NWS Rule the Waves

[Double Deuce]

I started a quick game a Spain, historical (small or medium force/budget I think). Boy that was a mistake. I was getting pounded by the French 1st and then Italians. All the while watching the US tension level go up. I just know they're gonna make a grab for my possessions in the Pacific and all I have is a few obsolete Destroyers strained enough already, just trying to keep the locals under control.   

[simcityrefund]

any tips on making  pre great war heacy cruisers?  as well as playing Csa i managed to win war on france by unrestricting sub warfare in 1906 wiouth any ship battles using only coastal submarine lol

[Grim.Reaper]

Any early impressions, especially from those who felt naval warfare wasn't your strength or were concerned of the complexity?  I am in that boat so would love to hear how people are doing with it....really like all the positive reviews so far and becoming harder to resist....but the last thing I need right now is more shelfware.

[Sir Slash]

I loved SAI and the campaign add-on but it was not always a lot of fun because you could never had enough OP's(Operation Points) to send out a large force and there was only rarely a fleet battle as the AI had the same problem. This game solves that by generating battles based on the opposing forces assigned to contested areas so there's lots more fighting and it's unpredictable what forces will be present. The AI won't just charge at you but will avoid a fight if it's outnumbered and even small navies are a challenge, raiding your shipping lanes and attacking convoys. Fleet management and Ship Design aren't too tough and there's no Supply Lines to maintain or convoys to route. One thing some may not like is the only powers in the game are the playable ones. So the Ottomans or Danes or other little powers aren't represented unless abstractly which I haven't seen. Also, your nation is the only one ever at war. The other powers don't fight each other, directly anyway. So it's kind of you against the game so to speak. But there's nothing like designing a ship, leading it into battle and watching it out-class the enemy's best.

[simcityrefund]

anyone having ha hard time to do a major battle? I always get  convoy missions and raider missions I wanna do a major battle how do I force a major battle. One save 1910 I made around 100 coastal submarines as csa and about 5 new medium subs  Germany declared war I won by using unrestricted submarine warfare

[Sir Slash]

After you pile up a healthy VP lead in the small battles, the AI will sometimes come out to try a Fleet Battle Show-Down. There maybe some kind of national behavior thing going on too because as Italy vs Austria, the Austrians came out right away but as Japan vs Russia, the Bear would only stay in his den. I hope there's some kind of logic the Game uses to pick the battles and not just random fights thrown at you but I'm not for sure.

[panzerde]

Caved and ordered. Looking forward to getting started!

Update: Received serial number in under an hour. Every time I've purchased from NWS I've been really happy with their responsiveness as well as the quality of the games.

[MinmatarCitizen]

In my Italy game I had major fleet actions with AH every few months. So you can get major actions. I think it revolves around the balance of forces in the area and how important the area is to one of the factions. If your fleet is in an area that can lead to a blockade then the enemy will seek a battle with you.

[panzerde]

Really enjoying this. I played for hours and hours yesterday, to the exclusion of everything else I might have played, which says a lot. I even stayed up fairly late (for me) playing. It's been a looooong time since I felt that "just one more turn" vibe and this has it for me. Even if I am losing to the damned French.

The game isn't perfect. I miss getting missions like I get in the SAI and RJW campaigns. The combat interactions aren't as strong as those in the campaign games. The manual could do with some cleaning up and more specificity. There are a couple of bugs. Overall though damned good for a V.1 effort and 1.1 is coming soon, apparently.

Now, back to stoking coal and cruiser fights in the Caribbean!

[Grim.Reaper]

Think I will be making the plunge soon...too much positive feedback not to give it a try.

[Staggerwing]

Is there an aviation component (German Navy zeppelins, sea planes, etc) to the game at all?

[Swatter]

I picked this up too.

My impressions are positive (pretty darn positive actually), but I am frustrated with the period presented. The battles are so darn indecisive, I want sh*t to blow up! I am convinced early 20th century ships were only good at keeping other ships clean with all the misses and fountains of water falling on the ships.

Ship design can be tricky to get a decent design, you are usually weighing speed, firepower, armor, and range. It is probably the most fulfilling aspect of the game where your decisions make difference. There are some other good points of the game, including how it abstracts many things well. The wars outside of the naval realm are abstracted well. The world doesn't go nuts with too many ahistorical happens and the wars are just enough out of your control to keep it interesting.

The biggest negative is the interface and not just because it is based on Windows Forms. My biggest gripe that is easily solved is ship sorting on a couple of screen. You need more options to sort by area AND class. Further sort that by ranking newer ships before older. The more complicated fix would be to better show firing arcs for torpedoes during battles. THE IS ESSENTIAL. I end up taking control of destroyer divisions during key parts of battles and I need to know the torpedo firing arcs at a glance. Overall, the interface needs improvement during battles.

As far as other players wondering when the big showdowns will happen- they will happen. It took 1 1/2 years of war with an opponent of mine to get a big fleet action. Funny thing is that during the middle of the battle, I sent a destroyer division on a torpedo run at the main enemy line and the line just broke up and went the other way. Battle over.

I would love to see the interface improve in certain sections of the game as mentioned, but the developers really need to embrace the future and move onto to Unity or something.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

That's kind of where I'm at as well Swatter.

I enjoy a good naval combat game but for me it's either got to be age of sail stuff or have carriers.  That spot from the late 19th century up until WWII just doesn't do much for me.  You lose the need to worry about wind so you're basically left with battling it out on a 2D plane just hoping for a lucky gunnery hit. 

Oh well, I still bought the game and just got my key this morning.  Off to sail up and down the harbour in a line.  WHEEEE!!!!

[panzerde]

Reading what people like and don't like about the game reminds me of just what a niche game player I am. I'm enjoying the game more from the perspective of it being about naval command during an era of rapid technological innovation than I am for the aspect of micromanaging tactical battles. Note that I'm not suggesting that what I want out of the game is any more valid than what other want, just different!

I tend to play at Admiral difficulty and let the AI manage all of the subordinate divisions. To me the enjoyment comes from planning the fleet deployments and ship designs such that the battles are as much in my favor as possible before the ships put to sea. The measure of this to me is being able to command strictly from the flag bridge and not take command of individual torpedo runs, etc. That's also why I like the look of the game. More of the plotting table look than fancy 3D, which too often gets in the way of understanding the real operational situation.

Having said that, I do agree with some of the UI complaints. Sorting the ship information screens to get useful information is more difficult than it needs to be.

Not that I don't occasionally feel the need for big splashy 3D ship battles. In that case I'll fire up Jutland. If Storm Eagle wasn't such a wreck I'd probably buy their Russo-Japanese War game, too.

I think this is probably one of my favorite periods of naval warfare. There's a lot interesting going on and things are changing, fast.

Of course, I like Command Ops for many of the same reasons I like this game, and I know a lot of people feel like playing that game is just watching the computer play itself.

[Double Deuce]

I posted this over at NWS but figured you guys would enjoy it as well . . . .

So I'm playing as the Russians and beat up on the Japanese early in the game forcing them to give up territory. So far so good. Next, I get all the way to 1907, no other wars, touring the seas and advancing tech pretty quick. $$ is rolling in so I start my master world takeover plan and work up a state of the art new battleship ship design. Since the design is way too big for my docks I put 2 of these gamechanging Battleships order into production in England, (almost no tension between us).

So I'm now at war with Austria-Hungary and banging on them pretty good and really looking forward to my 2 new Battleships being delivered in just 3 months so I can turn them loose. Then out of nowhere the damn British seize them both and all after me having payed close to $100 million already. If it wasn't for the size of the British fleet I'd start a war with them too just out of spite.

Moral of the story, always build at home.