Quick question about naval forces

[themattcurtis]

Do more surface ships become available later in the game? E.g. -- the Austrians in the game have two dreadnoughts available in 1914, but I know they added to their Teggethoff class (even though they didn't accomplish anything, four of them were eventually built).

It'd be a neat feature if we could accelerate or suspend surface ship construction. Or is that not feasible?

Just curious.

[Akmatov]

Don't know the answer to your question; but to see total naval wierdness, check out the German and British fleets.  The wild imbalance and oddities is far beyound the Austrian problems.

Or maybe I really really don't understand what I'm seeing. [:)]

[hjaco]

If talking about dreadnoughts then no. Capital ships under construction when the war began will not be available.

As far as i understand it each named dreadnought in the game simulates a squadron of similar ships, which would explain the absence of particularly many German and British capital ships.
Whether ships under construction are included in this i do not know.

I guess the choice was made because of keeping the naval system simple to handle for players.

[Akmatov]

As far as i understand it each named dreadnought in the game simulates a squadron of similar ships, which would explain the absence of particularly many German and British capital ships.
 
Hnnn, interesting; I need to check that idea out.  Would make sense of what doesn't seem to at the moment.

[JD Walter]

As far as i understand it each named dreadnought in the game simulates a squadron of similar ships, which would explain the absence of particularly many German and British capital ships.
Whether ships under construction are included in this i do not know.
-hjaco

Correct. The rules refer to them as "squadrons" and "forces" (20.0 Naval Rules, pg. 25).

Germany and England do get reinforcement squadrons in later strategic phases of 1914-15.

I am unsure whether A-H, France or the OE obtain any further squadrons, however.

[SteveD64]

I think the confusion lies in the fact that the ships are actually named.  They should say 1st Battle crusier squadron etc (and then have the named ships appear in parentheses or something).   Although the names do give it more flavor.

[FrankHunter]

I reduced overall ship numbers down while trying to maintain the same balance of forces.  Then selecting names from among those of the same class.  Some of the smaller navies perhaps did gain from the overall reduction as I couldn't always reduce them to the same degree due to the smaller numbers. 

And of course older types were reduced further, so you don't see Britain's huge number of cruisers because many of them just weren't up to date anymore and not much good for doing more than cruising the Pacific.  Not to mention Britain did assign a lot of cruisers to non-European stations anyway.

And yes a few major ships do arrive during the game.