The Land's Naval Mod

[The Land]

Dear all,

I've created a small naval-focused mod which I would welcome feedback on. I've only tested it a little, more thoughts would be welcome!

Basically the core game does a pretty good job. I've aimed to accentuate some of the benefits of different ship classes (and, indeed, air units) so that each one has a more pronounced 'personality' and a clearer role. Generally it's aiming for a bit more nuance, but keeping most of the core design decisions (e.g. the number of naval unit counters) intact as they work very well.

Ships

Battleships are now split into Fast Battleships and Battleships. Fast Battleships represent modern, 1930s designs or rebuilds of older ships and are statted as vanilla battleships. 'Battleships' have worse Sub and Air defence stats and lower Action Points reflecting their lower speed and overall worse state of repair.

Both gain the benefit of de-entrenchment (but less de-moralization). To compensate, Amphibs lose their De-Entrenchment ability. I think this is actually a very significant change and significantly increases the value of battleships across the board. It helps model the importance of shore bombardment in operations like Overlord (and hypothetically Sealion) and also gives battleships more purpose in the Baltic and Black Sea, and generally in the late game when at present they are a bit of a 'spare wheel'.

Battleships and Battlecruisers can no longer be upgraded with ASW. If you want to protect them from submarines, you have to send an escort ship with them.

Battlecruisers have higher Transport and convoy raiding, and no ASW.

In the OOB, I have updated the Fast Battleship / Battleship description. Also, some capital ships which were particularly heavy or effective for their class start at strength 11 - Hood, Nelson, Bismarck, Tirpitz. Further, German gets the Schlewsig-Holstein as a str 5 Battleship, and Russia gets Pariskaya Communiska in the Black Sea. Marat mobilizes as a Battleship. [Haven't touched the US yet)

Cruisers (both Light and Heavy) now have Naval Spotting of 2, so they are better able to act as the "eyes and ears of the fleet". They also have increased Transport and Convoy attack as these were classic Cruiser roles. They gain 5% combat evasion. They no longer use ASW technology.

Destroyers have increased Naval attack to 2, but also more random damage values (+/-2) - reflecting the fact that destroyers' torpedo attacks could be very dangerous but could not be relied on. They receive 10% defensive damage evasion, reflecting the fact that destroyers were difficult targets for other ships thanks to their manouverability and ability to e.g. lay smokescreens. Sub Attack and Defence values are rebalanced to be more equal. Destroyers have higher Transport attack to reflect that destroyers were genuinely lethal against transport ships. Their cost increases to reflect their increased capabilities.

MTBs are replaced with Corvettes which reflect dedicated anti-submarine vessels (sloops, trawlers, destroyer escorts, corvettes, frigates...). Compared to Destroyers, they have fewer APs and worse capabilities against surface ships but are just as effective against submarines. They cannot be upgraded with Naval Weapons, only Anti-Air and ASW. They cost significantly more than MTBs did but less than destroyers.

The UK's OOB and production queue (and the Destroyers for Bases event) are updated to replace just under half the UK's Destroyers with Corvettes.

Submarines have lower Naval Attack but higher Naval Defence. Naval Attack increases with Advanced Submarines at half the previous rate. Like Destroyers, they now have +/- 2 attack variance, for similar reasons.

The intention is for the Battle of the Atlantic to have less of a dynamic of the submarines hunting down destroyers (and now Corvettes), and more about evading them. However, with higher Defence, attacking ships will continue to take just as many losses. Further, Submarines were too effective as an offensive unit against surface ships - historically, it was very very unusual for a submarine to get a good shot at a surface ship.

All surface ships: Naval Weaponry upgrades now cost 10% not 5% - historically, uprating the weaponry on a warship was very difficult and expensive. (arguably it should be as high as 20%!)

Air

Tactical Bombers no longer have Resource Attack, and are no longer upgradable with Naval Weapons.
Medium Bombers are no longer upgradable with Naval Weapons.
Maritime Bombers now have Resource Attack 1.

UK and Italy start with 0.5 strength Maritime Bombers units and Maritime Bomber build limits are increased.

The intention here is to stop the ahistorical repurposing of ground attack formations into lethally effective naval bombers. Tac and Med bombers will continue to be effective against ships (particularly old battleships) but will never become very effective. If you want effective naval bombers you have to invest in dedicated units.

Also, removing Resource Attack from Tacs helps prevent an "all-air" attack on Malta.

Amphibs

As noted above, Amphibs and LR Amphibs no longer have De-Entrenchment. If you want to de-entrench a unit prior to amphibious assault you need to use your battleships (which now have it) - or land-based bombers.

Also, LR Amphib numbers are no longer determined by Amphibious Warfare tech. They are fixed at 3 for the USA, 2 for the UK and 1 for other majors. This is because long-range amphibious assault capability mainly depended on a nation's shipping capacity, not their research level. It also prevents excessive gaming of LR Amphibs.

Resources

There are now Ports on the English East Coast at Dover, the Humber Estuary and Tyneside. The idea is that not only were these historically signficant ports, naval bases and/or shipyards, but that this makes the land campaign of a Sealion less challenging (with a readily available port at Dover) and compensates for the fact the Luftwaffe is now less effective at sinking the RN.

Dover gains a garrison unit to prevent this being totally abused.

Further, Suez and Kuwait become British Primary Supply centres (though some Cities become Towns in partial compensation). In my view, the game makes British supply in Egypt and the Middle East too challenging and this redresses that.