Austria Campaign?

[Aiden745]

I am very new to the game, and have been testing out some campaign games, primarily playing as 1890 Austria. I am not sure if I may have picked a "difficult" nation, or if it is just my lack of skill in the designer/battles, but I am struggling quite hard to compete with the Italian and French navies in the adriatic that consistently outnumber me 2-1 on Battleships and cruisers.

Should I just avoid playing Austria, or is it just poor economic and battle planning on my part?

[Aiden745]

Originally posted by glythe:

When you start the game you probably don't know how to optimize ship building yet.

Feel free to ask questions about how to do that.

I've done a little bit of research and know to generally use the best towers I have access to, and use the minimum of smokestacks to keep accuracy up, but beyond that I am just keeping things simple, and getting my ass beat. I suppose I will try another campaign as maybe France or Britain, to see if not getting 3v2'd helps in being able to compete. I am also playing on 1.05, not the beta, I am not sure if that changes anything in terms of general campaign strategy.

[Lyusander]

Well, you should try to build a fleet that can defend itself and consistently update it.

[Decision]

This game is easy to get through, no matter what country
You just need to give technology and sea transportation 100% of the economy at the very beginning, and try not to conflict with other countries.Keep your domestic stability and naval prestige, expand your shipyard, sometimes some events need money, can be used but not too much, GDP is the most important.
In mid-years about 1925 to around 1935, your technology and economy were enough to make your navy very strong, But at this time you must have a diesel engine, Radar Generation 2, 381MM Artillery MK3, RDF, Oil two stage, The Advanced Fire Control Center, Automatic loading and advanced artillery mechanism, Krupp Grade 4 Armor, Turtle-back-type armor, Advanced shipbuilding technology, Level 3, torpedo protection, Highest grade firewall and waterproofing, Then make 50,000 to 80,000 tons of battleships, At this point the economy allows you to build 15-30 battleships, Then you can conquer all the countries next to you.

[Decision]

And if you don't need to train your crew too much in peacetime, and your military cost will double during the war, then you will increase your crew training to 100%.

[Claw]

Currently I'm working on 3 different games were building your own forces is key, so I'm somewhat over profficent in that area. For me the game is simple to win currently as I out manuver any nation in a short period of time. with Austria I started 1890 and had eliminated france and England in 1901 and my naval budget was that of germany and italy combined. in 1907 the next beta test build came out ;) but I had no enemeis back then.

Currently the AI has a big problem campaign and Battle wise against Humans. I'll give you a hint. Sent out a taskforce that earns that name. I tend to go 2 BB 4 CA 4CL 8DD and you will see what happens

[wormsandwarriors]

(New Player) I have enjoyed learning to play the game using Austria/Hungary for the same reason one of the guys mentioned above - it was much easier to keep on top of things with a smaller navy and fewer ports etc. I like to start in 1910 though

[Aiden745]

Originally posted by Lysander:

Well, you should try to build a fleet that can defend itself and consistently update it.

wow thanks very enlightening

[Aiden745]

Originally posted by baddoggs:

Its funny, as a new player myself, i found the Austrian Campaign easy compared
so say the British or French as it was simple to control and manage the more limited
forces available and you only really have to fight the Italians. You also have very
limited territory to defend.

The relatively small land and navy is definitely why i started as them to learn the mechanics, I just found those to turn into a disadvantage rather quickly when france starts rolling its fleets into the adriatic alongside the italians and outnumbering me 2 to 1.

[Aiden745]

Originally posted by Decision:

This game is easy to get through, no matter what country
You just need to give technology and sea transportation 100% of the economy at the very beginning, and try not to conflict with other countries.Keep your domestic stability and naval prestige, expand your shipyard, sometimes some events need money, can be used but not too much, GDP is the most important.
In mid-years about 1925 to around 1935, your technology and economy were enough to make your navy very strong, But at this time you must have a diesel engine, Radar Generation 2, 381MM Artillery MK3, RDF, Oil two stage, The Advanced Fire Control Center, Automatic loading and advanced artillery mechanism, Krupp Grade 4 Armor, Turtle-back-type armor, Advanced shipbuilding technology, Level 3, torpedo protection, Highest grade firewall and waterproofing, Then make 50,000 to 80,000 tons of battleships, At this point the economy allows you to build 15-30 battleships, Then you can conquer all the countries next to you.

I think a lot of this stuff must be beta, because I started my campaign at war, and can't do any diplomacy. I haven't seen any events or anything like that, and a lot of the techs are very far ahead of my 1890 level, especially since austria seems to start behind some of their neighbors.

[Gremlin86]

I kill it with Austria, just spam cheap heavily armed cruisers.

[crazyeyes218]

Multiple 1890 starts with AH, all have resulted in the utter destruction of France and UK by 1900. Somehow I always end up allied with Italy and Germany, one time even as I tried to start a war with Italy

[Hastur]

One thing with Austria in my couple of campaigns was remembering to cut the range on your ships to the absolute minimum. You don't need the range, your stuck in the Adriatic and eastern Med for the most part, so you just don't need it. Tonnage not spent on range, is tonnage that can be spent on armor and guns.

The other thing I did was go battleship heavy at start. I was consistently getting engagements with Italian cruisers and the occasional battleship, and wrecking them. I build heavier ships, since TB's tend to go to the bottom quickly, and TB and DD captains seem to be universally stupid and either ram my bigger ships in stupid maneuvers or constantly getting in the way and forcing other ships to turn.

Later DD's with lots of launchers can be useful, but I keep the numbers small, and keep them well out of the way of other ships until I need them. As Austria, I just don't like all the small ships, the juice doesn't seem to be worth the squeeze right now. Light cruisers with lots of fast firing light guns just shred TB's and later DD's, and since you can armor CL's against TB/DD guns, just seems like a better investment to me.

Just my 2 cents. I hammered the Italians into a peace treaty in two years, gave the French a good fight for a year, and the couple of times the Brits showed up, I gave them a good shellacking as well. :)

[Aiden745]

Originally posted by Hastur:

One thing with Austria in my couple of campaigns was remembering to cut the range on your ships to the absolute minimum. You don't need the range, your stuck in the Adriatic and eastern Med for the most part, so you just don't need it. Tonnage not spent on range, is tonnage that can be spent on armor and guns

This is a very good point, I hadn't considered that honestly, I was aiming for around 8000km but I will start cutting it down significantly.

Secondly, how are you achieving peace treaties? It might just be that I am playing on 1.05 but I have been unable to do diplomacy in any way, and am just stuck at war with Uk, France, and Italy, while allied to Germany.

[Bramborough]

Originally posted by Aiden745:

Secondly, how are you achieving peace treaties? It might just be that I am playing on 1.05 but I have been unable to do diplomacy in any way, and am just stuck at war with Uk, France, and Italy, while allied to Germany.

Pretty sure peace treaties are part of the 1.06 beta. Should be going live as the main version quite soon.

[Hastur]

Yep, I am on the 1.06 beta, sorry for not mentioning.