Russian ships are too strong to start with.

[t.latzke(Ger)]

I once tried to play with Japan, but Russia only wants war, there is no escaping a war with them. Then I also found out that my ships don't stand a chance against Russian ships. Even if I have more ships than them, they would damage almost everyone. I once had 20 ships fight against 5. The result was that my ships all had moderate to heavy damage and the enemy had none. That's not even realistic?!?! Either Japanese ships and weapons are just mega bad or Russian ships and weapons are too mega good. There is no other way to explain the result that several ships cannot compete with a few

[fr0gy]

the only way ive managed to survive the first war with them is 100% research with 50% crew training spending. and unlocking dreadnaughts. then building them before the war. and using some serious naval skills to win because they dont stop blockading. luckly ive survived and am now winning the war against them.

[t.latzke(Ger)]

Originally posted by fr0gy:

the only way ive managed to survive the first war with them is 100% research with 50% crew training spending. and unlocking dreadnaughts. then building them before the war. and using some serious naval skills to win because they dont stop blockading. luckly ive survived and am now winning the war against them.

That's how I've always done it, 100% research. But the Russians, apparently from the very beginning, have very good ships and weapons. It can't be that a superior fleet of 20 ships can't compete against 5 and not even do damage

[greigy]

can't say I've ever had issues fighting the russians - but I would normally be playing in europe

I guess its time for me to check out the china and japan factions - though I thought they were still just the same placeholder hulls etc as austria

[greigy]

unfortunately there is no "switch sides" function in custom battle that would allow you to actually test that fairly - remembering that the ai basically just chooses to 'sail nearby, shooting at you' as its main attack strategy

[t.latzke(Ger)]

So I realized that by the beginning of the campaign, many countries had weak ships and weapons. Countries like Russia, England and America often have superior ships and weapons. Mostly have these nations in the area. shooting accuracy or ship speed. They often have superior technology in these areas. I often played a lot of battles, so I caught a lot. For example, the Germans initially have very poor ships and poor gun accuracy. But I don't think the game is really balanced yet

[ohthot1227]

Originally posted by t.latzke(Ger):

So I realized that by the beginning of the campaign, many countries had weak ships and weapons. Countries like Russia, England and America often have superior ships and weapons. Mostly have these nations in the area. shooting accuracy or ship speed. They often have superior technology in these areas. I often played a lot of battles, so I caught a lot. For example, the Germans initially have very poor ships and poor gun accuracy. But I don't think the game is really balanced yet

Germany 1890~1900 : Sucks
Germany 1910~1930 : Kick's Britain's ass

[tacoshy]

I think the main question is your tech approach. In early game I always rush small guns and accuracy (raneg fidners and control stations) and aswell trying to push light cruisers. Sicne early combat is characteristic for low accuracy. So you want to have as many guns with a high rate of fire. The big slow battleships can be easily take down with torpedoes as their low accuracy and rate of fire prevents them from stopping small ships getting close enough.

You can rush Mk5 small guns in about 20 years with addition of the accuracy bonuses you will win every combat at small and medium ranges thanks to your deadly accuracy and if you can't beat a BB for whatever reason you will be fast enough to outrun them.

IMHO are dreadnoughts and battleships overrated before Radar III and Mk 4 large guns.

[t.latzke(Ger)]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

I think the main question is your tech approach. In early game I always rush small guns and accuracy (raneg fidners and control stations) and aswell trying to push light cruisers. Sicne early combat is characteristic for low accuracy. So you want to have as many guns with a high rate of fire. The big slow battleships can be easily take down with torpedoes as their low accuracy and rate of fire prevents them from stopping small ships getting close enough.

You can rush Mk5 small guns in about 20 years with addition of the accuracy bonuses you will win every combat at small and medium ranges thanks to your deadly accuracy and if you can't beat a BB for whatever reason you will be fast enough to outrun them.

IMHO are dreadnoughts and battleships overrated before Radar III and Mk 4 large guns.

I know a lot about this, but torpedoes from early to 1910 are almost useless. Eventually they don't explode or explode too soon, or friendly ships are bad at firing torpedoes. But the thing is that each country has a different technology. For example, America has superior accuracy with its Big Towers. I still find it strange that Russia is not properly balanced. Or the AI ​​is so obsessed with researching weapon accuracy

[greigy]

at the end of the day, I suspect that the game is meant to be a-symetric, so you'll just need to develop your own strategy for each nation

- eg the britan v germany pre 1900, I've never had much of an issue if I just go all out on ca's

[Eighty-Six86]

Originally posted by tacoshy:

I think the main question is your tech approach. In early game I always rush small guns and accuracy (raneg fidners and control stations) and aswell trying to push light cruisers. Sicne early combat is characteristic for low accuracy. So you want to have as many guns with a high rate of fire. The big slow battleships can be easily take down with torpedoes as their low accuracy and rate of fire prevents them from stopping small ships getting close enough.

You can rush Mk5 small guns in about 20 years with addition of the accuracy bonuses you will win every combat at small and medium ranges thanks to your deadly accuracy and if you can't beat a BB for whatever reason you will be fast enough to outrun them.

IMHO are dreadnoughts and battleships overrated before Radar III and Mk 4 large guns.

see you say that and yet ive had dreadnaughts fight 1v15 before and win against destroyers and cruisers. my main focus is almost always big guns , accuracy, and torpedoes. torpedoes are good enogh for me till about 1910-1920, after that big guns keep me far enough from the enemy that the small guns never even get within firing range

[Revener]

Huh? never had any issues.

[hurepoix]

Originally posted by t.latzke(Ger):

There is no other way to explain the result that several ships cannot compete with a few

Both have valuable ships.

An important question for you :

Do You autoresolve or manually fight battles ?

[t.latzke(Ger)]

Originally posted by hurepoix:

Originally posted by t.latzke(Ger):

There is no other way to explain the result that several ships cannot compete with a few

Both have valuable ships.

An important question for you :

Do You autoresolve or manually fight battles ?

Always different. If I feel like fighting, I do it manually. But when there are constant fights, you don't feel like you're in every fight. I'm just surprised that someone is still replying to the post since I wrote it in 2022.

[hurepoix]

Originally posted by ohthot1227:

Germany 1890~1900 : Sucks
Germany 1910~1930 : Kick's Britain's ass

1890-1900 germany rules

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363263399

Picture above I declared war to UK in 1890. I made two wars to UK, the second one in late 1890s was for Scotland and southern UK, that were to mush for me to invade with reasonable chance of success at very early game. France war occured in the 1900-1905 years.

Condition; Start in 1890 legendary setting custom start made fleet.

1910-1930 germany still rules

[MasterFool]

US isn't good early game, it takes about 5 years to get them wound up and then they accelerate faster, but they have few adversaries early on, just Spain, so it's a non-issue.

Russia, when I played it, was only medocre tech wise. It really depends on the random start. If they start with more TECH and less money, the initial money that the AI gets becomes critical. Yeah, they stumble a bit after the start (GDP wise), but that start is hell if they are high tech... HOWEVER, this is true for any country, AI or player that's given the same high tech start. I've only gotten it once, when I played the US. I had both Triple X Steam AND Harvey armor to start. My starting money sucked, but because I build small ship, small fleet at start, I had a high naval budget to suck up losses until I got the GDP rolling.

So, you might just have gotten a bad start with Russia as high tech and for Japan, that's hard, but not impossible. If you want to avoid that war with Russia early on, you need to make nicey, nicey with Moscow from day 1 and every time throughout. However, if you make friends of Russia, you'll have to deal with China and war. You need to pick one.

I got lucky with my China start, I was able to make friends with Russia AND Japan early on which let me launch my tech into the stratosphere very early, in under two years I had very advanced.

The early game is the most challenging and is now hugely dependent on how you play the diplomacy game. I guess each of us needs to decide how we are going to play the game and just go for it. There's little place to feel your way around anymore, which sucks for beginners.