A Battleship of size “1” will, all else being equal, be much smaller than a Battleship of size “5” but probably bigger than any “Cruiser”.
As the size factor is adjusted, not only will the tonnage go up or down, but also so will the real meaning of the other characteristics. For example, if you Take the King George V class and simply adjust the size to “1”. You will see that not only has the tonnage significantly dropped but so has the real value of the other factors – gun armament is now 9 * 13 inch instead of 10 * 14 inch; armour is 12.5 inches instead of 15 inches, and so on. Think of size as a scaling factor. You can only get so much out of a pint-pot.
Not surprisingly, the higher the value here, the larger the number of main calibre guns, although again, this is relative. Actual number of guns depends on the interaction of all the characteristics and the ship type.
The higher the value, the larger the main gun calibre. Actual calibre depends on the interaction of all the characteristics and the ship type.
The higher the value, the more powerful is the secondary armament. For battleships and cruisers, this value affects the number of secondary guns, which are very useful against small enemy targets like destroyers, as well as for anti-aircraft defence. For escort ships, this value affects the number of torpedoes or mines or anti-submarine or ant-aircraft weapons (depending on the selected specialty).
How this translates to actual numbers of such weapons depends on the interaction of all the characteristics.
Escort ships are a special case in terms of how the secondary/tertiary armament is determined. See Armour
This value helps determine the thickness of vertical (side) armour over the machinery and magazine spaces and main gun turrets. The actual thickness also depends on ship type and size.
In the game, the side armour is assumed to be uniformly thick and set at a vertical plane. In reality it was much more complicated. The side armour often varied in thickness and was sloped to increase effective thickness. It is also assumed that the horizontal armour – over decks and turret tops – was armoured in a fixed proportion to the side armour; but design practice in real life was again somewhat more varied -between different countries and even between different ship classes in the same country. However, the general rule of thumb that was used in practice still holds, namely that battleships facing enemy gun calibres of "x" inches need the same effective thickness of side armour to be immune from penetration at reasonable battle ranges. Well-armoured cruisers typically had side armour around 2 inches less than their own main gun calibre.
The purpose of armour is to stop shells from exploding in critical parts of the ship and causing critical reductions in fighting ability. For example: penetrating hits over the machinery spaces reduce a ship’s speed; those over a turret or its magazine spaces automatically disable the turret while the magazine explosion can cause massive structural damage; underwater hits cause flooding; all hits contribute to leaking (eg from popped seams) and all water ingress slows the ship and ultimately will sink it if the flooding rate is greater than the pumping ability and the potential loss of buoyancy is greater than the ship’s reserve buoyancy. (Reserve buoyancy depends on ship type and size and “strength” value -see the next item).
Note that when battles are fought, the game engine generally tries to keep battleships and battle cruisers within their own immunity zone against the enemy’s big ships. Manoeuvring to open or close the range to do this reduces your gun-laying accuracy.
All in all, the better your armour the better your odds of scoring hits and the smaller the chance of your being critically damaged. Note that destroyer “armour” is just splinter armour, which is nevertheless useful because it adds to overall strength (see “Strength” below).
This value helps determine the general structural strength of the ship, covering such things as the general thickness of steel used, the strength of construction, the degree of hull compartmentalisation, the thickness of armour (if any) to exposed ‘soft’ areas such as gun director systems, secondary guns and so on. It also determines the capability of your back-up damage control systems.
So for a given size and type of ship, a higher strength value will:
- Increase general structural strength.
- Increase reserve buoyancy.
- Reduce the rate of loss of damage control ability, including pumping systems that keep the ship afloat.
- Reduce the rate of loss of fire control ability.
- Reduce the rate of loss of secondary armament.
- All in all, keep the ship fighting more effectively for longer and keep it afloat longer.
Submarines will have stronger hulls and be able to dive to deeper depths when evading enemy depth charge attacks. The actual strength depends on the interaction of all the characteristics and the ship type.
Submarines will have stronger hulls and be able to dive to deeper depths when evading enemy depth charge attacks. The actual strength depends on the interaction of all the characteristics and the ship type.
Note that these maximum speeds are in fair weather, undamaged. Maximum speeds are relevant mainly to tactical situations, i.e. during battles. But they are also relevant to cruising speeds because a ship cannot cruise faster than 3 knots less than its maximum speed. So a 24 knot ship can cruise at 18 knots but not at 24 knots.
This helps determine the range in nautical miles at the four possible varying cruising speeds (6, 12, 18 and 24 knots). Ship type and size and to a lesser extent the other factors also affect how much fuel the ship can carry and hence its range.
Technology in the form of machinery efficiency also significantly affects the range by making the ships more or less efficient as steamers. (US and French ships were very good steamers; British ships were poor steamers. See machinery technology for more details).
Remember that range means not just distance bit also time at sea. Your ships may be stationed close to home, on patrol, but to keep them there for as long as possible means they must have sufficient endurance. Bear in mind that some British, French and German and most Italian ships had low endurance and would struggle in theatres much bigger than the Mediterranean. Remember this in case you want to modify them!
Escort ships have an extra characteristic, which determines the kind of role they are meant to perform.
When you select “Escort” as the ship type, you will see a new set of tick boxes:
