characteristics:

11 or 12" guns x6 (you can do this, you get to design in a Q turret until you use long guns), bigger guns if someone will sell em to you.
18-20 kts.
min 2 and up to 6 TT
Whatever armour and secondaries you can fit, I will generally end up with 6-10 5" and maybe half a dozen 3" depending on tech and whim.

For the earlier part of the game, emphasise belt over deck since no-one can shoot far enough for plunging fire to be much of a problem. Any thus configured, though, are candidates for earlier retirement.

With these things you can chase down and annihilate slower opponents, and run away from stronger ones. Typical enemy B at this time period is unlikely to exceed 18kts and the bulk of them 15-17. If you get blockaded--destroy the blockaders!

This generally requires a displacement of at least 15k. I usually will not commence one of these much after 1902, they will be completed just in time to be obsolete.

In the meantime, build CAs and as many CLs as you can, to use as torpedo boats until you get worthwhile DDs. As long as you have at least some Bs, you can offer battle and the cruisers will do most of the work.

I have found this type of Bs ARE worth re-engining at least with current versions of the game, because if you put in turbines and can crank the speed to 22kts like as not they'll be reclassified as BBs and you get sorta-free blockade points.

These also seem to have a good shelf life, and I have sometimes been able to keep them around long enough to get director/increased elevation, which makes them quite useful for a long time. YMMV. But do not be tempted to go toe to toe on their own against real BBs as eventually this will lead to disaster. They will certainly bulk up the fleet in the early dreadnought days though.