Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post descriptions of your brilliant victories and unfortunate defeats here.
cwemyss
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Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

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January 1890 – Essen, Provinz Westfalen, Deutsches Kaiserreich

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Vitzeadmiral Alexander von Posen turned to his companion, a large, bespectacled younger man, and asked, “Does one ever get used to the smoke and grime?”

“To be sure, my mother never did,” answered Friederich Alfred Krupp, “No matter what mansions my father designed, she spent most summers in the Bavarian Alps and winters on the Italian coast.”

von Posen didn’t respond, pondering the pall of smoke that hung over the sprawling steel works. After a moment he said, “You’re aware, Herr Chairman, that I’ve been given a nearly impossible task, and those mills just may hold the key to achieving it?”

“I was very sorry to hear of Vitzeadmiral von Motz passing,” Krupp replied. “All I know of your task is what I’ve gathered from your staff’s inquiries about our capacity, and what rumblings I’ve heard from Germaniawerft. I have ears in Kiel and in Berlin but no one’s been particularly forthcoming.”

“That’s why I’m here,” von Posen said. “Your managers have held things very close, and I need to know what you’re capable of producing. Can you expand to supply a thousand tons a week to the shipyards?”

“I’m sure I can,” answered Krupp, “but at least initially it will come at the cost of the railroads, the Army’s guns, and steel for our growing cities. If I may ask, why in the world do we need such a massive increase?”

“Die Engländer,” answered von Posen simply.

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Last edited by cwemyss on Wed May 03, 2023 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

So, a bit of explanation. I've played many, many hours of RTW1 and RTW2, and have written two (so far) incomplete AAR's on those:
RTW1: https://nws-online.proboards.com/thread ... ung-school
RTW2: https://nws-online.proboards.com/thread ... kes-flight

I've been a huge Matrix fan for years, and I was pretty dang happy to see RTW join this family. I was given both permission and Steam Beta access to write an AAR for RTW3. While there's a lot of similarities with the previous versions of the game, there's also a good bit of (very beneficial) difference. I'm excited to dig in, and I'm happy to have folks along for the ride. I really appreciate William Miller and Erik Rutins letting me play this small role in helping the game find a larger audience.

This is a pretty late-stage Beta so should be close to the release version, but I obviously can't guarantee that. My plan is to share the game through fictionalized 'story' chapters, with characters such as the new chief of the German Imperial Admiralty in the first post. Story chapters will use the banner at the top of the previous post to make them easy to spot. Those chapters will be intermixed with posts covering game mechanics, explanations, and other coolness... this is one of those.

The Rule The Waves 3 Splash Screen:
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Pick your nation:
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Choose your fleet size, research rate, and a few other things. "Large" is on the low side for approximating real-world fleets of the period, but manageable and makes for a quicker playthrough. Other options are left at default for the first playthrough
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And the game Preferences. Some of these are brand new, such as total AI control of your forces in battle, and having an Officer corps.
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As a side note: I get hugely sidetracked on the ship designer (more on that in a future post) and by learning the history of whatever navy I'm writing, so these usually don't go too quickly. I'm an engineer by trade and a history buff by inclination, but I'm definitely *not* an author. I sure do enjoy it though!

That's it for tonight. I'll share more as I go... thanks for being part of it!
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EwaldvonKleist
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by EwaldvonKleist »

Looking forward to your AAR, thanks for posting!

Historically, Imperial Germany proved that it knows very well how to build and use ships tactically, but did a terrible job at integrating them in its grand strategy, where they turned out to be more of a liability than an asset.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

EwaldvonKleist wrote: Fri Apr 28, 2023 7:49 pm Looking forward to your AAR, thanks for posting!

Historically, Imperial Germany proved that it knows very well how to build and use ships tactically, but did a terrible job at integrating them in its grand strategy, where they turned out to be more of a liability than an asset.
Hence the name. :-)

I've never touched RTW3, and the Germans didn't know how to use a Navy. It works on both levels.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

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January 1890 – Kaiserliches Oberkommando der Marine, Berlin

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Vitzeadmiral Karl Diedrichs heard an exchange in the outer chamber and stifled a sigh. He had little desire to see his counterpart from the Imperial Naval Office, but knew the meeting was necessary. His own meeting with the Kaiser last week had been a fiasco but there was some hope that the administrative bureau had fared better.

“Herr Admiral,” his aide began after a perfunctory knock, “Vitzeadmiral von Posen.”

“Yes, yes,” Diedrichs answered, rising from his desk and waving the other man in. “Heinrich, please see that we have plenty of coffee, and that we’re not disturbed.” The young Korvettenkapitän nodded and exited, closing the door behind him.

von Posen looked around as he entered the office, sniffed, and took a seat. Diedrichs joined him at the small oak table and handed across a folder, explaining “So this is apparently the report our young Kaiser read that kicked off the recent frenzy.”

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“Yes,” said von Posen, “if we choose to fight the English it will be difficult. I personally don’t see any natural reason we should do so, but if it is the Kaiser’s inclination, so be it.”

“His inclination appears to be asking the impossible,” answered Diedrichs. “He requested that I build a plan to counter them in the North Sea, and when I suggested that a few more ships might be helpful he implied that another Admiral might be found to take a more positive approach.”

“So I heard,” said von Posen, with an irritating smirk. “Though apparently your conversation hit the mark. He’s provided a bit of funds to start building the fleet you might want.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Diedrichs said, “though it’ll be a decade before we’re close to level, and that assumes they don’t start building to match. What do your architects have in mind?”

“We don’t have a large enough shipyard, yet, to match their biggest ships,” von Posen replied, “and we don’t yet have an acceptable thirteen-inch gun either. We’ve taken a balanced approach, and plan to lay down three Weissenburg class ships this year.”

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Diedrichs took a moment looking over the specification and exhaled slowly, debating how to respond. “Well,” he started, “These will be a vast improvement over the Brandenburg. I have a battle squadron in name only, these would help fill it out.”

“I do wonder, though, if we shouldn’t be building more cruisers instead. Their Niobe and Diadem class are tough customers, and there are a lot of them.”

Waving a hand, von Posen answered “Yes, but they’re scattered around the globe. We won’t have to fight them in the Mediterranean or Caribbean. It’s their battle fleet that can bottle us up in Wilhelmshaven.”

“Just so,” Diedrichs responded, frustrated. He knew that they could build more cruisers, more quickly, and that they were more flexible ships. “Why are these planned with such large coal bunkers?” he asked. “If we expect to fight in the North Sea, we don’t need the range to cruise off Africa.”

“Perhaps you have something there,” von Posen answered. “We’ll consider that for follow-on ships.”

von Posen sat for a moment, sipping his coffee, then asked “How thin can you spread the fleet for the next few months? We could shift additional funds to shipbuilding if you can lay some of the fleet in reserve.”

“I’ve already ordered the Hela stripped down for storage, and her sister will go on reduced manning as well. I also have one ship each from the Cruiser Squadron and the Scout Squadron in a state of partial readiness, though that will greatly limit our training opportunities. I’m planning to bring Vineta back from Dar es Salaam as soon as the gunboats reach the Indian Ocean.”

“Very good,” answered von Posen. “Ideally in a year we’ll have more options available.”

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Last edited by cwemyss on Tue May 09, 2023 4:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

Side note for those who have played RTW1/2: The ship design system is very similar, but the options for are MASSIVELY improved. I've barely scratched the surface, but there's a lot you can do:
- Change the hull form
- Incorporate 'visual elements' to cover masts, catapults, cranes, boats, etc
- That frees up all six superstructure layers for actual superstructure/ship architecture
- You can color each layer individually
- You can move secondary and tertiary weapons around
- Change turret 'era's for different graphics treatment

And that's just the visuals, before you even get to actual game mechanics. There's now consideration for topweight (which is admittedly not a driving factor in 1890), and it appears that the treatment of radar and ASW systems are expanded (ditto)

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EDIT: FYI, this was an auto-design ship, all I did was A) add boats, cranes, and anchor chain and B) tweak the resting position of the casemate guns so I could see where they were.
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eddieballgame
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by eddieballgame »

This looks very good to follow, thank you.
Question, does this game offer UI Scaling per tabs & text?
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by CMagras »

eddieballgame wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 11:23 pm This looks very good to follow, thank you.
Question, does this game offer UI Scaling per tabs & text?
It does not in game(You can resize the tabs and popups, but not the text). However, I've been able to do UI scaling via System Properties.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by eddieballgame »

CMagras wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 12:25 am
eddieballgame wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 11:23 pm This looks very good to follow, thank you.
Question, does this game offer UI Scaling per tabs & text?
It does not in game(You can resize the tabs and popups, but not the text). However, I've been able to do UI scaling via System Properties.
Thank you
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by prophetinreverse »

Well I followed you over here, and so far I am not disappointed (at least in the quality of the writing, but a battleship armed with 11” -2 guns is extremely disappointing!)
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by Erik Rutins »

eddieballgame wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 11:23 pm This looks very good to follow, thank you.
Question, does this game offer UI Scaling per tabs & text?
It acts like a Windows application in that it's in a resizable, movable window and follows the system scaling. I've tested it on 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 and found it to be fine on each provided you have your scaling set in Windows. I can't imagine why you wouldn't have it set, since the OS itself would become extremely hard to read. In summary, the application doesn't have its own scaling but respects the scaling all your Windows apps respect, so it should be fine scaling-wise for visibility and playability as long as your browser and e-mail client are readable.

Regards,

- Erik
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CEO, Matrix Games LLC


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RHoenig
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by RHoenig »

Tiny little nitpick (hey, I _am_ German, so I simply _have_ to do this :)

“I’m sure I can,” answered Krupp, “but at least initially it will come at the cost of the railroads, the Army’s guns, and steel for our growing cities. If I may ask, why in the world do we need such a massive increase?”

“Das Englisch,” answered von Posen simply.

In German, that would be "Die Engländer" instead of "Das Englisch".
"Tell the King: After the battle my head is at his disposal, during the battle he may allow me to use it!
GenLt. Seydlitz to Frederik the Great after disobeying an order to attack

R. Hoenig, Germany
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

I'll take the input of a native speaker over Google Translate. I *knew* that didn't sound right. :-)

How did they do on my unit designations, reserve ships, and "Under Construction"?
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by nitroSkirata »

I'll chip in here as well:

North Sea Fleet -> Nordseeflotte
Soutingforce -> Erkundungsgeschwader
Reserve Fleet -> Reserveflotte
In Mothballs -> konserviert
Under Construction -> Im Bau

should be the correct terms, though despite being german, I am in no way an expert on german naval terminology
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by eddieballgame »

Erik Rutins wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:10 am
eddieballgame wrote: Mon May 01, 2023 11:23 pm This looks very good to follow, thank you.
Question, does this game offer UI Scaling per tabs & text?
It acts like a Windows application in that it's in a resizable, movable window and follows the system scaling. I've tested it on 1920x1080, 2560x1440 and 3840x2160 and found it to be fine on each provided you have your scaling set in Windows. I can't imagine why you wouldn't have it set, since the OS itself would become extremely hard to read. In summary, the application doesn't have its own scaling but respects the scaling all your Windows apps respect, so it should be fine scaling-wise for visibility and playability as long as your browser and e-mail client are readable.

Regards,

- Erik
Thank you Eric, as always.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

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September 1890 – Wilhelmshaven, Deutsches Kaiserreich

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Konteradmiral Heinz von Trotha watched the big English ships lumber into the Jade Bight in two columns and turned to the man standing next to him. “Tell me again why we needed to do this?” he said to Vitzeadmiral Karl Diedrichs.

“When the Kaiser asks, we all answer,” responded Diedrichs, gazing across the water. “Though I wouldn’t have minded another few months, we could have at least brought out a decent squadron of these,” he added, tapping his gloved fist on the Victoria Louise’s aft rail. 

“Hmmm,” von Trotha said noncommittally. Two of Victoria Louise’s sisters were rather overdue to join his fleet, the Fürst Bismarck taking longer than anticipated to finish fitting out, and the Vineta hung up in Suez due to some diplomatic technicality.

The two men turned from the cruiser’s fantail and walked forward, past the aft 21-cm gun mount. Diedrichs continued, “This little celebration should temper everyone’s nationalism a little bit.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the Royal Navy contingent. “I hope at least that the Kaiser sees the same thing I’m seeing.”

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Last edited by cwemyss on Tue May 09, 2023 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by varsovie »

RHoenig wrote: Tue May 02, 2023 3:39 pm
In German, that would be "Die Engländer" instead of "Das Englisch".
In english it would be "die englishes"... :roll:


A little question for the author, was your starting navy generated by the game or hand-made?

I also have seen in the french AAR that started in 1920 that he has ships from earlier, like 1917. (sadly no thumbledown)
But all yours have the same date, 1889, is that only because you start at the earliest possible time and the game doesn't supports 1888?

It would be nice IMHO if your starting ships could be old[er], since you could see which is the newest generation and it would allow more storybuilding and realism for a 19th century begining. Of course, if the game started in the 19th BC like it should... 8-)

And why not in constructing our starting navy have the choice to trade-off few % of the price of a ship versus age and reliability issues?

Let's hope you continue this AAR well into the.missile age since it apparently have been revamped a lot and someone told me Germany had a decent rocket expertise...
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

This one was auto-build... I think the only time the game allows a custom fleet is with a 1900 start. That said, the 1900 start in RTW2 (and RTW1, I think) showed your entire fleet with a commissioning date of 1899.

I also alway use a game-generated fleet for anything smaller than Very Large fleet size. You really can't replicate real-world navies of the period on anything smaller. It's time consuming to manually build the fleet though, at least for me. I spent MANY hours generating a reasonably historical US Navy for my US playthrough on RTW2... I really enjoy nerding out with references, diagrams, and the ship editor.

Re the Missile Age.... at the speed I play, we'll be lucky to see German aircraft before the release date, and they'll be working on "RTW4 - The Rise of the Trireme" before I get to missiles. I'll try to pick up the pace, lol.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cwemyss »

Note... Steam update tonight. I've gone from Version 0.09.202 to 1.00.03, aka Release Candidate 4.
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Re: Does Anyone Know How to Use This Thing? - An RTW3 AAR featuring Imperial Germany

Post by cormallen »

cwemyss wrote: Thu May 04, 2023 1:36 am This one was auto-build... I think the only time the game allows a custom fleet is with a 1900 start. That said, the 1900 start in RTW2 (and RTW1, I think) showed your entire fleet with a commissioning date of 1899.

I also alway use a game-generated fleet for anything smaller than Very Large fleet size. You really can't replicate real-world navies of the period on anything smaller. It's time consuming to manually build the fleet though, at least for me. I spent MANY hours generating a reasonably historical US Navy for my US playthrough on RTW2... I really enjoy nerding out with references, diagrams, and the ship editor.

Re the Missile Age.... at the speed I play, we'll be lucky to see German aircraft before the release date, and they'll be working on "RTW4 - The Rise of the Trireme" before I get to missiles. I'll try to pick up the pace, lol.
We've only seen a handful of AAR/Let's Plays so far but it's looking rather like the 1890 start fleets are very cutting edge for 1890... Not seeing lots of Central Battery ironclads or Echelon layout Turret Ships? (not yet seen any of the really big guns that were in vogue in the late 1880s?) Not seeing lots of Masted cruisers? Not seeing any attempt to replicate pre-"Destroyer" style Torpedo Gunboats/Cruisers? Not seen much sign of Rams being a design option? And, lots of (for 1890) VERY fast ships... 21 Knot cruisers almost unheard of in 1890 (let alone the prior decade where most of such a fleet will have to have come from!)
Rather disappointed in this tbh...plus making 1890 Auto-build only makes it harder to fix! (I did a long AAR for the other place from a 1900 start in RTW2 where I'd built everybody more historically appropriate fleets filled with the sort of ageing stuff they inevitably had in 1900...lots of 19 Knot Cruisers and obscolescent Battlewagons with terrible guns and poor armour schemes, lot's of Victorian Imperial Masted Gunboats etc)

Given that if play in 1920 your auto-build navy really will have a lot of junk at start it is a very great pity that you won't be able to have that challenge with an 1890 start. (though maybe the 1900 auto fleets will be more interesting now?)
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