Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts

[jztemple2]

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts (Steam link) is now available in Steam Early Release. I've been playing this since early in 2020, obtaining it directly from the publisher, and it's been a lot of fun. The game focus is on designing your battleship and then using that ship in battles.

Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts aims to be the first game of its kind - a true naval warfare game - which offers a unique opportunity to design and build countless variations of realistic looking warships combined with an extremely in-depth and realistic combat model. We are absolutely excited with what we are making and we hope everyone who is interested about the dreadnought era and naval warfare, will join our ambitious project and support us.

This is the interface for ship design. It looks complex but when you have used it for awhile it flows pretty well. Basically like most designing activities, things are a compromise. Do you want more speed? Bigger engines mean less weight available for armor. Want bigger guns? You'll have less of them and they will shoot at a slower rate. Need better secondary guns for use against destroyers and torpedo boats? You'll need to free up some valuable deck space. It's all a compromise. A fun compromise


Fighting a battle at sea:


There is now also a rudimentary campaign which will be fleshed out as the game develops in Early Access:

[dbt1949]

I've watch a couple of videos on this. Can't figure out if I like it or not.

[jztemple2]

I've watch a couple of videos on this. Can't figure out if I like it or not.

It is not a casual game. I'm seeing some early reviews on Steam from folks blasting it who have put in less than two hours. It takes time just to learn the menus for the design part of the game. The combat part of the game is also complex, not so much in the mechanics, rather in how to play the game. I have a great deal of background regarding naval combat in the era covered by the game and it took me several hours of playing around with the game to get a real handle on it. For instance, if you don't understand the advantages and disadvantages of face hardened armor, you might not be able to decide which would be a better choice for your dreadnought. But nothing stops you from going to the internet and learning about these things.

This isn't to say that it's a bad game, it's not, it is pretty good. But you can't fire it up and expect to be winning battles on your first try. It's just as if you picked up X-Plane, tinkered with the aircraft designer and then complained because your first plane crashed on take-off.

I'd recommend the game for folks who have a great interest in the subject matter, as it really does a nice job illustrating what you read in the history books. For instance, want to see the impact of going from coal fired to oil fired boilers? Do it in the game. Wing turrets versus centerline turrets? Build your dreadnought, trying it each way, then do a couple of battles.

I'd also recommend the game for folks who like to design and build complex entities. If you love games where you got to design a super-detailed space ship, then UA:D might give you the same satisfaction. You might be doing a lot of research, but it might be fun

I really hope the developers release a demo. I think if folks could just download and "push the pieces around" they might have a better understanding.

[Madmarcus]

It looks good enough to wishlist but I'm going to need a good strategic campaign before I pull the trigger.

[jztemple2]

It looks good enough to wishlist but I'm going to need a good strategic campaign before I pull the trigger.

There is a very rudimentary strategic campaign right now but it is really a rather limited trial horse, so it will probably be a number of months before the campaign system is ready for prime time. Also there isn't really a tutorial on how to design ships or fight battles, just a number of help topics. While no doubt there are some videos out there that will be of help, I'm not an advocate of forcing buyers to rely on sitting through third party videos rather than providing good in-game support.

[Madmarcus]

Rule the Waves has slightly spoiled me. It doesn't have a great campaign but I like the idea of a more fluid situation instead of what looks like a more historical GB versus Germany set up in UA. Perhaps there are enough interesting decisions but much like the US Civil War I feel that the naval arms race and WW1 was more or less a forgone conclusion based on economic might and I'm feeling burned out on that dynamic.

[dbt1949]

I have Rule the Waves but never got into it. I must give it another try.

[jztemple2]

I finally got my Steam key, so I can upload more screenshots. Now, more dreadnought porn :. Actually these are pre-dreadnoughts...

[jztemple2]

Patch 1.01 Released!

We are very happy to announce the next large update of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts! We provide a wide range of new ships for the French fleet of the pre-dreadnought era, a significant AI enhance for the battle and campaign, a new Naval Academy mission, and a large collection of new features, improvements, fixes, things you requested many times, and we tried to offer as many as possible for this update. Please read in detail what you can find in the new patch.

Full patch notes in the article.

This is something I have been looking forward to...

Design AI opponent ships in Custom Battles: You can now design the ships of your opponents by switching the view between “You/Enemy” in the Ship Design phase. As a result, you can now create your own battles with much more freedom.

[Jaddison]

When constructing ships does seaworthiness come into play? Do you have to worry about things like center of buoyancy, center of gravity?

[jztemple2]

When constructing ships does seaworthiness come into play? Do you have to worry about things like center of buoyancy, center of gravity?

Yes. In the screenshot below you'll see near the center the annotation "Fore Weight Offset 7.8%". As you add more components that offset will change and perhaps move to an aft offset. The more offset, the worse the ship is as a gun platform; you get a negative modifier to accuracy. There are also port/starboard offsets possible as well. Also compartmentalization, bulkheads, hull form and the like get incorporated into the calculations of the ability to handle damage, speed, maneuverability, and probably other aspects I'm not aware of.


The game focuses on the tactical aspect of naval warfare with an abstracted strategic campaign which is (right now at least) just pretty much a scenario generator. So strategic seaworthiness currently isn't really addressed right now, but I expect that later in development we might see something like that.

And of course anytime folks here want to talk about GZ curves and metacentric heights I'm always up for that

[jztemple2]

It's been a while since I've posted, but the game devs have continued adding on the game, now updated to version 1.05. There are many new hulls, lots of new options on ammo, new AI tweaks and just a lot of stuff.

A variant of the Von Der Tann Battlecruiser in various camera angles.




Lots of news on the campaign game as well:

• Map Expansion: Expanded the map to include the Mediterranean Sea and a larger portion of Europe.
• New Nations: Italy, France and Austria-Hungary are added to the major nations. The nations form two rival alliances and fight with each other for total victory (this is a temporary functionality until we offer the prolonged campaign system).
• Task Forces: Previously you were able to move ships only between ports. You can now also form Task Forces, by grouping ships and sending them to any sea point on the map. In this way you block strategic passages and generate missions according to the ships in the vicinity.
• Refit Mode: Now you can refit your ships, from changing a few components to radically replacing weapons, funnels, towers with modern variations. This new and essential feature will allow you to utilize all the latest technology advancements for your current ships without the need to scrap them and build new ones.
• New Sea Roles: New sea roles added to the previous “In Being” and “Sea Control”, special for the Task Forces, offer more options for controlling strategically your ships.
• Interface improvements: There is a new tab “Politics” where you will later manage some diplomacy aspects. Now you are able to overview the relations and power of all nations. Additionally we added an “ Economy Growth” to the GDP which will be dependent later from various conditions. You will be warned when you want to end the turn with danger of going bankrupt. When you hover at a sea region a tooltip shows statistical information for the included fleets. Many other minor changes to support the new functionalities.
• Balances: Maintenance cost is balanced so that it is not so high now that ships will spend more time at sea with all the various and expensive sea roles. Tech research is balanced to be overall faster and tech priorities will give a more distinctive advantage when chosen. Various other balances were made to support the new campaign expansion

And so on and so forth... just a huge number of changes.

[Daehawk]

Man that looks pretty. I can remember in the 90s wanting Task Force 1942. I never did get a ship game like that.

[jztemple2]

Because I just love posting about games that literally no one on the forum has ever and probably will never play , I bring you news of a major update the game, Major Update v1.06.

First, significant changes to the campaign game. The details are in the spoiler tags.

In this update you get an expanded campaign version which makes it possible to start at peace, and progressively become prepared for the next inevitable wars between the major nations. A simple diplomacy system allows you to build your relations with other nations and form alliances. Winning a war may provide ships and provinces as war reparations that will make your nation stronger for the future.

Spoiler:

CONTINUOUS CAMPAIGN
The campaign can now be started at the selected year with no immediate wars happening and will continue until 1950 or until one of the following circumstances are satisfied:
• Low naval prestige: Player is replaced by the current government.
• Revolution and naval prestige is not high: Player is replaced by the new government.
• Total Nation Defeat: 50% or more of the Home Provinces are lost.
• Total Domination: All non-allied enemies have been destroyed (temporary feature, until we add more nations and mechanics

The AI players will also lose with the same rules and their nations can be obliterated from the map if the home provinces are conquered by another nation.

During peacetime, the following new mechanics are introduced:
• Random events: Events in which you must take a decision that will affect relations with other nations and other aspects of gameplay. This is a work in progress functionality that will expand further.
• Tension: Tension will be produced mainly between nations with bad relations that have a stronger fleet than necessary in common waters. Tension affects bilateral relations and can slowly bring nations to war.
• Alliances: If two nations have good relations up to +99, then special events can trigger alliance agreements. Nations in an alliance fight their enemies together as it happens in the update v1.05.
• War: If two nations have bad relations up to -99 then special events can trigger a war between them. Other nations will immediately pick a side according to what were their previous relations and modify relations accordingly. This large modification of relations can immediately trigger new alliances and force other nations to enter the war.
• Negotiations for Peace: When eventually a peace agreement is signed and war reparations are shared for the victors, money, ships and provinces are transferred accordingly to the nations (previously the game just ended). While there is no land conquering mechanic yet, the province exchange via war reparations will be somewhat exaggerated.
• Economic Cycles: During prolonged wars the GDP will suffer greatly and the economic growth accordingly. After the war it will need much time to recover financially, especially if you were defeated and lost provinces.

Next, the major new features added to the ship design functions. Again, I'll put the details in spoiler tags.

Spoiler:

MAJOR NEW FEATURES
A detailed Citadel functionality, new gun mechanics and Dud Torpedoes enrich the realism factors of the game.

• New detailed Citadel:
The damage model becomes upgraded with a far more detailed armoring system. The way you layout out your guns and funnels will affect the length of the citadel (the armored box covered by the main belt and deck) and you will be able to view it in the ship preview during the design process.

So it will be now fully realistic to create Nelson type ships which save weight due to the shortening of the armored citadel. Moreover, the hull weight and strength in each section will be dependent from the way you choose to layout your main guns as well as the center of its mass. For example, the sections in the middle will be significantly stronger and more resistant against damage than the lighter sections at the edges of the ship. Finally, you will be able to add an extra multi-layered armor in the citadel and choose independently its values according to the components enabled "All or Nothing", "Turtleback" etc.

Furthermore, the new calculations for the hull will affect everything about the ship stability and weight allocations. For example, you can enlarge the citadel to reduce the pitch/roll, because by adding weight in the central parts of the ship will significantly increase its stability (Currently this effect is not so strong, because all sections were weighted equally, so adding big guns on the ship would always increase pitch/roll with no way to reduce other than bringing guns closer to the center).

• Engine Room sections become detailed:
Following the new detailed citadel, the engine room is now automatically configured in size and position according to the placement of funnels. The sections where engines are added, affect ship stability and when they are damaged during battle the corresponding engines may become damaged and affect the ship speed accordingly (In a next update you will be able to choose how many engine shafts your ship may support, from 2 to 5. Now the engine shafts are by default from 2 to 3).

• New Special Gun Calibers:
A new design panel will allow you to edit the diameter and length of the gun barrels which will affect the gun statistics and their actual size on the ship. So, for example, you will be able to have calibers such as 13.5 inch for your guns before you research the next bigger 14 inch caliber. The variations of designs now will become extremely enriched, as each ship will look different also on the gun scales.

The different guns on diameter and length-caliber will also vary according to the 3D model used for them. Guns of different nations that are large or have a shorter barrel than others of the same caliber and technology, will not be identical as now, but will have different stats accordingly.

• Dud Torpedoes:
Torpedoes will not be as successful as now but will detonate and damage ships according to their angle of impact and their technology. You may have torpedoes to not explode on impact or explode prematurely with new visual effects. Torpedoes can also deviate from course (extremely rarely in more than 90 degrees).

But wait, there's more!

3x NEW HULLS
• “French Experimental Battleship” available from 1899 to 1916 with a displacement between 17,700 and 22.500 tons. This hull can recreate the Danton-class Battleship.
• “French Experimental Dreadnought” available from 1905 to 1916 with a displacement between 19,750 and 24.500 tons.
• “French Large Armored Cruiser” available from 1914 to 1921 with a displacement between 14,800 and 16.500 tons

NEW GUNS
• New late tech 8-inch and 9-inch guns for Japan.
• New late tech 2-inch and 3-inch guns for the USA, Britain, Spain, China.
• New generic Mark 3 Torpedo Tubes for all nations.
• New Mark 1 French Guns from 9-inch to 16-inch caliber, replacing some older variants where applicable.
• New Mark 2/Mark 3 French Guns from 6-inch to 16-inch caliber.

And finally, there are other improvements:

Spoiler:

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

Improved ship motion at sea: Pitch/Roll and overall ship movement characteristics are updated to support the new hull weight adjustments. Ships will interact with waves more realistically, as a result.
Improved shell ballistics & mechanics: Following the new gun mechanics, the aiming/targeting/shell dispersion will be improved and will have extensive variability according to the virtually countless combinations of the different gun settings. When guns fully aim they will characteristically speed up their firing rate to destroy the target quicker.
Over penetration mechanics improvement: Overpenetration will now be depended further from the angle of impact, increasing the chance of striking full penetrations when firing through the bow of a ship. Moreover, overpenetration damage will be dependent greatly from the angle of the ship, significantly damaging the hull if a shell passes through the bow and along the length of the ship.
Torpedo tubes create special detonations: When Torpedo Tubes become hit and destroyed they can cause a special detonation, simulating the damage caused by the destroyed torpedoes (which are removed from ammo).
New Ship Components: “Advanced Electrical Turrets”, “Advanced Electro-Hydraulic Turrets”, and “Advanced Gun Reload System” are now included in the available list of ship components.
Many Ship weight/cost balances: Following up the new Citadel and Gun mechanics, the weight and cost of ship assets have been adjusted accordingly.
New weapon stats visible in the UI: In weapon stats you can now review the weapon’s rotation speed in deg/sec and what is the exact weight of ammo per turret.
Colored weapon availability: During battle, by hovering the mouse on a weapon type all the respective weapons become highlighted and colored according to their status. “Green” is fully operational, “Yellow” is seriously damaged, “Red” is destroyed or out of ammo. Previously you could just view the weapons highlighted yellow with no information if they were working or not.
All guns of the same caliber become grouped: Guns on the centerline, or side, or with different barrels will aim together in one fire control group, increasing their efficiency.. However, accuracy and reload penalties will apply when guns are not fully uniform (different calibers, barrels, not placed on the centerline etc.)
Conning Tower and Fire Control become damaged with a more accurate system: Damage caused to the Main Tower will properly utilize the armor of the Conning Tower and the Superstructure to protect the Conning Tower and Fire Control.
Further Auto-Design improvements: AI will design ships even better following the logic of the new mechanics for Citadel and Guns.
Further Battle AI improvements: Battle AI will operate overall in a more effective way vs the player.
Further Division logic improvements: There should be less errors in division auto-management.
Fixed Window Mode: You can now safely Alt+Tab or play in “Window Mode” and the game will continue to play, it will not be paused.
Beam/Draught Custom Edit: You can now type the needed values for Beam/Draught.
Crew can surrender sooner: Crew will now surrender at 45% casualties instead at 70%. When a ship has received so many casualties, the ship usually is at a very bad state to continue the fight in a realistic manner. As a compensation, the minimum crew to man ships in the campaign is 70% instead of the previous 50% (which would make a ship too bad in performance to send to sea).

Torpedoes became realistically unreliable, deviating from course, exploding prematurely or not detonating on impact

[Hipolito]

Because I just love posting about games that literally no one on the forum has ever and probably will never play :D

I'm glad you do and wish more people would! Maybe you could do an AAR, those tend to build more interest in a game. And we haven't had one in so long.

[jztemple2]

Because I just love posting about games that literally no one on the forum has ever and probably will never play

I'm glad you do and wish more people would! Maybe you could do an AAR, those tend to build more interest in a game. And we haven't had one in so long.

Well, since you asked so nicely , I'll post an example of a simple battleship versus battleship match-up. I'm not really ready to do a run-through of the campaign, it's still very much in work and I really enjoy designing the ships and letting them shoot it out

So, to keep things less complicated I'll use the earliest starting date of 1890 and select one Italian battleship to face off against a Spanish one. I'll be using bigimg tags to keep things from bogging down, but you should definitely check out the full sized images as we go along.


First of all, we have to design our ship. This is the essence of the game, the ability to tinker and play around with almost every aspect of the ship design. We do have to start off with a given hull, but if desired different hull layouts are available. Looking at the top center of the screen, we see "Weight 7,911/13,950 (57%)". In simple custom battles, a ship's design is only limited by weight, not by cost. However, when the AI designs its ship(s), it can spend as much as I do. But weight limits me from creating an uber-ship.


So it's time to add components. Although it's not a requirement, I prefer to add components in the order shown on the bottom of the screen, IE Main tower, Secondary tower, etc. There are five different front towers to select from, of increasing cost and capability. I'll still with Front Tower I, the simplest one. The second image below illustrates the modifiers that specific tower has to effect the ship.



Now I'll add the Secondary tower, also known as the rear tower.


Now we add the funnels. As the box on the right says, more or better funnels increase efficiency and boost performance. Also multiple funnels allows the ship to absorb more damage without losing as much speed.

[jztemple2]

I've started a new post since it's time to add the ordnance. We will skip over barbettes since the ship is too short to have "superfiring" turrets, that is turrets that fire over the top of the turret in front or behind them. I'll go with two turrets, each with two 12 inch guns.


On this ship the length and beam aren't enough to allow for secondary guns, especially with our honking big 12" main gun turrets. So we'll go to the casemate guns. These are guns that aren't in their own turrets or external mounts, but are instead mounted within the side armor of the ship. In the second image I've zoomed in so you can see the 6" guns poking out from the armor.



I've also mounted seven four inch guns in the casemates along the center side armor. In real life these guns would be used to fight off enemy torpedo boats (in 1890 there were no destroyers yet) and the pesky light cruisers that would be used for scouting by the enemy. Although the enemy I'm facing will be only a battleship with no small ships, it doesn't hurt to throw some extra weight of metal against them.


Finally two pairs of underwater torpedo tubes that fire out to the sides.


I've played around with the funnels to get better engine efficiency and also bumped up the speed. I could make a lot of other tweaks but we'll save those for another AAR. Now off to battle!

[jztemple2]

Battle has started! I purposely chose a starting range close enough so I didn't have to wait while my ship closed to gun range. This would be as if visibility was poor or the sun had just risen. As you can see, my ship has just opened fire against an enemy at nine kilometer's range. There is a lot of information on the screen but most of it is just geek stuff and can be ignored.


Battleship porn



My Spanish opponent. If you look at the top center-right of the screen you can see two of my 12" shells approaching him


More porn. Another pair of 12" shells just fired from my ship.



And they land just short of my target

[dbt1949]

They do have wonderful graphics in that game.

[jztemple2]

My opponent, which I can now identify since I've been able to get close enough for long enough to study her. She mounts six different calibers of guns, including four 12.6" main guns.


I've now taken two hits, as you can see by looking at the report on the left side, just below center. A 4.2" shell made a partial penetration and caused some slight damage while a 12.6" shell makes an over-penetration and causes a lot of damage. You can also get a graphic impression of the damage on the ship's model on the top right, there are now compartments with yellow and red damage.


The Spanish BB has also taken a hit. You can see it on the report on the left, on the ship model to the upper right, and also actually on the ship itself, a fire is burning on the starboard bow. Fires and flooding will be responded to by fire control parties, as will other damage.


As you can see here on my ship, I've had a brief fire on my starboard side about where the bridge is located. There was no permanent damage.


Meanwhile the Spanish battleship has also taken a significant hit on her bow, causing another fire to break out. The previous fire has been extinguished.

[jztemple2]

The fire on the Spanish ship has gotten worse. If unchecked it could put the forward turret out of action or even set fire to a magazine.


The Concepcion continues to burn, while one of my 12" shells zooms past


This is interesting. The Spanish ship is pointed almost directly at me. She is no doubt trying to get closer so she can use her smaller caliber guns more effectively. However, as can be seen, her aft 12.6" turret is masked by her superstructure. Just one of the myriad of decisions that take place during a battle.


Here is also something interesting. By looking at the data of the Concepcion, something I couldn't do in real life, I notice on the right side in the center, where there is a table of all her different guns, all the guns are showing "Aimed" status except for her big 12.6" guns. So maybe that's why she's trying to close the range. In real life my officers on my ship would probably have noticed that no large shells had been coming our way for awhile. So I will try to open the range (head away from her) to put her at a disadvantage since I use my big guns and she apparently can't use hers.


Uh-oh, my rudder is damaged (red wheel symbol) so it might be safer just to keep heading straight.

[jztemple2]

The Concepcion now has the use of her 12.6" guns again. So she's no longer trying to close the range but instead is trying to face broadside to me so she can use all her guns.


My BB Columbo has a number of fires onboard. Look at how that armor has curled up just below the bridge.


This looks like it's going to hurt!



My ship now has some minor flooding, see at the base of the bow on the ship model, the blue.


Even the lifeboats are on fire.

[jztemple2]

Shell splashes around the Spanish ship.


Concepcion is being riddled, but most of the damage is minor. She has suffered engine damage and is down to half speed.


Colombo, my ship, is starting to suffer serious damage. Since Concepcion is down to about seven knots speed, I think it is time I withdraw.


Again, something I wouldn't know about in real life, but using the data interface for Concepcion I can see that she is starting to run low on 12.6" armor piercing shells. Still, my Colombo is in bad enough shape that it isn't worth the risk.


So my ship moved out of range of the enemy and I live to fight another day, maybe with a different fleet... but that's for another AAR

[TheMix]

Did you not have AP ammo? Is that why the Spanish ship seemed to do way more damage?

[jztemple2]

Did you not have AP ammo? Is that why the Spanish ship seemed to do way more damage?

Both ships had AP ammo. There's always some randomness in battles, but the Spanish ship did have slightly larger main guns and probably more importantly had more secondary guns.

[dbt1949]

How much damage can secondary guns have on a battleship?

[jztemple2]

How much damage can secondary guns have on a battleship?

Quite a lot of a battleship is outside of what is called the citadel, the heavily armored portion of the ship. Funnels for instance, as well as rangefinders and observation platforms for spotting fall of shot and torpedoes trails. The waterline of the ship is mostly protected with armor, but usually not right near the bow and stern. Also hits by high explosive shells can rupture fluid and electrical lines by shock effect as well as starting fires.

Part of the appeal of this game is that very extensive design interface which allows the player to actually set not only armor thickness but locations and even the type of armor. And since the game covers from 1890 to 1950 there is a lot of technological advances involved. I have an interest in the Victorian era ships so that's why I tend to focus on those ships, but maybe in the next AAR I'll do a small fleet battle with some WW2 ships.

[Hipolito]

Good AAR! It was a fun read that helped me understand the game better. And I thought you were doing to win that battle!

[jztemple2]

Since I got applause for that AAR, let's post another one!

This time I'll have a squadron of four Austro-Hungarian destroyers facing off against four Italian destroyers. It's 1905, or fifteen years after our previous match-up.


This time also I've allowed the game to auto-design my primary ship rather than me designing it. The game would automatically add three more appropriate ships to my squadron. As you can see, we are cruising along, looking for trouble.


These next three images show off the guns of my DD Reka. By mousing over the 5.5" gun symbol on the table to the right, the guns themselves on the ship are highlighted in green. Oddly, the front 5.5" has a nice position with a good angle, but the one behind it is mounted low and so can only fire out on the beams.


Now a look at the 1.9" guns. Two amidships firing out on their respective beams and one on the stern which can fire in an arc of more than 180 degrees.


Finally a look at the torpedo launching tubes. Two sets of twin tubes that can fire on either beam.


The other three destroyers are armed the same. Speaking of those three, they are in a line ahead formation following my ship, the four ships forming what the game calls a division. Basically the player controls the flagship of the division and the other three ships are controlled by the AI, using settings I can adjust, like keeping the formation loose or tightening it up, or switching to a line abreast formation.

[jztemple2]

The enemy has been spotted to the north so I turn my flagship that way, the other three following.


Here's a little something. I've moved the camera away from my flagship towards the enemy and in this image you can see the arcs of two green circles. The closer one shows the maximum range (4.0 km) of my 1.9" guns, the farther away circle shows the 5.1 km max range of my torpedoes. There is also a green circle at 8.2 km for the 5.5" guns.


In this image you see that my ship has come across an enemy ship. The range as can be seen is only 2.9km. How did the enemy get so close? I was running the game at a 10X speed to get ships closer and I overshot . Anyway, we can get down to shooting sooner!


I've ordered my formation to tighten up and ordered a turn to starboard to allow all my guns on my port side to shoot. The other three ships in my division will follow in my wake.

[jztemple2]

The other ships in my division are getting close enough to shoot as well. The AI that controls them will automatically select the closest target, but I can override that decision if I want their fire directed at other ships.


I see that the enemy is making smoke to mask their approach. I could do the same thing but I'd rather that my ships be able to fire more accurately.


Since it's my game and I'm playing solo, I can "cheat" and move the camera up close to the enemy ship, which is officially not identified yet. I know it isn't a light cruiser (CL) since I created the scenario . I can see she has three main guns on the centerline as opposed to my two, and two secondary guns. She also had two twin torpedo mounts, just like me.


My ship is now receiving fire from at least two enemy ships. I've ordered my helm hard over to starboard. My intention is to reverse direction so my four ships can concentrate on their leading ship.

[jztemple2]

See that? That's a torpedo. And it's headed in the general direction of my ship. I was warned about this on the screen with an exclamation point in a yellow triangle. When that symbol appears based upon how well my crew is trained, the optical equipment they have to look for torpedoes, the weather and a few other factors. Torpedo launches, like gunnery, are handled automatically in the game. However, for both, you can adjust the AI to be conservative, normal or ambitious as to when they launch or fire.


I've officially identified the lead enemy destroyer, which as noted above is similarly armed as my ships, except for having three main guns rather than my two.


My destroyer is heeling over due to the tight turn.


Pulling back to get a better view. My lead destroyer (me) has made more than a half-circle and so is heading away from the other three enemy ships. Note that the enemy lead ship has turned and is heading towards my last ship in line.


Here's another interesting bit of imagery. DD Reka D-3 is the fourth of my ships (others are named DD Reka, DD Reka D-1, etc). Look at the table on the right side in the middle. You can see the word "Torp" and the symbol indicating torpedo tubes. See how there is a lighter grey colored wedge in the darker grey circle? That means those tubes have fired and are in the process of reloading. If you look down two lines you see what looks like three bullets with an "8" next to it. Originally that number was "12". The ship has fired a full salvo of four torpedoes and is reloading the tubes. And if you look on the left side of the screen, at the top of the reports list is the entry that the enemy ship has detected (my) torpedoes.

[jztemple2]

The first hit of the battle, as shown below. My destroyer has taken a minor hit, as can be seen on the ship model on the top right. It's that green area near the stern (the graphic indication of the ship always has the bow to the right, stern to the left). Additionally you can look at the reports list on the left and see that first entry on the top, "Aft Deck Over-Pen, 8.607 dmg". That means that the enemy shell punched through my ship without exploding, causing only minor damage, 8.607 being pretty minor.

One more thing to notice. Look at that table on the right side, under the 5.5" and 1.9" are the words "Aimed" in each column, and above that "1.1%" and "1%" respectively. That's the accuracy of each shot, the probability of getting a hit.


Meanwhile the enemy ship has also been hit. You can glean the same information I described above. Note that this time there wasn't an over-penetration, but instead a penetration. Which means the shell penetrated the armor and exploded within the protected area, causing significantly more damage.


Here's a close-up of the four torpedoes fired by my ship. Note how three of the tracks are straight, but one has started to curve. That's a new feature in the latest update, torpedoes may go off course, explode prematurely or even be a dud.


Another look at torpedo tracks, with one exploding prematurely.

[jztemple2]

The enemy destroyer, the Borea has taken a hit, a "Main Deck Penetration". The forward 4.2" gun is out of action.


Meanwhile as you can see, the enemy had launched two torpedoes at me. I turned hard to port, trying to parallel the paths of the torpedoes in a tactic called "combing the wakes". Torpedoes are often better at forcing an enemy to change course as hitting a fast moving maneuverable target is pretty unlikely. You can't see it in a still image, but my destroyer is actually faster than those torpedoes.


More torpedo porn. This destroyer has just launched a torpedo which is visible.


An overview of the current state of the battle. The enemy's lead ship has apparently been abandoned by the other three. But I know visibility isn't all that good so they might not be too far away. So it's really important to finish off the one ship I can see.

[jztemple2]

Enemy ship Borea now has flooding. If you look at the shooting accuracy of her guns (the table on the right side, right above the word "Aimed" you'll note her shooting has improved. For the real data geeks, you can look at the display on the left side towards the top under "Shoot Info" which gives the percentage modifiers for a number of things that affect shooting.


There you go, I finally caught that yellow caution symbol on camera, although it was already starting to fade. It's toward the left center of the screen right underneath the red "DD". It means my crew has spotted the enemy launching torpedoes. Time for a hard starboard turn, this time I'll comb the wakes by turning in towards them.


My aft tower has just taken a hit, you can actually see the flash of flame.


Borea is on fire towards the bow.


For some reason the enemy has been shooting at my second ship in line, which is twice as far away as my lead ship. And she's taking damage, two of her three funnels have been seriously damaged.

[jztemple2]

Ah, I see why my second ship is being hit, it is directly in line with the fire the enemy is throwing at my first ship in line. Good info, I need to turn to keep him from getting two birds with one stone.


Uh-oh, this is bad. My lead ship has taken a serious hit and is flooding badly. I need to detach her from the rest of the division and turn away and run.


Crap, my flagship sinks due to heavy flooding!


My sharp eyed crew has spotted another torpedo launch by the enemy.


I'm forced to change my turn from port to starboard to try to avoid the torpedoes. Meanwhile we keep up a steady fire on the lone enemy ship.

[jztemple2]

Trying to avoid the enemy torpedoes, but it looks like I might get hit by the one on the right.


This doesn't look good at all!


Hah! Dud torpedo! (look at the top of the screen, part way to the right).


The enemy is on fire and taking more damage.

[jztemple2]

A spread of four torpedoes is heading for the enemy.


The Borea takes two torpedo hits, one in the stern, one in the bow.



The Borea sinks due to heavy flooding.


I'll end the fight at this point, as each side has lost one ship and one of my other ships has some damage. Anyway it's almost time for bed. Hope folks enjoyed this replay. Next time we'll try something different, any suggestions?

[dbt1949]

Looks fun.

[em2nought]

These pre-dreadnoughts look so awesome. I was hyped for Distant Guns, but then they pooched it with bad copy protection.