Warlord's Guide to World War 2 and Battleships in particular (New Nations reference text)

Ah, World War 2.
This is a reference text I update when I want to.
There is no fancy hub.
What did you expect?

I expected a long wall of text that you'd find interesting and I wouldn't bother to read and would instead skim through quickly. This is not what I expected.

I blew up the first goddamn installment.
AGHHHH

This is more what I expected than the actual first post: something blowing up.

LECTURE I: THE ENGINE OF WAR

Since I blew up the last part, I'm doing this crap again.
The most important question one needs to have answered here is: What is the Engine of War?
The Engine of War is the Economy.
The Economy is the driving force behind all wars. The Economy is the most important factor behind any war; in the modern day, this is especially true. And when you have a war, the Economy is going to make or break you.
Before we move on, I'm going to review strategies for small and large economies.
Small Economies

• Do not push the larger economy too hard, and give them a way out. Do not make the war worth fighting.
• Do not be stupid, don't commit atrocities or not declare war.
• Make each Battle count.
• Be fast. Use asymmetric warfare, and guerilla warfare to get what you want.
• Do not, for the love of God, get in a war of attrition. You cannot win a war of attrition.

Large Economies

• Repeated Wars are bad for you. If a war is not worth fighting, do not fight it. Stay out of unneeded wars, they just make the people angry and nets you nothing.
• If a war is really worth fighting, finish it. Obliterate the enemy completely. There are many ways to win against Guerilla fighters, but one is to destroy the nation fueling it completely.
• If a war is worth fighting, make sure it is a war of attrition.
• Watch for war weariness, and appropriately apply propaganda and report the (frankly inevitable, war is hell) atrocities of the enemy.
• Time is your best friend. The longer the war drags on, the stronger you get.

Always remember; the Engine of War is the Economy. Strong Economy, more chance of winning wars.
But there's a few things that complicates this seemingly perfect equation. Nothing is so simple as calculating GDP. There are dozens, and I mean dozens of factors that decide wars. The GDP is just one, perhaps the most important of the many, but by no means the only factor.
There are three factors that will determine the strength, not just one. These are all important factors of an Economy, and are in fact intertwined with each other. All are parts united in the Economy, and all influence each other.

• Industry
• Manpower
• Resources

Having all three gives strength, but comes with its own disadvantages.
Industry is basically how much crap you can pump out. If you have a strong industry, you can pump out lots of crap to fight with. It does not matter how much natural resources you posses if you don't have the industry to back it up. The Industry is the business end of the Economy in War. A high-quality industry, and a strong industry are major benefits for wars. Make no mistake, there are ways to get around a low-quality industry. However, a small industry means that one should be smart about who to start wars with, because starting wars with nations that have a massive industry is about as smart as acting like Japan in WW2.
(HINT: They weren't. Japan could not have won WW2, even the Germans had a sliver of hope of winning by defeating the Soviet Union in 1941 and seizing the Oil fields by 1942. By 1943, Germany would have solved its resource problems and would be able to defeat Britain by starving them. Japan committed so many atrocities with such cruelty that they angered just about every nation you could anger in Asia, including the Soviet Union. The end result of this is that they got into a tussle with every nation in Asia and then attacked the United States. Japan in WW2 is a shining example in committing collective national Seppuku.)
Where was I?
Okay.
Manpower.
Manpower is basically how many people you can effectively use as your workforce. In long wars, attrition starts to set in and you have a problem.
You need a large population to fight wars, but keep in mind India and China have large populations that are not the best at industry or workforce, given that only 20-30 years before most of them were rural farmers.
There's really not much else to say about industry. I'm going to go into more detail about this in the "Wartime Policy and Rationing" Section.
Resources. Ah, resources.
There are many major resources you need to fight a war.

• Oil. Oil is the lifeblood of an Army. Oil fuels your army. Without Oil, your Army cannot fight. Therefore, you should take care to obtain sources of Oil.
  • Russia and Kazakhstan have massive Asian Oil reserves. China has some Oil, India has a little Oil. In Europe Romania is the only nation that has Oil reserves that isn't Russia, but Romania won't fuel your war effort on its own, it can't. In Africa, Libya has Oil as well as some in Nigeria. The Middle East... is the Middle East. Venezuela, Canada and Norway technically count but by WW2 there isn't the technology to extract/refine them yet.
• Iron builds you your crap. Without Iron, you are boned because you cannot build anything. You need to secure Iron to make weapons and stuff.
  • Russia, China, India, Canada, Ukraine, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Sweden all posses massive Iron reserves with which you can produce whatever you want. Australia possesses so much Iron, but it's inhospitable so you might have trouble getting to it. If you have one of those nations, good for you! Everyone has some iron, but it's best to have lots of iron. If one has little Iron, one should trade with someone that has lots of Iron.
• Food feeds your armies.
  • Basically everyone has food, but if you have Ukraine, France, Brazil, India or China you should be set to feed everyone with some rationing. If you don't, you'll have to institute strict rationing in order to feed everyone.
• Misc/Minor
  • Copper is a resource needed to make planes and types of steel, it is found in Chile, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, China and the like.
  • Rubber is found in Southeast Asia. However, by 1938 you'll be able to synthesize it, if you have Oil reserves.
  • Zinc is used to make types of Steel. China, Australia, Peru, Mexico, Kazakhstan and the such, although most countries have some.
  • Aluminum is used to make Airplanes. Australia, Guinea, China, Russia, Greece and India should be able to sustain your war effort, although most every nation has at least some.

That concludes this written lecture on the Engine of War.
See you next time, on LECTURE II, THE POLICIES OF WAR.
This is Prof.(?) Warlord678, signing out.

So basically China is the most powerful...

I know who I'm picking next NN...

China's been destined to rule the world for a while now... But don't make plans for the next NN yet.

I

We all know you want China

Correct. Let's take this to PMs.

LECTURE II: THE POLICIES OF WAR

The Question of the Day is: How do you fight a War?

Okay.

How do you fight a war?

Smart Troop Movements!

Brilliant Tactical Victory!

Advanced Military Technology!

A Coherent Strategy!

All of then combined is at best a third of the war-winning.

The other 2/3s is the Home Front.

The Home Front is underrated, to say the least. However Prof. (?) Warlord678 believes that the Home Front is at least twice as important as anything that goes on in the field, because the Home Front is the nation.

The Home Front is the Economy, and therefore maintaining the Home Front is maintaining the Engine of War. Basically, the Home Front is by far the most important factor in wars.

Then, how does one maintain the Home Front?

Let's discuss a few policies to maintain the Home Front's vitality while still making it a viable war machine!

• Rationing: Rationing is a "staple" of wars. If there is a war, there is rationing. But why ration? Because in War, the Government is taking everything not needed to help the war effort. Such is the price to pay for integrity.
  • Food Rationing: The most common type of rationing, everyone does it. Rationing of rare goods might be common as well as staples such as Rice and Wheat. Potatoes are an efficient source of food and should be exploited in wartime to feed your populace, because a hungry populace is an angry populace. The population should never be hungry. Not full, but never hungry.
  • Metal Rationing: Iron and Copper should be rationed in order to make supplies. In addition, recycling should be mandated, because each toy and each utensil recycled is a bit of metal for tanks and planes and bombs which attack the enemy.
  • Electricity Rationing: Rationing electricity is to save Oil and Coal, both valuable natural resources. You should ration electricity to save those vital resources
• Conscription/Enlistment: These two things help create new soldiers for your Army. There are many ways to conscript or enlist. Preferably, you want fit volunteers that enlist to join the Army. However, should this not be enough you should conscript young men.
  • Conscription: Basically dragging people from their homes to fight. Preferably young men, but older men can do as well as women. Conscription is unpopular long-term, so enlistment should be use as often as possible.
  • Alternative Civil Service: There should be alternatives to combat for conscientious objectors or people who would just be cannon fodder if they actually fought due to poor health. This can be things like being a doctor, working in war factories, clearing bomb debris or the such.
• Propaganda: To fight a war, you need good propaganda to motivate your populace to fight against the enemy. All good propaganda has at least some truth to it.
  • Overt Propaganda: Actual posters, radio broadcasts and stuff. If you use overt propaganda too much it loses its value, so just be careful.
  • Non-Overt Propaganda: Subtle propaganda that is omnipresent within the life of people. This is substantially more potent, but more difficult.
• General Wartime Policies
  • Bomb Shelters: Should your enemies attack civilians, you must respond accordingly and create civilian bomb shelters.
  • Anti-Spy Activities: Your enemies will inevitably send spies. To root out spies, one should institute policies and educate the populace appropriately.
  • General Education: Educate your populace in Wartime common sense, such as don't touch weird-looking tin cans, that's a bomb.

These policies are must if you want to win any conflict. This will help maintain the Home Front.
But that isn't it.
The Home Front is a complex thing. You must keep up a careful balance of propaganda and happiness.
You have to keep your populace fed or they will be useless. In addition, your populace should maintain a decent standard of living even in wartime. This is vital to a strong Home Front and strong Military. You should try your best to keep them fed. Here's some tips to doing so.

• Exploit crops like potatoes which can produce vast quantities of food with relatively little crop and bad lands, they are useful.
• Streamline the production chain. Nothing can go to waste, and the Government should step up to reduce waste. in farms and tables alike
• Encourage gardens which create their own food. The leaders of the nation should step up and create their own gardens, inspiring the populace.
• Rationing should be universal. Rich or Poor, everyone gets the same amount of ration cards.
• Use triage as needed. Be pragmatic and save as many as possible.

It is inevitable that under the course of war, your populace will be injured. To treat them appropriately, you should

• Mandate standard procedures in cleaning wounds.
• Use Penicillin as needed to save lives. Infection is bad.
• Do not be stupid. You cannot save everyone. Institute triage, the Soviets had the best field hospitals after the Americans because they did.

This is about an average sized written lecture.
See you next time, on LECTURE III, THE WEAPONS OF WAR GENERAL OVERVIEW.
This is Prof.(?) Warlord678, signing out.

I call dibs on Benelux and possibly other parts of western Europe
I don't have any interest in the game whatsoever in terms of warfare. My interest in the game is mostly to "better the lives of the residents of my country" even if that country and its residents are fictional.
(I wrote this last night and forgot to hit post reply)

LECTURE III: THE WEAPONS OF WAR, GENERAL OVERVIEW

How can one fight a war?

You surely cannot win a war with just men. Just sending men is a bad idea, because they will all die and be shot. You have to equip your men.

You need weapons.

But Prof.(?) Warlord, what weapons?

Well, that's the subject of this lecture. This is a general overview, I'm going into more detail in other lectures.

Let's see.

What kind of weapons are used on the ground and with your army?

• Rifles: The Bread and Butter of your Army. Every soldier should have at least 1 rifle, because that's what they shoot at the enemy with. Among rifles, there are two types.
  • Bolt-Action: Uses a bolt and manual reloading. The bolt must be used each time you want to fire, but it is favored by some for its accuracy and reliability.
  • Semiautomatic: Fires each time one pulls the trigger. Less reliable or accurate, but the faster rate of fire might make up for that.
• Sidearms: This is for close-range combat. There are many types of pistols you can use, but preferably you want a good emergency weapon because that's what a pistol is.
  • Revolver: They are reliable but have a low ammo capacity. Not recommended for standard use but if one is really out of options it is a viable option.
  • Semiautomatic Pistol: A fine example is the M1911. Reliable, fast-firing, high ammo capacity. Definitely recommended.
• Grenades: Bombs. A good grenade should fragment well, because Grenades rarely kill. Grenades injure by using shrapnel, not blowing the enemy up.
• Machine Gun: This is to fight the enemy at a squad level.
  • Light Machine Gun: Carried by a single person, it is the standard squad weapon firing rounds up to 7.62mm. DP-27 is a good example.
  • Medium Machine Gun: Still portable but less so, generally firing rounds up to 7.62mm. The M1919 is a good example. It can also be called the General-Purpose Machine Gun.
  • Heavy Machine Gun: The famous M2 Browning and DShK are good examples. Fires Calibers up to 12.7mm.
• Anti-Tank Weapons: There are many types, but what needs to be known is that they are heavy-duty weapons that kill tanks, especially from behind.
• Tanks: Whoo, I'm going to be doing a whole sections on these. But just remember for now that the Tank is first and foremost a combined arms vehicle, and is made to support infantry in their advances. Tanks alone are big, vulnerable creatures. With infantry, they become a terrifying armored monster.
• APC: Transports personnel safely, and cannot be underrated for use.
• Trains: The primary logistical transport of the Army. It sends everything. It receives everything. It is not a direct weapon, but it does ship the weapons on this list. It ship the food, everything.

What about Weapons in the Air?

• Machine Gun: The standard dogfighting weapon, having a reliable Air-to-Air Machine gun is important for dogfights. The 20mm ShVAK cannon is a good example of a Machine gun that was used in the Yak-7 Fighter.
• Bombs: There are many types of Bombs.
  • General-Purpose Bombs: Built to blow up infantry and buildings alike, should be the main bomb in inventory.
  • Concrete "Bombs": Basically an aerodynamically improved rock that is dropped as a bomb. Cheaper than normal bombs, but also less effective.
  • Earthquake Bomb: An armor-piercing Bomb. Designed to piece meters of earth before detonating to destroy very heavily fortified structures.
  • Firebombs: A bomb that sets things on fire. Lots of things on fire.
  • Blockbuster Bomb: A large bomb which deals most of its damage by raw explosive power.
• Rockets: They are experimental and cannot be used before 1941, but are decent Air-to-Air Weapons.

Naval Weapons

• Naval Gun: Oh, I could go on and on about this one. But it's basically an upscaled rifle with a huge, aerodynamic, exploding bullet. I'm dedicating a good portion of the eventual Battleships lecture on this, so stay tuned.
  • Battleship Gun: No formal definition, but definitely over 279mm (11 inches). Guns over 508mm (20 inches) not recommended as weapon due to slow rate of fire.
  • Cruiser Gun: No formal definition, but definitely over 152mm (6 inches). Guns over 305mm (12 inches) not recommended due to huge size for Cruiser.
  • Secondary Armament Gun: No formal definition, but definitely over 100mm (4 inches) and under 152mm (6 inches). Guns over 152mm not recommended due to not being able to fit in turret and weight.
• Dual-Purpose Gun: Can be a Heavy AA gun or a light Naval Gun. It can do both, and thus is strongly recommended to make one.
• Torpedoes: The primary armament of Destroyers and Submarines, it basically detonates a High Explosive warhead at the site of impact. It's basically a swimming bomb.
• Antiaircraft Guns: Can be divided into three types.
  • Light AA guns: Caliber up to 25mm. Last-ditch defense against Aircraft, and if those are firing running for over is a good idea.
  • Medium AA guns: Caliber up to 85mm. Normal defense against Aircraft and should be the most numerous type of AA gun on any ship. This Caliber's advantages will be explained extensively.
  • Heavy AA guns: Caliber over 85mm. Huge stopping power, should detonate and spray the planes with shrapnel but if there is a direct collision the plane is boned because no plane can withstand such a large round.
• Naval Mine: Basically an exploding mine in water. Useful for coastal defense, and only coastal defense. But still, recommended for defense against enemy ships and can deter invasions. Minesweepers are meant to deal with them.
• Depth Charge: The bread and butter of ASW. The depth charge can attack Submarines and is basically the only thing that can do so. Destroyers should mount them in large numbers.

See you next time, on LECTURE III-1: LAND WEAPONS.

This is Prof.(?) Warlord678, signing out.

LECTURE III-1: LAND WEAPONS

We're back again.
This time, we explore land weapons, the weapons of the Army.
We've already done a general overview, so let's delve more specifically.
General Advice:

• Try not to have too many different types of ammo lying around. This makes for problems in supplying the troops and creates logistical bottlenecks.
• Any and all weapons should be as simple as possible without compromising performance. The Germans had overengineered weapons. The Panther and Tigers were both overengineered and suffered as a result. The German MG42 sucked because it was overengineered.
• Design teams should have a coherent idea of the priorities and needs of the army they are designing for, if they don't you end up with things like the WWI Ross Rifle, which was extraordinarily accurate but could not fire in most cases due to its unreliability in Trench Warfare and its grueling conditions.

The Rifle:

• A good Rifle is a easy-to-produce rifle and should be able to withstand abuse because it is the standard infantry weapon for your Army. If your rifle is super hard to produce, or falls apart at the slightest provocation, you're doing it wrong.
• Any rifle should have abundant and easily accessible ammo, as well as being easy to use. Both requirements are vital for a rifle which needs to arm hundreds of thousands of people at once. Let me be clear. Your rifle should not require no more than 7 hours of training to use.
• The designers of any rifle should not assume the person using it is a competent, responsible adult which will follow the directions given to them. Three out of five cases, the user does not fulfill at least one of those qualities. (actually, that's a life tip.)
• The Rifle is first and foremost a standard infantry weapon. Having more than two standard issue infantry rifles is wrong.

The Sidearm:

• A good sidearm has all of the qualities of a good rifle.
• I cannot stress this enough. The designers of any sidearm should not assume the person using it is a competent, responsible adult which will follow the instructions given to them. Three out of five cases, the user does not fulfill at least one of those qualities.
• Not much more to say.

The Grenade:

• It should fragment well. The Grenade kills by shrapnel, not the explosion, and a flashy bang won't do anything without the metal shards to back it up.
• It should not explode if the weather sucks or the soldier throws it around a bit. If it explodes when the weather sucks or the soldier plays with it, it is more of a danger to you than the enemy.
• The Grenade should not be unreasonably heavy. If it is unreasonably heavy, the soldier cannot throw it and the Grenade blows up in his face. That is bad.
• The Grenade must be easily throwable. If they cannot throw it, the Grenade blows up in his face.
• Discourage cooking grenades. Yes, I know it looks cool. Yes, it is lethal, not to the enemy but to your own men. Don't let them cook grenades.
  • By cooking, I mean waiting a bit before the grenade blows up. It is not the other kind of cooking, that cooking is for food.
  • But yes, you should discourage altering the grenade for the purpose of altering it chemically and physically to the goal of making it more delicious (also known as cooking in a more household context), because it will be quite altered, and the alteration is otherwise known as an explosion which will kill the idiotic person who was cooking the lethal exploding device.

Machine Guns:

• They should not fail. The times where they are used are to pin down enemy soldiers with suppressing fire or to mow down enemies with impunity, and such a gun failing at such an inopportune time is very bad.
• They should be easy to change barrels. Changing the barrels is an essential component of machine gun operation and you really don't want the barrels overheating.
• Why do you not want the barrels overheating?
  • Warps the barrel and creates damage as well as making the gun inoperable.
  • Parts will melt, making the gun inoperable.
  • The gun may cook off, firing uncontrollably until in burns through the entire ammo stock. In a automatic rifle, this is bad enough. In a machine gun, this is even worse because there is a chance the gun may simply explode.

Mines:

• I personally loathe mines. Mines are weapons that hide in the ground and stay there for many years, ensuring its lethality to civilians and soldiers. Try not to use it.
• Mines are blind. They attack anything, friend or foe. For this reason, planting mines in your own territory is discouraged; this may end up blowing your citizens up if you reclaim this land.
• Try to have a good minesweeper corps. They will prove very useful in dislodging the defenses of your enemies.

Tanks:
The tank is an infantry support vehicle. It can perform many tasks, such as charging into an enemy line and breaking it, or acting as artillery support, or being a giant cavalry unit.
There are three types of tank:

• Light Tank: The Light Tank is a reconnaissance and surprise attack vehicle, that can outmaneuver the heavier and slower Heavy and Medium tanks. It is much more suited to jungle warfare than the other variants, and much faster.
• Medium Tank: The Jack of All trades but master of none, the Medium Tank will eventually evolve into the MBT, but not yet. It can either fight tanks or serve infantry, but some tanks can do both, such as the M4 Sherman or the T-34.
• Heavy Tank: It breaks through enemy lines. That is its primary role, but it has the disadvantages of being hard to supply or hard to repair, or both.

There are many components of a Tank, but the most important ones are as follows:

• Gun: For light tanks, a 37mm gun is good. For medium tanks, such an armament is unacceptable, 50mm or above is mandatory but preferably above 75mm. For heavy tanks, any armament above 75mm is okay. High-Velocity guns are generally more effective at piercing armor and should be used if the tank is playing an anti-tank role. There should also be a medium machine gun or two to deter infantry attack, because infantry can attack from the behind, and for reasons that will be explained in the Armor section, this is very bad.
• Armor: All tanks have one thing in common. The tank has strong armor in front, okay armor at the sides, and terrible armor at the back. This means that if the tank is attacked from the rear, it is done for. That's why it needs the Machine Guns. In any case, most medium tanks have at least 75mm of armor at the front, but bad armor at the back.
• Speed and Maneuverability: Tanks should be faster than walking, and much faster if possible. However, they should have great offroad performance otherwise the tank is useless, because the tank cannot always travel on nice paved roads. If the tank has terrible cross-country performance, it is a bad tank because it cannot do its job at war zones, it's just a peacetime gimmick and not a tank.

The tank has no singular purpose; it has many purposes and has many uses, and should be regarded as such. And don't build crap like the P.1000 Ratte (a tank armed with 283mm guns. Yes, 283mm guns.), or the Japanese light tanks (were utterly obliterated by heavier American tanks, a couple had so little armor AP shells passed right through it), or worst of all the A38 Valiant, a tank that was supposed to be light but heavily armored. Those two things are inherently contradictory.
See you next time on LECTURE III-2: AIR AND NAVAL WEAPONS.
This is Prof.(?) Warlord, signing off.

LECTURE III-2: AIR AND NAVAL WEAPONS

Unfortunately, I am already running out of ways to introduce my lectures.
Okay.
Naval and Air weapons. I've merged them because I have very little to say about Aerial weapons.
Okay. Aerial weapons first.
The Aerial Machine Gun:

• The Machine Gun is an air-to-air weapon, but it is also a strafing weapon. It is a flexible weapon, for both offense and defense.
• It is a weapon for everyone. Bombers and fighters alike can carry them. Do not underestimate the fact that you can stick a machine gun on just about anything.
• A good air-to-air machine gun should have somewhere around the caliber of a light AA gun. Anything about that is too heavy to actually function.

The Bomb:

• General Purpose Bombs: They are a compromise between explosive damage, fragmentation and penetration. This makes them ideal for a variety of tasks, and should be used liberally.
  • The General Purpose Bomb is by no means a master of all; however it should be noted that it can do every single task it is given to it, with varying degrees of effectiveness.
  • The one place where a General Purpose Bomb is useless is in extremely fortified locations. Then again, basically nothing except earthquake bombs are ineffective there.
• Incendiary Bombs have the following effects:
  • Devastatingly effective at razing cities to the ground.
  • Not very effective at attacking fortified locations.
  • It is the definition of collateral damage. It will burn, and it will kill.
• Blockbuster Bombs:
  • The Blockbuster Bomb is meant to destroy by raw explosive power.
  • It destroys large amounts of area by raw explosive power, but it is a shallows sort of destruction.
• Earthquake/"Bunker Buster" Bombs:
  • It can destabilize mountains due to its sheer power.
  • It pierces many meters of soil and fortifications to explode in the foundations of the bunker, utterly obliterating it.
  • It takes a very long time to make.
• Concrete "Bombs"
  • It has the advantage of minimum collateral damage and precise attack capability.
  • It is basically a lump of aerodynamically improved concrete.

The Radar:

• I'm making my transition into Naval Weapons here. The Radar is a devastating tool.
• Having a good radar is of the essence. If your radar is overengineered or stupidly big, you are at a massive disadvantage.
• The Cavity Magnetron is very important.

Alright. Naval Weapons.
Antiaircraft Armament:

• There are three types of AA guns.
  • Light: Caliber up to 25mm, fast rate of fire but low stopping power. Many nations only have light AA, but that's bad.
  • Medium: Caliber up to 85mm, decent rate of fire and okay stopping power. Medium AA is the bread and butter of antiaircraft armament.
  • Heavy: Caliber over 85mm, not that good rate of fire but good stopping power and explosive ability.
• There are also some AA rockets. Those are close-range weapons.
• You need good fire control systems to have good AA.
• AA is a vital part of a warship, because it fends off Aircraft Carriers and their attack squadrons. Never underestimate AA or its value.

Naval Guns:
Moving forward, let's define the types of naval guns.

• Small-Caliber Guns: Guns with a barrel diameter under 203mm.
• Large-Caliber Guns: Guns with a barrel diameter over 203mm.

But they are defined not just by their size, but by their roles.

• Antiaircraft Gun: Yes, AA guns are a part of this. The largest of them have diameters up to 102mm.
• Dual-Purpose Gun: Able to perform an anti-ship and antiaircraft role, they have varying diameters but are generally ineffective at diameters over 140mm.
• Anti-Ship Small-Caliber Gun: The largest of them have diameters up to 203mm. They are made to fight ships.

Okay. What should be armed with what?

• Destroyers should be armed with Dual-Purpose guns if after 1932. If before, consider a 3-inch gun or 4-inch anti-ship gun.
• Cruisers should be armed with 6-inch guns at least after 1920. Before that, a 4-inch battery is acceptable. Keep in mind until 1930, a centerline main battery gun Cruiser design is impossible.
• Battleships should be armed differently according to the weight class. Just keep in mind that a 3-gun turret of a certain diameter is roughly to a 2-gun turret of certain diameter+51mm.

There are two ways of making large-Caliber Naval Guns.
Wire-Wound:
Wire-Wound guns basically mean that one winds a wire around the inner liner repeatedly, applying tons of force. Before 1900, this is basically the only way to build large-caliber naval guns because it is easier to do so thanks to it being able to ensure consistent metallurgy throughout the gun. However, it is both weaker and heavier than the Built-Up gun and is unable to build long guns over 45 Calibers, because it may droop.
Built-Up:
Built-Up guns use hoops to put force on the inner liner. This method of construction is harder than wire-wound, but also lighter and stronger, and able to build guns up to 55 Calibers before droop sets in. I recommend using this method as soon as possible.
Why is gun droop a bad thing?
Because it adversely affects accuracy. Severely.
Okay. Let's discuss Caliber. The Caliber of a gun depends on its barrel length. 50 Caliber means that the length of the gun is 50 times its barrel diameter. Longer Caliber means more muzzle velocity. More muzzle velocity is generally a good thing. Generally.
The three most important specifications of a gun are Caliber, Muzzle Velocity and Shell Weight.
Having a heavier shell is a good thing. Having a faster muzzle velocity is a good thing.
However, they are opposed to each other.
This means that should you want a high shell weight and high muzzle velocity gun, you have to have a barrel of at least 50 Calibers and then some. But a longer gun and heavier shell means you have to increase the displacement of your ship. That's a problem.
Generally, 45-Caliber guns have reduced performance over 50-Caliber guns but are substantially lighter. 50-caliber guns can have a heavy shell and okay muzzle velocity, or vice versa.
Also, the higher velocity a gun is, the more barrel wear occurs. In addition, higher muzzle velocity results in the gun being able to penetrate armor better at short and medium range and having a longer range in general. Heavier shell weight means that the gun is better at medium and long range combat as well as retaining the muzzle velocity it has very well, but has a lesser muzzle velocity than it could be.
Keep in mind, a gun with good performance in both is possible, you just need a long barrel.
A HE shell is good for shore bombardment, but an AP shell is good for fighting other capital ships. Remember that you should have both at an optimal ratio for each gun.
Torpedoes:
The Torpedo is the primary armament of lighter ships.
There are many ways to make them, but one of the most risky approaches is the Japanese "Long Lance". This gave SEU Nightmares when fighting the IJN.
The Long Lance Torpedo has a massive diameter and length. It is also oxygen-propelled. It has a massive detonating charge, that cannot be easily detected thanks to its unique propulsion system. It had a long range and extraordinary offensive power. All this adds up to the Torpedo being extraordinarily dangerous... for both IJN and enemy. It was very explosive, and was very effective. However, when one of those things were ignited, the ship carrying them exploded and was heavily damaged.
The USN Mark 14 and 15 torpedoes were decent, but the Mark 14's Mark 6 detonator, despite being the most advanced and most secret detonator to date, failed to work on many occasions. Other than that, it was okay.
It's down to which doctrine you want to choose. If the enemy you want to fight has a stronger Economic Capacity, you need to have asymmetric capabilities. If the enemy is smaller or equal, you can use the USN doctrine.
I don't have much to say about the other weapons.
See you next time, on LECTURE IV: LAND WARFARE.
Prof.(?) Warlord678, signing out.

LECTURE IV: LAND WARFARE

Hi and welcome back to the lectures.
Today's topic is Land Warfare. How do you do that?
Let's review the units that an army has. I am not going to bother reviewing stuff like the "Fireteam". That's like 5 people and 5 people is just a number in the grand scale of New Nations.
No, I'm going to review stuff that actually matters on the grand scale.

• Brigade: Around 5,000 men. The Brigade consists of many battalions, like Infantry Battalions, Scouting Battalions or Supply Battalions. The Brigade is a self-contained fighting unit, but it is too small to act independently.
• Division: Around 10,000 to 25,000 men. The Division is the smallest military unit capable of independent operation that is self-contained. This means that the Division can act independently of the main Army if need be, and are the smallest units worth displaying on maps.
• Corps: Around 30,000 to 50,000 men. The Corps are the basic building blocks of an Army and should be treated as such. The Corps is the largest military unit that is not indefinitely self-sufficient with supply.
• Field Army: Around 100,000 to 300,000 men. A Field Army can conduct operations and is the largest single unit displayed on a map. The Field Army is indefinitely self-sufficient with men and materiel shipped in periodically.
• Army Group: 4+ Field Armies. They should be assigned broad objectives like "Take this large region of Poland". The Army Group is enormous, and is the largest unit of military that can be commanded by military men. Any larger than this and the nation, the politics come into play.
• Theater: 2+ Army Groups. This is the largest and most grand setting of war. National Leaders should be commanding theaters, because any major change in a theater is a major change for the NATION.
  • Okay. Basic rule of thumb for theaters.
    • You are involved in 1 theater: Good Job! You are fighting right! You aren't fighting a two-front war!
    • You are involved in 2 theaters: Not optimal, but you can still turn it around. Two-front wars are bad, but not that bad.
    • You are involved in 3 theaters: I'm beginning to suspect you are cheating.
    • You are involved in 4+ theaters: How did you even anger this many nations into fighting you?
      

Okay. These are the types of planning you should really know.

• Tactical Planning: Short-Term, over days and weeks.
• Operational Planning: Medium-Term, over months. This is your General's Jobs. Some are good, some are... less good.
• Strategic Planning: Long-Term, over years. This is your job.

But you're running a nation. You're concerned about Operational and Strategic things.
Alright.

• Desert: Hot. Sandy. Full of Death. Basically the only good thing about desert is that it is flat and good Tank Country, unless your tank is very bad at ventilation. Good for defenders, bad for attackers.
• Swamp: Lukewarm. Watery. Full of Death. There is nothing good about swamps, for attacker or defender. Swamps should be avoided.
• Mountains: Hard to scale, hard to supply. This is basically ideal for the defenders and terrible for attackers; a well fortified mountain position can last for years, unless your opponent has the aforementioned "Earthquake Bombs". That can deal with fortified mountain positions real fast.
• Forests: Good for defenders, meh for attackers. There are ways to deal with jungle; there are ways to fight ambushes. But the Forests provide many places to hide; not good.
• Plains: Not good for the defenders, ideal for the attackers. Flat, easy to resupply, good tank country, everything an attacker could ask for.
• The City: Decent for defenders, nightmare for attackers. It's not easy to forage in Cities, for obvious reasons. It's also a giant concrete jungle where defenders can hide anywhere. But the defenders, if surrounded, are also starving, and also undersupplied. DON'T BRING TANKS INTO A CITY. JUST DON'T.
• Rivers: Great places to make defensive lines. Crossing a river isn't the easiest thing in the World, and it's a source of fresh water assuming no one's poisoned it.

Urban Warfare:

• Urban Warfare is just another type of terrain.
• Urban Warfare is full of house-to-house fighting. This is, without a doubt, one of the most brutal kinds of warfare.
• There is no grand strategy in Urban Warfare. Expect orders to go ignored on a regular basis.
• In Urban Warfare, the defending side gains a force multiplier thanks to many opportunities for ambush. A 1:1 Battle between the attacker and defender will probably result in the attacker losing.
• The attacker can fight on their terms. This is the single advantage the attacker has in Urban Warfare; this is the attacker's fight, milk it for all it's worth.

Seasons:

• Spring: Nice, Warm, good times for all, with the exception of not being easy to forage.
• Summer: Hot and uncomfortable, disease spreads well. Both defenders and attackers suffer in this weather.
• Fall: Cool, but it's the prelude to Winter. It's not the worst or best time.
• Winter: Sucks for everyone. The Infamous Russian Winter is part of this.

General Tips:

• The further you are from your supply bases, the harder it becomes to supply you.
• The Army marches on its stomach. Do not stretch the Army beyond its capabilities.
• Do not invade extremely large nations unless you yourself are extremely large. Invading large nations while being small is a recipe for disaster, and nothing good will come out of it.
• Generally, invading by sea faraway nations is hard. Try to avoid it if at all possible, because supplying an army through the sea is hard.

See you next time, on LECTURE V: AIR WARFARE.
This is Prof. (?) Warlord678, signing out.

LECTURE V: AIR WARFARE

How do you Air Warfare?

Well, there are two components.

The Air and Ground.

The Air component consists of Aircraft.

Okay.

There are many types of Aircraft.

The Fighter's sole purpose is to fight other Aircraft. Its role is to establish Air Superiority over the Airspace; it secures the Airspace you need.

The Fighter is smaller, cheaper, and more maneuverable than other Aircraft. It is armed for Air-to-Air Combat, although there were some models equipped for ground attack. The most important qualities of a Fighter is maneuverability and armament.

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero is a fine Fighter, even if it is Naval. It combines maneuverability and range.

But there are many types of Fighters.

The Zero was a long-range Naval Fighter.

There are many types of Fighters.

• Day Fighters: Fighters equipped only to fight at day.
• All-Weather Fighters: Fighters equipped to fight at low-visibility conditions.
• Fighter-Bomber: Made to shoot and bomb at the same time.
• Escort Fighter: Made to escort actual bombers.

It's very hard not to turn Light Fighters to All-Weather Fighters. Heavy Fighters are much more long-range and powerful.

The Yak-7 is a decent Soviet Fighter, while the Bf 109 German Fighter is a fine Fighter that served for many years; the Fw 190 is also good.

The Bomber's role is to blow things to bits with explosive.

There are three types of Bombers.

• Light Bombers: The Light Bomber is a short-range, low-payload bomber. The Light Bomber's purpose is battlefield support and nations next to each other attacking each other.
• Medium Bombers: International Bombers with medium load; their purpose is to attack through international borders.
• Heavy Bombers: Bombers with a Heavy Load and somewhat long range. This is the pinnacle of long-range warfare.
  • trategic Bomber: Really long-range bombers, used to destroy the Warmaking capacity of the opponent.

The Bomber is the reason the other things exist. It can attack airfields, the industrial capacity of the enemy... it's the most important part of Air Warfare; reconnaissance and Ground Attack are both important, but the most important part is Bombing.

The Reconnaissance Aircraft's role is to gather information about the enemy.

A good example is a Catalina Flying Boat. They are meant to be fast and high-flying, so that they can gather maximum intelligence and be not shot down by 5-inch guns.

The Ground Attack Aircraft's role is to attack ground, and support the army in ground operations.

They have to be heavily armed; it must be robust.

It must be able to support the infantry; in short, it is the flying version of a Tank.

It doesn't have to be particularly fast; it's not a fighter, it's meant to support the ground.

The Il-2 is, unequivocally, the best of the WW2 Ground Attack Aircraft. Armed with many Rockets, Autocannons and Guns, and heavily armored, the Il-2 was manufactured in huge numbers and beat the crap of the Nazis; the Soviet Union needed them like bread and butter.

The Il-2 was on par with the Katyusha on terms of beating up Nazis.

Okay.

The Ground Component;

The Ground was just as important as the Air.

The thing is, the ground component is mostly based on defense.

Alright. Now's high time I discussed the Radar.

THE RADAR.

I cannot understate its importance. Having a good radar allows you to excel in Naval and Aerial Combat.

The Radar is basically a device that detects things.

But the thing is, the Radar has many uses.

For example, the Radar can detect the Air Raids of your enemies. That is invaluable.

In addition, the Radar is useful for Naval Fire control. Combined with a good computer and a good fire control system, it's like doubling the fire rate. So have good fire control.

To do that, you need the Cavity Magnetron; invent it sometime.

The Radar has many derivative devices, such as the Radar Jammer, or Radar Detector; they ae both quite useful tools and some ships can use them if they are stealth-focused. I mean, IT'S WW2. The highest level of "Stealth Technology" is dazzle painting.

In any case.

There are many weapons you can use against your enemies.

The light AA guns like the 20mm Oerlikon or 40mm Bofors is useful at fending off close-range attack. The 40mm Bofors is particularly good because you can unify it with the NAVAL 40mm Bofors, both producing the same ammo and same gun. The 40mm Bofors is without question the best AA gun of WW2. It can stop enemy Aircraft with a high fire rate; it is a good gun.

The 20mm Oerlikon is also a good weapon and it can also be unified navally, but it has low stopping power. This basically means that you can attack, but don't expect the Aircraft to stop bombing you just because you shot at it with the 20mm.

The German 88mm AA gun is one of the best in WW2 built for the pure AA role. Heavy shell and caliber, good stopping power and good firing rate makes it superior to the 5-inch 38-Caliber USN Dual-Purpose gun in the AA role. A 102mm gun could also stop enemy Bombers. Basically, the 88mm guns and up are for stopping enemy Bombers.

You need effective Bomb shelters. You can build them in basements... anything deep, really.

Just have a system for getting people into them; also, try to harden the most important stuff against bombs.

See you in the next lecture, LECTURE VI, Naval Warfare.

This is Prof (?). Warlord678, signing out.

Not gonna lie this is helpful....
Watch out next NN

Still my favorite quote from this series.
I try to hone my snarking arts by watching the History Channel Drachinifel.
Go check him out.

LECTURE VI: NAVAL WARFARE

Naval Warfare is a complicated thing.

There are many types of ships.

Let's go over them.

Corvettes are the smallest proper warships. This basically means they are ridiculously cheap and you can build hundreds of them but also only useful for fighting Pirates unless paired with larger Capital ships/Oil Tankers. Also, some nations choose to forgo Corvettes entirely in favor of...

Frigates. The Frigate can also fight Pirates. In addition, if paired with a Tanker they can fight Submarines; they are much more capable than the Corvette in all areas. They are also basically only useful for ASW in the open seas; they'll get torn apart fighting anything else.

Destroyers are the first ship that can fight larger ships head to head. They are equipped with many things. There are some subtypes of the Destroyer. The main armament of the Destroyer are the Depth Charges, Guns, and Torpedoes. They are defined by their armament.

The Universal Characteristics of a Destroyer:

Fast.

Lightly Armored.

Strong Armament.

Small and Cheap.

• Gun Destroyers: Their thing is Antiaircraft and Antisurface action. While not as effective in the AS role, it is quite effective in the AA role.
• Torpedo Destroyers: Their thing is attacking larger Capital ships, and attacking other ships with Torpedoes. But they lack Antiaircraft Armament because of their Torpedo Armament, and are basically really good Anti-Ship and only Anti-Ship.
• Antisubmarine Warfare Destroyers: Their thing is ASW and is more fit to escort commerce than fight in the Open Sea.

Cruisers are the jack of all trades and capable of everything.
An Ideal Cruiser is somewhat good at AA, somewhat good at Anti-Surface, somewhat good at scouting, and somewhat good at escorting.
There are two types of Cruisers

• Light Cruisers are Cruisers with a gun Caliber of 152mm or less.
• Heavy Cruisers are Cruisers with a gun Caliber of 152mm or more.
• Antiaircraft Cruisers are Cruisers that have a large number of Dual-Purpose or AA guns.
• "Pocket Battleships" are just really overgunned Cruisers, with a gun caliber that is 279mm or more. It's the equivalent of putting all your points into ATK.

Battleships are the stars of Naval Warfare. I could go into length about Battleships, but I'll keep it short.

• Battlecruisers trade guns or armor for speed.
• Fast Battleships are well armed, fast, and decently armored.

The Battleship has an armament of at least 6 large-Caliber guns. Some have up to 16, although this is not a practical design decision. Instead, if one really wants many guns, they should have 12.
There are many layouts of guns.
AB-X: 2-gun turrets.
AB-XY, 2-gun turrets.
AB-X, 3-gun turrets.
AB-X, A and X 4-gun turrets, B 2-gun turret.
AB-X, 4-gun turrets.
AB-XY, 3-gun turrets.
Keep in mind that any more than 4 guns in one turret causes the firing rate to be impractically slow. In addition, any gun over 508mm in Caliber is impractically large. Now, I'm stretching the limits of reality a bit here, but I'm GM and for the sake of fun I declare that all guns up to 457mm are practical, 508mm is stretching it, and anything over that is just dumb. Actually, 457mm is stretching it in real life, 508mm is just too large.
Keep in mind building 3-gun or 4-gun turrets for the first time is hard. For less industrially capable nations, they should consider purchasing from larger nations second-rate Battleships that are a generation behind the norm for the titans. For example, when the heavyweights are building ships with 381mm and 406mm guns, you can purchase a 330mm to 356mm gun Battleship. But won't they be destroyed by the newer and stronger Battleships? If you're concerned with defense, then your second-rate Battleship will suffice.
In addition, building Capital ships is not easy; you need huge docks that require a large industrial capacity to build.
So basically, building enormous Capital Ships is hard; you should just purchase if you aren't a powerhouse.
The Aircraft Carrier is the revolutionary new kid on the block.
Keep in mind that the Aircraft Carrier is many things, but that above all it is a long-range force projection tool. In addition, it is rather lightly armored and rather fast. Keep in mind the Aircraft Carrier is not a durable thing at all; a flexible fleet is the best.
There are 2 types of Aircraft Carriers.

• Escort Carriers: The Escort Carrier is around 10k tons, slower and lighter than the much more powerful Fleet Carriers. But they are vital in escorting Battleships and giving them Air Cover to supplement the onboard AA systems.
• Fleet Carriers: More powerful than the Escort Carriers, at around 25-30k tons. Faster and Heavier, and carries more punch; a Fleet Carrier can overwhelm the AA of a smaller Battleship and sink it, and medium ones will be hobbled, although truly enormous ones may be able to tank the bombs through excellent Torpedo Defense and Deck Armor, and use their truly enormous AA arrays to destroy the Aircraft leaving the Carrier a sitting duck.

The Submarine is a boat, except that it can go underwater.
The Submarine's primary armament is torpedoes. Submarines are stealthy and have an overwhelming advantage over Surface Ships in Ship-to-Ship combat. However, they are unable to fight Aircraft or support amphibious landings. Submarines are really good at anti-surface ship warfare, but virtually useless at anything else.
The Minesweeper sweeps mines. That is their sole purpose, and is very good at dislodging the shore defenses of your enemies; this means that they are good for amphibious invasion. This means they are vital for anyone who wants to fight by sea.
The Supply Ship is made to resupply ships; ships require food, water and oil. The Supply ship fulfills this need, and the ultimate purpose of the supply ship is to help other ships, and to extend the range. A good supply ship infrastructure is vital for power projection, because Destroyers have a short range means that they need to be fueled and fed.
Alright. There are three types of navies.
Brown-Water Navy: Riverine-Coastal Defense.
Green-Water Navy: Advanced near-Coast operations.
Blue-Water Navy: High Seas Operations.
Large Capital ships only really have one purpose; power projection in the High Seas.
Commerce Raiding Tips:

• Submarines should be your primary raiding tool. If your commerce raiding force consists of only surface ships, you're doing it wrong.
• Surface Ships should either be distractions for other Submarine Raids or otherwise secondary. Not saying Surface Ships can't be commerce raiders; they most certainly can be.
• Sink as many commerce ships as possible; no mercy.
• There are dedicated Capital Ships whose purpose is to Raid Commerce; use them. Ultra-Large Battleships can also raid commerce.

Commerce Raiding Defense Tips:

• USE THE CONVOY SYSTEM.
• ASW is the most vital part of Convoy Defense. Anti-Surface Ship is secondary.
• Commerce Raider Battleships may appear; the best defense against a Commerce Raider Battleship is another Battleship; a universal trait of Commerce Raider Battleships is that they are lightly armed.

But above all, the most important part of Commerce Raiding, Defense and Attack alike.
How many enemy warships you are sinking is less important than how much commerce you are destroying.
Okay. Let's discuss fire control and radar.
You need a good fire control system to extract as much effectiveness as possible from your guns. A good fire control system can turn a supposed underdog into a fair opponent, and a fair opponent into an invincible foe.
There are two parts to a good fire control system.

• Mechanical Computers are the ones that crunch the data given to it by the Radar. A good mechanical Computer is essential to a fire control system.
• Radars give the data. They should be accurate enough for gunlaying. OR the optics. The Optics also give the needed data to calculate firing ranges.

Naval Warfare General Tips:

• Know your capabilities, and know the enemy.
• The Sea is a Road.

See you next time on LECTURE VI-1: BATTLESHIPS.

LECTURE VI-1: BATTLESHIPS

The Battleship is the Lord of the Sea and a platform for Heavy Naval Guns. There are many types of Battleships, but let's discuss what makes a Battleship.

Let's discuss Propulsion and Range.

The speed of any Battleship is decided by the era and displacement of the ship; immediately going into the Dreadnought Era it should be 21 knots or so, maybe 23. In any case, the Battle Line should be around that speed. In the Super Dreadnought Era, it should be around 25 knots if you are using Oil Fuel Engines. Keep in mind Coal is cheaper and you don't have to make the switch until 1921!

After 1921, there is a bright new technology. Oil Engines. It is recommended you make the switch, and fast. Sticking with Coal is like sticking with Triple Expansion Engines. It's dumb.

Okay, should probably explain a few things.

The Dreadnought is a type of ship. The stereotypical Dreadnought carries an all-big gun main battery, Turbine Engines, and a speed of 21 knots or more.

The Pre-dreadnought carries a mixed-gun battery, Triple Expansion Engines, and a lower speed. This means that building a single dreadnought is around as good as building 2 predreadnoughts.

Okay.

So; Pre-dreadnought <<< Dreadnought < Super Dreadnought < Fast Battleships < Large Fast Battleships

Pre-dreadnought to Dreadnought:

• Overwhelming improvement on Armament, Speed and Protection.

Dreadnought to Super Dreadnought

• Leaps of improvement in Armament.

Super Dreadnought to Fast Battleship

• Substantial Improvement in Speed and Protection, some improvement in Armament.

Fast Battleship to Large Fast Battleship:

• Branches from here; most often improvements in Armament and Protection.

You will notice that the leap from pre-Dreadnought to Dreadnought is characterized by 3 <s. It's a leap in warship design, so DON'T, FOR GOD'S SAKE, BUILD ANY PREDREADNOUGHTS AFTER 1900. NOT WORTH IT. WASTE OF VALUABLE MONEY.
Okay. Little rant about Dreadnoughts aside.
Range.
Your range is decided by the Cruising Speed in some part. This is in the 1920s and 1930s, not anything before. This also assumes you use Oil.
15,000 NM of range at 15 knots is good for Pacific Navies; the USN (and by extension their #1 fanboy the SEUN) uses this range to achieve results.
8,000 NM of range at 19 knots is good for more European Navies.
Even less, like 5,000 NM is only for Russia, Greece or Italy which are bottled up in weird places.
Speed and Range aside, there is the concern of armament.
There are a plethora of layout for guns you could choose for your Capital Ships.
But first...
Twin/2-Gun Turrets:

• Beginning of any potential NN game before it becomes unrecognizable-end of Battleship Era (Late 1940s-Early 1950s).
• Reliable, fast firing, and technically easy to make and maintain.
• Takes up a lot of deck room and displacement; not ideal for a large number of guns.

Triple/3-Gun Turrets:

• 1921-end of Battleship Era (Late 1940s-Early 1950s).
• Jack of All trades, Master of None. Compromise between 2-gun turrets and 4-gun turrets, takes up less displacement.

Quadruple/4-Gun Turrets:

• 1921-end of Battleship Era (Late 1940s-Early 1950s).
• Many guns in one turret mean that one hit can take out many guns, and it has a slower firing rate.
• Reduces displacement a lot, French liked it for that reason.

Now, let's discuss Gun Layouts.
Here are the more..."Vanilla" options.
AB-XY, 2-Gun Turrets: the most conventional Gun Layout for the Royal Navy, evenly spread turrets mean equal Bow and Stern firepower and hard to take down all guns at once.
AB-X, 3-Gun Turrets: the most conventional Gun Layout for the US Navy, hard to take out all guns at once, but lower stern attack Capability, although this gives improved Bow attack capability.
AB-XY, 3-Gun Turrets: the most conventional layout for those seeking 12 guns. Even bow and aft attack capability and large numbers of guns make this attractive to some Navies.
For more obscure options...
AB-PQ-XY, 2-Gun Turrets: 12 guns, but large displacement make this... unattractive.
AB, 4-Gun Turrets: All-Forward Firepower and a decent number of guns as well as low displacement makes this a competitive choice for some navies.
A-X, 4-Gun Turrets: Still lowering displacement with decent firepower, it isn't as quite attractive to some but the balanced firing capability may make up for the loss.
AB-X, 4-Gun Turrets: A more sensible version of the above (to some, anyway). 12 guns but less displacement, and concentration of armor make this a viable alternative to the AB-X 3-Gun Turret layout.
AB-X, A and X 4-Gun, B 2-Gun: An odd arrangement only used in the King George the V-Class Battleships to save displacement; the 2-gun turret is to reduce displacement and improve stability.
Okay. You have your precious layout.
But what about the Caliber?
279mm and 305mm are thoroughly okay in the Dreadnought Period, but when Super Dreadnoughts come along you're going to have to rethink your guns.
330mm to 356mm are good in the Super Dreadnought Period.
In the Fast Battleship Period, there can be many types of guns. But the most prominent are the 381mm to 406mm Caliber.
The 432mm to 457mm Caliber are good choices for the Large Fast Battleship Period.
Okay. Let's discuss Guns Tierlists.
This is frankly all me saying what I believe.
Let's discuss some Guns.
German 283mm 45-Caliber: Not that good of a gun, honestly. Defective shell design and ineffective everything.
German 305mm 50-Caliber: Excellent Armor Penetration and Good High-Velocity Gun. Only second to the Russian 52-Caliber, but that's just weirdly OP.
French 330mm 50-Caliber: Good HV Gun, but mediocre Deck Penetration.
Japanese 356mm 45-Caliber: The most reliable gun of the IJN, and of a wire-wound design. It was probably the best WW1-Era 14-inch gun, even surpassing the USN 14-inch 50-Caliber.
British 381mm 42-Caliber: The best Gun, without question, in WW1. Legendary penetration, reliability, and accuracy. Served well into WW2 as a decent 381mm gun, when there were guns that were 8-10 Calibers longer and a generation newer, and didn't do that bad against them.
US 406mm 50-Caliber: The best 16-inch gun. The USN Mark 8 Superheavy shell and long Caliber gave this gun superior penetration to all counterparts with excellent shell weight and decent Muzzle Velocity.
(FICTIONAL) SEU 457mm 50-Caliber: Firing an immensely Heavy shell, this gun was on par with some 20-inch gun designs. Despite a lower firing rate than other guns, it was individually superior by a mile and was, I daresay, even better than the USN 406mm 50-Caliber for which it was trying to copy, even if the USN gun was scaled up. The best Naval Gun of New Nations in firepower, although its ridiculously heavy shell weight meant that it was also heavy and increased the displacement of the ships carrying it and occasionally the guns burst due to the huge power charge used to get the projectile up to desired MV.
Let's discuss the properties of Guns.
There are two approaches to making your gun better.
Heavier Shells, or Faster muzzle velocity. Both are entirely valid.
Heavier Shells give a better long-range penetration at the cost of short-range belt penetration ability.
Faster MV give a better short-range ability at the cost of deck armor penetration.
Which method you use is up to you. You choose.
Just keep in mind a longer gun means faster MV, and a larger powder charge means faster MV at the risk of spontaneous explosion.
The secondary armament should be a dual-purpose if DP guns are even available at your time period. All good DP guns are around 127 mm give or take 13mm. All good DP guns have a fast rate of fire. All good DP guns are reliable. So, take the example of the 127mm 38-Caliber USN.
The AA Armament needs to be very large and very well coordinated to have a good effect; just having like 500 guns aren't enough; you need coordination, and the fire control director can help you with that. Even AA guns need good fire control, or all they'll be doing is acting as very expensive fireworks.
Preferably, you want a good mixed battery of some light AA guns, some medium and some heavy. All light and you end up like the IJN where their crappy 25mm gun failed to make a dent in American attacks. So... um... your guns need to be good. Be like the USN and rigorously test the guns to make it easy to produce and effective at AA, and every gun (except the 25mm Hotchkiss. The 25mm Hotchkiss can have a medal for assisting the Americans liberate my fatherland from Japan's Empire.) can be a 40mm Bofors.
Okay...
Okay...
Let's talk about protection.
There are 3 important segments of protection.
Main Armor Belt.
Deck Armor.
Torpedo Bulkheads.
The Main Armor belt should be inclined and at least the Caliber of its own guns -51mm +3-6mm, unless you're using a Superheavy shell or HV gun, in which case just add 3-6mm. The Main Armor belt should be at least as long as the machinery and magazines. The main armor belt has some problems; namely, the fact that some MABs are inside the ship. If at all possible, it should not be that way. It's easier to maintain and remove to replace Main Armor Belts if they are not inside the damn ship.
The Deck Armor becomes increasingly important in larger ships as they take up a larger and larger portion of the ship's armor protection in comparison to the Main Armor Belt. The deck armor should be at least 12 inches thick to protect from Aerial Bombs; not practical. So the deck armor should only be as thick as needed to protect against enemy shells that come down at the deck; in certain ridiculously large Capital Ships, the deck armor can protect against certain aerial bombs.
See you in LECTURE VI-2: BATTLESHIP TYPES
This is Prof (?). Warlord678, signing out.