How to do surface raiders

[Ayiar]

So I want to do surface raiders for Germany and I do not really care if subs are more efficient as im looking for some fun. Any suggestions on what type of ships I should build? I heard panzershiffs were good but idk.

[Graf Schokola]

Surface raiders as Germany is like russian roulette with 6 bullets (when you face UK, France, Italy, Japan or USA). Against other nations i use fast Lt Cruisers with torpedos, AA and a boardplane for fun. Destroyers get killed to fast by nav-bombers.

[CaptainSpacetime]

I'd try a battleship hull with max speed so you can escape battleship heavy fleets that come to counter you. Probably have to trade armor for this, I'd try armoring vs the best piercing on a BC or CL since presumably those would be the only ones that could catch you.

Max light attack so you can kill transports quickly, but not sure you can put light attack guns on a BB hull, so maybe do BC instead (if that's allowed I forget).

Set for no engage or safe engage, I forget if no engage will make you not even attack transports though. Probably highest repair priority too since you basically want this dude to bail on fights immediately and never not be at full health.

[ZenFlakes56]

Nah, carriers for surface raiders is op. trust.

Originally posted by CaptainSpacetime:

Set for no engage or safe engage, I forget if no engage will make you not even attack transports though. Probably highest repair priority too since you basically want this dude to bail on fights immediately and never not be at full health.

I disagree, I use convoy raiding to draw out the allied fleet so I always have my surface raiders on always engage & no repair whilst having my strike fleet waiting to reinforce.

[Citizen X]

Heavy Cruisers work nice; They are fast and cheap, and they can also carry all the necessary tools for the job. Heavy Cruiser Battery 3 has a base piercing of 29, which can be enough to pierce Early Battleships, with some modifiers. I think you should also invest in the Dual-Purpose Secondaries, which give you Light Attack as well as Anti-Air.

Lastly, I would deploy these Cruisers in pairs, and maybe give one of them an ASW module

[CaptainSpacetime]

Originally posted by ZenFlakes56:

Nah, carriers for surface raiders is op. trust.

Originally posted by CaptainSpacetime:

Set for no engage or safe engage, I forget if no engage will make you not even attack transports though. Probably highest repair priority too since you basically want this dude to bail on fights immediately and never not be at full health.

I disagree, I use convoy raiding to draw out the allied fleet so I always have my surface raiders on always engage & no repair whilst having my strike fleet waiting to reinforce.

I'm assuming they want "historical" surface raiders, so like battleships and cruisers that *don't* want to fight the royal navy.

[AdmiralPiett]

Historical surface raiders can be fun, but they have the same weaknesses in game as historical surface raiders did in real life

The main one being that minor to medium damage to a surface raider is an effective "mission kill" and forces the raider to avoid engaging almost all patrolling and escorting warships, not matter their strength, as even a "weaker" RN or USN force could do enough damage to "mission kill" a german surface raider even if the raider destroyed it in turn.

Surface raiders were in the end a failure in real life

[velvetcrabman]

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

Surface raiders were in the end a failure in real life

Not sure the skipper of the Kormoran would agree with that

[AdmiralPiett]

Originally posted by velvetcrabman:

Originally posted by AdmiralPiett:

Surface raiders were in the end a failure in real life

Not sure the skipper of the Kormoran would agree with that

Hilfskreuzers aren't really what is being discussed here. We're talking about the surface raiding true warships like Graf Spee or the intent behind the voyages of Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Bismarck.

In any case, Kormoran only destroyed or captured 11 ships over the course of a year. Graf Spee got that many over the course of 3 months.

Hilfskreuzers are a lesser investment, but they don't have the speed to chase down or run away

[johnknott]

My one time using them was a bit of an anticlimax. I expected the RN to come after them but they never did. Sat out in the mid-Atlantic sinking Allied convoys and the only full on military engagements were with destroyer escorts.

[General WVPM]

Use light cruisers for surface raiders.
- You can build a lot of them
- they are fast
- they easily sink convoys and destroyers

Capital ships are overkill for surface raiding

[Citizen X]

Originally posted by General WVPM:

Use light cruisers for surface raiders.
- You can build a lot of them
- they are fast
- they easily sink convoys and destroyers

Capital ships are overkill for surface raiding

Minor thing to consider; Light Cruisers suffer extra penalties in Deep Ocean.