Selecting Historical Ships

First, bring up the build ships screen.

Then to select a historical class of ship to your navy, just two mouse clicks are required:

• Select the type of ship you want to build, from the top left list:
  
  Note that "Battle" means battleship or battlecruiser. "Escort" refers to naval vessels smaller than cruisers, that is ships from the very largest super destroyers approaching cruisers in size through to the very smallest sloops and corvettes (but excluding motor torpedo boats) of just several hundred tonnes.


• When you select the ship type, the adjacent ship class list is populated with the names of historical classes of ship that were available to your country in WW2. In addition, if the game options have been so set, you will see the names of some ships that were planned but never built, like the giant USS Montana class battleships, or even the much larger again H Class battleships planned by Germany. You may also see some "might-have-beens" - like an enlarged French Richlieu class battleship carrying the 16 inch guns actually designed in France but never employed. These "might-have-beens" add some play balance to certain navies to enable them to compete on more equal terms.


• Now select the class of ship from the adjacent ship class list:
  


• To make sure you are happy with your choice, review the ship details. You will see these displayed on the right hand side of the screen:
  

If you are completely happy with the selection, and have enough resources, you are now ready to optionally name the ship, and then to build it.