Tips for Royal Navy BotA campaign?

[Zap Rowsdower]

Oof so I am really struggling with the RN campaign, both in terms of trying to enjoy it and in terms of not being very successful. Im losing alot of ships to either severe damage where I have to shore up for repairs for a long time, or just straight up losses, mostly due to Uboats. Unfortunately, Im unable to replace these loses because the Germans aren't presenting enough ships to earn renown to buy anything. I basically keep getting trapped with half my fleet getting damaged and stuck in the shipyard by submarines and then being unable to send out destroyers because im out of renown so im taking massive shipping losses, while also being unable to try and engage the german surface fleet to earn renown because my ships are all OA or I just straight up cant find them and run into submarines instead, which makes me lose even more ships to the repair yard or to the deep...

Not to mention the gameplay is a bit slower since alot of the time Im simply chasing around U boats, who end up blowing up my destroyers when i finally am lining up to depth charge them with torpedoes at point blank range.

Anyone have any tips on playing the RN? Because I seem to keep falling into the same routine.

EDIT: It also feels like the German AI is F A R more accurate with both guns and air strikes. It seems like the Germans have me at range with the second salvo, and sometimes I even get smashed with the first with turrets or AAA being completely destroyed right at the start. They are far better with airstrikes it seems too, with me regularly getting hit with 3/3 strikes. Maybe it is just me, but it seems like the British AI is alot more balanced, with them taking some time to find the range and not always landing every bomb.

[riggithai]

There is no cure, it's a loooong campaign and the RN doesn't get a genuine automatic superiority until late 1943. Check the R/L stats for U-boat sinkings, they peaked in (about) Aug-Sept of that year and the U-boats nearly won the campaign.

It was the RAF bombings with Tallboy that damaged the U-boat pens and the occupation of French Atlantic ports by US ground forces that tipped the scales.

So, Admiral, a stiff tot of rum, gird your loins and carry on, what.

[The Inept European]

Yes it's tough to play the RN. Hats off to you for persevering. I will repeat the strategy I used in case it's any use.

First of all practice destroyer vs sub tactics intensely using the scenario side of the game. I wrote some Guides on this that you can find in this Steam section. Practice, and decide if you are going to be historical or not. Historical means killing with depth charges and that is difficult because U-boats are way too aggressive and way too effective attacking destroyers. Ahistorical means using torps against them. The key tactical skill to learn is how to make progress towards a U-boat while evading its torpedoes, particularly the first spread.

Unless you first master these tactics you will not succeed strategically.

Then, strategically, what I do is I transition to an all-destroyer force, using cheap destroyers - quite historical. Starting at the UK I flood all sea areas with 1 or 2 destroyers. When there is a contact it usually evades the first turn but I then pile destroyers in from all areas 2 hexes distant from the contact, into a ring one hex distant from the contact (all hexes that the contact could move to).

On top of that you have to deal with a few surface raiders but the main grind of the campaign is destroyer versus subs. You can also get good at taking out surface raider groups with destroyer squadrons. Basically the capital ships you start the game with are a liability. Bottle the KM in its ports with subs (the WW1 RN strategy) and hide your capital ships out of harm's way if you can. Don't bother repairing them, just keep building destroyers constantly.

In which we serve.

[The Inept European]

The AI gunnery is superbly better and you will struggle to win any evenly matched surface engagement. It is reasonably historical to assume German gunnery was better. There are a few ways to cheat and have better gunnery than the AI but as the RN I generally accept having the poorer gunnery. You are still superior in tactics to the AI and this will make up for being inferior in gunnery. For example, torpedo attacks by destroyer groups advancing under smoke, a WW1 tactic which were kind of anachronistic by WW2 - like a cavalry charge - are often (not always) very effective against the AI,

[The Inept European]

As well as my Guide on Ship vs Sub Anti-submarine Warfare, if you are having a hard time you might want to look at my Guide on How to Use Smoke.

Plus there are other good guides in the Guides section of this forum.

[Seperallis]

I've had more fun with RN than KM, which felt like an exercise in flooding the seas with uboats and waiting to win in 1940. Hunting u-boat wolfpacks is, at least, more fun than chasing merchants ad nauseum for hours with a 3.7/4.1mm peashooter.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1701874844


The RM really does have it toughest right out of the gates in 1939; if you can't get a good start, it's likely you won't recover. Take some time in the single battle screen and create custom battles with DDs to practice sub-hunting. Read this guide, it's really good and has info I didn't know until reading just now :P
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=894214300

Otherwise, just do what I do:

1) go into battle against a merchant and learn how RN DDs maneuver, changing the rudder angles and ship speeds; DDs at a full flank can turn almost 90 degrees (probably about 80-85?) at a full R/L rudder, but the turning radius is smaller at slower speeds. Just play around until you get used to it, especially all the in-between rudder notches (which will save your DDs cute little lives). Have you heard the good news about our Lord and Savior, Back Emergency?

2) Try some custom battles with a sub or two, practicing torp evasion and lining up attack runs on them. After firing a full spread, type IX and VII u-boats need two turns before receiving 1 reload, so I like to count the turns so I can set up my evasion ahead of time. To copy myself from elsewhere:

• Dodge into the enemy u-boat, and make sure I'm at about 30-60 degrees to them before they reload and fire again. Torps move 2.5km immediately after being fired, so stay outside about 3km at all times until you make your attack run.
  
• Make sure the enemy sub has just emptied itself of torps, and look at your distance to target, before beginning your attack run. DDs can cover about 1km per turn at a full flank bell: if you're within about 3-4km then you can likely get to within 1k of the sub, which'll force the AI to dive.
  
• If you plan to Depth Charge, just charge in and reverse the shaft when you're within, say, 500m, and try to slow to below 2/3 bell (I prefer 1/3, but whatever works for you). I prefer to have the sub just barely left or right from center before dropping the barrels; it's somewhat random when they go boom, but you'll likely sink them by the second drop if you're not unlucky (It's taken me 1-5 tries).
  
• If you instead plan to torp, turn 90 degrees on to the sub now and plant one (maybe two; I play with duds, and one works 95% of the time) torp just back from the bow of the boat; the AI doesn't surface unless you're out of escorts and won't dive for a torp, and VII and IX boats don't maneuver enough to avoid that placement in case you're not close enough for a same-turn kill.

You'll soon get the hang of dealing with wolfpacks and feel like king of the seas dodging waves of torps.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1701874831

Never ever escort your capital fleet with DDs. I know, it's counter-intuitive. If a sub is on the same zone as you and your fleet doesn't have a DD/DC, then you only get the event that damages one of your surface ships; I've never seen it outright destroy a ship. So, either have only DDs alone in a zone, or have your capital ships alone with no DDs, as it's better to take light/medium/heavy damage on your BB/BC from an event than losing it to a turn 1 4-torp spread. I mean, you can take your chances and try to get out with no damage, but I don't

From there I don't have any novel tips to add. As soon as you can, buy as many cheap DDs as you can (generally O-class) and flood the Atlantic; having an escort in a zone stops the automatic-sinking events from happening there, even if your ships don't detect the hidden enemy. Keep your BB/BC/CA/CL etc together in groups of at least 2 (safety in numbers) and use them to prowl for the big german surface raiders. At some point you'll sink them, hopefully with no losses, and use that renown to start getting the upper hand so you can replace these cheap DD losses with some better ones, like some tasty Tribal-class.


Re: gunnery, I haven't noticed anything different between the two nations, except that shot dispersion tends to be more vertical for KM and more horizontal for RN...but maybe I simply thought I noticed that. Confirmation bias and whatnot. Have you tried manually aiming, estimating with the map and fall of shot? I check my map basically every turn, and ignore the spotters' recommendations for all but the first salvo.

Aircraft are deceptively hard to use, and took me some practice in custom matches.

Anyway, I've rambled enough, I guess.

[riggithai]

I just recorded a notable victory (for me anyway!) HMS Triton (SS) was lurking at the entrance to the Baltic.
The AI KM sent a DD and HK Atlantis.
I put a full spread (4 torps) into the DD (Karl Glaister?) but the Atlantis was a bit far so I surfaced and exploded her after about 5 rounds of 4.5" AP.

Splice the mainbrace!

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Seperallis:

<loadsa good stuff>

Awesome advice! And thanks for the hat-tip to my Guide. You should probably write one yourself!

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by riggithai:

It was the RAF bombings with Tallboy that damaged the U-boat pens and the occupation of French Atlantic ports by US ground forces that tipped the scales.

I would not point to any one thing that tipped the scales. It was a combination of many factors that accumulated over time, including

- Operational Research approach
- Comms decrypts and traffic analysis
- Convoy methods and tactics
- improved ASW tactics and doctrine
- Destroyer and escort production
- Sharing tactics with RCN and USN
- Coordination with RCN and USN (initially very poor and never perfect)
- Extending range, intensity and power of maritime air power in the Atlantic and in Coastal Command
- R/T (voice) rather than W/T (morse) for coordinating ASW actions
- ASDIC (Sonar) technical and tactical improvement
- HF/DF improvements and tactics
- Searchlights on aircraft (forcing U-boats under 24/7)
- Millimetre wave radar on aircraft and ships (spotting periscopes)
- new ASW weapons of course
- pressure on logistics support ships
- and (as you mention) attacks on pens and ports being more effective

Many many factors.

[The Inept European]

Of course, in Atlantic Fleet BotA, none of those changing factors is simulated, not even increased production, apart from improvement in ships and ASW mortars. You have to do it all through tactics, that you provide yourself. 🙄

[riggithai]

Agreed.

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by riggithai:

Splice the mainbrace!

Well spliced, sir!