I think Dreadnought allows you to build your own ships.
Basically, it works like this. You start with a hull from one of the major navies from the 1890's-1940's. That hull, in addition to intrinsic ratings on things like tonnage limited, passive stability, default damage resistance, etc with all hulls being based on IRL designs of their time period (ie: The hull for an Iowa, the hull for a Queen Elizabeth, the hull for the Massina, etc). You then have a budget and are supposed to use that budget to design a ship that does not exceed the max tonnage for the hull, and can add whatever guns and armor you like. So if you want to make an Iowa that traded some armor for 18" guns, it is possible. Subsystems like autoloaders, fire control, and advanced armor schemes also count but can give pretty substantial boost so can not be ignored.
At the moment, there are three modes to play with it. One is the Naval Academy, where you are given pretty tight limits on ships and funds to wargame out a scenario (ex: "Build a battlecruiser to rescue a convoy that has been ambushed by an enemy fleet of cruisers, with your battlecruiser starting several dozen NM from the convoy"). There is a campaign mode, where you pick a nation and are effectively the Lord of the Navy in charge of the fleet through your wars, where you are limited by your shipyard capacities and the budget given to you by the government. And multiplayer capable single actions where the rules are a bit more flexible.
I would also recommend it for the simple fact that I dont know of many pieces of media (never mind games) that cover the Pre-Dreadnaught era of naval warfare. Which I honestly find more fun in the game than when you get to the Dreadnaught era, even if I enjoy the game as a whole.
It's a much more complicated game fighting wars in the Age of Sail; and one of the biggest problem is that the game board is never 'clean'. Wind speed and direction is so critical to battle that sometimes it's better off not fighting simply because you don't have advantage in wind, even if you have advantage in men & material. Frankly, weather doesn't play enough of a factor in these games because it's so important that you have to defeat the weather before you defeat the enemy. In situations like that, the game can become less fun, but more authentic, and drive a harder problem to solve.
Definitely applies for their Age of Sail game, and I do enjoy that one too. but I was talking about Pre-Dreadnaught steam ship warfare. The ships like this, or this, or Semi-Dreadnaughts like this. And while they have a bad reputation, I love the ugly French bastard fleet.
This was before autoloader systems really existed, before long range fire control existed, and ships that were only barely considered stable in calm water. And as much as I like the Dreadnaught-era warfare for its large fleet battles at long range, there is something to the "Get in close and slug it out" style of the Pre-Dreadnaughts that I find more entertaining. It is also more about positioning since your secondary's make up the bulk of your firepower in those ships. And you will learn to fear Torpedo Boats, because in an era before effective anti-torpedo and flood protection systems existed, I have absolutely lost battleships to a single torpedo that caused it to capsize before I could even do anything to save it.
Basically, it works like this. You start with a hull from one of the major navies from the 1890's-1940's. That hull, in addition to intrinsic ratings on things like tonnage limited, passive stability, default damage resistance, etc with all hulls being based on IRL designs of their time period (ie: The hull for an Iowa, the hull for a Queen Elizabeth, the hull for the Massina, etc). You then have a budget and are supposed to use that budget to design a ship that does not exceed the max tonnage for the hull, and can add whatever guns and armor you like. So if you want to make an Iowa that traded some armor for 18" guns, it is possible. Subsystems like autoloaders, fire control, and advanced armor schemes also count but can give pretty substantial boost so can not be ignored.
At the moment, there are three modes to play with it. One is the Naval Academy, where you are given pretty tight limits on ships and funds to wargame out a scenario (ex: "Build a battlecruiser to rescue a convoy that has been ambushed by an enemy fleet of cruisers, with your battlecruiser starting several dozen NM from the convoy"). There is a campaign mode, where you pick a nation and are effectively the Lord of the Navy in charge of the fleet through your wars, where you are limited by your shipyard capacities and the budget given to you by the government. And multiplayer capable single actions where the rules are a bit more flexible.
That's pretty interesting, actually.
I would also recommend it for the simple fact that I dont know of many pieces of media (never mind games) that cover the Pre-Dreadnaught era of naval warfare. Which I honestly find more fun in the game than when you get to the Dreadnaught era, even if I enjoy the game as a whole.
It's a much more complicated game fighting wars in the Age of Sail; and one of the biggest problem is that the game board is never 'clean'. Wind speed and direction is so critical to battle that sometimes it's better off not fighting simply because you don't have advantage in wind, even if you have advantage in men & material. Frankly, weather doesn't play enough of a factor in these games because it's so important that you have to defeat the weather before you defeat the enemy. In situations like that, the game can become less fun, but more authentic, and drive a harder problem to solve.
Definitely applies for their Age of Sail game, and I do enjoy that one too. but I was talking about Pre-Dreadnaught steam ship warfare. The ships like this, or this, or Semi-Dreadnaughts like this. And while they have a bad reputation, I love the ugly French bastard fleet.
This was before autoloader systems really existed, before long range fire control existed, and ships that were only barely considered stable in calm water. And as much as I like the Dreadnaught-era warfare for its large fleet battles at long range, there is something to the "Get in close and slug it out" style of the Pre-Dreadnaughts that I find more entertaining. It is also more about positioning since your secondary's make up the bulk of your firepower in those ships. And you will learn to fear Torpedo Boats, because in an era before effective anti-torpedo and flood protection systems existed, I have absolutely lost battleships to a single torpedo that caused it to capsize before I could even do anything to save it.