On His Majesty’s Naval Service – A Rule the Waves AAR

[grumbler]

Rule the Waves is a naval game set in the Great Powers era of 1900-1920 or so.  The game nominally places the player in the role of Navy Secretary/First Lord and really takes place in three arenas:
(1)   Designing the best fighting ships that technology and money allow;
(2)   Managing the fleet and events in monthly turns; and
(3)   Fighting the significant naval battles that result using an operational and tactical level naval simulation.

For the purposes of this AAR, I chose to play the UK (called “Great Britain” in the game) using “large fleets.”  This is not a simulation of the actual period, it is a game set in that period but with significant departures from the historical situation. The most significant departure is that force levels have been rebalanced to allow each of the nations to compete; the UK’s historical crushing superiority is gone.

The game allows play at one of four “fleet sizes:” small, medium, large, and very large.  As can be seen below, these levels are pretty much just fractions of one another, both in starting size and ongoing budget levels.

Very large fleets have an average battleship strength of about 10 (though not distributed evenly, obviously) and naval budgets between GB’s $318 million and Japan’s $129 million. Note that Germany starts out at close to GB’s battleship strength of has a budget only 2/3 that of GB.



Large fleets have an average battleship strength of about 6.5, again, not evenly distributed.  Note that Russia and Italy are relatively much more powerful here.  Budgets are about 2/3 that of the VL fleet scenario.



Medium fleets have an average battleship strength of about 4.5.  Budgets are about 40% that of the VL fleet scenario.



Small fleets are about 30% the size of large fleets, but with about 35% the naval budgets.



The budget numbers are pretty much made up.  The RN budget for 1901 was just a bit under $31 million pounds, which would translate to about US$155 million.  That was for a fleet with about 40 battleships, almost three times the size of the game’s largest, yet the game has a budget twice the size.  OTOH, I know that the Lord Nelsons cost about 1.7 million pounds, roughly equivalent to 5% of the budget of the navy in 1901.  A typical 1900 battleship in the game costs a little under US$50 million or about 16% of the game’s annual budget for the VL fleet RN.   So the ratio (1/3 the strength, 1/3 the effective budget) is pretty close to balance.  I just don’t know why they didn’t use real numbers (i.e. divide everything by 1/3).  So, don’t take any budget numbers in the game except as gamey budget numbers.

One of the options in the game is to build the “legacy fleet” with which one starts the game.  You get a fund of about four years’ worth of budget to build both an existing fleet (must use 80% of the budget for that) and ships under construction (which start 55% already funded and a random level of actual construction between 30 and 55% complete). Since I knew that the fleets in the existing fleets didn’t really account for the colonial service requirement (Britain starts this scenario needing 103,000 tons of warships on foreign stations), I decided to build my own fleets.  Here is the starting screen:



Note the “tension” bars on the right.  These indicate how other countries feel about yours, and vice-versa.  Low tensions mean low probability of war, but also lead to lower budgets.  Tensions at game start are low.

I decide that the first thing I needed was a colonial cruiser.  Ships with the “colonial service” tag count as 1.5 times their tonnage against the foreign station requirement at a cost of about 5% of tonnage and cost.  I design the “Colony class” CLs of 4,000 tons to meet this requirement.  With 6 6” guns, no torpedoes, a 3” belt, and a speed of only 18 knots, they are inferior to any enemy CL they will encounter, but superior to any enemy raider they will encounter.  And, at $13 million apiece to build and $73,000 a year to maintain, they are affordable (my “regular” CLs cost about $17 million to build and $90,000 a year to maintain).



The rest of my fleet consists of fairly conventional Bs, CAs, CLs, DDs, and some minesweepers for patrol and ASW work.











One of the problems with the initial setup is that one can’t build the fleet at once – as one makes decisions, they are final.  I ended up over-buying heavy ships for the home fleet and under-buying destroyers.  Luckily, destroyers build quickly. 

Starting fleet (completed ships)



Note that 21 of the 25 starting CL are of the Colony class.

The ships under construction:



Note that the two battleships are halted for a few months until the lighter ships are completed.  I don’t have the money to work on all the ships at once (I had saved about $3 million to fund construction, but lost it when the initial build phase was ended.  Don’t leave anything in the kitty!)

As far as the starting fleets go, Britain is in a powerful position, with 8 B finished and two building.  The US is in second place with 5 and one.  There is clearly some randomization happening here, because Germany’s fleet and budget are much smaller than in the table above for large fleets.  That’s a surprise to me, but a nice one. 



As far as my budget goes, I need to take care early on to keep costs down.  Later, I will up R&D spending.  My initial R&D status looks like this:

[Syt]

Thanks, grumbler; very interesting, and much appreciated.

[Valmy]

Where is the Austro-Hungarian navy? 

It was bigger than Italy's right?

[Alcibiades]

[Berkut]

Very interesting grumbler.

I want to get the source code for this and re-write it with a sci-fi theme.

[grumbler]

Where is the Austro-Hungarian navy? 

It was bigger than Italy's right?

Neither the AH navy nor the Italian navy had a single battleship in Jan 1900.  I'm assuming that the AH navy is left out so that the Italian navy can be significant in the wider world.  I think a better design choice would have been to ignore both of them as entirely absorbed with each other.  But that's not the case.  Maybe because it would make things too easy for the French?

[grumbler]

1900:  The Year of Living Effortlessly

Game years consist of twelve game months.  Each month you can alter your fleet (add new construction, place ships in reserve or mothballs, rebuild ships, design new ships, or send ships to a new area or mission) and then alter existing allocations for espionage, training, and R&D.  After that, you hit the "turn" button and the computer processes the turn.  When applicable, the player gets a popup for a notification or an event.  Notifications are things like intel reports (including all foreign ship keel-layings and commissionings) and R&D breakthroughs.  An event is something that requires a player decision.  These are generally political (when you catch a spy, for instance, or when something happens in the colonies that involves another power) and your response influences both your own prestige and the tension levels with the other country involved.  Generally, you have to choose between prestige and tension.  In wartime, events also include battle notifications.  You can choose to accept or decline battle, but must do so without knowing the forces involved.  Declining costs victory points and, perhaps, prestige.

In 1900, nothing much happened.  The world at the start of the year was generally at peace with low tensions.



Note the boxes.  These are the naval patrol areas.  I've expanded a few so you can see that they contain land regions.  These are what change hands as a result of war.  Note that some have no Great-Power possessor and are thus greyed out.  The rules don't say how one comes into possession of those, but I suspect it is by event.



There were several tech breakthroughs this year.  I've included a couple here so that you have a feel for them.  Tech doesn't change very radically.





The other notifications were that naval spending went down 1% of GDP due to low tensions, and up 1% because the Navy League pressed for more spending on the Navy.

There were two events.  GB caught a Japanese spy stealing engineering tech, but I decided to ignore it since Japan had just ordered a battleship from GB (which helps grow the GB shipbuilding industry and thus the size of ships that can be built).  I neglected to screen capture that.  The other event was the US buying some engineering tech (the same tech the Japanese stole) for the equivalent of 18 month's R&D expenditures.  Naturally, I said "By all means!"



It was a very good year.

[Alcibiades]

Looks very interesting.  How does replay-ability look?  Enjoyable?    Worth $35?   

[grumbler]

Looks very interesting.  How does replay-ability look?  Enjoyable?    Worth $35?   

Replayability was, I thought, mostly vested in starting different countries,  However, there appears to be a fair amount of random variation in starting strengths, so that adds a bit of replayability even with the same country and scenario.

It is fun, but probably not $35 worth of fun, unless very strongly attracted to the situation, like me.

[grumbler]

1901  The Year of the Gaul

The overall situation at the start of 1901 remains rosy.  My fleet is dominant in Europe and the sea lanes are covered.  Tensions with France, Russia, and the US have crept up a bit.  I notice that I lost a prestige point for not shooting that Japanese spy.  No more mister nice guy!





In my turn, I do little other than adding a CL to the build queue and starting an intensive training campaign in gunnery.  I move a CA and a CL to the Med so I can do some commerce-raiding against the French if I need to.  They have only a CL and some DDs there.





Then, in February, some dude gets assassinated in the Balkans.  I can't lose more prestige, so take a hard line.



Tensions with the US, Russia, and France all rise one point (to six, still not very high, but worrisome).  Tensions with Germany drop a point.



I also start a fort at Malta (actually, I did this last year, but forgot to mention it).  It will be complete in July.


In March, some idiot on a French ship made a stupid mistake and collided with one of our ships.  I refused to hush up the French blunder, and tensions with France went up by one, to seven.  That's entering the danger zone, but I don't fear a war with France.





I also laid down another CL. I need some tech here; these designs are getting long in the tooth.  I am already at my max investment for tech, though, at 10% of budget.

In April, there is a conference on disarmament in the Hague.  I choose the middle path.  No change in tensions or prestige.



This month GB commissions a new battleship (her tenth) and lays down another one.

In May, I realize that my balance is becoming too large – more than a month's worth of income.  I lay down a CA and start a 12" shore battery in the UK to soak up some of the excess, for fear the finance ministry will cut the budget if I don't reduce the excess.



In July, I realized that I hadn't put any effort into espionage.  I ramped that up against the three higher-tension nations (at some small cost).  I'm hoping this doesn't come back to bite me, but I've not used intel before (wanting to be a gentleman and not read others' mail) and am curious to see what it does.



In August, the US commissioned its sixth battleship and laid down its eighth.  It's an arms race, it seems.  I'd really like to be able to arm my 13th battleship with something better than 7" secondaries, but can't hold off more than a few months if the world is building 6 battleships per year and I am only building two.



In September, the bungling Russians get caught stealing shell technology from us.  I respond strongly, and tensions raise to seven.  I'm not concerned about the Russians.  They'd be our meat.



In October, we develop the capability to build subs.  I order six coastal subs as training vessels.



Also in October, the new "Navy Secretary" (that's what I thought I was!) sticks his oar in and demands that the Navy build an additional twenty DDs.  I have no choice but to agree or suffer a loss of both prestige and funding.



I decide to take advantage of this disaster to the extent that I can (20 DDs will cost a lot) and develop a new, 600 ton DD, the Enchantress class.  It has four 4" guns and 4 TT compared to 4 3" guns and 2 TT for the existing design, but must be limited to short range (which is okay, as they will be most useful in the North Sea).  The new class will cost $237,000 to design.



Building 20 DDs at once is obviously unaffordable given other priorities (they cost $5 million a month total, or about ¼ of the entire budget).  Soon I will have to suspend production of the cruisers to pay for this, but right now it helps cut down the big surplus (which, it turns out, it is lucky I had mismanaged my way into).



The rest of the year is fairly uneventful, except that in December I get the welcome news that the PM is adding roughly $1 million a month to the naval budget.



By year's end, with the new funds, plus halting construction on the four cruisers, I have brought the budget back into near-balance, with a satisfactory reserve.  I can restart production in part in February, when Fortress Dover finishes (it's costing me about $1.5 million a month right now).



In technology, I gain the ability to build up to 10" guns in wing turrets, so that will be a big part of the next battleship design.

Overall, the year saw tensions rise, but if put to the question, I can tell Parliament that, while I cannot say whether or not the French are coming, I can say this:  they will not come by sea.

[Kleves]

Very cool. 

[grumbler]

1902 The Year I Started a War

In January, the PM requests that I guarantee victory over the French should war come.  I gladly do so.  Tensions with France shoot up to ten.  This is definitely in the danger zone (12, I believe, leads to war). 





I decide to move two battleships and 8 destroyers to the Med, to reinforce any potential blockade of Southern France.



In March, the most difficult choice yet arrives:  the Francophobes in Parliament want a DoW on France.  I could gain prestige and budget by supporting them, but with US tensions high I fear a two-front war.  I decide to emulate Bismarck.  Tension with France is now 11.



In April, I get news that France, Russia, and the US have all increased naval spending.  My prestige rises to 22 based on the new destroyer program.  The US has laid down another battleship, meaning 3 are under construction.



In June, 16 of the 20 Enchantress DDs complete (the other four were delayed a month due to material shortages).  The US lays down a fourth battleship (her tenth overall).  I decide that Britain will have to match this effort to maintain naval superiority in the long run. 

I order a new design for the next generation of battleships (cost for design: $4.3 million) and select the Admiral class design.  While she takes a slight step back in main armament (12" guns compared to 13" main guns on the previous class) the guns are much more reliable.  Displacement shoots up from 15,000 tons to 19,000 tons, and cost from $48 million to $62 million, but speed rises from 17 to 20 knots, the secondaries are 8-10" in twin turrets (vice 10 7" in barbettes), and armor is vastly increased (8.5" belt to 10" belt, 2" deck to 3" deck, secondary armor from 4" to 8").  The one downside to the design is the tight margin.  Upgrading these ships will get ugly and probably force a re-engining to get any significant needed displacement.



Old


New


In July comes word that the US had laid down a fifth battleship (their 11th overall)!  The RN cannot answer immediately; we cannot have 5 BBs simultaneously under construction.  It would cost $12 million a month of our $21 million a month budget, and we not only couldn't build anything else, we couldn't maintain our fleet without slowing down research.  The only saving grace is that their battleships must be quite a bit smaller than ours; their total tonnage suggests that their average B is a bit more than 13,000 tons.

In August, the PM announces his intention of increasing spending on armaments.  I choose the more hawkish response, knowing it will raise tensions across the board, because I now want the war to come before the US completes its building program.



And so, in September, France declares war (yeah, the newspaper says it is Britain, but that's just an image).  I could seize an Italian battleship we are building, but decline to do so.





France immediately sorties their Atlantic Fleet to bombard our coast.  This is a grave mistake.



The French abort their sortie.



The outbreak of war has, however, increased tensions across the board.  I may need to sacrifice some prestige to avoid provocative events.



I deploy one cruiser each from the home fleet to West Africa, the South Pacific and the South Atlantic to protect trade.  I move a heavy cruiser from the Med to the IO for the same reason.

In October, another abortive battle in the Med, as the French there flee.  But they do accept battle in the Western approaches.



The enemy is presumably to my south, chasing the convoy down there.  I have 2 Royal Sovereigns (yeah, one name is mis-spelled – I've been meaning to tend to that for over two game years!  ) and three Enchantress class DDs in my main force, and an Agamemnon class CL to scout.  I am using admiral rules for battles, so only get to control the flagship. The time is 1353 on 22 Oct 1902.



Within a few minutes, enemy smoke is sighted to the southward.  Another element of the convoy pops up.  The convoy is now six merchants escorted by two destroyers.  I have no control over them, but assume they will continue their transit to the northeast towards Liverpool.



At 1403, CL Phoebe signals that one of the enemy ships is a Suffren class B.  Excellent.  I alter course slightly to the east to pass more closely behind the convoy and intercept the enemy battleship.

At 1407 the second ship is identified as a Suffern battleship as well.  Great. The French have 2/3 of their battleships in theater, and I have ¼ of mine.  Still this is a reason why I spent the money training up my crews in gunnery.  I am still confident.

Incidentally, the Suffren is a better battleship than I expected on that tonnage; she is 2 knots faster than my Bs, has 1.5" more belt armor, and two more TT.  She has a smaller main battery and 2 fewer secondaries, though, and her turret protection is worse.



As the battleships come within range at 1422, the French reverse course.  This will be a long battle since they can outrun me.



The French head southwest, apparently hoping to get past my westward flank.  I match courses with them, and a half-hour of desultory gunfire results, with little damage on either side.  At 1459 the French again break for the south, and I again do not try to pursue, tasking CL Phoebe to keep an eye on them.



The French mill about to the south until a light rain starts to fall at 1530, at which point Phoebe loses visual on the French (the darker background means rain).  I continue to slowly patrol between the last location of the French and the convoy, slowly edging my way north.



The French never re-emerge, and the battle ends with the RN triumphant.  It turns out I did scratch some French paint.



After the battle, intelligence gave us info on the enemy's movements during the battle.  The French turned for home after seeing what they were up against.  The RN force never had a chance to re-engage the faster enemy.



The collation of the battle reports shows that the battle was brief, indeed, with the French firing only 54 rounds (yielding one hit) and the British 35 (yielding two hits).  I am hoping that the difference was the British gunnery training I have paid for these last two years.



All in all, I am quite satisfied with simply stymieing the French attack, and especially glad, after being surprised by their battleship speed, that I spent as much tonnage as I did to make my new B design so fast.

France is now blockaded.

[Note, at this point I updated to the new v 1.7 of the game, which increased most costs and budgets, so the budget numbers aren't comparable any more].

In November, the shoe shifts to the other foot, as a division of three of my destroyers tries to raid a French convoy.  I have two more DDs coming up to support (under AI control, and well to the north of the position shown).  All are of the earlier Active class.  It is 1345 on November 27th.  My plan is to be quite aggressive; since I was forced to buy 20 more destroyers than I wanted, older destroyers are quite expendable.





Within minutes, we spot smoke to the NW.  I change course to intercept.  These are likely the enemy escorts.  The two RN DDs to the north turn south and increase speed, but they are 36 miles distant and in a stern chase.  It will be three hours before they can get into range of the convoy. They are well-placed if the convoy runs from my destroyers, though, so I determine to get those escorts.



1352: Lookouts ID one of the enemy as a light cruiser, and one as an AMC.  If these prove true, I will be super-pissed.  It impossible to have outfitted an AMC this early in the war, and if the enemy with only 3 cruisers in-theater has one, and I don't have any of my 24, this is really bogus.

1358: The enemy's escorts apparently head SW.  This is a mistake.  I continue to bore in on the merchants, and increase speed to flank.  I don't want him to easily recover.



1403: The enemy escort now appears to be 3 CL and 2 DD.  I maintain flank speed for the transports.

1408:  The enemy escorts have reversed course to the NW, but still are not closing.  The convoy is coming into range.  Could it be that the escorts are not as powerful as the sightings would lead me to believe?



[Note:  for some reason, I can't get my ships to fire at the very close enemy merchants – they continue to fire at a distant destroyer.  Very frustrating.  This must be a "feature" of Admiral mode combat.  I will shift mode for the next battle even though I lose VP for ding so.]

1416:  So, here we are, amongst the convoy, within easy reach of our objective (which is to sink at least two merchants), and my ships ignore their objectives and my desires to take 1%-hit-probability shots at the enemy DDs on the far side of the convoy.  Most amusing detail?  My shots have a lower chance to hit because my gun crews don't want to hit the merchants!





1430: In desperation, I chase down part of the convoy to get into torpedo range; I figure that, if the only target is a merchant, and they have no other possible choice, maybe the ships will try to accomplish the mission objective.  It works, to the extent that the ships do start to launch torpedoes.  [The circles are torpedo range.  Incidentally, this is the first time I have ever seen a torpedo launch in the two games I have played.]



1432:  It works!  Though the torpedo misses the closer merchant, it hits and sinks the second.  Incidentally, the escort is now revealed to be 5 enemy DD.  No cruisers, and no AMC.



1436:  Turns out that the sinking was just fog of war.  The merchant shrugs off a torpedo hit with only medium damage.  It isn't even slowed.  If it turns out that torpedoes won't sink merchants and guns won't shoot at them, this is an impossible scenario.  I cannot defeat 5 DDs with 3, and can't sink merchants until the DDs are sunk.

1450:  After weaving in and out of the convoy several times, I get my two remaining torpedo-equipped DDs to shoot one torpedo each.  Bolitho fires at a 5-knot merchantman 400 yards away, and misses.  Brazen fires at the already-torpedoed-once merchantman, hits, and damages it a bit more.  Doesn't slow it down, though.  I can only laugh at this absurdity.  Each of the two has a torpedo left, though, so I will keep trying.  I'm pretty sure that not even in this game can a merchant take three torpedoes and survive.



1511:  Brazen is hit by an enemy torpedo and stopped dead in the water, with heavy flooding.  I have one torpedo left, and will try to get Bolitho to use it.  She'll probably fire it at an enemy destroyer, though.



1546:  After half-an-hour weaving around the convoy and daring Bolitho to shoot that last torpedo, she still refuses.  However, the two supporting AI destroyers have caught up with the half of the enemy convoy that fled northwest while I chased the half that fled southeast.  It may be that DesDiv 7 can achieve the mission objectives.  Meanwhile Brazen, limping away to the SW, appears to have sunk one of the twice-torpedoed merchantmen.



Note that Bolitho couldn't get a firing solution for her torpedoes even here; I suspect it was because she wasn't targeting the merchant.



1657:  After spending an hour driving around to pull off the enemy escorts in order to give Brazen a chance to pull free of the battle after restoring power, I realized that I could get the remaining merchantman if I waited until dark before engaging.  If the enemy DDs were out of sight in the darkness, the merchantman would be the only target.  The result:



1715: Heading back to rendezvous with Brazen and escort her back to port,  my DesDiv encountered HMS Battleaxe engaged with an enemy destroyers, so I turned aside to help.

1802:  After 45 minutes of close action, that was a kill.



With that, the action was over.  The French lost 5 merchants and a destroyer, while the RN had a destroyer badly damaged.



[Note, if you will, the scenario (i.e. the same Steam and Iron)'s victory points and level of victory, and then see what the campaign level did to that:



Note that the level of victory goes from major to minor, and the VPs go from a 14:1 ratio to a 5:1 ratio.  Dunno what's up with that.]

As far as effectiveness goes, look at the hit percentages:


[DDs shooting at DDs hit very seldom.  That's not unrealistic (these are hand-trained guns firing over open sights from a bouncing platform at a small target), but it does kinda say that the "torpedo boat destroyer" isn't a viable concept with current tech.  And I've got a shitload of resources invested in those kinds of ships, thanks to that moron Navy Secretary!  ]

In December, we get the welcome news that France is experiencing unrest as a result of the blockade.



Meanwhile, as might be expected, the Army tries to horn in on our glorious little war.  I tell them to get bent.  Courteously.



Then, the French sortie again.  This time, it is a "cruiser action," an engagement type I've not seen before, off of Brest.  Naturally, I accept.



The action pits a division of RN light cruisers (Agamemnon class) with a division of destroyers against an unknown foe.  To the north is a supporting (AI-controlled, because I forgot to change my preferences on how much control to have) of another 2 CL and 2 DD.  This is the first action for my new Enchantress class DDs.  It turns out that a 'cruiser action" is one in which neither side has any objectives other than to sink the enemy.





1145:  the enemy comes into view.  In the lead is an armored cruiser of the Gueydon class.  She outweighs my entire force, so I decide to move north towards my supports.  I cannot take her on by myself.  My guns cannot penetrate her armor at any range.  And, I am only one knot faster than her, so can't make mistakes.  I'll probably have to play this one for a draw, unless I discover my lookouts are wrong about her ID.







1148:  Lookouts say the second ship is a CA as well.  This battle looks like a write-off.  I head SW to open the range.

1253;  The enemy doesn't seem to have any trouble keeping up and even closing the range (very slowly) as I head SW at flank speed.  This could get bad if the AI stokers don't tire when mine do.



1353:  A stern chase proved to be a long chase, and the enemy pulled away.  Now I just hope the support force doesn't let itself get into range.



1957:  That's it.  End of scenario.  No shots fired.  What a waste of time; the scenario generator should never generate such a thing.



In December, the RN commissioned a Royal Sovereign B and a County class CA, and started one of each.  The B was of the new Admiral class, and the CA of the newly-designed (for $3.4 million) Edinburgh class.



At sea, the French raided British shipping pretty freely, sinking 6 ships for 60 VP.  However, on the 17th, HMS Devonshire intercepted one of the raiders.



1644:  Both ships settled on a SW course at 20 knots, 4,000 yards apart, for a slugging match. The British ship had slightly better armor, the French slightly heavier guns.



However, the French soon pulled away, having taken slight damage.  The slower Devonshire lost her in the gloom at 1725 and never regained contact.

And that was how 1902 ended: with a whimper.  Britain remained at the top of the naval standings, but the US was moving up fast, with 5 (!) battleships on order.  Britain's naval economy was in good shape, and had a healthy reserve (probably too healthy – I'll have to do something about that next year).  But France had suffered no devastating defeats.  It looked like it would be a long war.

[Alcibiades]

Thanks for the updates, really enjoying the AAR. 

[The Brain]

Very interesting.

[celedhring]

Really entertaining read, grumbler. Thanks for writing this.

I see that the game lists Bs and BBs as different ship classes? I thought they were the same and they just added the extra B to differentiate them from BCs.