Which Country To Play

[John S]

I have been playing the game for a few months now and in each of my games I have played as France because I saw advantages there that, in my view, did not exist in other countries and my view was that these advantages allowed me to learn and understand the underlying dynamics of the game. My focus has been from 1890 up to the year 1923 because, frankly, in each game my interest seems to flag at that point.

I am now ready for other challenges re country selection and wonder which countries you veterans think are great to play and which countries for this still somewhat amateur player should be avoided.

Any thoughts or advice will be much appreciated.

One related point re “my interest flagging at roughly 1923”. I have played war games for 60 years and always try to focus on and understand the strength and weaknesses of the design. The strength of the design of this game seems to me to be in building the navy with appropriate ships and then using those ships in what are a pretty limited number of tactical situations which, despite their limited scope, do in fact, do a good job of establishing the strengths and weaknesses of the surface vessels that you have created. I wonder whether the design is really successful once you introduce aircraft as a major factor. Obviously I say this with little actual experience in the area but I would appreciate any thoughts that the veterans may have.

[WLRoo]

For now, avoid Spain, China and Austria-Hungary. I'd also avoid Russia.

Britain is a good nation, but their empire requires ships in almost every sea-zone - depends on how comfortable you are with having to send out over 100,000t of shipping just to meet FS requirements.

For now, I'd say try Germany, USA and Japan for sure, with Italy and Britain as reserves.

[mrchuck]

Having tried a few nations, the one I find most consistently interesting is Germany, 1890, Medium fleet size.

Why?

You start with very little, so training and tactics are paramount. You can't just rely on a massive battle line to settle all disputes!
It is a juggling act to balance prestige, budget, unrest and build times so that you don't stumble into an unwinnable war with too many enemies and not enough boats and money.
The classic problem of German strategy, to strike east or west (not both!) and who to ally with, when, and for how long.
The pesky Reichstag cutting budgets when you least need it.
Battles are not so large that you just plunk them under AI control and hope for the best. You can actually control the divisions--VP penalty, but it's more fun that way. Not possible (or at any rate, a major clickfest) for the two largest size games. It is possible to pull off some heroic victories if you are careful.
Arrival of the Dreadnought era means everyone effectively goes back to zero, and you have an opportunity to settle accounts with Britain on something like parity (or at least not 11 or 12 to 1) if that's your bag. And by this time, German industry and shipbuilding should allow you to make a decent showing.
You do not have much in the way of worldwide commitments to make you keep expensive old clunkers on far-flung stations.

One tip I saw on youtube is to reduce the rate of technology advancement to 90%. This slows down the effect of air power and, being very much keen on big-gun actions rather than watching waves of aircraft massacring everything in sight, I much prefer it. Once aircraft dominate, the game is much less fun IMO. On other hand, if they are around but not that great, this makes things interesting but not impossible. In a game I'm playing now, it is 1926 and I've just lost a BB and had half a dozen cruisers damaged by three french carriers. HOWEVER, with my remaining cruisers and BCs, I followed the strikes home and sank all three of them by gunfire at night.
You can just get away with this in the biplane era, if you grit your teeth for the inevitable additional strikes. Once there are very capable CVs/aircraft or jets, suicidal obviously.
Second tip: Kaiserliche Marine rules the night...
Third tip: damage control training is worth every penny.

[mrchuck]

I will need to amend my previous comment and also mention Japan.

Crew quality is usually outstanding in the early game when you really need it (no gadgets to do the work for you), and the poor old Russians are a ready-made enemy with commitments almost impossibly far apart. It is relatively easy to score prestige enhancing victories against their 'ageing rust-buckets'.
Anything they have in NE Asia can be yours without much trouble.

In the early years, you'll need to build serious warships overseas, so pick a build location and stay friendly with them at all costs. Britain is usually suitable as long as you don't antagonise them needlessly--until you don't need them any more.

Ships built overseas magically appear in your build area and do not have to be moved manually to be delivered. This is possibly unrealistic, but certainly convenient.

[John S]

Thanks. Much appreciated. I will make Japan my next try.