Just some tricks, tips and shared learning to help new players.


Cruise speed gives an accuracy bonus for all ships that should not be ignored. You will start at flank speed, drop to full once enemy engaged. Sharp turns also reduce accuracy.

At the start of any engagement it`s good practice to change all default ship settings- Select "avoid torps" , select "save" or "off" as the firing option for any torp firing ships otherwise they will launch with a less than good chance of hit.

Sometimes torps don`t launch as expected on an attack run. It seems a buggy unpredictable system. Sometimes reducing speed, selecting aggressive fire mode and reclicking on target can resolve this.

When new technology is developed you can update an old design. The new design will then appear with a year next to it. Select this new design and then select "refit option" on bottom right. You can then select ships to send in for upgrade / refit. Much cheaper and more efficient than scrapping.

Be wary of some of the early 1890 designs and AI designing your ship for you. In my early battles my conning tower was constantly getting knocked out at a very early stage. Turned out the armour on this section was set at zero!

If during design stage a ship is badly unbalanced you can add/subtract from fore and aft armour to shift weight about and make your ship more balanced. Sometimes you will just have to drag your front and rear towers as close to centre as you can.

Increasing main deck armour will drop the roll

Choice of tower can really affect balance as the better ones normally heavier. Resist the urge to always add latest development / version. The weight of tower can have big negative impact on smaller ships such as DD.

Some of the BB towers have gun mounts for small calibre guns -normally 2" & 3". Don`t miss opportunity to mount these. Next to no additional weight but can hurt TBs & DDs. As tech advances some towers have a circular turret slot or hidden gun port. Easy to miss.

Gun barrels can be lengthened or shortened. You can sacrifice muzzle velocity and range for greater rate of fire. Worth experimenting with. In the early stages of game accuracy and visibility of ships beyond 8 - 10 km is poor so perhaps worth exchanging range for better ROF. Sometimes worth adding extra .2 on your calibre if you can`t mount bigger gun. Can make difference if enemy armour matches calibre.

Facing multiple enemy ships? If 2 ships ever line up in your line of fire switch fire to furthest away and shells will pass though closest one. I`ve sunk quite a few ships this way. Very effective.

During campaign if you look at the fleet screen there`s a "add crew" box at the bottom left hand side of screen that needs ticked and is easy missed. Some people have been complaining about lack of crew. If a ship comes up as low crew go to fleet screen and select set crew option to replenish. This is subject to how much you have invested in training and how many manpower hungry BBs you have in fleet. Spacious quarters mean ship holds higher number of crew.

Under finances you have option to upgrade your shipyards. You should be doing this at all times if you want to win arms race. You will not get a any notification to say a stage is completed so do check regularly. Although hull designs can often lag behind.

Best breakthough techs for me were level 5 hull strengthening for Dreadnought hull, big guns, better armour and the shell & explosive upgrades. Good upgrades on last 2 make lower calibre guns more destructive across the fleet. Krupp armour is a game changer as it gives you so much more protection but frees up weight. And switching to oil boiler gives alot of benefits.

I tend to run 100% tech whenever possible. Not selecting a research focus means everything progresses evenly. But some techs worth much more to gain an edge in early stages. If you are on focus and a tech shows 1 month to go try unselecting. If it still says one month (and often does) then put that focus elsewhere effectively squeezing max research.

In campaign mode your opponent does not play by the historical rules. I got attacked 5 times between 1890 & 1914. I won and made them pay dearly in reparations by taking their best ships. This seemed to drive a change in their ship design - less BB`s & a high proportion of lighter cruisers. I countered this with a lighter armed Dreadnought which I designed as a cruiser killer. 10" main guns and a selection of 6" & 4" down the sides. And with weight savings I was able to get my belt armour above 15". The enemy ships could not penetrate and I ended up taking 10 or them out with this one ship. History would say don`t put smaller guns on big ship but you need to design your ships to meet the threat of your opponent so keep checking in on them. I needed a greater rate of fire for smaller ships. It helps that the game seems to let you put insane belt & deck armour on ships. I was easily going beyond Yamato level of protection by 1910 by focusing my research and 100% research.

Manual placement of guns! 200 hrs in and did not know you could manually place guns by holding down CTRL and using R & T to rotate turret.

In earlier years of campaign you can afford to not add torp belt armour or citadel. Saves a lot of weight which can be put into belt and deck armour. Later, as AI fleets advance those torps and bigger guns will start to hurt you. Maybe use a nimble DD to trigger torp attacks early. AI hasn`t sense to hold back for bigger targets.

I have had great success with Battlecruisers armed with high number of smaller guns. Reduced tonnage as much as I could. Made a particularly deadly 6" armed BC. 4 turrets of triple guns front and then same at back. Devastated cruisers, DD`s and transports.

Also in campaign those random battles with enemy take a selection of any sea ready ships from any port unless you have mothballed them. A quality over quantity approach does well and your super battleship can easy demolish a multitude of enemy ships if built properly. Upgrade or bin inferior vessels. *edit. As of last update the AI is getting much better at upgrading!

** Latest update. Campaign tip. So naval invasions. I never understood these. Now it seems you have an option under politics to launch a naval invasion. A fleet size of over 100K tonnes seems to improve chances.