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Rule the Waves III
Asid:
Rule the Waves 3 - Dev Diary #4 - The Ironclad and Pre-dreadnought era
Tue, May 9, 2023
The Ironclad age (the 1890 start in RTW3) has some marked differences from the time of the First World War, and brings its own interesting tactical challenges.
Combat ranges tend to be short. Gun sights and fire control are relatively primitive. The heavy guns that are in existence might sem impressive, some of them at 13 inches of calibre. However, these guns have short barrels with low ranges and are very slow to reload. This is denoted in game by a gun quality -2 or -3. They fire at less than one round per minute, and have poor accuracy to boot. Armor penetration is low, so even if they do manage to hit something, it is uncertain if they will cause much damage. This means that medium guns are relatively more important. They have better rate of fire compared to the heavy guns of the era, and even if they do not penetrate armor, they can wreck superstructure and cause fires. This is the reason ships from this time only have a few heavy guns, but comparatively large secondary and tertiary batteries.
French and Italian Ironclads in combat
Poor accuracy and low armor penetration tend to make battles of this era somewhat indecisive. There can be a lot of firing , but not very much serious damage. Torpedoes are in their infancy, and have short range and slow speed. It is hard to hit anything with them, but when they do hit, they can cause crippling damage. Damage control is primitive and torpedo defence systems are not developed, which means that a single torpedo hit can be fatal to an ironclad battleship.
An after battle look at the French Battleship Carnot. One torpedo is bad news for a pre-dreadnought battleship, and two means a guaranteed rapid sinking. As you can see from the ranges in the log, combat in this era tends to be at short ranges.
Poor damage control coupled with a weakness to fire of ships of this time means that fires often spread and get out of control. It can be a viable tactic to try to cause fires on enemy ships instead of penetrating their armour. Hits by high explosive shells (HE) are more likely to cause fires to break out than hits from armour piercing rounds (AP). In the doctrine screen, you can set the ammunition used by your ships against variuos targets. Try experimenting with using more HE, especially for medium guns and at longer ranges where AP shells will likely not penetrate anyway. If you do try that, remeber to adjust the ammunition loadout of your ships to carry a larger proportion of HE.
The doctrine screen with options for ammunition type used against different targets depending on range
The steam engines of the era are reciprocating engines that can only keep up high speed for limited time. This means that full speed is something to be saved for when it is really needed. If you zip around at full speed before closing with the enemy, you may find that your ships cannot reach their full speed when you need it most.
However, tecnical development is fast, and already in the first years of the 20th century, gun design, fire control and loading mechanization have progressed to the point where long range fire by heavy guns becomes more practical. Also, with better guns and evolutions in armor piercing shells, armour penetration will start to catch up with armour quality, and big guns can score penetrating hits at longer ranges. Explosives have advanced too, and shell hits will cause more damage. It is not a coincidence that the dreadnought battleship is developed around 1905, as technological developments have by that time made the all big gun battleship a logical next step. This leads us to the dreadnought era, which will be covered in the next Dev Diary.
Asid:
Rule the Waves 3 - Dev Diary #5 - The Dreadnought era
Tue May 16, 2023
The dreadnought era in the game can be said to cover roughly the years between 1905 and 1945. The completion of the first all big gun battleship, the HMS Dreadnought, was a consequence of technical developments that made long range fire by heavy guns more accurate and effective.
Fighting ranges for battleships will be from 10,000 to 20,000 yards in the mid-1910s. The lower bound for combat range will tend to be governed by torpedo ranges. By this time the range and reliability of torpedoes have increased considerably. The speed of battleships will be around 20 knots or slightly above, which is a couple of knots higher than normal pre-dreadnought speeds, and comparable with a cruiser from the 1890s.
German battlecruisers in combat against French battleships
Rule the Waves 3 will show you not only the mechanics of how ships fought, but also why Navies organized as they did and why fleets deployed as they did. In the early dreadnought period, scouting light cruisers advancing in front of the battle fleet are the chief means of situational awareness. Spotting the enemy fleet at an early stage to plan your deployment or decide on whether to engage or withdraw is vital.
The cruiser screen of the German High Seas Fleet
The pace of technical development is still high in the 1920s and 1930s, but not quite at the same breakneck pace as before 1915. Indeed, some battleships that fought in WW1 gave good service in WW2. Battleships will continue to evolve, but the changes are more gradual, like higher speeds and better fire control.
The main development seen in the 1920s and 1930s is the rise of naval aviation. Initially, the main contribution of naval aviation is better scouting. Early aircraft have low ranges, limited weapons loads and doubtful reliability, so their ability to hurt undamaged ships is limited. Soon however, aircraft develop until by the 1930s they can be a serious threat to battleships. This will lead to a flurry of reconstruction, as existing battleships need to be equipped with anti-aircraft guns to be able to protect themselves against air attack.
A battlecruiser from the 1910s being rebuilt with more anti aircraft guns.
The rise of naval aviation will also cause the development of aircraft carriers. Initially, aircraft carriers will be conversions of existing ships, but with time you will be able to build purpose built aircraft carriers.
By the 1940s, airpower will start to play a more and more important role in naval warfare. Battleships will need their own air carrier based air support and think twice before they enter constricted waters in range of enemy airfields. The era of the dreadnought battleship will draw to a close. At the same time, developments in jet aircraft will make many carriers obsolete. But that is the subject of our next Dev Diary.
Asid:
Rule the Waves 3 - Dev Diary #6 - Jets and the Missile Age
Wed, May 17, 2023
After the mid-1940s, jet aircraft enter the scene. Existing aircraft carriers will have to be rebuilt to handle jet aircraft, adding blast barriers and angled flight decks. As carriers will need to be larger to handle heavier jet aircraft, carrier sizes will grow. Eventually, supercarriers of upwards of 60,000 tons will be the norm.
A carrier in the jet era.
The battleship will still have a role to play, but it will be eclipsed as the ultimate expression of naval might by the large aircraft carrier. Jet aircraft will eventually evolve to have allweather and day and night capabilities, but already in the final years of WW2, the missile makes its appearance. At first primitive, with limited range and easy to counter with jamming, guided missiles can still cause grievous harm to surface vessels. This leads to the development of anti-aircraft missiles to give ships longer range air defences against all these threats.
Existing ships can be rebuilt, or completely new missile cruisers constructed. Anti-ship missiles do not consume all that much space, and can be accommodated by most ships. On the other hand, anti-aircraft missile systems and their attendant radar arrays are huge and will take up most of the space on a ship. This will tend to lead to missile cruisers specializing into either anti-aircraft or anti-ship roles.
A fairly typical cruiser in the missile age.
Missiles are initially limited to line of sight, but with improved guidance systems will get longer ranges and even over the horizon capabilities. On the topic of missile combat and missile damage, real world historical experience is limited. A number of ships have been hit by missiles, with a wide variety of results, some being sunk by one missile hit, others taking multiple hits to sink. But there are no examples of large, armoured warships being hit by missiles, so the effectiveness of heavy anti-ship missiles on a dreadnought battleship is really unexplored. That means that the game relies more on informed speculation in the area of missile effectiveness than with, for example, torpedo or shell damage.
Missile damage in game is simulated with more variability than other types of hits. Generally, missile hits are treated as very large HE shells in game with additional incendiary effects (unspent fuel starting fires). They will do more limited damage if they hit the armoured belt, but can do substantial damage to superstructures, and often cause fires.
Incoming missiles
With additional technical development, you will be able to set up strikes from multiple platforms, including land missile batteries and missile submarines.
Setting up a missile strike on enemy ships.
This concludes the Dev Diaries for Rule the Waves 3. We hope these diaries have given you some insight into the breadth of the wargaming experience this game can offer. Over 80 years of naval warfare, starting with ironclads duking it out at 1000 yards and ending with missile shots from over the horizon. No other game covers such a long period of modern naval warfare, or gives such an insight into how technology, ship design and tactics interact and develop over time.
Asid:
Rule the Waves 3 - Out Now
Thu May 18, 2023
We are happy to announce the release of Rule the Waves 3, a naval grand strategy game that places you in command of the great fleets of the 19th and 20th century. Engage in national politics, set your research priorities, build your fleet, and fight massive fleet actions from the age of ironclads to missile destroyers. Rule the Waves 3 is available as a digital edition on Steam, with physical copies available on the Slitherine store.
Asid:
Rule the Waves 3 - Update 1.00.008
Wed, 31 May 2023
Bugfixes, Typos, and Tweaks
We are happy to announce the first update for Rule the Waves 3. We have fixed several bugs and typos, tweaked templates to improve AI ship designs, and added a button to pick a ships name from a historical list.
Whats New in Version 1.00.008
Fixed some glitches in torpedo fire arc visualization in the design window.
Made sure tech sharing agreements are terminated if the nations are at war.
Fixed a tension reduction bug
Fixed some typos.
Made slight adjustments to 1890 engine weight calculations and starting ship speeds.
Fixed a bug in battle generation when one side has too few ships and only DD present.
Fixed a bug that could generate error messages in AIDetermineTacticalStance
Fixed a bug with placement of tertiary gun mounts occasionally not working.
Tweaked some templates so AI generated legacy ships are not overweight in 1890 and 1900.
Fixed a bug in blockade strength calculations.
Removed confusing message "Ships without hangar can not have more aircraft than catapults" when the ship has a helipad.
Added popup menu items to increase or decrease number of tubes in misssile launchers.
Fixed an interface bug that allowed setting missile reloads too high.
Fixed an interface glitch with entering course in numbers in the division status screen.
Fixed a bug with submerged torpedo tubes contributing to topside load.
Added a button to pick ship name from the list of historical names.
Stopped the museum ship from counting as active ship in the almanac.
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