Economic dominance is key.

[Anna_Drew_Blue]

There are those who have complained that the economy aspects of the game are either lacking or insignificant, but they are wrong. If one understands how to grow ones GDP starting early in the game, it is possible to actually have a navy powerful enough to conquer the world or most of it by 1950. The update extending to 1965 is nice but I found it unnecessary. Always accept a % naval funding cut for a % GDP increase no matter how counter intuitive this may seem, it pays big dividends in the long run. Get your transport funding to 100% ASAP, just as you would your research funding. Don't build any ships until about 1897 or so, refit the ones you have instead with rangefinders and better shells/powder. Don't worry about naval prestige, it doesn't matter unless you go bankrupt or unrest gets too high. Pay whatever extortion money you have to pay until around 1913 or so, don't get into a war until then if you can help it. Have a fleet of dreadnoughts built by the time you get into your first war. Scrap your old 19th century ships to save upkeep money as soon as you have a better ship to replace it with. Only use the first few wars to get your naval prestige untouchable. Make peace as soon as it's offered because you don't want your GDP growth to stall. If you are careful, by around 1935 you will have defeated several nations completely and have a fleet no navy can challenge, because your annual naval budget will exceed the entire GDP of many countries by that point.

[chiyen]

Originally posted by Ann_Drew_Blue:

If one understands how to grow ones GDP starting early in the game, it is possible to actually have a navy powerful enough to conquer the world or most of it by 1950.

I would say by around 1910's.

note: with load and saves.

-
This game will be terrible if done in "XCOM Iron Man" mode, that is - accept whatever random events happened and without retrying anything (including battle). Which may be more "realistic" as playing a history, but more likely you TR will be gone soon.

You can replenish only 2 TR per month, no matter how big your empire and fleet size is.

[chiyen]

Originally posted by Ann_Drew_Blue:

Don't build any ships until about 1897 or so,
Pay whatever extortion money you have to pay until around 1913 or so,
by around 1935 you will have defeated several nations

It seems that you have just completed your first Campaign victory, which is good. With that experiences, future games can be more smooth and faster.

[Barth]

Originally posted by chiyen:

Originally posted by Ann_Drew_Blue:

Don't build any ships until about 1897 or so,
Pay whatever extortion money you have to pay until around 1913 or so,
by around 1935 you will have defeated several nations

It seems that you have just completed your first Campaign victory, which is good. With that experiences, future games can be more smooth and faster.

Or maybe he could try this while playing China or Spain.

[chiyen]

Originally posted by Barth:

Or maybe he could try this while playing China or Spain.

Playing weak economy without early expansion, will get wiped out later since its tech will certainly gradually behind others'.

Without gaining new territory and GDP, its economy size is just that much, therefore limited Tech R&D budget.

Rule for playing China: Conquer Japan & Russia Far East side ASAP.
Rule for playing Japan: Conquer China & Russia Far East side ASAP.

You get started from there.
- safe seas in homeland region (and backyard), intercept all enemy ships come to you from far-away European countries in South East Asia.

For Spain, Italy and AH
- recommend to just take out each other ASAP, then Japan and China.
.

[esilva9]

Originally posted by chiyen:

Originally posted by Barth:

Or maybe he could try this while playing China or Spain.

Playing weak economy without early expansion, will get wiped out later since its tech will certainly gradually behind others'.

Without gaining new territory and GDP, its economy size is just that much, therefore limited Tech R&D budget.

Rule for playing China: Conquer Japan & Russia Far East side ASAP.
Rule for playing Japan: Conquer China & Russia Far East side ASAP.

You get started from there.
- safe seas in homeland region (and backyard), intercept all enemy ships come to you from far-away European countries in South East Asia.

For Spain, Italy and AH
- recommend to just take out each other ASAP, then Japan and China.
.

Russia is an easier first target, however it will be difficult to take china quickly due to the tonnage needed to conquer them. fighting spain and taking the philipeans will be a good start and the french colonies nearby can build a good sphere of influence due to their competive to chinas gdp which will be needed to add that tonage up fast enough to take china.

My suggestion: spain and russia as the first two targets if possible france then china, by that point your naval strength should be good enough to take some real estate without much save scumming.

[vanDyck]

Interesting would be anything that has, or will get, oil. The russian -stan provinces and southern russia, phillipines, german new guinea or so, china...

[chiyen]

Originally posted by esilva9:

Russia is an easier first target, however it will be difficult to take china quickly due to the tonnage needed to conquer them. fighting spain and taking the philipeans will be a good start and the french colonies nearby can build a good sphere of influence due to their competive to chinas gdp which will be needed to add that tonage up fast enough to take china.

You can do that, but usually it requires more time for declare War on Russia / Spain, from Japan or China.

Japan / China can declare war to each other pretty fast, and with good calculation, the initial tonnage can be large enough to cap China... despite you have to clear China's fleet tonnage at the same time.

So you can start from Penghu, Taiwan (Formosa), Hong Kong, and South China while sinking China's fleets in East China and building more fleet (and taunt Russia to bring it to war at the same time).

--
If starting from 1890, you don't need oil for quite some time, 1~2 decades on the tech tree. By that time you should have owned the Fast East, India, and more....

China almost always has some oil (some randomness), and India always has it.

[vanDyck]

OIl is not only important as fuel, but also boosts your economy...

[chiyen]

When going to war, since you have to deploy fleet over the region (higher monthly upkeep), it will be more efficient to bring as many nations as you can take into war with you.

Bring down their warship & TR fleet size, and slow down their economy development (war GDP) at the same time, invade where you can. It's same war cost to you, since your nation is on war condition anyway.

note: you got only 1 strategic command per month, so never waste it. If you have nowhere to invade, just taunt other nations and try to start more war.

[chiyen]

In generally speaking:

1) Your economy size is rooted on lands you have. Therefore, expand your territory is of 1st priority. It’s the root of all things.

2) Keep your TR safe, do not claim far-away lands behind regions that you cannot control. Do the opposite to enemies. Leave them a tiny piece of land behind regions under your control. Park your TB/DD in front of their ports within your supply range.

* The computation of TR loss impact and replenish speed, is so wrong to a bug level. Losing one TR may cost you more than a BB's build cost.

3) Start the war with UK early. UK has too many land pieces, and you cannot invade lands of same country in subsequent month; it will take almost 10 years to capture all UK lands. Leave some to Army autonomous actions can save time.

[chiyen]

[UAD Campaign SS - China, WIP, Captured All Japan Lands, 1891_08]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3158516055
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3158516216
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3158516339

[UAD Campaign SS - China, WIP, Conquered India, 1894 Year End]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161361303
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161361490
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3161361601

(Difficulty: Legend, no MODs)

[esilva9]

Originally posted by chiyen:

Originally posted by esilva9:

Russia is an easier first target, however it will be difficult to take china quickly due to the tonnage needed to conquer them. fighting spain and taking the philipeans will be a good start and the french colonies nearby can build a good sphere of influence due to their competive to chinas gdp which will be needed to add that tonage up fast enough to take china.

You can do that, but usually it requires more time for declare War on Russia / Spain, from Japan or China.

Japan / China can declare war to each other pretty fast, and with good calculation, the initial tonnage can be large enough to cap China... despite you have to clear China's fleet tonnage at the same time.

So you can start from Peng Hu, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South China while sinking China's fleets in East China and building more fleet (and taunt Russia to bring it to war at the same time).

--
If starting from 1890, you don't need oil for quite some time, 1~2 decades on the tech tree. By that time you should have owned the Fast East, India, and more....

China almost always has some oil (some randomness), and India always has it.

The philopean islands also has good ammounts of fuel as well as decent anchorages. but yeah there are a couple decent soft targets to take from china, formosa being one.

[Anna_Drew_Blue]

I play as Great Britain. They have the best hulls hands down, and there is nothing that can stand up to a Brit super battleship with Mk V 18.5 inch 54 caliber twin turrets x4 on centerline , auto load I, stereoscopic V, Gen !! radar, with Modern I armor 17 inches at the main belt, 7.5 inch main deck and 19 inch barbettes. Gas turbine, oil II, 31 knot flank speed and an operational range of over 20,000 Km. By 1930. Exceeding history by a long shot, pun intended. That's not even mentioning half the goodies in the total package.

This is what a monster GDP will do for naval research. I engage enemies and sink them from beyond the range that they can even shoot back and I control the range with my high speed. With my technologies, I do not need cruise speed or a steady course to thoroughly ventilate enemy hulls in short order, and pop their main turrets off left and right. Their guns are trained fore and aft until the moment I send them flying off into space. So pathetic and so hilarious. I can take down 5 of their battleships with just one of mine. In good weather or bad. And my armor? Well honestly it's just for show. Just because I can, because I don't get so much as a paint scratch or a blemish. I don't lose a single crew member and they lose every last one of theirs. A few battles with them losing 15,000 or more sailors and me losing zero is enough to cause their country to go into a revolt within a few turns. My biggest challenge at this point is catching my breath between fits of uncontrolled laughter.

My bigger strategy is to wear down enemies by taking the islands, all of them. Without island bases, there are large expanses of ocean that enemies cannot cover due to range limitations. In addition, by holding all of the islands all around the world, my situation is the opposite. I have no range limitations for my task forces because I have bases everywhere that the enemy cannot take without a naval invasion. Which isn't ever going to happen as long as I have so much as one of my 98.000 ton super battleships around. And I have over 30 of them by 1935 or so. The only other ships I build are light cruisers and destroyers to hold subs at bay and guard transport routes. I also have them in my task force formations to guard the battleships against sub attack, but send them away as soon as a tactical battle starts so that my battleships fight alone and destroy everything. As is said in one of the games loading screen captions , the battle of Tsushima proved that fast battleships with big guns could rule the sea. Yes they can, all by themselves.

Usually Spain this the first to go. I take Cuba and all of the islands in the Caribbean, along with the Philippines and all the islands between there and PH. I will briefly go to war with China the first time around to grab Hong Kong and Formosa before proceeding to dismantle Japan. Islands are safe and secure bases. Holding a lot of islands actually saves me from losing much TP capacity, I never get below 196%. with the slider maxed out at all times. With over 500 ships in my navy , there are always ships in most ports which can do battle and cover TP routes. There are plenty of island bases distributed all along the TP routes which makes them easier to defend, and keeps losses to a minimum. This is actually all accomplished by the time my super battleships come into the picture. usually around 95% of all the worlds islands, including Japan are under my control by that time.

Yeah, I could conquer them all faster, but I just love to max out the battleship technologies before starting the main event. It's like having Aston Martins to race their KIA's. It's so much fun, it shouldn't be legal. I feel like a cat playing with its prey prior to just getting bored and killing it. Laughing so hard that tears are streaming down my face.

Still though, I have never actually made it to the very end before an update wiped out all my progress. I am currently at 1931 this time around and its probably going to get wiped again soon in a couple of days. Oh well. Tough tacos. I will try again.

BTW, I am not the King of England, I am the Queen.

[Anna_Drew_Blue]

I did upload some screen shots of my current game. They are in the screen shot section, I haven't figured out how to post them here in the thread. How did you do that? Anyway, my screenshots are there if you want to look at them. I haven't completed any of my super battleships yet on this play through and I haven't conquered Japan yet this time, I'm kind of running behind schedule because I've been goofing off a bit this time around, admittedly. But if you can find the screen shot , you can see that by 1931 my economy is off the chain, with the U.S. looking like a third world country by comparison. As you can see, my annual naval budget exceeds the entire GDP of AH, and is double the entire GDP of Japan. I have designed the last class of battleships before the super battleships, and it is already quite formidable. Modern armor and gas turbines will save enough weight allowing me to have auto loading as soon as those technologies are unlocked to use in a refit.

[T.lo]

Did the dev's change something? I'm playing as Spain, and with Nationalist government (+2% GDP), and have a lot of oil (allied with 6 minors, including Canada), yet my eco growth is stuck at 5.4%. This is with 200% convoys. I used to be able to get 9+%.