Naval War

[histgamer]

Is the naval war going to be handled at all? Total number of battleships and armored cruisers and subs and destroeyrs in fleet? Or will it be very simplistic ie you have 1 fleet or what not and no individual ships.

What will the naval aspect be like?

[7th Somersets]

How to answer this?? The naval war is an important part of the game.
 
You can both build fleets and have to deploy (sometimes substantial) resources to keep them operating.
 
The fleets are representative of groups of ships rather than individual ships. There are different types of ships - Dreadnoughts/Battlecruisers/Destroyers/Subs etc. They can be deployed in different areas (eg North Sea, Eastern Med) and given different roles in these areas - such as to Patrol or to conduct Anti Sub operations. Transports can move troops or resources (to supply troops and to sustain economies).
 
Naval combat is resolved in abstract battles where you are shown the results of the fighting. The results of the battles determine who retains control over the particular area of water and therefore determines what operations can be conducted in the area (eg you will need to control the Eastern Med to land at Gallipoli).
 
I hope this helps.

[SMK-at-work]

To reinforce 7ths post - the British can't get to France unless they can maintain transports on amphibious transport task in the North Sea and/or the North Atlantic - that alone makes it fairly important to maintain control of the sea!!

Transporting troops direct from the UK to Italy, Turkey or Mesopotamia further requires control of the Eastern and/or Western Med as well as teh Nth Atlantic.  the French can get to Italy OK, but if you want to send French troops to Serbia you need the Western Med, and the Eastern Med to Turkey & Mesopotamia.

the Austro-Hungarians and Turks have fleets that can mess this up in the Med, and I've been on the receiving end of an unexpected sortie by het High Seas Fleet in the North Sea that sank half the Royal Navy and a big bunch of transports.

So naval is quite important!! [8D]

Oh and British Indian troops arrive in India, which is just off the bottom of Mesopotamia on the map, so require naval transport to go anywhere too........