Spain navy

[ertatto]

I think it is time to introduce ships of the Spanish Navy (the oldest in the world), inventors of the submarine and the autogyro (current helicopter). Some historical milestones such as the creator of the modern concept of naval convoy, going around the world, creator of the first trade route on a global scale, creator and first to use marine infantry, first to use frigates, creator and first to use gunboats, first to use destroyers, creators and first to use submarine, creator of amphibious landing, first to use vertical take-off aircraft on aircraft carriers, .. and many more ..

What is your opinion?

[R[e]venge®-uk*]

Do we put a neutral flag on them and turn off the guns ??

Seriously however, the Spanish navy was not really what it once was, from the 1880's to 1950's....
it consisted of Espana Class "pocket battleships" .. Meh
some really dated CV's - ok for Tier 4 maybe??
Subs ok they had some... Give you that!
Cruisers ... Based on the Emerald I think ?? (could be wrong but it wasn't leander)
Plenty of DD's .. most based on British designs .....

But really due to the Civil war and the Spanish american war and WW1 and Morocco* they really had access to limited ships and most of what they had/or on order where UK or US built!??? or heavily influenced on the UK designs!!

So What could they give which would be ... unique??? or would they be all paper like the russians?? hmmmm Thoughts?

Edit*

[OBXandos]

The civil war could open some cool possibilities for paper ships. They could have some ships from many of the larger powers. It would probably just be another pan european line though.

[Starseer]

As we have lower tier ships that stretch across the era of Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet, the notion of Spanish ships has some merit, but really they wouldn't stretch much past the midtiers (although I'm sure, in typical WG fashion, somebody can magically dig up some nobody-heard-of-these-before napkin drawings from long-forgotten archives.

Late 1890s-early 1900s (late Spanish-American War) thru pre-WW1 era makes them viable, but again, only barely up to the mid tiers, most probably wouldn't qualify past tier 4.
We're talking protected cruisers with few turrets and still broadside (breech loading) guns, and early pre-battle cruiser types, as were engaged around Cuba and the Philippines by the US Navy prior to WW1 (ships like the Cristobal Colon and USS Maine ring a bell).

But again, as a majority of it would be low tier stuff,
unless WG/WoWs launched a new set of Campaign chapters dated for that timeframe and it gave us more use for all our other low tier stuff, it would never be a priority:
WG wants whale bait, because whale wallets don't buy low tier stuff.

There's 10,000 casual players who wouldn't hesitate to spend time in those lower tiers and invest money in lower tier premiums, but whales are only interested in top tier gimmicks, not genuine historically-accurate battles.

[StormhawkV]

Well, we have El Bing now...

[ShellacMaster78]

Spain doesn't have the oldest navy, nor did Spain invent the submarine or the "current helicopter". Didn't look at the rest of the list of "firsts". Can't wait for Spanish built aircraft carriers from WWII though...

[baddoggs]

Originally posted by JBCool:

Spain doesn't have the oldest navy, nor did Spain invent the submarine or the "current helicopter". Didn't look at the rest of the list of "firsts". Can't wait for Spanish built aircraft carriers from WWII though...

Why not, the Russians have them.... The Pan Asia line needs CV's and subs as well..
You know, for "balance"..
Don't forget the MANY Swedish CV's through out history either.
Lol, Australia actually HAD a CV or 2 at one stage...

[OBXandos]

From what I read on wikipedia England commissioned a Dutchman to make the first successful submarine in 1620. The first credited fully military submarine was by the 13 colonies in 1776, count that as US or British if you want .

As for oldest navy you would probably have to look at some group along the Nile river or maybe the Tigris and Euphrates. Ships operating in the Mediterranean or Red sea are probably going to be the first navies.

As for helicopters Leonardo da Vinchi is credited with coming up with the first design although there is evidence of earlier designs by China for rotary winged toys back from 400bc. It looks like a Russian man created the first working design of a vertical flight machine that carried a payload of meteorological devices. The first modern iteration of the helicopter was indeed created by a Spanish man in the 1920s. Spain also is credited of the first use of a helicopter in a military fashion in the lead up to their civil war.

Creator of the modern concept of the naval convoy? I guess it would depend on definitions used to qualify that statement. There have been fleets and navies for far longer than Spain has been a country.

Circumnavigating the globe is credited to Ferdinand Magellan who was a Portuguese born but Spanish employed sailor. Count that how you will. We can combine the global trade route claim in here as well since that was Magellan's goal in the first place. A trade route to Asia.

All of the military firsts claims were done way before Spain actually existed except the submarine and the VTOL carrier. We stated earlier that the US/Colonies made use of the first military submarine. The Spanish ship Delado was is credited as the first ship to have a helicopter take off and land on it.

That was a lot to unpack in the OPs post. They got a few right for sure though.

Also, Pan Asia does have a CV in game, the Sanzang. It is basically a reskinned USS Saipan.

[Aimee_Anasazi]

I kind of agree,
unless there are some kind of specific Campaign missions built around the Spanish-American War era and the "gunboat diplomacy" of Dewey's Fleet,
leading into the "Teddy Roosevelt era" prior to WW1,
and potentially the Spanish Civil War period,
I don't see that WG/WoWs see it as sufficient interesting material to build off of.

There IS a LOT of naval history there, but the problem is, the majority of viable, historically accurate and famous ships of that era, would almost all be below tier 1 (several of the protected cruisers of tiers 2 and 3 would fit right in, though).

Granted, more players MIGHT like it: it pre-dated aviation warfare,
and few ships of the period had effective torpedo armament: those were in their infancy.... the new gimmick could be mine layers. though.

But there IS an entire viable quarter century of protected cruisers and pre-dreadnaughts leading up to the WW1 era.
A lot of players might actually like it for a while: no torpedo spams, no carrier mains, no truly effective submarines... this would come down to genuine ship-to-ship gunnery.
We could even see genuine maps based off Havana Harbor and Manila Bay.

But sadly, I just don't see WG/WoWs abandoning their current soap opera to pursue such an endeavor.
Players neither want nor need this current drama the company is going thru: when their internal problems reach the respected gaming news sites and magazine articles, customers lose faith that the company "has their sh*t together".

We don't want soap opera drama, we want worthwhile content.

The current atmosphere does nothing but deter me from further financial investment in the game.

As such, until they figure out a clear direction,
a Spanish American War gunboat diplomacy era of Campaigns and ships leading up to WW1 isn't going to happen,
even if there is a ton of material to work with from naval archives (but that would involve paying more personnel to do genuine research, and work like that cuts into quarterly profit margins).

I'd be all for it, though.
But I just don't think the company has enough "A Game" maturity or mentality anymore to pull it off.