Fighting Britian is impossible and pointless

[RZU147]

I know realistic and all, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, been trying to play germany, can never win any war as the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ brits always join against me. And loosing a war means THE ENEMY TAKES YOUR ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SHIPS AWAY.
♥♥♥♥ that.

Oh, also allying with them doesnt work cause then they wont join your wars :)

[Alpha2518]

Well, you have too properly prepare for it so there is a way too beat them. I would focus on getting yourself in a position to where you can outbudget them with more base resources. Some of this is by event like better industry, boom times. Some of it you can influence where I've seen it's better to get reparations over colonies because this increases your base resources too and colonies become less profitable over time.

Also they do join your wars. I've seen them do it in RtW2. I'm guessing you ran into a situation where they didn't join right way. Just click the top option where you wait for them to join because they probably have to mobilize their reserve ships and work them up just like you have to when you mobilize. I've seen all my non-british allies do this as they domino chain into my war and I've seen Britain also domino chain in against me.

[RZU147]

how do i get reperations when i loose every single damn war?
always goes the same, im germany, i fight russia, i keep winning but no peace, tensions with england go up, war, im blockaded, i loose cause i dont have 22 Dreadnoughts

the one time i got an allience with them as japan they didnt join me after a year and after the US joined russia for some reason

[Andy]

Did you select 'historical resources' ??
That will give smaller nations less money. It's not an option for all available start dates.
But, where it is, un-checking it will be easier.

Britain often has to spread it's fleet accross the globe, you should try and maintain technical parity, not numbers. Wack research up to 12%.

Later conflicts also take into account aircraft and submarines. So, you could in theory win a conflict while loosing more combat ships with a good submarine numbers.

In RTW2, alot of the battles between the 2 nations happened off Heligoland, not sure if the same region will be prominent here as i've not done it. But, in RTW2, it often meant land based German aircraft could play a part in most battles between the nations where British land based aircraft rarely could.

An ally should join your war or break the alliance. So, if that's not working. That might be a bug.

One of the things that's also worth doing it trying to antagonise another nation.
Set spying on Russia/Italy/Spain to max (mabee one at a time) you'll get more events around spies, and at every opportunity seek to calm relations with Britain while increasing them with smaller nations.
You'll find going to war often gives you more money. You'll be able to create a better fleet. And, after wars often relations with all nations seems to calm. So, if you go to war with Russia when relations with Britain are poor. When you come out of it things will be better.

If i think i'm going to be on the back foot against other nations, i tend to try and prioritise speed, and give myself a rear facing torpedo tube if i'm likely to turn and run.
Early game a torp hit is going to kill a battle ship. You can even prioritise torp tech earlier to try and get better torpedoes over the opposition.

[Niroc]

I kinda sorta won a war against Britain in my current Japan playthrough. Mind you it was a very short war (3 months) but I had no problems dealing with their ships in battles and came to a negotiated peace settlement with Russia as the mediator. (After I sank their sole dreadnought in the region in a opening surprise attack on Port Author).

The main trick with Britain is to only engage them when you have local superiority, so in my case they only had a small colonial task force in the region when war broke out so I was able to win victories despite my overall technological and numerical inferiority.

Read the events that pop up and try to strike a balance. Sometimes it's ok to lose a little prestige or funding if it means avoiding a war you don't think you can win. I have so far never gotten into a war I did not choose to be in.

Another tip when dealing with the British is don't try to beat them at their own game. They will almost always have the bigger fleet so build the best quality you can. If they have a lot of heavily armored relatively slow dreadnoughts build fast attack destroyers with torpedos. losing 3-5 destroyers for a BB kill is more then a worthwhile trade. Armored Cruisers and Battle Cruisers can also be turned into BB killers if designed for the right situation.

Edit: Something else to mention is remember it takes upwards of 3 years to build a single BB, You can replace cheaper smaller ships a lot faster in most cases. BB's are also slow so if you have some well designed cruisers and destroyers then you can make some very decent trades that will give you the victories you need to win a war.

[Alpha2518]

Originally posted by RZU147:

how do i get reperations when i loose every single damn war?
always goes the same, im germany, i fight russia, i keep winning but no peace, tensions with england go up, war, im blockaded, i loose cause i dont have 22 Dreadnoughts

the one time i got an allience with them as japan they didnt join me after a year and after the US joined russia for some reason

You have to do tension management within your capacity. Nations that share high tensions with you are more likely to ally. Some nations are more sensitive to tensions generated from certain events. IE the Balkans events are more likely to generate tension with France, Russia, and Italy. African ones are more likely to generate tension with France and Britain. China is more likely to generate tension with USA, Japan, Russia, UK, and France. Sometimes this just means sucking it up and taking a prestige loss and/or budget loss. Sometimes this means halting your constructions until tensions die down.

Alliance chains do happen. Example, France is Allied to Russia. Russia is Allied to France and the UK. I (Germany) am allied to Austria, Japan, and USA. France goes to war with my ally Austria calling me in. Japan doesn't join right away but does later. Meanwhile Russia remains out while they mobilize and join later. So the war is Me, Austria, Japan vs France and Russia. But because Russia is allied too Britain, they will eventually join the war too on the French side and the USA will eventually join on my side. This did happen too me and I accepted that I lost and had too start over.

There is a helpful button on the strategic overview called view all relations I think and this is also available to look at on events. If you check the box show values you will get a numerical value for the relations which is more helpful then color codes. I've also observed nations that are not yellow (below tension level 6 I think) with you don't tend to ally with each other where as once they reach that level and higher they share a common threat (you.)

Sometimes you can manage to defeat in detail when you're outnumbered which also happened in one of my games. It was France and Russia again vs my Alliance. Well Russia was blockaded and I just had too manage keeping myself not blockaded by France because I managed to take an oil possession before 1920 from France. Once Russia was knocked out I then proceeded to finish off France.

The only other piece of advice I can offer is to try and hold off engaging Britain until you can manage to get the great equalizer, carriers. However this has it's own problems. They will also have them and you don't want to engage their land based aircraft unless you have air superiority. But as far as their carriers goes it's literally what the USN concluded in wargames before WW2. You need to launch your carrier aircraft and sink their carriers before they find yours and launch theirs. Otherwise it can literally be like striking from the grave where you lose your carriers.

So I can some help for you. Before unpausing, ready your strike aircraft to include escorts because some fighters will be used for scouts. Set the search area and pattern before you unpause because they will launch when you unpause. As soon as you get a report on enemy carriers, set that as the target and prioritize CVs as targets. TBs are your friends here and most likely to sink enemy vessels. With luck you will get the drop on them and send all carriers to the bottom with their aircraft still below or on the deck. This happened to me with my first carrier vs carrier engagement in RTW2. I didn't have to worry about enemy carriers for the rest of the war and kept fighting at a distance with my aircraft carriers.

[ThatZenoGuy]

You can totally beat Britain, especially if you have an alliance. Its challenging but you can wear them down.

[Grognerd]

England and France just allied in my game, not good ...

[RZU147]

playing anyone but brittain is pointless
also ♥♥♥♥ battle generation
gonna take a break from the game

[ulzgoroth]

America doesn't have much trouble beating Britain, but then America is the probably-even-easier option.

[red.shark167]

The UK can be fairly challenging to beat, but it is perfectly possible. Based on my experience with RTW1 and 2, the US can relatively consistently solo the UK by the mid-1910s, and Japan can beat it fairly easily in the Far East if allied with one of the following: the US, France, or Germany. Hell, I've even managed to win against the UK and France combo as post-Versailles Germany, but that required sub-spam on a scale that would have made Karl Dönitz proud to accomplish.

[Alpha2518]

Originally posted by RZU147:

playing anyone but brittain is pointless
also ♥♥♥♥ battle generation
gonna take a break from the game

Playing anyone else but Britain isn't pointless. It's just that not all nations can be or have the potential of Britain. Try watching the Historical Gamer on youtube. I believe he is doing an Italian run during your break and come back refreshed.

But I believe one strategy is possible. If you can manage to reach the end with 100 or so missile submarines you will sink over 200 merchant ships a month and break their economy. I did this against the USA and I took all their possessions (harsher peace deals enabled this.)

[ulzgoroth]

It's also true that the expected play for minor powers is not the same as major powers.

While, with enough game skill, you may be able to turn Austria into a great naval power that bullies France and such, you're not obligated to. The first countermeasure for a small power to the British Navy is to try to avoid war with Britain!

[RZU147]

impossible with how random tension is
and with the AI always havine some sort of alliance chain any most wars i get to eventually involve brittain

as i cant win them fast enough, as my battleships dont do battle, ever, and im only ever given night battles with one CL vs 6 BC

[way2co0l_2003]

The thing with Germany is to bide your time, especially with the 1890 start. You have a lot of bonus resource effects that will let your base resources grow faster than England's. You also have less aging hulls that have to be paid for, so you should be able to build just as many more modern dreadnoughts as they can, if not more due to how much they have to spend maintaining their aging fleet. Just focus on keeping tensions low as you get your fleet built up and you'll be capable of taking them 1v1 after awhile.

[Lomaster野郎]

Also don't forget, that RtW is in many aspects resembles Dwarf Fortress. Losing is fun here. For me it was fun to get defeated by Great Britain around WWI, pay severe reparaitions and getting restricted severely. Still had enough prestige left to retain my duties. So i rebuild my fleet withing the treaty limitations, formed an alliance with Austro-Hungary, improved my tactics.. And got wiped out around WWII by GB + France alliance. Which was still fun.

By the way the nations are editable. All you need is notepad. Feel free to make your own "arcade" version of Great Britain.