L23 BM4 MrRoboto(Axis) vs Avner (Allies+15) Game 2

[MrRoboto]

Thanks for the game!

[MrRoboto]

One advice I can give you:

Don’t build so many destroyers.
They serve 2 purposes: Blocking fleets and detecting subs.

So you need to have enough destroyers to have a blocker when needed and to always be able to detect subs.

Ideally, the big navy stack of Japan/USA should have no more than a single destroyer.

Subs are better at everything else.

I once calculated the optimal fleet composition, a long time ago. You should have around 5 subs for every full carrier.
So for example a fleet could look like this:

1 destroyer
15 submarines
3 carriers
6 fighters
Cost: 206 TUV
Offensive Power: 50
Defensive Power: 47
Hitpoints: 28
Cost: 206

Consider the alternative with only destroyers instead of subs:

12 destroyers
3 carriers
6 fighters
Cost: 204 TUV
Offensive Power: 42
Defensive Power: 48
Hitpoints: 24
Cost: 204

You can already see that the destroyer setup has far less offensive power (1 1/3 hits in one round on average!). There’s no debate at all that the subs are leagues ahead when attacking.
And defensively they are almost the same, while having 4 more hitpoints - so even defensively the subs outperform the destroyer.

Consider the same setup in a fight against an equally strong navy. Let’s say the fleets suffer 10 hits in the first round. how does it look like in the 2nd round?

Sub-setup:

1 destroyer
3 damaged carriers
8 submarines
6 fighters
Defensive power: 40
Remaining Hitpoints: 18

Destroyer-setup:

5 destroyers
3 damaged carriers
6 fighters
Defensive power: 40
Remaining Hitpoints: 14

Let’s speculate that both fleets suffer another 8 hits in the next round:

Sub-Setup
1 destroyer
3 damaged carriers
6 fighters
Defensive power: 32
Remaining hitpoints: 10

Destroyer setup:

6 fighters
Defensive power: 24
Remaining hitpoints: 6

I hope you see that submarines are better in every regard than destroyers. And I didn’t even mention convoy!

[Avner]

@MrRoboto

Thank you for this strategic and tactical idea.

There are various schools of thought, those who say never to buy submarines but better DDs who still defend with 2… etc…

However, each game is a story in itself… :)

[MrRoboto]

Well maybe there are various schools of thought, but the math doesn’t change ;-)

Subs are superior in defense as well, as long as you have fighters and carriers with them…