Old ships

[ShouteN]

Newbie question. What you do with outdated ships?

[ShouteN]

Originally posted by Oggmeista:

either scrap them or refit them with newer techs, but if you do refit, be aware that the refit may suddenly become illegal as it will highlight bad parts connection overweight ship and other issues, to the point you may have to completely rebuild the ship, i think we can blame the imho almost pointless ships becoming obsolete feature..

But to be fair refitting is much cheaper than new designs, which may not be important playing as the OP USA or other richer nation, but it's vital if you use a poorer nation, and the only reason why there's no real significance here, is because the ai has more than one hand tied behind it's back, that is it's a passive opponent, it's not able in the current coding to attack the players or even the other AI's ports, whilst for the player it's really the main objective, so imho it's dumb and completely unrealistic that' it's not the AI'S main objective as well...

yep some nations are @OP i could go into detail but this thread is about ships so i'll leave it there..

And for how long you suggest keeping older ships? Any meta or something? Right now i scrap them after 15 years.

[NT_Dave]

Refitting is the first step. If you are at peace and have the money, you should do this. If you run into some of the design problems listed by the others, especially space, speed and other technical issues and/or it takes too long to complete the refit (it shouldn't exceed the time needed to build new ships), then consider disposing of the older ships and building newer, more modern types.

Once you have decided that the older ships aren't worth keeping, you have two choices: scrap or sell. If you have minor state allies, they are usually willing to buy your ships.

To do this, it is wise to be at peace. Next make sure the "replace crew" box is NOT checked. Then go to the ship you wish to sell and remove the crew so that its status is listed as "mothballed."

Each turn you will get offers to buy the ships (at a deep discount). This is better than scrapping as it does recover some of their costs. However, if you are at war, it can be a problem, as any of your ships that lose crewmen due to combat will not get them replaced from your crew pool. This will reduce their effectiveness. If you have mothballed ships for sale and you think you might need them, you just replace the crew and put them back into commission.

Good Luck!

[vanDyck]

I try to keep them as long as possible, 20 years for BB/BC and Cruisers, 15 years for DDs/TBs at least, thats a good ships liftetime. They were build with taxpayers money so treat them well...^^ Had never any problems with refitting even outdated 25 year old torpedo cruisers.
Older Cruisers or DDs/TBs are good for colonial use, where you dont have the harbours to support new, bigger ships. (Sadly you dont get new "small" ships). Older BBs i use for Invasion TFs as "tonnage giver" and simulating bombardment squadrons.
If i really replace a class and put it out of service, i mothball and sell them mostly, only scrap them if nobody wants them and my "storage harbour" is full.

Edit:
I refit old TB/DD as minesweepers.

[prolych]

Originally posted by ShouteN:

Newbie question. What you do with outdated ships?

I drive old unnecessary ships into the port and remove the crew from them. While they are empty in the port, they can be bought by minor allies.
And there may be a need for them. For example, minesweeping equipment is installed on the TBs and a ready-made minesweeper is obtained, there is no need to build a new one. Old BBs upgraded to modern artillery and fire control are no worse than dreadnoughts in the defense of the straits. Old cruisers are a great option as stationers in distant ports or raiders.

[NT_Dave]

The key to keeping old ships in active service really depends upon how long it takes to refit them. I refit if I can get a useful ship for less time than a new build.

That said, I try to keep my ships useful as long as possible. I converted a class of small and slow CLs built in 1900 in service to 1950 game end by simply making them minelayers. When new marks of guns made them no longer fit, I simply removed them. This saved my taxpayers $$$, gave me more weight/space on my new DDs for ASW gear, engines, etc., and I avoided increasing their vulnerability by removing potential explosion risks caused by carrying a load of mines into combat.

I recently converted my earliest dreadnought type BBs (1906) into useful warships by removing the old main battery of 4x2 12.9" and replacing them with 2x4 14.5". Added Radar and modern shells and powder. For engineering and protection, it was 14" of "Modern II" armor, oil-fired balanced boilers, and Geared Turbines II. This gave them 30 kts. Build time was less than half needed to build a new BB.

In a 1947 battle against a large Japanese fleet, four of these ships sank two 16" armed "modern" BBs and several cruisers. The old ships were only lightly damaged... and were still in service at the end of the campaign.

[rossi191]

i just completed a campaign from 1890 to 1950 only using the ships i built up to 1910 after refitting with the latest tech even the pre dreadnought ships are pretty effective all the way through the campaign but that has more to do with poor AI. on a normal play through i only sell/scrap the outdated ships that have lots of flaws

[Hidden Gunman]

Decommission and sell to minor allies.

[Turtler]

Depends on the nature of the hull and tech (some I try and keep around until the end) but when they reach the end I generally do some last "Rehauls" and then try to have them be sold to my minor allies (if I am playing a campaign where I have minor allies, which is admittedly most of them when I'm playing Western powers, rather than going full "Conquer the World" with China/Germany/Russia). The AI ship design sucks and this is an economic way to feed your minor allies some good designs and to keep your naval strength high without compromising your operating cost or the push to get better and better ships.

[kf.*****]

remove the crew, which will mothball them and then some one will buy them of u, as long as you don't have the auto crew box ticked