How do I stay ahead of the curve on fleet size?

[Spartan448]

I'm playing Britain, it's 1941, and despite having more base resources than everyone but USA, and a higher naval budget than everyone but USA, I have by far the smallest fleet by both tonnage and number of ships. And it's been like this since like 1910. It's not like I'm behind because I'm only building the most technologically advanced ships while everyone else is just building contemporary - in fact in a lot of cases, the other countries have mostly modern stuff while all my cruisers are still 30 years old. I'm currently in a war with the Soviets, who have 3/4 my base resources and half my naval budget, but are also currently building three modern Heavy Cruisers and a full flotilla of Destroyers. Meanwhile I have a smaller active fleet and can't even build one new somewhat new light cruiser without my budget going into the red.

I know base resources factor heavily into naval budget, and that winning wars without taking territory is in the long-term better than taking colonies, but I still can't help but feel I've missed something critical here to be this far behind.

[Silamon]

The AI tends to have half its fleet mothballed and reserved until tensions are high, that's how it builds so many more ships.

If you want to keep up in numbers, you will likely need to do the same. You can also just use wars to keep their numbers down.

[Spartan448]

Originally posted by Silamon:

The AI tends to have half its fleet mothballed and reserved until tensions are high, that's how it builds so many more ships.

If you want to keep up in numbers, you will likely need to do the same. You can also just use wars to keep their numbers down.

That doesn't explain why they're able to keep up that production during wartime though. And it's not like I'm forgetting to reserve my fleets during peacetime. Like even if I reserve everything except the cruisers on foreign station, I'll barely be able to build a couple light ships per year, while they'll 3D print an entire battleship fleet.

[Noshur Viverse]

How much are you spending on aircraft? Those add up extremely fast and a ton of staffed airbases can cost you more per turn than a fleet of battleships

[ulzgoroth]

Originally posted by Noshur Viverse:

How much are you spending on aircraft? Those add up extremely fast and a ton of staffed airbases can cost you more per turn than a fleet of battleships

The AI keeps a ridiculous number of aircraft IME, though.

Originally posted by Spartan448:

Originally posted by Silamon:

The AI tends to have half its fleet mothballed and reserved until tensions are high, that's how it builds so many more ships.

If you want to keep up in numbers, you will likely need to do the same. You can also just use wars to keep their numbers down.

That doesn't explain why they're able to keep up that production during wartime though. And it's not like I'm forgetting to reserve my fleets during peacetime. Like even if I reserve everything except the cruisers on foreign station, I'll barely be able to build a couple light ships per year, while they'll 3D print an entire battleship fleet.

If you're reserving everything but mothballing nothing, you could save a pretty huge amount by going to mothballs.

[Andrew Cree]

Also, are you building ships at the maximum tonnage limit? That's an easy trap to fall into, as bigger ships have higher maintenance costs which cuts into your budget for new ships.

I have 3 battleships. As I write, the 49,000t is being rebuilt, but the 39,000t (R) is costing me 306/month whilst the 22,500t vessel (R) is costing me 199/month.

Don't get me wrong - the 39,000t is more than worth the cost due to being significantly more powerful, but smaller ships can save you cash for more hulls.

[xt6wagon]

Part of it is engines are expensive, both to buy but also to maintain.

So think about making your KE for example some coal fire triple expansion that are slow. They can still minesweaper just fine, but much cheaper to keep.

Guns are also more expensive than armor. So you might find value in "2nd class" or Coastal Battleships to pad numbers and defend the homeland. Not how I play but a couple 10K ton battleships might look good compared to one 20K if limited in budget.