Naval Engagement Risks

[Butterbean]

Hello, I need help with understanding engagement risks. I'm a tad-bit confused on how each setting of the Engagement Risk controls engagements, all I've read so far is "Hurr durr just set deathstack fleet to Never Repair and Always Engage and the Spotter to Never Engage!" but I'm unable to learn any further from the Wiki, countless forum posts nor Steam Guides on how Engagement Risks work. Like for example, does a Low Engagement Risk Convoy Raiders only target and destroys Convoys with little to no screens? or do they retreat when they destroy sufficient convoys?

I apologize if I have started off condescending, I'm fairly new (190 hours-ish.) and so far no guide here sufficiently explains how they work. Cheers, any answer is appreciated.

[Včelí medvídek]

Always and never enagage is self-explanatory. Just be careful it bypass any calcultion at all - means if you have eg. solo battleship that can not attack sub it wills till enagge it (and die)

With low and medium the the engage rule affect when the ships decide to retreat by ratios calculation. In case of subs it is purely by numbers of subs vs number of enemy ships with ASW.

{My) Basic rules

Strike forces - at always or down - depend how much you feel vs enemy fleets
Patrols - never (for spot only and call strike force) or if you want fight enemy light ships low or medium risk
Raiding - low risk
Escort - Medium

[Butterbean]

Originally posted by Včelí medvídek:

Always and never enagage is self-explanatory. Just be careful it bypass any calcultion at all - means if you have eg. solo battleship that can not attack sub it wills till enagge it (and die)

With low and medium the the engage rule affect when the ships decide to retreat by ratios calculation. In case of subs it is purely by numbers of subs vs number of enemy ships with ASW.

{My) Basic rules

Strike forces - at always or down - depend how much you feel vs enemy fleets
Patrols - never (for spot only and call strike force) or if you want fight enemy light ships low or medium risk
Raiding - low risk
Escort - Medium

Thank you so much!

[glythe]

This guide has 3 versions - read all three.


You'll learn things like:

AI submarines are coded to immediately flee if one destroyer is present even if they don't have depth charges.

[chip]

Originally posted by glythe:

This guide has 3 versions - read all three.


You'll learn things like:

AI submarines are coded to immediately flee if one destroyer is present even if they don't have depth charges.

OK, that sounds useful and interesting. What guide are you talking about? Can you give a link (or at least searchable name)?

[General WVPM]

High risk > always engage
High risk at least makes your fleet flee when facing an overwhelming force.
Always engage results in a stack wipe in that scenario.

Now you might say "just build a better navy" and that is a solution. Note that big navy tends to be a waste of resources. You just need to achieve naval superiority for invasions and raid convoys whilst protecting your own. Mils > dockyards as most of the war is fought on land or in the skies.

[Bored Peon]

For Convoy raiding it depends on if the AI has an escort fleet or not, if your fleet has been spotted and there is a nearby strike fleet.

Countries that have escort fleets will usually consist of 4-6 destroyers and 1-2 light cruisers. You will see these appear during convoy raids repeatedly. If you fleet is spotted then the AI usually sends down a strike fleet (which is usually a doomstack.)

As for the "retreating after destroying sufficient convoys" I think you got that backwards. the AI retreats from you. Which if you have sufficiently mined the area you can easily catch up to them again before they leave the sea zone (usually.)

If you are using a spotting fleet you really do want to set it to never engage. One of the main reasons is so it can go back to spotting and also earn xp in the fleet retreating to unlock the next tier of skills (although they recently re-arranged that.)

The last thing to consider is there is a minimum amount of time in naval combat before the retreat order chance is rolled (you can force it if you are watching the battle.) So even when you set it to low risk, the fleets can have a hard time retreating from stronger fleets depending upon the skill of the commander because they fail the decision roll.