Are navies a little small?

[thedoctorking]

Speaking as a complete newbie to this game, I played up through 1925 the other night, and the various navies seemed quite small to me. We had not had a major war, although there had been a number of smaller conflicts up to that point. Nevertheless, the British navy was the biggest with 11 BBs and a couple of BCs. The Germans and Yankees (me) were not far behind with like 9 and 6 respectively. Historical numbers in 1914 were 22 for Britain, 15 for the Germans, and 10 for the US. And it wasn't that they were building larger numbers of light ships. I had like 20-some destroyers and 10 cruisers, while the historical numbers for the US were 50 DDs and 44 CA/CLs. Maybe I just needed to pick a higher option in the setup screen? But I figured the middle number was the historical one.

[CaptBeefheart]

You can pick a higher number at start. To me, the medium setting (default, I think) offers plenty of good gameplay without the historical numbers.

That said, I may pick "high" next time just to see what it's like.

Cheers,
CB

[EwaldvonKleist]

You can pick fleet sizes. On largest size fleets become big enough that a fleet battle will easily take an afternoon on captain's mode.

[WLRoo]

It's a mixed bag.

The Sea Zone tonnage requirements scale to the size of the game, so you end up with more ships on Foreign Service (or detached duty). I currently have a new 1890s start ongoing, and The Mediterranean requires over 40,000t of shipping - whilst the Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa Sea Zones all require 24,000t of shipping each.,

You also have a lot more micromanagement - don't even think about trying to handle individual ship commanders!

[Searry]

I play with the highest setting on Rear Admiral mode. It's fun and chaotic.

[thedoctorking]

I started a new game with the higher setting and the start navies don't seem any bigger but the budget is bigger.

[Stelteck]

I play in Admiral mode (with division for fleet organisation), it reduced micro management for large navy and you have the true admiral experience !

Also, it level the field with the AI as you use the same AI to command your squadrons.

[EwaldvonKleist]

I started a new game with the higher setting and the start navies don't seem any bigger but the budget is bigger.

At least with manual build legacy fleet budget is higher with bigger fleet size.