Examples of Ship Design for each era?

[Karsk]

I have read through the manual and watched many videos so I understand how to work the game at least at a basic level. However I lack the skills to compare ships.

For example, since I and most people probably start at 1890 (I'm an absolute beginner with little to no knowledge of naval warfare beyond a general interest in military history) what would a BB, CA, CL, DD, or other classes generally look like? What guns should you be using for primary and secondary? I'm just trying to get a general idea so that I can know where to start.

[Burnside's Sideburns]

The AI uses the autodesign function, you can hit that a few times for a class of ship and get an idea of the range of ships that might be built with the technology available. You can also pick foreign dockyards and try autodesign there to see how their technology and dock size factor into their possible designs. Once the game starts the almanac is helpful too.

For overall ship design, for the early game it basically revolves around getting the most efficient distribution of fire with the technology you have, so gradually working your way towards more centerline and superimposed mounts, more guns per turret etc.

As far as guns, in 1890 for BB you probably go with the largest Q-1 gun you have or the largest overall gun you have. The biggest gun you have in acceptable quality is a decent rule of thumb for BB up to 17".

For secondaries, guns above 6" get a penalty firing at destroyers (and maybe other small ships?) so if you are looking at DD smackers you would usually take 5" or 6" guns. You can take higher caliber guns to try and get increased effect on larger ships. but I rarely do that out of the predreadnought era. 3" guns and 4" guns make decent tertiaries for BB and CA or secondaries for CL.

For armored cruisers, it depends on what role you are going for, anything from 8" to 12" is viable, with some 4" to 6" secondaries.
For CL, I'd recommend 6" guns for the reason I said above, and some 3" secondaries too. 5" guns aren't bad either if you spam them.

Speed depends on era, but at minimum you want to have your CA go 1-2 kts faster than your battle line, CL 1-2 kts faster than CA and DD at least 1-2 kts faster than that. You might have your battleline go 17 kts in 1890, 19 kts in 1905, 21 kts in 1910 and 27 kts in 1930.

I won't get into armor since that can vary a lot and depends on armor scheme.

[Karsk]

Originally posted by Burnside's Sideburns:

The AI uses the autodesign function, you can hit that a few times for a class of ship and get an idea of the range of ships that might be built with the technology available. You can also pick foreign dockyards and try autodesign there to see how their technology and dock size factor into their possible designs. Once the game starts the almanac is helpful too.

For overall ship design, for the early game it basically revolves around getting the most efficient distribution of fire with the technology you have, so gradually working your way towards more centerline and superimposed mounts, more guns per turret etc.

As far as guns, in 1890 for BB you probably go with the largest Q-1 gun you have or the largest overall gun you have. The biggest gun you have in acceptable quality is a decent rule of thumb for BB up to 17".

For secondaries, guns above 6" get a penalty firing at destroyers (and maybe other small ships?) so if you are looking at DD smackers you would usually take 5" or 6" guns. You can take higher caliber guns to try and get increased effect on larger ships. but I rarely do that out of the predreadnought era. 3" guns and 4" guns make decent tertiaries for BB and CA or secondaries for CL.

For armored cruisers, it depends on what role you are going for, anything from 8" to 12" is viable, with some 4" to 6" secondaries.
For CL, I'd recommend 6" guns for the reason I said above, and some 3" secondaries too. 5" guns aren't bad either if you spam them.

Speed depends on era, but at minimum you want to have your CA go 1-2 kts faster than your battle line, CL 1-2 kts faster than CA and DD at least 1-2 kts faster than that. You might have your battleline go 17 kts in 1890, 19 kts in 1905, 21 kts in 1910 and 27 kts in 1930.

I won't get into armor since that can vary a lot and depends on armor scheme.

Ok thanks very much! Could you explain what centerline and superimposed mounts means? That's just a technology? Pretty much any of these terms I don't understand at all. There's a whole jargon I don't get

[Lakel]

Centerline is literally as the name implies, down the center line of the ship. As opposed to wing turrets which are limited in firing angles to the side they are.

Main reason to take centerline over wing is you can fire left and right with only one turret, where wing turrets would need a turret on each side, double the weight, as well as other technical issues the game doesnt make you worry about.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f9/Cuniberti_ideal_battleship-EN.svg/1920px-Cuniberti_ideal_battleship-EN.svg.png
An example of a ship with 2 centerline turrets and 6 wing turrets, with 6 centerline turrets you would have the same firepower overall, in less weight and space.

Super imposed is easiest to just show a picture:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/King_George_V_class_battleship_1945.jpg

Non super imposed/inline turrets would be stuck unable to fire over eachother.


Ultimately combining super imposed plus centerline turrets, you are able to drastically reduce the number of turrets, and increase fore/aft firepower while chasing or running. Again other technical issues as well the game doesnt make you deal with that made it very useful for IRL ship designs.

Edit:
Just to throw an example of such a ship combining Centerline and Superimposing, look no further than IJN Fuso
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Fuso1944-nowatermark.png/1920px-Fuso1944-nowatermark.png

[red.shark167]

This image should be a pretty useful reference point https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/images/all-big-gun-2.gif

So basically, when it comes to turrets, there are two types of turrets when it comes to placement: centerline turrets and wing turrets. Centerline turrets, as the name suggests, are mounted along the ship's centerline, while wing turrets are on the sides. A ship can have a wide variety of these turrets mounted in different positions; in the reference picture, Michigan only has centerline turrets, Dreadnought and Neptune feature three centerline turrets and two wing turrets, while Helgoland only has two centerline turrets and four wing turrets. Michigan and Neptune also feature superfiring turrets, which means that a turret has been raised in such a manner that it can fire above the one in front of it. Neptune also features cross-deck firing, which means that its wing turrets have been positioned in such a manner that they can fire across the deck and engage targets on both the port and starboard sides of the ship. 

Now, why would you want to use centerline turrets instead of wing turrets? Weight effeciency. In the reference pic, both Helgoland and Michigan have eight gun broadsides (i.e., they can fire eight guns simultaneously towards either the port or starboard side), but Michigan only requires four turrets to do so while Helgoland needs six. This means that Michigan uses less tonnage to archive the same level of firepower as Helgoland, and thus that tonnage can be spent elsewhere and/or the ship can be made smaller than it would have to be if it only used wing turrets. 

How about cross-deck firing then? It also allows all of the ship's turrets to fire on both sides, so why is it less optimal than all centerline? Firing angles. For example, a centerline and a cross-deck firing capable starboard wing turret will have comparable firing angles when firing at targets located on the starboard side of the ship, but the centerline one will have significantly better firing angles when engaging targets on the port side than its cross-deck firing wing turret counterpart. 

[Karsk]

Originally posted by red.shark167:

This image should be a pretty useful reference point https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/images/all-big-gun-2.gif

So basically, when it comes to turrets, there are two types of turrets when it comes to placement: centerline turrets and wing turrets. Centerline turrets, as the name suggests, are mounted along the ship's centerline, while wing turrets are on the sides. A ship can have a wide variety of these turrets mounted in different positions; in the reference picture, Michigan only has centerline turrets, Dreadnought and Neptune feature three centerline turrets and two wing turrets, while Helgoland only has two centerline turrets and four wing turrets. Michigan and Neptune also feature superfiring turrets, which means that a turret has been raised in such a manner that it can fire above the one in front of it. Neptune also features cross-deck firing, which means that its wing turrets have been positioned in such a manner that they can fire across the deck and engage targets on both the port and starboard sides of the ship. 

Now, why would you want to use centerline turrets instead of wing turrets? Weight effeciency. In the reference pic, both Helgoland and Michigan have eight gun broadsides (i.e., they can fire eight guns simultaneously towards either the port or starboard side), but Michigan only requires four turrets to do so while Helgoland needs six. This means that Michigan uses less tonnage to archive the same level of firepower as Helgoland, and thus that tonnage can be spent elsewhere and/or the ship can be made smaller than it would have to be if it only used wing turrets. 

How about cross-deck firing then? It also allows all of the ship's turrets to fire on both sides, so why is it less optimal than all centerline? Firing angles. For example, a centerline and a cross-deck firing capable starboard wing turret will have comparable firing angles when firing at targets located on the starboard side of the ship, but the centerline one will have significantly better firing angles when engaging targets on the port side than its cross-deck firing wing turret counterpart.

Anything else like this that comes to mind I am more than happy to read and learn. Since I am starting from pretty much nothing.

[Reckall]

Go to Drachinifel channel on YT and you will find TONS of info about the big guns era.

I find really useful his "histories" of single ships: why they were built that way, why some choices were made, why the result was a sad mess - or an excellent ship.

If you want to start with a very funny video, I would suggest the tormented history of the HIRMS Sissoi Veliky. It makes you understand how in RTW 3 you are still unrealistically lucky...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFAQj32lg90

[Andrew Cree]

This player is setting out to mod historical fleets for 3, you may find some of these elements useful:

https://nws-online.proboards.com/thread/7213/welcome-nineteenth-century-wip