NWS Rule the Waves

[sandman2575]

I've never tried any of the NWS games but the glowing reports for Rule the Waves really have me tempted.

I've been watching these YouTube vids to get a sense of gameplay --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0mCiWhVClM

Have to say, the "Normal" time setting (1 min = 1 sec. game time?) during the sea battles seems really fast to me. Ships look like they're chasing eachother around like a bunch of ants. But looks like there are slower settings available, thankfully.

There are not too many games that make me think, "Man, if only this had the visual flair of WitP" ... The soulless Windows XP interface is a bummer here.

[DennisS]

Baloogan does a nice job with this series. Even better are his other series on modern naval combat....the guy is smart, and makes it look so easy!

[tgb]

Having had an opportunity to finally spend some time with the game this evening, it's a little disappointing that AI-controlled nations don't war with each other or interact with each other in any way.  Playing as Russia I'd love to see Germany and Japan go to war, and have to make a choice to loan ships to one or the other (or neither) of them.

[Boggit]

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

Jump in! I had a couple of games playing the French - all was going well - or so I thought until the Italians declared war, then the Japanese... You can only be in so many places at one time!

[panzerde]

After playing for about 20 hours or so this weekend, here's my spin on what this is and isn't.

RTW definitely is not a geopolitical and naval warfare simulation of the first quarter of the 20th Century. While there are other nations in the game, these nations take little or no account of each other in game play. They don't go to war with each other, and it doesn't look like they make treaties with each other, exchange technology, or even consider each other's ship designs or fleet deployments. There is not much of a world being simulated here. WWI is never going to happen in this world. Also, no one ever invents the airplane.

RTW is a ship/fleet design and operations sandbox for early 20th Century naval warfare. It allows you to design individual ship classes and your overall fleet mix, and throws up various random events based on the politics of the period and a research system to make that process more interesting than just "I'll build a bunch of super ships and crash them together!" The other nations in the game are there more to provide you with a choice of potential sandbox opponents with different ship/fleet design approaches than to actually simulate the geopolitical situation of the period. It's pretty easy to make choices in the events system that determine who you'll end up going to war with and when you'll fight. The game really revolves around and is driven by your choices. I don't see that there's a lot of AI going on in the background. There might be some, but we're not talking about a 4X kind of AI here.

It is an excellent naval warfare sandbox for the period. I find it really enjoyable and pretty easy to play, niggling UI issues notwithstanding. But it is what it is, and most definitely not what it isn't, if you get my meaning. If you are the sort of person that likes to play with the parameters of battleship and cruiser design and then match your creations against an AI's generated ships, this game is a blast. If you want to get some sense of what fleet command must have been like during the era, this provides some sense of that. I you're looking for a game that provides a historical simulation of early 20th C naval warfare, this doesn't really scratch that itch completely. If you want either an immersive tactical naval simulation or Pride of Nations with lots of naval stuff and short turns, this ain't it.

If you have a lot of interest in the period and how the rapid technological changes of the period influenced ship/fleet development and to some extent foreign policy, you'll love this. If your interest is more in period fleet battles and historical campaigns, you will probably find the original Steam and Iron and Russo-Japanese War games more to your liking.

Again, I'm really enjoying it, and am glad I bought it. YMMV.

[Sir Slash]

I agree. It's not a Total War type game. There aren't dozens of minor powers battling each other while you watch and so it is kind of "Light". When you don't have a lot to do, the turns go by pretty quickly with only some decision type events to make. But the AI is very good at what it does and the different nations play very differently. In this game, the decisions you make will effect how the game plays out for years afterward, good or bad. And the only real way to lose is to have your prestige drop to where your fired as Sea Lord/ Grand Admiral. Everything else, even losing wars, can be survived.

[sandman2575]

Excellent analysis, Panzerde.  Very helpful.  (And probably saves me some $$, which is always helpful  :))

[republic]

I would pay good money if they'd make it multiplayer.  PBEM, have the battles be AI only...that'd be fun.  I'd love to see my designs pitted against another.

Watching my designs go against the AI is some of the most fun I've had in gaming in many years.  I also like how the game rules prevent you from being more advanced than the era.  I thought I'd 'dreadnought up' before I had the tech, so I made a battlecruiser with fore and aft 12 inch guns and then 8 11inch guns in 2 gun turrets as my 'secondary armament'.  However I suffered a painful lesson as 11 inch guns self directed aren't very effective.  :)

Thankfully on refitting you can change secondary armament, so my massive investment wasn't quite wasted.

[Sir Slash]

I began Italy with a good fleet but no CL's. So I designed a class, the Marsala's, and ordered 2. That busted my budget as I already had a CA on order. So, what to do?

I went with the CL's and they arrived just in time for war with Austria where they did splendid work as scouts and merchant-killers in every fight afterward. Now I feel like a genius.

[tgb]

You know you can temporarily halt production on ships if you are in the red, right?

[Sir Slash]

Yeah. That's what I do most often- just put a hold on them until the budget's back in the black. I try to keep my tech up a bit(10%) and train frequently but it costs so damn much.

[bobarossa]

Yeah. That's what I do most often- just put a hold on them until the budget's back in the black. I try to keep my tech up a bit(10%) and train frequently but it costs so damn much.

I think I read on their forums that the effects of training only last until you stop training.  So you have to start training the year before you plan to go to war. 

[Sir Slash]

You can train in Gunnery, Night Fighting, and Torpedo Warfare but only one at a time and the training is continuous for 10 months at a time. It also increases Maintenance costs greatly for your ships but increases crew efficiency. But my Gunnery Trained crews still can't hit the ground with their hats if you give them 3 tries.

[bobarossa]

You can train in Gunnery, Night Fighting, and Torpedo Warfare but only one at a time and the training is continuous for 10 months at a time. It also increases Maintenance costs greatly for your ships but increases crew efficiency. But my Gunnery Trained crews still can't hit the ground with their hats if you give them 3 tries.

During a battle, right click on the offending ship and click the "Details" button for Accuracy to see what's affecting it.  Also, it takes a year before training takes affect (but you're paying for it the whole time!). 

[MinmatarCitizen]

On a related note, what are the other NWS  games like? Are they of the same quality as this? Do they allow the same level of customization as this too?