GAME MANUAL

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 7

INSTALLATION GUIDE 8
Installing the Game 8
Uninstalling the Game 9
Product Updates 9
Register Your Game, Re-Download Your Game, Beta Updates 9
Unified Login System 10
Game Forums 11
Technical Support 11

THE OBJECT OF THE GAME 12

THE WORLD AND YOUR ECONOMY 12

Areas and possessions 13
The strategic map 14
Canals and other choke points 15
Research 15

GENERAL 18
Starting a game 18
Options 19
Your starting fleet 21
Loading and saving games 22

BUILDING YOUR FLEET 23

Building ships 30
Rebuilding ships 31
Docks 32
Shipyard capacity 33
Submarines 33
Coastal artillery 36
CONSTRUCTION CHOICES 37

MANAGING YOUR FLEET 45

Movement 48
Blockade and movement 50
Maintenance and readiness 51
Special training 52
Permanent Divisions 54
Officers 56

POLITICS AND RELATIONS TO OTHER NATIONS 59

Government type 60
Tension levels 60
Events 61
Prestige 61
Unrest level 62
Intelligence 63
Enemy ships 64
Arms limitation treaties 65
Allies 65
Peace 66

TACTICAL BATTLES 67
Surprise attacks 68
Blockade 69
Trade protection 70
Raiders 71
Anti-submarine and mine capability 72
ASW warfare 72
Mine warfare 73
Invasions and amphibious operations 74
Blitzkrieg 76
Fuel Shortage 77
Winning or losing a war 77
YOUR FLEET IN BATTLE 78
The order of battle tab 79
The log 80
The reports tab 82
The objectives tab 82
Manoeuvring your ships 82
Formations 84
Roles 84
Speed 86
Targeting 86
Playing a turn 88
Hits and damage 89
Gunnery 92
Torpedoes 94
Weather and visibility 95
Smoke 95
Motor torpedo boats (MTB) 96
Minefields in battle 97
Land targets 97
Submarines in battle 97
Preferences in tactical battle 98
Force orders 99
Scenario victory and objectives 101

AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS 102

Launching a strike 105
Anti-Aircraft Fire 106
Aircraft on ships 108
Catapults and other aircraft arrangements 108
Seaplane carriers 109
Aircraft carrier construction 109
Land airbases 112
Floatplanes and airships 112
Aircraft types 112
Aircraft in battle 113
 Preparing and launching an airstrike 115
Supply of torpedoes and missiles on airbases and carriers 117
Damage to aircraft 117
Air combat 117
Carriers in battle 118
Floatplanes and helicopters 118
Miscellaneous aircraft related items 120

RADAR 121

MISSILES 121
AA guns in the missile age 127

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (Q&A) 128

PLAYER NOTES AND TIPS 129

APPENDIX 1 131

APPENDIX 2: 134

APPENDIX 3 136
Using the ship picture generator 136

APPENDIX 4 137
Hotkeys in ship in service tab 138
Hotkeys in ship design graphics 138

APPENDIX 5 138

APPENDIX 6 143
Officer Characteristics 143

CREDITS 144

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 147

INTRODUCTION
Rule the Waves III is the latest instalment in our successful series of games on ship
design and naval battles. Rule the Waves III extends the time of the simulation from
1890 to 1970. It includes better simulation of the pre-dreadnought and late Victorian
period, and also introduces the early missile age. Ownership of earlier games in the Rule
the Waves series is not required to be able to play Rule the Waves III. Many concepts and
mechanics will be familiar to players of RTW and RTW2, but much has been enhanced
and improved.
Rule the Waves III places you in the role of ‘Grand Admiral’ of a navy from the time
when steam and iron dominated warship design up to the missile age. The game will let
you design and build the ships of your navy, and lead them into battle when war erupts.
You will guide your navy’s deployment, construction and operations during a period of
great technological innovation and political tensions. The player will have to deal with
interfering Navy ministers, Kaisers and Presidents, as well as other aspects of politics
and economics. You can influence but not decide foreign policy. Thus, you will never
know for sure when your navy will have to stand the test of battle.
Rule the Waves is not a simple game. Some grasp of 20th century naval warfare
and warships is recommended. The game focuses on realistic ship design, technical
development and naval combat. If you are genuinely interested in naval history,
warship construction and the way navies fought and manoeuvred in the first half of the
20th century, this is a game that will keep you engaged for many hours. Be aware that
graphics are adequate but by no means cutting edge. If you want ships exploding in 3D
graphics, this game is probably not for you.

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 INSTALLATION GUIDE
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Please ensure your system meets the minimum requirements listed below.
Minimum Requirements:
Operating Systems: Windows 8.1, 10, 11
CPU: 1.2 GHz min, 2.4+ GHz recommended
Video/Graphics: No minimum requirement (no hardware video acceleration is required)
RAM: 2 GB of system RAM, 4 GB of system RAM recommended
Storage Space: 1 GB of free hard disk space
DirectX version: DirectX v9.0c or later
Sound: No requirements for sound
Display Resolution: 1366 x 768 minimum resolution required

INSTALLING THE GAME

To install the game, insert the game DVD disc into your DVD drive.
If you have disabled the Autorun function on your DVD or if you are installing from a
digital download, navigate to the DVD or download file location, double-click on the
installation file, and if it is a zip archive, then double click on the executable (exe) file
that is shown inside the archive.
The correct file name will typically include the words “SetupRelease”. Follow all on-
screen prompts to complete the installation.
If you have purchased your game from the Steam Store, you can download the game
by finding it in your Steam library, and then pressing the INSTALL button.
Any games purchased from the Slitherine or Matrix stores available on Steam can
also be registered for a Steam Key, allowing you to add the game to your Steam library.
To do this go to http://www.matrixgames.com/my_page and enter your serial number
that came with the download to register.

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UNINSTALLING THE GAME
Please use the Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features option from the
Windows Control Panel or the “Uninstall” link in the game’s Windows START menu to
uninstall the game. Uninstalling through any other method will not correctly uninstall
the game.

PRODUCT UPDATES
To maintain our product excellence, Matrix Games and Slitherine release updates
containing new features, enhancements, and corrections to any known issues. All our
updates are free on our website (see more details in the section below) and can also be
downloaded quickly and easily by clicking on the Check for Updates link in your Game
Launcher.

REGISTER YOUR GAME, RE-DOWNLOAD YOUR GAME,

BETA UPDATES
We also periodically make beta (preview) updates and other content available to
registered owners. Keeping up with these special updates is easy and accessible by
signing up for a Slitherine Group Member account. When you are signed up, you can
then register your Slitherine Group products to receive access to these game-related
materials. Doing so is a simple two-step process:

SIGN UP FOR A SLITHERINE GROUP MEMBER ACCOUNT

THIS IS A ONE TIME PROCEDURE; once you have signed up for an account, you are in
the system and will not need to sign up again. Go to www.slitherine.com and click the
SIGN UP button on the top-right, then click “Register” on the subsequent page after
filling in your personal information. When you’re finished a confirmation email will be
sent to your specified e-mail account.

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 REGISTER A NEW GAME PURCHASE
Once you have signed up for a Slitherine Group Member account, you can register any
Slitherine/Matrix title you own in your new account. To do so, log in to your account
on either the Matrix Games website (www.matrixgames.com) or the Slitherine website
(www.slitherine.com). Click MY PAGE on the top and then REGISTER SERIAL on the right
to register your new purchase.
We strongly recommend registering your game as it will give you a backup location
for your serial number should you lose it in the future.
If you were already logged into your main member account when you purchased
your game, it will be automatically registered for you as part of the purchase process.
Once you’ve registered your game, when you log in to the Members section you can
view your list of registered titles by clicking My Page. Each game title is a hyperlink that
will take you to an information page on the game (including all the latest news on that
title). Also on this list is a Downloads hyperlink that takes you to a page with all the latest
public and registered downloads, including patches, for that particular title.
You can also access patches and updates via www.matrixgames.com/ member/
mypage. Once there select the game you wish to check updates for, then check the
downloads link. Certain valuable content and additional downloads will be restricted to
Group Members, so signing up there is always worthwhile.
Remember, once you have signed up for a Member account, you do not have to sign
up again at that point you are free to register any product you purchase.
Thank you and enjoy your game!

UNIFIED LOGIN SYSTEM

Slitherine and Matrix Games now have a new “Unified Login System”. This system
allows you to access the Slitherine and Matrix Games sites using just one username and
password. To merge your accounts so that they work for all Slitherine Group sites, go
to (http://samelogin.slitherine.com/) and enter the details of one of your accounts (ie.
Either your Matrix or your Slitherine login).

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 You will then be presented with the option to merge your accounts (listed as “[Merge
my accounts]”), which will then allow you to combine any other accounts you have or
generate a user for another website using the exact details (For instance, if you were
called “JohnSmith123” on the Slitherine site but had no account on Matrix, you could
enter the details into the site and it would create a “JohnSmith123” account for Matrix
as well, with the same password as the Slitherine login.)

GAME FORUMS
Our forums are one of the best things about Matrix Games. Every game has its forum with
our designers, developers and the gamers playing the game. If you are experiencing a
problem, have a question or just an idea on improving the game, post a message there.
Go to http://www.matrixgames.com and click on the Forums hyperlink.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Should you have a technical problem with the game, the best way to get help is to
post a note in the Technical Support sub-forum of the main game forum at http://www.
matrixgames.com/forums. You’ll then hear back from either our Matrix Games Staff, the
development team, or one of the many helpful players of the game. This method is
usually the fastest way to get help. Alternatively, you can contact our Help Desk at http://
www.matrixgames.com/support/ or support@matrixgames.com. Support requests will
generally be answered within 24 hours, except on weekends or US/UK national holidays.

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 THE OBJECT OF THE GAME
In Rule the Waves III, you take on the role as Grand Admiral of one of the leading
naval powers of the time. You control the design and building of ships and their
employement in war over a time period from the ironclads of the late 19th century to
the missile cruisers of the 1970s. Your goal is to build up your fleet with suitable ships
to implement the naval policy of your nation, lead that navy to success in battle, and of
course to stay on in the post as Grand Admiral. You will strive to build up a war winning
fleet that is compatible wiht the economic power of your nation.
The measure of succes in game is your prestige. Prestige in the game represents
your general reputation, based on your success in battle and your standing with the
politicians, the officer corps and other parts of the establishment. Your prestige will
be enhanced by naval victories and ‘tough’ responses to events. Your prestige will be
lowered by ‘soft’ responses, defeats and mismanagement. Your prestige can to some
extent be seen as a currency, which can be spent to affect various events that might
impact on your plans or the Navy in general. If your prestige goes too low, you run a risk
of being sacked as Grand Admiral, thus losing the game. Prestige is also used at the end
of the game as a measure of the success of your tenure as head of the Navy, and your
prestige at the end of the game will be saved in a naval ’Hall of Fame’.

THE WORLD AND YOUR ECONOMY

THE BUDGET
You will have a yearly naval budget at your disposition. The
budget is a function of the base resources of the nation and
the proportion of expenditures devoted to the navy. Both
of these can vary as an effect of various events in the game.
The base resources will increase as a result of wars
won, and decrease when wars are lost. The base resources
will also increase steadily at about 3-5% a year as a result
of economic growth.

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 Your budget will also get an addition from the colonies and other possessions your
nation controls. The income from colonies will decrease over time in the game. The
effect of this is that, considering the costs of garrisoning your colonies, they might not
be profitable by the 1970s.
The naval budget percentage will vary with various events and your response to them
(see Events). In general the naval budget will tend to rise in times of high tension and
be low in periods of low tension.
Your yearly budget will be divided into monthly payments to the navy. Running out
of funds is not a good idea, and will tend to upset the finance ministry and lower your
prestige. It will also affect fleet morale, as unpaid sailors tend to get surly. You can run
up a surplus and save money for future expenses or for building that super battleship.
Be aware however that if you have substantial funds in your coffers for long periods,
the Kaiser, Prime Minister or finance ministry might find a use for some of those funds.

AREAS AND POSSESSIONS

The world is divided into areas. In each area there are a number of possessions that can
be controlled by one of the player nations, or be neutral. Possessions have naval bases
and can have coastal artillery or other defences. The base values and fortifications of
possessions can be improved by the player.
Possessions can change hands, most often as a result of peace treaties. In some cases
possessions can be transferred in other ways as a result of events. If a player nation
acquires new possessions in an area where other nations are pre-eminent, this will
probably increase tensions.
Each possession has a value that is used when calculating the budget effect of
acquiring or losing possessions. The budget effect of possessions is relatively limited
compared to the rest of income. Income from colonies will slowly decline over time.
Eventually, democratic nations will tend to grant independence to their colonies.
Some possessions have oil, and access to oil fuel is necessary to build oil fuelled
ships before 1920. After that, oil extraction and trade is assumed to have spread so
that all nations can gain access to oil. However, nations without own oil resources

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 may be subject to fuel shortages. Before 1920, oil may be randomly discovered in
new places.

THE STRATEGIC MAP

The strategic map can be viewed in the first tab of the main screen of the game. You will
see a map of the world with possessions owned by the various nation marked by their
flags. To change the map view:
È Right drag to move the map.
È Mouse wheel to zoom in.
È Right click in the tree to the left for more map options.
È Left click in any area or on a possession when the map is zoomed in a bit to get
details.

Hovering the mouse over an area will give you a tool tip window with information about
ships of all nations deployed in that area. Note that ships will move before combat,
thus forces may have changed when a battle occurs. This is to preserve some fog of war.

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CANALS AND OTHER CHOKE POINTS
There are two canals in the game, the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. The Suez Canal
is operational at the start of the scenarios, and is controlled by the nation owning Egypt
(Britain at the start of the scenarios). The Panama Canal will become operational in
1914, and is controlled by the player owning Panama (the USA at the start of the 1900,
1920 and 1935 scenarios).
Movement through canals is normally possible for other nations than the owning
nation. During wartime, canals will be blocked for players at war with the owner, or if the
tension level with the owner is 7 or higher.
Movement between the Baltic and the Northern Europe zone will be blocked for
enemies of Germany in wartime after Germany researches active mine warfare.

RESEARCH
Research and technological development plays a large role in RTW. This is a period of
rapidly changing technologies, and as it takes several years to build a battleship, your
ships will sometimes be obsolete when they are completed.

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 You can define a portion of your budget up to a maximum of 12% as spent on
research. You should be aware that on values over 10% there is a diminishing return.
There are a number of different research areas, from battleship projectiles to
submarine technology and a lot in between. In the research menu, you can shift
priorities between different research areas by setting their priority to high, medium or
low. Note that these priorities are relative, so setting all research areas to high will not
increase research, it will just mean that all are equally prioritized. To prioritize everything
is to prioritize nothing, to paraphrase Frederick the Great.
Spending on research will lead to research advances, which will have varying effects
depending on the area. Advances in Hull construction and Machinery development will
reduce the weights of those components in new ship designs. Other research areas will
unlock various technologies to be used in ship designs.
If there are no technologies left to discover in a research field, research points spent
there will be automatically reallocated to other areas and not wasted. In other words,
there is no need to manually set these fields to low.

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Designer’s Note: Research in RTW3 differs from many other games where you can
specify a tech before it is invented and tell your scientists to invent that. RTW3 has
what I feel to be a more realistic model where you can tell your scientists to focus on
particular areas, but you cannot be sure what they will come up with. In other words,
there is no “Hey guys, let’s invent the Bronze Age” in RTW.

Note: Most development in RTW represents technical progress, but there are also a
number of developments that reflect the conservatism of naval establishments or
simply the time needed to grasp the utility of new concepts before they are commonly
adopted. This prevents the player from using too much hindsight in ship designs.
For example, there was no technical reason that battleships with three or more main
turrets couldn’t be built before 1904, indeed some such ships were built. But if the
game had allowed the building of such ships from start, players would in all likelihood
start building dreadnought- like ships immediately, knowing that advances in fire
control and rate of fire would make them the most effective ships in some years.

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 GENERAL
MEASUREMENTS
Measurements in the game are given in imperial measurement units. Gun calibres and
armour thicknesses are in inches, ranges are in yards, bomb weights in pounds. These
measurements were chosen because they are commonly used in naval history works,
and should be familiar to the majority of naval warfare enthusiasts.

STARTING A GAME
When you start a new game, you will first select a nation for you to play. You can click
the flags of the playable nations and see the main characteristics of the nation as well as
their enemies. There will be eight opponent nations. Playable nations are Great Britain,
Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Japan, China and Spain. You can only
play against the AI, there is no human vs human play.
You must also select a fleet size, which determines the size of your budget, and thus
the size of your fleet. The size which most closely corresponds to real fleet sizes during
the period is large or very large. Be aware, however, that managing a big fleet with
tens of battleships and several dozens of cruisers and destroyers can be a considerable

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administrative task, and it is suggested that you play your first game with medium or
even small fleet size.
The budgets given to the different nations are somewhat compressed in their
variation and not totally historical, as that would leave some smaller nations unable to
compete. In other words, the naval budgets in the game are different from each other,
but not so much different as in the real world. If you want to play with more historical
budgets, there is an option for that in the 1900 campaign start. Note however that when
playing with historical budgets, some smaller nations may find themselves constantly
short on money and at a decided disadvantage versus larger nations.
Playing minor naval nations like Austria-Hungary or Spain at small fleet setting is not
really recommended, as that may result in very limited resources for the player.
In addition to the budgetary differences, there are other advantages and
disadvantages to the different nations that reflect historical factors. The nations have
research advantages in different areas and some bonus technologies that they will
research easily. Great Britain has some advantages and disadvantages from its status as
a global naval power. See national characteristics below for details.

OPTIONS
There is an option for setting research speed. Setting research speed lower than 100 will
slow down research.
There is an option for varied technologies.
No technology variation means that all technologies become available for research at
the historical time they were developed.
Some variation means that there might be a variation of one or two years, and the
occasional technology may be more or less effective compared to real life.
Considerable variation means that technologies may appear up to 6 years later than
in reality, and their effectiveness can vary. Be aware that this setting can cause some
inconsistencies compared to historical real world developments.
Varied technologies were introduced as a way to recreate historical uncertainty about
which way technology development is moving. We as players have full hindsight and

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 we know what naval developments were ultimately the most successful. Ship designers
and admirals in the early 20th century had no idea. Are torpedoes really the threat they
are made out to be? Will the big gun battleship be rendered totally obsolete by aircraft?
Will that happen now or in 20 years time? Nobody knew! That is the situation that varied
technologies is intended to recreate.
The effects of playing with varied technologies will change from game to game.
Technologies might arrive later or be harder to invent. Some technologies may be easier

20
to invent. Some technologies may not live up to their promises. Long range gunnery
could suck, multiple gun mounts turn out to be a bad idea, torpedoes are not as good
as expected etc. So remember that when playing with considerable tech variation that
you are really in a parallel universe where things did not turn out the way they did in our
regular naval history.
There is a specific option to slow down air development. This is for those players who
want to prolong the period when battleships dominated the seas.
Historical budgets was explained above and manual build of legacy fleet is explained
in the next section.

YOUR STARTING FLEET

There are options to start the game in 1890, 1900, 1920, or 1935. When the game
starts, you will have an existing legacy fleet at game start. The legacy fleet is generated
automatically in the 1890, 1920 and 1935 starts, but can optionally be built manually
in the 1900 start. It is recommended that you start with an existing legacy fleet the first
time you play the game, as building the legacy fleet can involve a lot of ship design, and
it might be better to learn the design process gradually.
When choosing to build your legacy fleet manually you should consider that part of
the challenge when starting a game is working with the fleet you inherited from your
predecessor. You should also be aware that when you build the legacy fleet manually,
you will most likely anticipate technical and tactical progress and thus you give yourself
a substantial advantage vs the AI nations.
If you elect to build the legacy fleet yourself, you will get an amount of money as your
starting funds, to be used for buying the ships existing at the start of the game. This
will be done in two steps. In step one you will design and build existing ships. Then, in
step 2, you will order ships that are under construction when the game begins. You can
only keep a proportion of your starting funds for buying ships under construction. The
majority must be spent on ships already existing. Ships under construction will be about
50% complete when the game starts, but you only pay 5% of the cost for work already
completed. Remaining construction will be done at full cost.

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 LOADING AND SAVING GAMES
LOADING AND SAVING A GAME
There are nine slots for saved games. When you start a game, you will be prompted to
select a save slot for your game.
Games can be saved at any time from the main screen or during battle by pressing
save game. The game will automatically be saved in the slot you selected for your game.
You can also copy the game to another
save slot of you want to preserve your
game at a certain point in time.
To load a game, go to the load game
when starting RTW and select the slot you
want to load.
You can also press continue in the start
screen, which will load your last saved
game.

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AUTOSAVE
RTW will autosave after every month and at intervals according to preferences during
battles. Thus, if something happens that causes you to exit without saving, game crash,
power failure, whatever, you can always reload the latest autosave by selecting the
game slot and pressing “Load autosave”.

SENDING A SAVED GAME

If you would want to send a saved game for some reason, just zip up the entire folder
of your game in the RTW\Save directory, for example RTW\Save\Save1 if you are using
game slot 1. All the ship design files are needed to reload a saved game, that is why it
is not enough just with the save file. If you encounter a specific serious bug and want
to make a bug report, a save is often useful for the developer to track down the bug.

BUILDING YOUR FLEET

DESIGNING SHIPS
The first step in building a ship is designing the ship. In the design window you can
design any ship you need in your navy, from destroyers to super dreadnoughts.
You can get to the design window either by clicking the design ship button or by
selecting an existing ship, right clicking and selecting ‘open design’.
In the design window you determine the characteristics of the ship you want to
design. Note that a number of the available technologies and features might need to be
researched before they can be used in a ship.
Ships designed will have their ship type checked by the program, and ships will have
to keep within the parameters of the ship type or be reclassified as another type. This is
to prevent unrealistic ship designs and also because the ship types are used as the basis
for decisions by the tactical AI. A 30 000 ton destroyer with 15 in guns would not only
be unrealistic, it would confuse the AI. Very unusual designs will be disallowed by the
program as illegal ship types.

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 The easiest way to design a ship is to select an existing class and open the design
screen. You can then alter or modify the existing design and save as a new class. This
saves work because most ships tend to be developments from existing classes, and you
don’t have to enter all the values from scratch.
The development of a new ship class will take time and incur costs. If your new ship
class is developed from an existing class and reasonably close to that class, you will get
a discount both on time and costs.

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 Alternatively, you can just select the ship type you want and let the computer auto
design the ship for you. You can then alter any details you might want changed.
After you have designed your ship you will get a report on the design and any
problems it might have.
Items labelled ‘Error’ in the report must be fixed, otherwise the design is not legal.
Items labelled ’Note’ in the report are just reminders or hints that can be disregarded.
Ship designs should have their weights kept within the displacement limit. You
are allowed to build ships that are slightly overweight, but that will carry a penalty in

25
 stability and flotation, and is usually not cost effective compared to increasing the size
of the ship. Its main use is if you have a displacement limitation, for example by a treaty
or in dock size.
When you develop a new ship class, there will first be a design study of between
1 and 4 months time and with some cost, depending on the size and complexity of
the ship. After that is completed, you can either start construction or adjust the design
(adjusting the design might be attractive if a new technology has just been invented
during the design study). When a design study is completed, additional ships of the
same class can be built without any delay (that is one reason ships are often built many
to a class).
A new design that is developed from an existing class will get a discount on the
development cost and time. To develop from an existing design, right click on an existing
ship in service or in construction and select “open design”. When changing the design,
you can see the percentage of the development cost you will pay in the top left corner in
the “Developed from” box. The more changes you make, the smaller the discount, and if
you make big enough changes you will have to pay the full development cost.
Generally the following are the limits for change before it becomes an entirely new
design with no discount.

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 È Displacement can increase by a maximum of 10% or 1000 tons.
È Main guns over 6 in cannot be changed.
È Secondary guns over 6 in can be changed to a limited extent.
È Speed can be changed by one knot.
È Vertical armour can be changed by one inch and horizontal armour by half an
inch.
See appendix 2 for a fuller explanation of the various values used in designing a ship.

Tip: It can be a good idea to leave a few tons unused on your ships so that there
is space for a minor rebuild of for example the fire control system or anti-aircraft
armament without making the ship overweight.

MAIN TURRETS
Main turrets are handled individually. Each turret has a fire arc where it can shoot,
determined by the gun position (one character). To add turrets, press ‘add’ and select
position and number of guns in the turret. The positions available are determined by
your research and the ship type.
You can move main gun mounts by right clicking a main gun mount and selecting
‘Position’. You can also reposition main gun mounts by double clicking on the mount.
After selecting position mount, click on the new location for the mount. Note that
moving the mount is a purely aesthetic function, and will not in any way affect the arc of
fire. The arc of fire is determined by the position indicator.
To visualize the fire arcs of the main guns, check the box “Fire arcs” by the top down
ship view.

SECONDARY GUNS
Secondary guns are only determined as to the total number. Secondary guns do
not have individual fire arcs. A proportion of the secondary guns will be able to fire,
depending on the bearing of the target ship.

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 Secondary guns are assumed to be placed half on each side of the ship. You can have
an odd number of secondary guns. The graphics logic can’t really handle odd numbers
of secondaries, but any odd guns left over are assumed to be on the centreline by the
gunnery logic.
You can move secondary guns in the same way as main guns. Secondary gun mounts
may also be automatically placed by clicking the auto place button.
Secondary guns do have position designators, which are used to make the guns point
at the target during battles.
In contrast to main guns, there is no requirement to have a graphical representation
of secondary guns, they will work fine in battle anyway, but the ship will of course look
much better with the proper number of secondary mounts in the right places.
If the numbers and graphics of secondary guns on your ship do not match, you will
get a reminder in the design screen, but you can disregard this with no ill effects.

TERTIARY GUNS
As with secondary guns, tertiary guns are only determined as to the total number.
Tertiary guns do not have individual fire arcs. A proportion of the tertiary guns will be
able to fire, depending on the bearing of the target ship.
You can move tertiary guns in the same way as main and secondary guns. Tertiary
guns mount graphics are purely decorative. They will not turn with the target in battle.
Like secondary guns, a proportion of tertiary guns will be available to fire on the target,
depending on the target bearing.

TORPEDO TUBES
This works much as the main turrets. You select the position and the number of tubes
for the mount.

VISUAL EXTRAS
These include ships boats, anchors, masts etc. They have no function in the game except
to make your ships look better. You can add visual extras from files with common pieces
of equipment used on ships, and you can even define your own.

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 Visual extras are placed in the same way as gun mounts.

Tip: If you reposition visual elements and want something to be on the centreline of
the ship, hold down the alt key while placing it.

SHIP GRAPHICS
When you design your ship, you can also
design how the ship looks in the top down
view in the game. This is not necessary,
the ship will work just fine without any
graphics enhancements at all, but a nice
looking ship is of course a source of pride
and a morale booster for the player.
If you modify an existing design, or let
the computer auto design a ship for you,
the ship will already have its graphics
done. In some cases you might want to
modify the graphics if you increase or reduce the number of guns, displacement or
similar.
You should be aware that the AI is somewhat aesthetically challenged, so ship designs
by the AI might sometimes have some odd features, like turrets in unexpected places.
In the graphics tab in the design window, there are also functions for designing your
own custom equipment to put on your ships, or modding the appearance of aircraft and
other game graphics.

SHIP SUPERSTRUCTURE
The superstructure of ships is represented by graphics in six layers. Each layer can be
drawn or edited using the controls in the graphics tab. Like equipment, the superstructure
graphic has no function in the game except to make your ships look better.

29
 Select if you want a line or a filled polygon. Then click on the button for the layer you
want to draw and then add points by left clicking on the ship. Right click when finished.
You can only add points on the left side of the ship, but the graphic will be mirrored so
that it appears on the right side as well when you are finished. There can be a maximum
of 24 points for each superstructure item (12 on each side).
There is an option for asymmetric superstructures, which are found mostly on aircraft
carriers.

FUNNELS
You can have funnels generated as black roundels by the game, or you can use funnels
provided as visual extras. If using the funnel function, select if you want an oval funnel or
round, then click on the button and on the ship. You do not have to worry about clicking
on the middle of the ship; the program assumes all funnels are on the centreline, so it
only takes account of where you click relative to the length of the ship. There is also an
option for asymmetric funnels.

TOPSIDE POINTS
Much equipment in ships had to be relatively high up in the ship, which affects stability. This
became especially marked when anti-aircraft guns, radars and other equipment started to
preliterate on ships in WW2. To simulate this, all weaponry and radars have a topside point
cost. A ship has a maximum number of topside points, based on displacement. This value
can be slightly exceeded but may result in the ship being top-heavy, which affects stability.

BUILDING SHIPS
Once the design study is completed, you can start building your new ships.
The time to complete a ship is dependent on the ship type and can be modified by
having an efficient or undeveloped shipbuilding industry.
The cost of building a ship is paid in monthly instalments during the build time. If
you run into budget problems, it is possible to temporarily halt the construction of one
or more ships. Halted ships will cost half of their mothballed maintenance cost.

30
 You can also accelerate the construction of a limited number of ships. This will build
them 10% faster, but with a 5% increase in cost. Having many ships in accelerated
construction risks causing delays in the construction of other ships.
If a ship under construction is delayed, the monthly build cost will not be deducted,
which can lead to lower than expected monthly expenses.
In the build dialog, you order up to 12 ships of the same class laid down. The names
will be assigned automatically. This might be very handy when building large numbers
of destroyers for example. Note however that you will have to consider if your monthly
budget or your shipyard capacity is enough to build that many ships.

REBUILDING SHIPS
You can rebuild existing ships, but there are limitations on what can be rebuilt. The
following actions can be taken while rebuilding ships:
You can change the main armament according to certain conditions. Guns can be
changed to more modern versions of the same calibre. Triple turrets can be changed
to double turrets with larger guns or vice versa if the calibres are compatible. Double

31
 turrets can be changed to single turrets or vice versa if the calibres are compatible. For
example, a double 8 in turret can be exchanged for a single 10 in turret or a triple 12
in turret can be exchanged for a double 16 in turret. To see the combinations available
during a rebuild, select the turret and press the ‘Rebuild?’ button under the turret list.
Gun rebuilds are generally expensive and take substantial time
You can change the secondary battery if the existing guns are in casemates or in
turrets of 6 inches calibre or less. It can be changed to any arrangement of 6 in guns or
less. The same with tertiary guns.
You can swap out the machinery for more modern machinery, increasing speed or
using the weight gained for other purposes.
Fire control can be improved
You can add bulges, which will increase torpedo protection but will also reduce
speed.
You can add one inch of deck armour. You can also remove the conning tower, or
change the upper belt armour.
You can also rebuild ships to aircraft carriers (CV or CVL) provided you have researched
the technology.
Some rebuilds will change the ship type, most often from something else to CV, but
sometimes BC will be reclassified as BB. Sometimes a change of classification will be
suggested, other times the change will be mandatory. The game definition of a BC will
change over time (the speed requirement will rise), so occasionally when you rebuild a
battlecruiser, the game will suggest that it might now be a battleship.

DOCKS
In the game, dock size is used as
a limit to the largest ship your
nation can build and operate. It is
also used to compute the total capacity of your shipbuilding industry.
You cannot build ships larger than your current dock size. Occasionally it is necessary
to increase your maximum dock size. Docks take one year to build. Each building step

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will increase your dock size by between 1000 and 2000 tons depending on the time
period. Try to plan ahead; waiting an extra year to lay down your new battleship while
you enlarge your docks can be very frustrating. Dock size may occasionally increase by
itself as a result of development in private shipbuilding.
Dock size is also used with a multiplier to determine your total shipyard capacity,
that is, the total tonnage of ships you can have building. Note that submarines under
construction are included in this total.
If you cannot build ships at home, you can contract them to foreign yards. You will
then be limited by the building nation’s dock size. This can have a further advantage if
your own nation lacks technology or has an undeveloped shipbuilding industry.
The drawback to building ships abroad is that you risk that your ships will be
impounded and not delivered if a war breaks out. The risk of this happening depends
on the tension level with the building nation. If you have a treaty with the building
nation, they will always be delivered.
An advantage is that you may gain insight into the technology of the building nation.

SHIPYARD CAPACITY
Your nation will have a maximum shipyard capacity, which is computed as a multiple
of the dock size. The total tonnage of your ships under construction cannot exceed the
maximum shipyard capacity. Ships under rebuild do not count, and neither do AMCs
and small corvettes (as they are rebuilt from existing ships). Submarines do count
towards the limit.

SUBMARINES
You need not design submarines in RTW, they are selected from standardised types. The
different types of submarine will be available as a result of your submarine research.
The different submarine types are: Coastal submarines, Medium range submarines,
Long range submarines, Minelaying submarines and Missile submarines.

33
 Coastal submarines have shorter operational radius, so will only have full efficiency
close to your bases. They have limited torpedo capacity and cannot make strategic
moves in wartime.
Medium range submarines are the general run of the mill submarine.
Minelaying submarines are much like medium range submarines, but can also lay
mines. On the other hand, they have a reduced torpedo load. They have a smaller risk of
causing opprobrium among neutral nations in the period before 1930, as mined merchant
ships do not inflame international opinion as much as torpedoed merchant ships.
Long range submarines are better at operating in areas where you do not have a
large friendly base capacity. They are slightly more vulnerable to ASW attacks than other
submarines.
Missile submarines carry anti-ship missiles and will use them when a suitable target
is in range. They also have torpedoes.
Submarines will have an effect in the strategic turns, when they will attack enemy merchant
shipping. They will also occasionally torpedo warships. The effectiveness of submarines will
depend of the number of enemy ships on trade protection and or the number of destroyers
relative to heavy ships on the fleet (see ASW warfare and Trade protection).

34
 Submarines generally operate best in areas where they have friendly bases. They can
operate in areas adjacent to areas with friendly bases, but with reduced effectiveness
(except for long range submarines).
Advances in submarine technology will increase the serviceability and the attack
effectiveness of your submarines.
Submarines will also participate randomly in battles, in proportion to the number of
submarines available to either side. In battles, submarines can torpedo ships, and will
also get an extra after battle attack chance on enemy ships returning to base after the
engagement. In this phase, damaged ships are especially at risk.
During wars you have three policy options for your submarines:
Fleet support means that submarines will primarily operate against enemy warships
and only attack enemy merchant shipping in very clear cut cases.
Prize rules means that your submarines will attack shipping, attempting to follow
prize rules. The occasional incident that will upset neutral nations cannot be avoided.
Your submarines will try to strike a balance between supporting the fleet and attacking
enemy merchant shipping.

35
 Unrestricted means your submarines will carry out unrestricted submarine warfare
against enemy merchant shipping at the expense of operations in support of the fleet.
This will increase sinkings of enemy merchant shipping and may cause starvation and
higher unrest level for the enemy. However, it will also anger neutral nations and risk
bringing in additional enemies against you.
Submarines will have a sharply reduced effect on enemy merchant shipping if you
are blockading the enemy (enemy merchant shipping is assumed to have been reduced
to a minimum by the blockade).

COASTAL ARTILLERY
You can build coastal artillery batteries in the same way you build ships, except that you
do not design them and can only chose between predefined types. Coastal artillery must
be built in a specific possession.
Coastal artillery will be assigned randomly in proportion to their numbers to
positions on the coast of the possession where they are located, and will be available in
battles at that location.
Coastal artillery positions will also increase the number of local minefields in the
vicinity of the battery.
With time, coastal artillery emplacements will gain a few anti-aircraft guns.
Late game, you can also install coastal missile batteries.
Designer’s note: Why are coastal batteries placed randomly? Why cannot the player
build them where they are most needed? The battles in the game are generated from a
number of battle templates, but over time, players will learn where battles tend to take
place. Allowing players to place coastal artillery exactly where they wanted was found
to enable players to take advantage of this knowledge to optimize the placement of
coastal artillery.

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CONSTRUCTION CHOICES

This is a summary of the construction choices and technologies available when

designing ships, and their effects in the game. This might be overwhelming for the first
time reader, and if this is your first time reading the manual, you can skip this section
now and return to it later when you have started designing your ships.

ARMOUR ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE GAME

B Belt armour This is the main armour belt of the ship

BU Upper belt Upper strakes of belt armour protecting the upper parts of the hull
Armour protecting the ends of the ship, steering machinery and boiler
BE Belt extended
uptakes
D Deck The main armour deck of the ship
DE Deck extended Corresponds to BE above
T Main gun turret and barbette armour
TT Turret top Roof of main gun turrets
SEC Secondary gun armour
CT Conning tower armour
Armour values in the game are always in inches.

37
 ARMOUR SCHEMES EXPLANATION
Protected Cruisers
Protected cruisers have an armour deck with
sloping sides, but no belt armour. They are
more vulnerable to hull and superstructure
hits, as well as splinter damage from near
misses. Before you research light cruiser
configuration, all light cruisers must be built
as protected cruisers. For protected cruisers, the Belt armour value represents the thickness
of the sloping side of the armour deck. Protected cruisers cannot have an upper belt.

Belt and sloping deck

This is the standard WW1 era armour
configuration. These ships will have extra
protection against shells penetrating the
belt, as the shell will also have to penetrate
the sloping deck before reaching their
vitals.

Flat deck on top of belt

This armour configuration was common
on ironclad ships of the end of the 19th
century, but it was superseded by the belt
and sloping deck scheme. These ships will
have a larger volume protected by the belt
and deck, and save some weight, but lack
the extra protection offered by the sloping deck behind the belt.

All or Nothing
All or Nothing (AoN) is an armour philosophy where only the most important parts of
the ship are protected, but these have as much armour as possible. The idea is that if you

38
are hit where it matters you are well protected, and if you are hit where it doesn’t matter,
it doesn’t matter. The armour layout is otherwise similar to the ‘Flat top on deck’ armour
scheme. All or nothing ships have some of their weight calculations altered compared
to other ships, and they will tend to have their flotation reserve better protected from
damage. All or nothing ships can have no upper belt. BE and DE armour are assumed to
cover only such things as uptakes and steering mechanisms. AoN must be researched
before it can be used.

NARROW BELT
A narrow belt saves weight but risks that shells that would have hit the belt instead
might hit BE, BU or no armour at all.

LOW FREEBOARD
Ships with low freeboard will save weight but are more affected by the sea state,
with rate of fire (ROF) reduced or sometimes turrets being out of action due to being
swamped. Low freeboard can be selected for all ships, but the disadvantages are larger
for ships with top speed above 20 knots. Ships with low freeboard will have their speed
and gunnery affected more in heavy weather than ships with normal freeboard. The ship
is simply less weatherly.

CRAMPED ACCOMMODATION
Cramped accommodation might increase the risk of mutinies during wars, especially if
the nation is under blockade. Ships are less useful in the colonies if they have cramped
accommodation and crew performance may suffer if away from home waters.

TRIPLE AND QUADRUPLE TURRETS

Early triple and quadruple turrets will have slightly lower ROF and a higher chance of
turret jams. Improved triple and quadruple turrets will rectify these defects.

39
 CASEMATES
Secondary guns in casemates are somewhat more vulnerable than secondary guns in
turrets, but casemate armour will absorb some hits that would otherwise hit un-armoured
hull or superstructure. Casemate guns are more sensitive to weather interference and will
get higher ROF penalty in heavy seas.
Casemates are the usual method of mounting secondary guns in the early part of
the game, as early turrets will have ROF penalties before reliable training and elevating
mechanisms are developed.

TURRETED GUNS OF SMALLER CALIBRES

Until accurate training and elevation motors are developed, there is a ROF and accuracy
penalty for guns of 9 inches and below in double and triple turrets.
Note that smaller guns will still have a higher ROF than larger guns, this is only a
relative effect. Do not let this stop you from designing for example armoured cruisers
with double 7 or 8 inch turrets as main armament. It is just that single gun turrets and
casemate mounted guns have a relative ROF advantage compared to double turrets up
until around the mid-1910s.

TURRET TOP ARMOUR

The program assumes that turret top armour is slightly sloped, at least for part of the
turret, so shell penetration is somewhat better against turret tops than against decks.
For heavy guns it is recommended to have slightly thicker armour for TT than D, just as
was common in historical ships.

MAXIMUM ARMOUR THICKNESS

Armour thickness up to 20 in allowed for belt armour, but armour over 12 inches
in thickness will not give the same proportional protection due to difficulties in
manufacturing thicker armour plates. Turret armour can be up to 26 inches.

40
COAL OR OIL FUEL
Oil fuelled ships have slightly more expensive engines but get a smaller weight penalty
for long range and more weight effective and manpower efficient engines. However,
only those nations with access to oilfields can use oil firing before 1920. Coal fuelled
ships get some extra hull protection from the coal bunkers.
Oil fuelled ships produce less smoke, so are less sensitive to own smoke interfering
with spotting.

ENGINE TYPE
Initially ships will be powered by vertical triple expansion engines (VTE). Turbines will
be developed around 1904 and will give substantial weight savings as well as better
engine staying power in battle.
Diesel engines are heavier than steam plants but reduce the weight penalty of long
and extreme range. Diesel powered ships have better acceleration.
Eventually, you will develop gas turbines, which give good acceleration and reduce
weight but increase cost.

ENGINE PRIORITY
Engines optimised for speed are lighter, but increase the risk of breakdowns. Ships
optimised for reliability decrease the risk of breakdowns, but weigh more. Engine
breakdowns can affect your ships during battle, but also during strategic turns. Reliable
engines are especially important for ships deployed as raiders.

ARMOUR AND SPLINTER DAMAGE

Splinter damage can occur to hull, machinery, funnel uptakes, main guns and secondary/
tertiary guns from near misses or superstructure hits. Armour of 2 inches and above will
protect from splinter damage. If armour is less than 2 inches, there will be a risk of
splinter damage inversely proportional to the armour thickness. Note that tertiary guns
are always considered to be un-armoured, but they will be somewhat better protected in
casemates than in open mounts (they are assumed to have some protection from other
armour, and shipbuilding steel is better than nothing).

41
 GUN SHIELDS
Main guns of 6 inches calibre and below in single turrets with 2 inches or less of armour
will be considered as shielded mounts. These are lighter than normal turrets, but are
more vulnerable to splinters (though not nearly as vulnerable as un-armoured mounts).

COLONIAL SERVICE
Ships fitted for colonial service are more useful on foreign stations. Equipping a ship for
colonial service takes up a proportion of displacement, which simulates increased marine
contingent, storage spaces and other facilities useful for extended service on foreign stations.

ACCOMMODATION
Ships can have varying levels of accommodation for the crew.
Cramped accommodation saves weight, but will affect crew quality negatively if ships
are outside of home waters. In a long war, it can also affect fleet morale if your nation
is blockaded.
Normal accommodation will be sufficient for ships during most of the game.
Late game, after 1955, spacious accommodation will be needed to keep up crew
quality, as the pampered youths of the modern age want more comforts. Communist
regimes do not need to bother with spacious accommodation.

AUTOMATIC LOADING
Autoloaded guns will have a 10% higher ROF. When the ship is straddling the target
and going to rapid fire they will give a 30% boost to ROF. They also have better AA
performance. They are about 25% heavier than usual guns.

DUAL PURPOSE GUNS

Dual purpose guns are about 25% heavier than usual guns, but are capable of both AA
fire and engaging surface targets. 3, 4, 5 and 6 inch guns can be dual purpose, with 4
and 5 inch guns being the most capable in the AA role. Late game technology will make
3 inch guns effective AA weapons. Dual purpose guns count as heavy anti-aircraft guns
for purposes of anti-aircraft combat.

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LIGHT AND MEDIUM AA GUNS
Light and medium AA guns are limited not only by weight, but also by topside space. To
simulate this, all ships have an amount of topside space. Topside space is determined by
displacement, and are used by other weaponry, guns, torpedo tubes, radar installations etc.
You will be able to fit more light and medium AA guns on ships when double and
quadruple AA mounts are developed.
Light and medium AA guns will evolve with radar control and other improvements in
the late game, see AA guns in the missile age.

AA DIRECTORS
AA directors will considerably increase the effectiveness of heavy and medium AA fire.
More AA directors will improve AA fire, up to a maximum of 4.

43
 INCLINED BELT
Inclined belt costs 10% more than a conventional belt. It adds about 10% to the
protective effect of the belt, but it also entails a risk that long range hits will be converted
to deck or lower belt edge hits.

BOX PROTECTION TO MAGAZINES

If this option is selected, belt and deck thickness will be halved for hits to areas other than
magazines. Belt and deck weight is reduced by 1/3. This was a common armour configuration
for cruisers in the interwar years that were restricted by the Washington Naval Treaty.

ALL FORWARD MAIN ARMAMENT

Ships with all forward main armament (Nelson or Richelieu configuration) save weight.
This is also valid for G3 configuration (A, B, L turrets). A nation needs to research all
forward armament before designs can benefit from the weight savings.

DIVING SHELLS
Once invented, diving shells can be selected for use in the ammo doctrine screen.
Diving shells have a chance for long range near misses to be converted to hull hits
bypassing armour. On the flip side, diving shells have a larger chance of passthrough
hits and duds.

OXYGEN FUELLED TORPEDOES

When oxygen fuelled torpedoes have been invented, their use can be selected in
the doctrine screen. Oxygen fuelled torpedoes give considerably better torpedo
performance at the risk of more devastating torpedo explosions if torpedo tubes are hit.

RADAR
All ships can carry radar up to radar level 2. To install radar equipment above level 2,
you need to have a certain amount of space left unused on the ship. The maximum
radar level for the ship is shown in the design window. This is to simulate the added
top-weight and space requirements for more complex radar equipment.

44
ALUMINIUM SUPERSTRUCTURE
Once you have developed the technology, you can use aluminium superstructure. This
saves 10% of the hull weight, but it makes the ship more susceptible to fire damage.

MANAGING YOUR FLEET

STRATEGIC DEPLOYMENT OF SHIPS
Ships are deployed in an area, either a home area or on a foreign station. The number
of ships that can be deployed in an area is dependent on the base value of the area.
The number can be exceeded, but this may cause ships to suffer from maintenance
problems and reduced crew quality. If a nation has no bases in an area, only a very
limited number of ships can be deployed, representing single cruisers and the like that
coal at bases of friendly or neutral nations.
Base limits are checked at the end of the turn. That means that you can move a fleet
into an area where you have insufficient bases and fight a battle before the ships start
to suffer from lack of bases.

45
 Nations are required to have a minimum naval presence in each area where they have
possessions. This is expressed as a tonnage required in each area, and is dependent on
the number and value of the possessions owned by the nation. Only active ships or
ships on foreign stations status (see below) count for the purpose of calculating the
naval presence in an area. If the required number is not met, player prestige may suffer
and it might even lead to revolts in the affected areas.
Ships equipped for colonial service count as 1.5 times their tonnage on foreign
stations.
Ships with cramped accommodation and ships with short range are less useful on
foreign stations and will count as less than their actual displacement for the purpose of
fulfilling this requirement.

Note: you may want to keep more ships than required on foreign stations to
be sure of having an adequate force if war should come. During wartime, the
deployment requirements at foreign stations are not enforced if you are under
blockade.

46
 Fulfilling the requirements for ships at foreign stations can be done either manually
by moving ships to the relevant areas, or by simply assigning them to Foreign Station
status, whereupon the AI will move the ship to a suitable area. The latter way is quicker
if you for some reason need to fulfil sudden foreign service requirements quickly, for
example after acquiring territory in a war.

THE SHIP LIST

On the second tab of the main screen you will see a list of all your active ships.

Most commands affecting your ships can be made by right clicking a ship in the ship list.
Here you can put ships in the reserve fleet or mothball them. You can also open the ship
design or define its mission as a raider, and you can order ships to move to other areas.
Many commands work for a number of ships if you multi select ships in the ship
list. For example, you can put multiple ships in reserve, or give movement orders to

47
 multiple ships at the same time. When multi selecting, use the normal windows actions
like holding down shift or control to select in the list.
In the construction tab you can see your ships under construction. Right clicking
ships here will give you choices for halting or speeding up construction.

Explanations for the ship list:

Speed: After the speed in knots there will sometimes be letters denoting:
L = Long range
S = Short range
c = Equipped for colonial service
a = Cramped accommodation

Status: The abbreviations means:

AF = Active fleet
RF = Reserve Fleet
MB = Mothballed
R = Raider
FS = On foreign station
TP = Trade protection
WU = Working Up
A number means the ship is in repair for that number of months
* after the status means the ship needs maintenance and should return to an area with
sufficient base capacity.

MOVEMENT
Ships can move to adjacent areas in one strategic turn (one month). You can give orders
for ships to move to an area farther away, and the ships will then plot their own course
to the ultimate destination area.
Only ships present in an area can take part in battles there. Ships that are moving
count as present in their next destination area for battle purposes. Short range ships

48
cannot move strategically during wartime except between adjacent home areas (e.g.
North American East Coast and Caribbean for the USA).

GIVING MOVEMENT ORDERS TO YOUR SHIPS

From an area details dialog. Click on the ‘Move ships’ button to go to the move ships screen.
or
From the main window, right click a ship in the ship list and select ‘Move ship’ to go to
the move ship screen with that ship selected.
or
Select one or more ships and press the “m” key. This will show a list of all areas. Click on
an area to order the selected ships to move there.
or

On the strategic map hold down the mouse button and drag from one map area to
another and release.
Note that you give movement orders to your ships that are actually executed when
you press ‘Turn’.
Also, if giving orders to move to an area two or more areas away, the ships will pick their
own route there, and the destination shown for them will be the next area on their route.

49
 BLOCKADE AND MOVEMENT
If a nation is blockaded, ships are not allowed to move out of the home port unless as
raiders, and these may be intercepted by the blockading nation.

50
MAINTENANCE AND READINESS
Ships in commission can be put in varying states of readiness, which will affect their
maintenance costs, but also their readiness for war.
Ships can be in the active fleet, which have the best trained crews and are immediately
available for service.
Ships in the reserve fleet are manned by reservists and will take time to get to full
effectiveness.
Ships that are mothballed have poorly trained crews and will and take substantial
time to get to full effectiveness.
New ships and ships just mobilized will be placed in “Working up” status until they
have decent crew quality. They can be changed to another status by the player (but not
back). Ships in working up status will not take part in battles.
Ships under repair will cost about 2 times the active maintenance cost. This is to
reflect the cost of making the repairs. Ships in Mothballed status will have repair work
halted and will not incur the extra cost. This can be useful if repair work causes high costs
that crowds out other important ship construction. Ships under repairs that are put in
mothballed status will have an H as notification in the ships list, as repairs are halted.
In some situations it might not be worth the cost to repair an old ship, and it might
be an attractive option to scrap it instead.
It is a good idea to consider taking the opportunity to rebuild damaged ships, as that
will enable some savings and use the repair time to improve the ship.

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 Designer’s Note: In wartime, maintenance costs will rise sharply. There is a prediction
in the main screen of the cost of having all ships in active status. In addition to this,
there will be extra wartime maintenance costs. It is not uncommon to be forced to
curtail or stop ongoing ship construction during wartime, as was done historically in
several cases. You will often have to fight with the fleet you have when war breaks out.

SPECIAL TRAINING
You have the option of setting special training for your crews. This will let you focus on
some tactics or aspects of naval warfare that you deem especially important. Your choice
of special training should consider the types of ships you build and the type of battle
you expect to fight.

52
 Each special training subject selected will increase maintenance cost for your ships.
Once you start training, it will take 12 months to achieve proficiency in a subject. You
have to keep on spending on training to keep the benefits. The benefits disappear
immediately upon stopping spending on that type of training.
The different kinds of training are:
È Gunnery: Gunnery training will give your ships 10% better accuracy when firing
guns. The cost is 30% increase in maintenance.
È Night fighting: This will give your ships a bonus when spotting enemy ships at
night, and less chance of hesitating before opening fire at night. It also gives a
10% accuracy bonus at night. It will cost 20% increase in maintenance.
È Torpedo tactics: This will make your light forces more alert when carrying out
torpedo attacks, quicker to react on flotilla attack orders and give better hit
chances when firing torpedoes. The cost is 20% increase in maintenance.
È Damage control: This will increase the proficiency in damage control of your
crews. They will reduce flooding faster and put out fires more effectively. The cost
is 20% increase in maintenance.
You can select a maximum of two special training subjects.
The cost of special training is reduced for Japan.

Designer’s Note: This is to simulate that Japanese crews tolerated a harsh training
schedule, and Japanese naval training during the time frame of the game
emphasized realism over safety concerns.

FLEET EXERCISE
You can hold a fleet exercise once a year with any ships you select from your own fleet.
Ships participating in the exercise will cost twice the active maintenance cost and gain
some experience. Large fleet exercises can raise tensions. In effect you will play out a
battle against a part of your own fleet, with no permanent damage of course.
A fleet exercise is a good way of learning the battle system for first time players, or a
way of testing tactics and designs.

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 PERMANENT DIVISIONS
In RTW3, you can form permanent divisions of ships of similar type. Ships in divisions
will most often fight together in the same division in tactical battles.

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 There is no requirement to put ships in divisions. If there are no permanent divisions,
ships will be picked for battles and grouped by the battle generator. However, if you do
organise divisions, it is recommended that you organise the majority of your ships in
divisions to get the full benefits of your planned organisation.
There is a chance/risk that one or more ships in a division will be detached to perform
some other role, or be unavailable for battle due to mechanical failures or other reasons.
If ships in the same division are sent to different areas, they will obviously not be able
to fight together in battles.
A division can contain from one to five ships except destroyer divisions which can
have up to six ships. The ships must be of the same type, except that BB and B can be
mixed in battle divisions, and CA can be part of BC-divisions. The recommendation is to
keep divisions at least three ships strong, otherwise the battle generator might fill up
the divisions with randomly selected ships to get the desired division strength for the
scenario. Divisions of one ship are largely meaningless.
In the Division Editor you can assign roles for each division just as you can in a battle.
Thus you can assign permanent scouting and screening forces to Carriers and Battleships.
Divisions have an experience rating. In battle, division experience affects signalling,
the risk of ships losing contact, fire distribution and spotting. Division experience also
has a slight impact on ship crew quality for battle.
Division experience will generally go up over time. Experience will go down when
ships in the division are changed, or when the division changes commander.
The first ship in the division is the flagship. Changing the flagship will result in a
small decrease in division experience.
In wartime, a division can be scheduled for a division training. Division training will
bring up division experience faster, but a division on training will be unavailable for
any battles taking place that turn. In contrast to a fleet exercise, this is not played out.

Designer’s Note: Why no division training in peacetime? In peacetime, there is no

need to hold a unit back from operational service to exercise, so periodic exercises
are assumed to be a normal part of peacetime routine.

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 The ability of the division commander (see Officers below) will affect the rate at which
division experience is gained, and have a slight effect on the crew quality of ships in
the division.
Special abilities of the division commander will have effect in some cases:
A ROF enthusiast will affect the ROF of all ships in the division.
A gunnery expert will improve gunnery in the entire division.
An aggressive or timid commander will affect the tactical behaviour of the division.
A loose cannon can affect any or none of the above. With the loose cannon, you never
really know.

OFFICERS
Your ships and divisions will be commanded by officers, who have different abilities and
strengths and weaknesses. Officer ranks in the game are: Commander, Captain, Rear
Admiral and Admiral.

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 Designer’s Note: A “Commander” would more properly be a Captain Junior Grade
in the US and British Navies, and is called so in game if using the option for national
officer ranks. Commander is used here for convenience and clarity. Most non-English
speaking navies used a term with a literal meaning of Frigate Captain for that rank,
like “Fregattenkapitän” or “Capitaine de fregate”.

A commander can command a CL or a division of DD. A Captain can command a CA,

B, BB, BC, CV, CVL or a division of DD. A rear admiral can command a division of CL or
heavier ships.

Designer’s Note: There are no Commanding Officers for destroyers. It is assumed

that players would find it tedious to handle officers for dozens of destroyers.

Officers are rated by their ability. The possible values are: brilliant, above average,
average, below average or incompetent. The ability of an officer is initially unknown,
but will be revealed after some years of service. Participating in battles will increase the
likelihood of the ability being revealed.
A brilliant or above average officer will give a slight boost to crew quality when crew
quality is determined for battle. This can push the crew quality over the edge into the
next better bracket. An incompetent or below average officer will cause a slight reduction
in crew quality when crew quality is determined for battle. This can push the crew quality
over the edge into the next worse bracket.
The quality of division commanders can affect the crew quality of all ships under their
command, and affect the risk of misunderstood orders.
Some officers may also have ‘characteristics’ that can affect their performance during
battles. See Appendix 6 for a list and explanation of these characteristics.
After a number of years in a rank, usually around 5, there is a chance of promotion.
Promoted officers go into the pool for officers of the new rank. Officers that are promoted
run a slight risk of losing their positive attributes, and a slight chance of acquiring a
positive attribute.

57
 When an officer is promoted out of his post, the command he occupies will be freed up.
Captains that are promoted will either be promoted to an administrative post and
disappear from the pool, or go to the rear admirals pool.
New officers will appear automatically at the lowest rank (commander).
Players can assign officers to free command slots, and officers can be removed from
a command at the cost of some prestige. An officer can be manually promoted ahead
of his time, but that costs prestige, and carries a higher risk that the officer will lose a
positive trait (he is promoted out of his competence area).
Each turn, the player has the opportunity to assign officers from the pool to empty
slots. If there should be slots free after the player turn, the AI will fill them up, either by
promoting officers into empty slots or by creating new randomized officers. This means
that the player can deal with officer assignments in detail if he wants to, but there is
no requirement to do so. It is perfectly feasible to let officer assignments run their own
course and only remove the occasional idiot now and then.
There are a number of officer events that can happen, often related to the special
abilities of officers. These events can create trouble, but may also be opportunities to
get rid of below average officers.

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 Once you have researched naval academy, you have the option (in the doctrine
screen) to establish a Naval Academy. That will give you more and slightly better officers
to chose from, at a small cost.

POLITICS AND RELATIONS TO

OTHER NATIONS

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
The playable nations have a number of national characteristics. Below is a list of those
characteristics and their effect.
È Efficient shipbuilding industry: Ships will take 10% shorter time to complete.
È Undeveloped shipbuilding industry: Ships will take 10% longer to complete and
are more prone to have unexpected faults, like not reaching their design speed.
È Global naval power: Nation must keep at least 10% of tonnage on foreign
stations, cannot have cramped crew quarters. May get automatic budget raise if
any other nation has a similar budget.
È Cautious: AI controlled forces will be cautious in battles. Player risks extra
prestige loss on losing battles or losing capital ships.
È Poor education level: Affects the quality of ship crews and pilots, and has a
slight negative effect on research.
È Surprise attack: The nation has a penchant for starting wars with a surprise
attack on the enemy fleet. There will be an 80% chance of a surprise attack on
the enemy fleet at the start of a war.
È Inconsistent naval policy: The politicians are more likely to interfere in ship
building design and priorities.
È Attention to detail: Ships are less likely to have hidden defects or vulnerabilities.

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 È Technology Leader: The nation will be in the top tier of nations in research, and
if AI controlled will spend on research to stay among the top nations in technical
development.
È Hidden faults: Ships may have unexpected faults, like a tendency to explode on
turret hits or similar.
È Kamikaze: A fascist nation with Kamikaze trait will practice suicide air missions
if losing a war (see air sections). A nation with Kamikaze trait will also tend
to do better in research in offensive technologies, and worse in defensive
technologies.

GOVERNMENT TYPE
Nations also have a government type that influence several aspects of their internal
and external policies. The government types are: Liberal democracy, Limited democracy,
Autocratic, Fascist, Communist and Eastern. The government type of a nation can
change, mostly through revolutions (see unrest level).

TENSION LEVELS
The player nation has a tension
level with every other nation.
When the tension level rises,
there will eventually be a risk
of war.
Normally, the tension levels
will rise slowly over time and
there will usually be several
years before a war breaks out.
However, you should be aware
that there are some events that
can cause a war to break out

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rather quickly and unexpectedly. Thus, you cannot let your guard down and think that any war
is in the future. You should keep your navy in shape to fight a war at any time. If you scrap too
many old ships and count on having new ones ready in a year or so, you might find yourself
in an awkward situation if the international situation takes a turn for the worse. Also, the press
and the navy league might come down hard on you if they think the navy is too weak.

EVENTS
There will be random events and crises from time to time, and you will have to respond
to them, mostly by giving advice to the government. “Hawkish” answers will tend
to raise the budget and your prestige, but they will also tend to raise tension levels.
“Doveish” answers will tend to lower the tension levels, but risks lowering your prestige
and/or the naval budget.
In the event dialog, hover the mouse over the event answers and you will get a hint
on the effects of the different answers.

Designer’s Note: Most events are geared towards European politics in the 20th
century. While the events that can occur and their likelihood are different depending
on government type etc, there are some events that may feel more appropriate
to Europe than the USA, Japan or China. The political events are there to give
background to naval affairs, but do not attempt to be a complete simulation of the
politics of all the nations concerned.

PRESTIGE
Prestige in the game represents your general reputation, based mostly on your standing
with the Monarch/President and the politicians, the officer corps and other parts of
the establishment. Your prestige will be enhanced by generally ‘tough’ responses to
events and success in battle. You prestige will be lowered by ‘soft’ responses, defeats
and mismanagement. Prestige can be seen as a currency, which can be spent to affect
various events that might impact on your plans or the Navy in general.

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 Prestige loss is in most cases proportional, which means that if you have high
prestige, you will lose more of it on an event that results in prestige loss.
If your prestige goes too low (16 or below), you run a risk of being sacked, thus losing
the game.
Prestige is also used at the end of the game as a kind of ‘victory points’ system to
evaluate your career as head of the Navy.

UNREST LEVEL
The unrest level represents the feeling among the workers and lower classes. A high
unrest level will lead to strikes and demands for lowered military budget, and in wartime
can lead to revolution and defeat. Revolution is less likely in liberal democracies.
The unrest level is raised by:
È High military spending
È Long wars
È Being under blockade
È Cramped accommodation in ships
È Defeats
È Events
The unrest level is lowered by:
È War breaking out (initially, but longer wars will have the opposite effect)
È Social programmes (event answers)
È Victories
È Lower military spending
The amount of money spent for naval and military purposes is the most important factor
in affecting the unrest level in the nation. Possible unrest in effect acts as a brake on the
naval budget in the game. If you relentlessly press for higher naval expenditures, you
will find that the unrest level will be going up. Entering a war with a high unrest level
might leave you vulnerable when blockade or trade disruptions caused by war increase
unrest further.

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INTELLIGENCE

You can set a level of intelligence collection for each other nation. Intelligence activities
might give information on research in other nations, boosting your own research, or it
might yield information about the capabilities of enemy ships.
Intelligence spending does not take effect immediately. It takes time to build up an
intelligence network. It can thus be a good idea to prepare for intelligence activities in
potential enemy nations. When you have increased spending towards a nation, you will
see * in the intelligence field, denoting that it has still not reached full capability.

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 Intelligence activities carry a risk of detection. If your agents are discovered, it will
increase the tension level with the nation in question.
Intelligence affects many aspects of the game. In wartime, it will reduce the risk that
your ships will be facing unexpected battles that cannot be avoided. It will also increase
the effectiveness of your ASW efforts. Spies might gain you technology, or knowledge of
enemy ship details or war plans.

ENEMY SHIPS

The information you can see about ships belonging to other nations is restricted. For
ships under construction, you will only be able to see the ship type and displacement.
For completed ships you can see the ship type, displacement, number and calibre
of guns or missile launchers, and speed, although the official numbers may be
misleading.
By performing intelligence you might glean additional details, like details on
armament, armour thickness, torpedo protection etc.

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ARMS LIMITATION TREATIES
Treaties will result from disarmament conferences, and these are an effect of event
responses. You can affect the chances of a treaty by your answers, but ‘tough’ answers
disdaining treaties will tend to raise tensions.
A treaty will set a limit in displacement and main armament calibre for new ships
laid down. It will also set a limit for the total warship tonnage of all nations. During the
negotiations for a treaty, you will get an opportunity to have input on the conditions of
the treaty, or even recommend against it entirely.
All ships under construction at the time of signing the treaty that do not fulfil the
terms of the treaty will be scrapped. Existing ships may be kept, and may be rebuilt and
modernized, even if they exceed the treaty limits.
Liberal democracies must adhere strictly to the treaty. Other nations may ‘cheat’ by up
to 10% of the displacement. No cheating is possible on the main calibre.

ALLIES
You can be allied with other
nations. There are several
advantages to having an alliance
with another nation. An alliance
will keep down tension with that
nation, and the ally will support
you in a war. An ally is also more
prone to sell you technology, and
will do so at lower prices. You
can also buy licenses to produce
aircraft types from allied nations.
Allied ships may show up on
your side in battles. Similarly, if
you are at war with two or more nations, the allies of your enemy may show up. Allied
bases and coastal batteries will also be present in battles.

65
 There are also some potential
disadvantages to alliances.
You might be embroiled in
conflicts that are caused by the
foreign policy of your ally, and
the existence of the alliance
might raise tensions with other
nations.
Alliances can be revoked if
tension goes up between the
allies. Alliances have a larger
chance of being revoked if one
nation is fascist/communist
and the other is liberal democracy.
Alliances will not be revoked during war. Instead, your ally may seek a separate peace
if tension with them goes high enough.

PEACE
During a war there will be events relating to possible peace negotiations. Your answers
to these will influence the chance for a peace and also the nature of that peace. In a
victory, you may gain increased base resources, possessions or even ships from the
enemy’s fleet, depending on the magnitude of your victory. Conversely, if you lose a
war, you may yourself lose some of the above.
When you win possessions, you will be presented with a list of enemy possessions
to choose from, and the number of value points you can select. Unused points will
gain a small increase in your base resources instead. You can even decline to take any
possessions and be satisfied with the base resource gain.

Tip: Wars are easy to start, but they do not end when you want them to. — Machiavelli

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TACTICAL BATTLES
When a state of war is in effect, there will be a chance of some kind of naval action every
turn. The missions might be:
È Fleet battle: A decisive battle with the entire fleet of both involved nations.
È Cruiser battle: A battle between cruiser forces.
È Coastal raid: Various kinds of bombardments, attacks on merchant shipping or
other offensive activities near the enemy coast. The forces involved can vary but
are usually based on faster ships up to battle cruisers in strength. In these battles
coastal artillery and patrol craft will help the defending player.
È Convoy attack/defence: Attack or defence of a convoy, usually with cruiser forces.

You will be presented with a screen with a force estimate of enemy strength, where you
have the option to accept or decline battle. Declining a battle will cost victory points,
and may cost prestige after several declined battles. There is a chance that the enemy
will decline battle if they are feeling that they cannot send out a force with reasonable
chances of victory.
If you accept a battle, you will be brought to the tactical resolution screen. The ships at
your disposal will be randomly selected from the ships in the area according to the size
and type of battle, though your permanent division structure will be taken into account.
Sometimes there will be an additional friendly AI controlled support force present.
This can both be a blessing and a source of problems. Sometimes the support force will
save your skin, sometimes it can charge ahead and be involved in battles you would
want to avoid.
The majority of battles will start with manoeuvre controls locked and the fleets
meeting shortly. In rare cases, mostly in low visibility, the fleets may miss each other
and the battle will be without contact between the fleets.
In coastal raids, there will be a large element of manoeuvre and finding (or avoiding)
the enemy fleet.
After a battle, when you have finished studying the result, just close the battle screen
to return to the main RTW screen.

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 SURPRISE ATTACKS
A surprise attack may occur on the first turn of war, if one of the nations has the national
characteristic “Surprise attack”.
In the early game, before 1925, a surprise attack will take place at night and involve
a group of destroyers making a torpedo attack on the enemy fleet at anchor, with a
heavier group of ships following up. The defending ships will be initially surprised.
To make the most of a possible surprise attack, you should have a decent force of
destroyers in the same area as an enemy base. Having well developed torpedoes and
destroyers also helps of course.
Surprise attacks in the game are arranged so that they can succeed brilliantly, but be
prepared that surprise attacks can occasionally end in relative failure.
Surprise attacks between 1925 and 1935 will be replaced by a submarine sneak attack.
Surprise attacks after 1935 will be a carrier aircraft attack on the enemy’s fleet in
port. In this case, you will get the opportunity to mobilize carriers and supporting ships
and have them moved to the area where the surprise attack is taking place. Naturally,
a carrier that has been in the active fleet will have better pilots than a newly mobilized
one, so it might be a good idea to have carriers in active service in preparation for an
expected surprise attack.

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 Note that a surprise attack is not a sure thing. There is a basic chance of 80% for a
surprise attack to take place. This is reduced considerably in subsequent wars with the
same nation (they are not so stupid that they fall for the same trick again). Also, there
might not be suitable enemy ships to target in a location within reach. In such cases, you
will be informed that there was no opportunity for a surprise attack.

Note: Ships in reserve or mothballed status might be included as defending ships

in a surprise attack, even though they will otherwise not take part in battles. This is
to make them vulnerable, and make it impossible for the player to ‘hide’ ships from
surprise attacks by putting them in reserve.

BLOCKADE

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 To blockade a nation, you must have 110% of the enemy’s naval strength in the build
area of the enemy nation. Naval strength for this purpose is computed as a sum of
all ships in the area, weighted by type. Some nations have their blockade strengths
modified. For example, Britain has its blockade strength multiplied by 1.2 to account for
its geographic position and its dominance in trade and finance. Russia has its blockade
strength multiplied by 0.7 to reflect its geographic position.
If you are a blockading nation in a war, you will earn a number of extra VP per month
as long as the blockade is kept up. A blockaded nation will also suffer a higher risk of the
unrest level going up, which can ultimately lead to revolution and defeat.
A blockaded nation will not be able to move ships out of its build area, except as
raiders, which are subject to possible interception as they break through the blockade.
The Baltic Sea is a special case for blockade purposes. Russia, which has home area in
Baltic Sea, can be blockaded from Northern Europe to simulate Russia’s geographic position.

Tip: If you hover the mouse pointer over an area on the strategic map, you will see
a summary of naval forces in the hint box. After the list of ship types for each nation
is the total strength value in the area in parentheses. These are the values used to
determine if a blockade exists. Note that to preserve fog of war, the values you see
are before movement, ships might move during the turn and blockade is resolved
after the move and any battles, but it should still be a pretty good indication

TRADE PROTECTION
When war breaks out each nation will be required to keep a number of ships on Trade
protection duty. The number of ships required will be proportional to the fleet size and
your economy, and modified by the strength of the enemy submarine force. Ships on

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Trade protection are counted in one global pool, and their exact location is not important
for fulfilling the overall requirement.
Ships assigned to trade protection will not normally be available for fleet operations.
However, in non-home areas, any ship present might be used in battle.
DD and KE assigned to trade protection will be on ASW patrols or assigned as convoy escorts.
Cruisers assigned to trade protection will patrol against enemy raiders and provide
heavy convoy escort.
If you do not satisfy the Trade protection requirement, there will be a larger chance
of enemy submarines sinking merchant ships and your prestige may suffer. Stronger
patrols than required will hamper the operations of enemy submarines and increase
the chance of sinking them. Also, the crew quality of patrolling ships will have an effect,
so while it is tempting to put your worst crews on obsolete ships on ASW patrol, it might
not be an ideal solution.
Ships on Trade protection may be present in defensive coastal battles in the area where
they are deployed, but will otherwise have a low chance of being involved in battles.
AMCs can be used on trade protection patrols and if you have invented Q-ships, they
can surprise and sink enemy submarines.

RAIDERS
During war, you can send out ships as raiders to prey on enemy shipping. Raiders cannot
be short range ships and are more effective if they have long range and relatively high
speed. Generally, cruisers are ideal for this mission.
Raiders run a risk of being intercepted by enemy trade route patrols and brought to
battle. Note that a raider winning a battle but suffering significant damage might be
forced to scuttle itself or seek internment in a neutral port.
There is a slight risk that raiders run out of fuel, especially if not long range or of large
size, or suffer a mechanical breakdown. This can force them to be interned in neutral
countries until the war is over.
AMCs can be effective as raiders, despite relatively low speed, due to their ability to
disguise themselves as normal merchantmen. A speed of at least 8 knots is required.

71
 Large fast AMCs (fuel hungry liners) are however prone to running out of fuel. An AMC
raider has a chance of deceiving and surprising an enemy intercepting ship, with the
interception battle starting at short range and the intercepting ship surprised.
If you are blockaded, ships deployed as raiders may be engaged by enemy ships
while breaking out to the trade routes.
Raiders have no effect if you are blockading the enemy (enemy merchant shipping is
assumed to have been reduced to a minimum by the blockade).

ANTI-SUBMARINE AND MINE CAPABILITY

Each ship has a rating for its capabilities in these fields. However, if the ship has a
capability in both of these fields, the effectiveness of each will be reduced, to reflect the
fact that the ship has to divide its time between the various duties.

ASW WARFARE
Ship types capable of ASW warfare
are DD, MS, CV and CVL. Later CL
and AV will get ASW capabilities.
Ships capable of ASW warfare have
an ASW rating. The ASW rating of a
ship depends on displacement and
installed equipment. All DD and
small ships will automatically have a basic amount of depth charges when these are
invented. Additional ASW equipment, like increased storage of depth charges, depth
charge throwers, and ASW mortars, need to be added to the design and will increase the
cost and weight of the ship.
The ASW value of CV and CVL will initially be low, but will increase with development
of aerial depth charges and airborne radar.
AMC will have a limited ASW value during the early period (as Q-ships).
The ASW value will be used both in strategic turns and during tactical battles.

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 For the purposes of submarine attacks on merchant shipping, the numbers of ASW
capable ships assigned to trade protection in the area the submarine operates will be
used as a modifier. After attacking, there is a chance that the sub will be attacked by
trade protection vessels. A random vessel in the area is selected, and its ASW rating is
used as the basis for the attack.
For the purpose of submarine attacks on warships, the proportion of destroyers not
on trade protection compared to heavier ships in the area will be used as a modifier.
Thus, you will have to balance the need for trade protection against the need to
protect your heavy ships from submarines. It is easy to underestimate the need for ASW
ships and find that you have a lack of them when war breaks out.
In battles, when a submarine is detected, the nearest ASW capable ship will try to
attack the submarine, with success being based on its ASW value compared to the
reliability rating of the submarine. Even if the submarine is not sunk, it will in most
cases be driven to dive deep, and it will have a downtime before it can go to periscope
depth and become active again.

MINE WARFARE

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 Mines are represented in three ways in RTW3.
There will be a defensive minefield around all bases. You will see those of the enemy
but not your own. The purpose of these is to prevent enemy ships from operating
unrealistically close to enemy bases. You cannot enter this area with your ships.
There will also be small minefields present in scenarios near enemy bases and
coastal artillery positions. They will be more common the longer a war progresses. These
minefields will be invisible until one of your ships hits a mine. Screening light ships will
protect your heavy ships from these to an extent.
Before each battle, there will be a pre-battle round of mining and minesweeping,
where ships with mining or minesweeping capabilities present in the area will take
part. Results will be presented to the player, to illustrate the effectiveness of these often
underappreciated but vital assets.
There is also operational mining carried out in the monthly turns. Ships equipped
for mine laying will be assumed to carry out mining in the area they are deployed.
Minelaying submarines will also contribute to operational mining. This mining
is abstracted and will not show on the map, but will increase the risk of opposing
ships falling victims to mines. Friendly minesweepers (DD or KE with minesweeping
capability) will help mitigate the risk of striking mines.
Ships equipped to lay mines will add to the mine value of the area, which will be
used to determine the risk of enemy ships striking mines.
Ships equipped with minesweeping gear will contribute to a minesweeping value
for each area. This value will be compared to enemy minelaying capabilities in the area
to determine the risk of ships striking mines during operational movement and also
influence the number of minefields during battles.
Similar to ASW, it is easy to underestimate the need for minesweepers and be caught
unprepared.

INVASIONS AND AMPHIBIOUS OPERATIONS

Each nation has an invasion range, expressed in nautical miles. This is the range from
friendly ports that you can conduct an invasion. It is measured from the nearest friendly

74
port to the nearest enemy port in the intended invasion target possession. If the range
is greater than your invasion range, you cannot invade.

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 The invasion range is modified by advances in the tech area “Amphibious operations”.
It is also increased for global naval powers and for nations with surprise attack ability
during the first year of a war. It is lowered for blockaded nations.
Your current invasion range is shown in the lower left of the main screen. By pressing
the invasion range button on the world map, you can see invasion range circles from
your bases.
To start an invasion, you select an enemy possession within your invasion range,
either by clicking on the possession flag on the map or via the possessions list to the
left. Once you have selected a target you should move naval forces into the area. For an
invasion to take place you must have more strength in the area than the enemy, but
there is also a random roll made each turn, so it may take a couple of months before the
invasion is actually launched. The larger your naval superiority, the greater the chance
of an invasion taking place.
Advances in amphibious capability will affect the chances of being able to carry out
an invasion once you have selected an invasion target.
When the invasion takes place, you will have to fight a battle where you escort
an invasion force of transports to the beaches. If you win the battle with more than
marginal victory, the invasion has succeeded.
The enemy nations will of course also have the capability to invade your possessions,
in which case you will have to fight a defensive invasion battle.

BLITZKRIEG
A nation that has a fascist, or to a lesser extent communist, regime can seize possessions
in blitzkrieg invasions. Blitzkrieg invasions cannot take place before 1935. The chance
of blitzkrieg invasions will be highest at the beginning of a war and then be reduced. As
a player, you will be consulted on blitzkrieg attack plans by the General Staff. Note that
even nations uninvolved in the current war might take the chance to make a blitzkrieg
invasion of some coveted possession.

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FUEL SHORTAGE
Nations without access to oil run a risk of suffering fuel shortages in wartime. The risk
of fuel shortage occurring in a turn will increase the longer the duration of the war. If a
nation is blockaded, the risk of fuel shortage will increase considerably.
In a turn with fuel shortage, there is a risk that ships will have ordered strategic
moves cancelled or that they will be unable to take part in a battle. The larger the ship,
the greater the risk of it being affected.
Ships using coal fuel will never be affected by fuel shortages.

WINNING OR LOSING A WAR

Battles and other events will gain victory points. When one side has a substantial
advantage, there will be chance for some kind of peace agreement. Peace agreements
might entail the loss or gain of territory, simulated in the game by gaining or losing
possessions, which will in turn affect your base national economy. They might also involve
handing over ships to the victor or restrictions on the shipbuilding of the losing nation.

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 Wars might be lost by revolution if the unrest level goes too high. Wars lost in this
way will lead to unusually harsh conditions. Thus, if you notice that your unrest level is
going up, you are well advised to consider reining in military expenditure and consider
some kind of social reforms. If that doesn’t help, a negotiated peace is a lot better than
revolution.

YOUR FLEET IN BATTLE

USING THE MAP
The battle map shows your ships as coloured dots on higher zoom levels, and as ship
graphics when you zoom in. The ships are shown in approximately double size, so ships
might look more crowded together than they actually are.
Ships will be shown on the map and elsewhere in the game with the following
prefixes denoting the ship type:
BB Dreadnought Battleship
BC Battlecruiser
B Pre-dreadnought Battleship
CA Armoured Cruiser/ Heavy cruiser
CL Light Cruiser
DD Destroyer
KE Corvette (used to represent a variety of small surface combatants without torpedoes)
TR Transport or merchant ship
AMC Armed Merchant Cruiser
AV Seaplane carrier
SS Submarine
LT Land target
MTB Motor torpedo boats (a squadron of three MTBs).

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 You can zoom the map by clicking the + or - buttons on the toolbar. You can also
use the mouse wheel to zoom or left click and drag a box on the map to zoom in to a
particular area of the map.
To scroll the map, right click and drag on the map, this effectively rotates the earth.
You can also scroll the map by using the W-A-S-D keys.
Clicking the Zoom to force button will zoom the map so that you see all your ships,
and any spotted enemy ships.
The lock button will make the map follow the currently selected division as it moves.
You can show various types of information like sighting ranges, visual or radar, gun
ranges or fire lines for the selected division by pressing the appropriate buttons on the
toolbar.
You can get details on friendly ships and divisions by right clicking on the ship or
the division flag.
Info on enemy ships will be limited, depending on the sighting level. At first, you
will only know it is a ship, then the ship might be identified as to type, and last its class
might be identified. You can hover the mouse pointer over a ship to get additional info,
and you can right click on an enemy ship to bring up information about the ship class
from a simulated Jane’s Fighting Ships, provided the class is identified.
It is possible to show an inset with an enlarged view of the current ship by pressing
the show enlarged view button on the toolbar. This can be very handy for checking if all
guns are bearing, or if you just want to keep an eye on how your flagship looks. It can
also be useful for taking a look at how the enemy ships look.
The ship displayed will shift when a popup is shown, but it is possible to lock the inset
view to the current ship.
When the scenario is finished, you can use the track chart button on the toolbar to
display a track chart of the action.

THE ORDER OF BATTLE TAB

The Order of battle tab to the left of the map lists all your ships and shows how they
are organised. Each side will have one or more forces, which are divided into divisions

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 which contain the ships. You can
expand the forces and divisions
to see your ships.
As the ships are damaged,
they will get stars beside their
names in the tree, one star
is light damage, two stars is
medium damage and three stars
is heavy damage. An (M) beside
the name denotes that the ship
is carrying mines.
Most objects in the OOB tree
can be right clicked for further
functionality, for example
finding them on the map or
seeing detailed info on forces,
ships or divisions.
A force may be computer
controlled, which means that
there are friendly forces over
which you have no control and
do not know exactly where they
are. They will report sightings of enemy forces, but those reports will be fragmentary
and subject to error. You cannot change the control of computer controlled forces, but
you can change AI control of divisions in player controlled forces (see below)

THE LOG
The log list on the log tab will list all important
events taking place in the game. Events during the
current turn will be in black, while events from the preceding turn will be shown in gray.

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Click on an event to locate the map to the ship causing or suffering the event. You can
also right click most events related to friendly ships to get details on the ship.
Some events will be shown in differing colour or font to make them stand out.
These are ships sinking, torpedo hits etc. Some events can also be made to pause
the game or show a message box, subject to customization by the player. See under
preferences.
All log entries are recorded in a total log that is available when you press the log
button on the toolbar (the one with a book on it). In the log window, you can copy all
entries to the clipboard with Ctr+C and paste into Word or Word Pad. It is an RTF file

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 so it will keep the formatting with colors and bold lines for hits etc. In this way, you can
peruse the log after the battle or even save if for future reference.

THE REPORTS TAB

The reports tab lists all reports on enemy activity that come from friendly non-player
controlled forces or submarines. Click on a report to locate it on the map. Note that reports
are randomized and subject to “fog of war”, both as regards location and enemy strength.

THE OBJECTIVES TAB

This lists all objectives for your side. Click on an objective to highlight its location on the
map. See more on objectives under Victory and objectives.

MANOEUVRING YOUR SHIPS

Rule the Waves puts you in the place of the admiral. That means you will give orders to
divisions of ships, not to single ships (unless they are alone in a division).
Divisions are shown on the map with flags. A square flag means a division under the
control of the player, a triangular flag means the division is under AI control.

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 Tip: It can often be preferable to have smaller ships, destroyers for example, under AI
control. In a big battle, that will let you focus your attention on the big ships. It will also
insure against a division doing something stupid just because you have forgotten to
give it orders. You can switch on and off AI control for divisions in your force at any time
during play, subject to the realism level you have chosen (see preferences section).

There are a couple of ways to give orders to a division. You can right click on the
division flag, which will bring up the division dialog. The division dialog will show a list
of the ships in the division, and their details. For further details on a ship, double click
on its listing.
You can set the speed and course for the division. Clicking the arrow button by the
course value will let you pick a direction from the map. The map will be shown and the
cursor will be a cross. Left click on the map and the division will be given a course to the
point you clicked.
There is also a quick way to give orders by using the panel in the lower left corner of
the main screen. If a division is selected, you can simply enter a course or a speed, or
press the arrow button to pick a course from the map.
Lastly, you can give a course order to the currently selected division by holding down shift
and clicking on the map. By holding down Ctrl and clicking on the map, you can give the

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 currently selected orders to move to that point and the game will pause when the division
reaches that point (or when something happens which would cause the game to pause).
You can switch on and off AI control for a division by clicking the AI control checkbox
(possibly restricted depending on realism level).

FORMATIONS
The formation of the division
will affect how the ships deploy.
Line ahead means all ships will
follow the division flagship. Very
common formation, especially
for heavier ships, as it maximises
firepower and will avoid putting ships in the line of fire of each other.
Line abreast means the ships will form up on the flagship in a line abreast. Usually
used when avoiding torpedo attacks or when you want to withdraw, or for manoeuvring
cruiser forces.
Search line is a specialized formation, like line abreast but with much larger intervals
between ships. Typically used by a lone squadron trying to locate the enemy.
Screen means the ships will spread out to cover an arc in front of the lead division.
Used by destroyers or cruisers screening heavier ships.

Formations other than line ahead have a risk of ships getting separated from the
division, especially at night or in poor visibility. Heavy ships (heavier than CL) in line
abreast will also tend to have their formation disordered after a while.

ROLES
You can also select the role for the division. This will affect how the AI will handle the
division:

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 Independent divisions will
not care about other friendly
divisions, but they will manoeuvre
in the general direction of the
force flagship. The force flagship
itself is always independent.
Core divisions will follow their lead division. Typically used for battleship divisions in
the main line of battle.
Support divisions will follow some distance behind the supported division or on
the disengaged side and endeavour to stay out of the line of fire. Typically used for
destroyers supporting a battleship or cruiser division. Supporting destroyers will launch
torpedo attacks or counterattacks on enemy destroyers when they deem it appropriate.
Scout divisions will place themselves a considerable distance in front of their lead
division, and spread out their ships. Typically used for cruisers scouting for a heavier force.
Screen divisions will form a screen a short distance in front of the lead division.
Typically used for light cruisers or destroyers screening heavier ships.
Patrol divisions will patrol around their objective. Used for patrolling coastal forces etc,
usually not under player control. However, it might be useful to put a player controlled
division on patrol if you want it to loiter in an area. Consider using it for aircraft carriers
that you want to stay out of the way of the enemy, or if you want a force to guard an area.
Note that all roles are not available to all ship types, to reflect historical practice.
For example, you cannot place a battleship division on scout. Neither can you place a
destroyer division on scout unless all its ships are larger than 1500 tons. This is to reflect
the historical limitations on early destroyers. WW1 destroyers were small and had poor
means of navigation and communication, which precluded their use in scouting. They
can be put on screen instead.
Lead division is the division that the above roles relate too. All divisions will have a
lead division except independent divisions.
The turn together check box makes it possible to order a division in line ahead to
turn together if you for example want to turn away quickly from the enemy or a torpedo
attack or similar.

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 The Division dialog can also be accessed by right clicking on a division in the OOB
tree and selecting status from the pop-up menu. It is also possible to centre the map on
a division or ship if you cannot find them.

SPEED
There is a temptation to run ships as
fast as they can go in tactical battles.
You should be aware that there are
some drawbacks to running ships
at full speed. In the early years
especially, full speed is something that should be saved until it is really necessary.
After a period at full speed, ships will get ‘Grates fouled’, which will reduce the
speed of the ship by one knot. Grates fouled will escalate to ‘Stokers exhausted’ after
an additional period, with a 2 knot speed loss. Coal fired ships are more sensitive to this
than oil fired ships, and ships with VTE engines even more so.
If you lower speed to cruise speed or below, your crew will eventually have cleaned
the grates and gotten the engines up to full capacity, but that will take longer than
incurring the penalty.
Running at full speed for long periods can also result in engine breakdowns,
especially for ships with engines that prioritize speed.
In combat, ships at full speed and above 25 knots will suffer vibrations that give a
gunnery penalty, and a division at full speed will leave no margin for ships to catch up,
and will often lead to spread out formations. It is generally advisable to keep division
speed to a couple of knots below maximum speed.

TARGETING
Your digital gunnery officers will normally handle targeting. However, unless you are
playing at Admiral’s mode you can set targets yourself for divisions that are not AI-
controlled.

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 If you set a target manually for a division or ship on automatic targeting, it will
shoot at that target until the target is out of range or cannot be seen. It will then revert
to automatic mode. Note that this might mean that a more important target will be
ignored. If you give manual targeting orders, you must also pay constant attention to
what your ships are firing at.
On manual mode, it is entirely up to the player to select targets. If a target is out of
range or not visible, the ship will simply stop shooting. This means that constant player
supervision is recommended if you put a division on manual targeting.
If you are playing at Rear Admiral’s or Captain’s mode, you can you can also order
a division to hold fire for 10 minutes or indefinitely, and to abstain from launching
torpedoes, Note that ships given hold fire orders might end up being pummelled by the
enemy without shooting back, so as with manual targeting, you will have to pay careful
attention to what’s happening,
Secondary batteries and torpedoes will always have automatic targeting. Occasionally,
you might see secondary batteries not firing at targets well in range. The reason is most
often that there is already a substantial number of ships firing at the target, and further

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 guns firing will just complicate observation and lower accuracy, so your digital gunnery
officer has decided to hold fire.

PLAYING A TURN
The game moves in one minute
turns, though when the game
runs, the turns will flow after one
another to give an impression
of continuous play. The ships
are animated to create a smooth
movement, but everything
actually happens in the minute turns. The turn button will play a single one minute turn.
Run 5 will run the game 5 minutes, and just Run will run the game until something
happens which will cause the game to pause, or turn or pause is pressed (or the P key).
The game can be run for a variable number of minutes by pressing the number keys, i.e.
pressing 7 will run the game for 7 minutes.
The > key is a useful shortcut. It will run the game for five minutes if in contact, or
one hour if not in contact with the enemy, and pause if something important happens.
The events that will pause the game automatically are configurable under preferences.
You can adjust the game speed with the game speed control on the toolbar. Speed
varies from ultra-fast, which will have game minutes passing by at the rate of several
minutes per real life second, down to real time. Normal speed equals roughly one
game minute per real life second (varying slightly with computer performance and the
number of ships engaged).
If you are playing at slow speeds and press P to pause the game, it will take some
time for the game to pause until the current minute is played out. In the meantime, the
text “Pause pending” will be shown in the display.
The game will revert to normal if on a faster setting whenever an enemy ship is
sighted. You can thus safely up the speed when no enemy is in sight.

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HITS AND DAMAGE

Hits will be shown in the event log. Hits on your own ships will be detailed as to location
and the part of armour hit. An asterisk * after the hit denotes that the hit penetrated
armour. Hits that do not penetrate armour will cause no or slight damage.

Armour types are:

B Belt: The main belt armour
BU Upper belt: Upper strakes of belt armour or armour protecting the upper part of
the hull.
BE Belt extended: Armour or armour protecting the ends of the ship as well as boiler
uptakes.
D Deck: The main armour deck of the ship.
DE Deck extended: Corresponds to BE above.
T Turret: Main gun turret.
TT Turret top: Roof of main gun turret.
SEC Secondary gun armour.
CT Conning tower.
The range at which the ship is hit will influence whether belt or deck armour is hit, with
deck hits being more frequent at longer ranges.

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 Ships take damage either as structure damage or flotation damage. Flotation damage
will affect the speed of the ship and will eventually sink the ship. Structure damage
is not directly dangerous to the ship, but extensive structure damage will affect the
general performance of the ship, for example, gunnery, rate of fire and damage control.
In addition all individual main turrets can take damage. Turrets can either be
destroyed, which is permanent, or disabled, which might be fixed by the crew. Even
non penetrating hits can disable a turret, the chance being dependent on the shell
size. Turrets can also jam from mechanical failures which are similar in effect to being
disabled. A penetrating turret hit might trigger an ammunition flash fire, which might
either destroy the ship or burn out two turrets. The risk of this happening is dependent
on nationality modifiers, which vary over time.
Engine room hits will in most cases affect the speed of the ship.
Waterline hits or torpedo hits can cause progressive flooding, which will gradually
cause flotation damage. Damage control will try to limit flooding. The chance of
reducing flooding will increase if the ship is at lower speed. Going at high speed with
extensive flooding can risk the ship. 10 knots is usually “safe” speed when it comes to
limiting flooding.
When ships sink, they will not just turn turtle and disappear. A ship will be in sinking
state for up to several hours. Sinking ships might be targeted by your gunnery officers,
and there is no way you can know if an enemy ship is sinking or just badly damaged.
This is to recreate the conditions under which real admirals had to make decisions.
In the ship details window, you can get a list of all events that affected the ship,
including the hits that ship has received, with hit location and if it is a critical hit etc. If a
hit has a ## mark, it means the hit was made while the ship was already sinking. During
play, you will not see the firing ship name. After the scenario is over, you can see exactly
which ship or air unit scored which hit.
When a ship is sunk and the enemy is not too near and friendly light ships are
close, you will get a question if you want to detach a ship to pick up survivors. Picking
up survivors earns victory points, regardless of which side they are from. Sea battles
are supposed to be chivalrous affairs and besides, enemy prisoners are good for
propaganda.

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HIT LOCATIONS
È Near miss: Might cause flotation damage to un-armoured ships or knock out
guns on light ships or un-armoured secondary or tertiary guns.
È Turret: Can destroy or disable the turret. A penetrating turret hit can cause a
catastrophic flash fire.
È Hull hit: Will cause flotation damage
È Engine room: Will affect speed and might cause flotation damage
È Superstructure: Causes superstructure damage and might damage un-
armoured secondary or tertiary guns.
È Torpedo tubes: Will knock out torpedo tubes and there is a chance of an
explosion which might cause further damage. Hits on underwater torpedo tubes
might cause bad flooding.
È Missile launchers: Will knock out the launcher and there is a chance of
secondary explosions which might cause further damage.
È Secondary battery: Can destroy secondary guns
È Critical hits: Include rudder damage, catastrophic machinery damage, magazine
hits, fire control, conning tower and bridge hits, electric system damage and bad
waterline hits. Might also cause any mines carried to explode, with catastrophic
effects.
Most hits have a possibility of causing some additional superstructure damage

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 Some hits by AP shells on un-armoured locations can be pass-through hits that don’t
explode. Such hits will cause minimal damage.
Torpedo hits will cause massive flotation damage and might cause progressive
flooding. They might also damage machinery or knock out turrets.
Note that the term “superstructure” is rather loosely applied here. Superstructure
damage can really be seen as damage to areas above the main armour deck.

FIRES
As ships accumulate damage, fires may break out. Fires are started by hits, with the
chance being larger for HE shells. The risk of fires varies according to ship type, with
Carriers, TR, AMC, AV, and B being the ship types most susceptible to fires. Initially, fires
don’t do much damage, they may either spread or be successfully fought by damage
control. Large fires will eat away at the superstructure points of the ship, and might
lead to other damage control being hindered or rate of fire affected, or even the ship
stopping firing as gun crews and damage control personnel concentrate on fighting the
fire. Fire level will be indicated in the ship details window, and also noted in the map
pop-ups.
A ship on fire will produce more smoke, contributing more to obscuring lines of fire.
A ship on fire will be easier to spot (but not identify) at night.
Fires will be more common during the earlier period of the game, and the risk of
fire will also be affected by damage control research. In the early period of the game,
it can be a viable doctrine choice to fire HE shells at heavy ships to cause fires, as the
penetration of AP shells in this period is rather low.

GUNNERY
A lot of factors affect the gunnery of the ships in the simulation. Gunnery accuracy
depends on:
È Technology (research level in fire control)
È Crew quality
È The type of fire control installed in the ship

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 È Firing ship turning
È Target ship turning
È Previous salvo on target
È Sea state
È Smoke interference
È Damage to firing ship
È Range
È More than one ship firing on the target
È Target evading
È Twilight (firing eastwards in dusk or westwards at dawn is penalised)
È Glare (firing within 45 degrees of the sun within one hour of sunset or sunrise,
provided weather is clear or partly cloudy).
To sum it up, to obtain the best result from your ships gunnery, keep a straight course
with as many guns as possible bearing, and make sure your smoke is not blowing
towards the enemy, especially if you have coal fired ships. Of course, keeping a straight
course may make you a better target for enemy torpedoes, so you must keep a balance.
Rate of fire (ROF) is dependent on:
È Technology (research level in gun mountings)
È Crew quality
È Firing ship turning
È Sea state
È Smoke interference (smoke will not affect loading of guns, but it will affect timely
correction of fire)
È Damage to firing ship
È Range
È Visibility
Ships low on ammo will fire more slowly and
be more selective about targets to conserve
ammo. Your digital fire control officers will
also use ammo for heavy guns sparingly
when firing at light ships at long range.

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 Ships firing at a new target will be ranging and fire more slowly and with less accuracy
until they have found the range.
You can see detail on all factors affecting accuracy and rate of fire in the ship details
screen during battle.

TORPEDOES

Torpedo firing is normally automated in the game, and torpedoes will be fired by your
virtual torpedo officers when a suitable target is in range. Note that underwater torpedo
tubes cannot be fired at a speed higher than 25 knots.
At captain’s mode (see Preferences below) torpedoes can be fired manually.
Torpedoes can do severe damage to your ships, and you should take care not to
follow a straight course for too long when in torpedo range of the enemy. Note also that
enemy ships ahead of you and to the beam will have much better torpedo solutions
than ships that are slightly behind you.

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WEATHER AND VISIBILITY
Visibility will change with the
weather. The weather has two
parameters that are to a large extent
interdependent: sea state and
precipitation. These will be shown
in the lower right hand corner of
the map. The precipitation level will
also be shown as a graphic on the
toolbar.
Sea state really expresses the
wind force, and is given as in the
Beaufort scale. Stormy weather will
lower visibility and affect the gunnery of ships, with small ships suffering the most. It
might also cause badly damaged ships to founder. Torpedo accuracy and reliability will
also be affected by heavy seas. Heavy seas will also limit the speeds of ships, again with
lighter ships suffering most.
Precipitation level simulates fog, mist, rain and snow. Mist and rain/snow will lower
visibility ranges, sometimes severely.
Stormy weather will make fog much less likely, while it will increase the risk of rain.

SMOKE
Smoke had a profound effect on visibility in naval battles during the first half of the
20th century. Coal fired ships emit copious amounts of smoke at full power, but oil fired
ships also ships emit smoke that can interfere with visibility. Smoke is simulated in the
game in several ways.
Funnel smoke will degrade gunnery when firing through it, regardless of which ship
the smoke is coming from, except normal funnel smoke from the target ship.
Destroyers and light cruisers can lay smokescreens. A smokescreen can be laid for
a maximum of 5 minutes. After that, a ship has to wait 20 minutes before it can lay

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 a smokescreen again. (Extensive
smoke generation will foul the
boilers). Smokescreens will vary in
thickness, and are mostly not fully
opaque, but will affect gunnery
through it to a larger extent
than normal funnel smoke. A
smokescreen will affect all gunfire
through it, even against the ship
laying the smokescreen.
Smoke floats can be deployed
by light cruisers in nations having
them (through research). Smoke
floats will both block line of sight
in their densest area, and cause
similar effects to funnel smoke. Smoke floats can be ordered manually in captain’s
mode, and will be deployed when the carrying ships deem it necessary on other realism
levels, generally when the carrying ships or their lead division is disengaging. Each
light cruiser will have between 3 and 5 smoke floats. Later these will be superseded by
smoke generators.
Accumulated smoke from many coal fired ships moving at high speed and firing
guns in a confined area will eventually lower the sighting range for all ships in the area.
Smoke will tend to disperse faster and cause less visibility effect in stronger winds.

MOTOR TORPEDO BOATS (MTB)

If a side has MTB units in an area where a battle takes place, MTB squadrons will appear
in coastal areas at night. They are always AI controlled, but will move around and attack
enemy ships that they find. They will automatically withdraw during daytime.
In the later part of the game, when anti-ship missiles are developed, MTBs will be
replaced by missile boats.

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MINEFIELDS IN BATTLE
Minefields can be of two types, “friendly” minefields and suspected enemy minefields.
Ships will automatically attempt to avoid both types. In addition, there might be
unknown enemy minefields which will come as an unpleasant surprise.
There is a chance that a mine strike will be reported as a torpedo attack, as there was
historically often doubt about if the ship had been hit by a torpedo or a mine.
See also Mine warfare.

LAND TARGETS
Land targets are similar to ships except that they cannot move. They are typically either
unarmed bombardment targets or coastal batteries. They will be targeted just as if they
were ships (though ships will not fire torpedoes at them). Some scenarios will have
destruction of land targets as an objective.
Airfields are also land targets, and can be targeted by bombardments. Land targets
can often be spotted at longer ranges than visibility range. This simulates that these are
usually area targets, and their general location is known beforehand.

SUBMARINES IN BATTLE
Submarines have a patrol area and can attack ships in that area. They will also report
sightings of enemy ships, but usually with a substantial delay, as the sub will most likely
be forced to dive and stay submerged for some time after an encounter.
Nearby destroyers will protect larger ships from submarine attack. They will make
it harder for the sub to attack and more likely that the sub will be spotted before it
can attack. There is a possibility that a surface ship with an ASW capability will sink the
submarine.
Submarine operations in the early 20th century were severely affected by weather. If
the weather is too calm, the submarine will be spotted more easily, and attacks will be
harder. If the seas state is too violent the sub cannot keep attack depth and observation
will be difficult. A sea state from 2 to 5 is optimal for submarines.

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 Early submarines were notoriously unreliable and hard to control and integrate
into other naval operations. To reflect this, each submarine has a reliability rating that
roughly determines how large a percentage of time the submarine will be able to scan
for targets.
There were frequent examples of sightings of imaginary submarines and torpedo
tracks that sometimes had a profound impact on operations. This is simulated in the
game by sightings of non-existent submarines.
It might be a good idea to stay clear of areas where friendly submarines are
operating with your surface ships, as there is a risk of mistaken identity with potentially
embarrassing results.

PREFERENCES IN TACTICAL BATTLE

There are user settings for the level of detail in most reports, as well as what is shown on
the game map. It is also possible to select what events will pause the game.
In addition, the player can chose between one of three realism levels.

ADMIRAL’S MODE
The ultimate in realism. The player can only give orders to the lead divisions of each
force. Other divisions can be controlled only by selecting their role. No manual targeting
is allowed. If you want to experience the real limitations of WW1 and WW2 fleet
command, this is how you should play.

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REAR ADMIRAL’S MODE
The player can put any divisions in his force on manual or AI control as long as they are
within sight of the force flagship. The player can give target orders to divisions. Victory
points will be reduced by 10%.

CAPTAIN’S MODE
The player can put any divisions in his force on manual or AI control. The player can give
target orders to divisions or ships. Victory points will be reduced by 20%.
Note that many battles have friendly forces that are not under player control. This is
not affected by the realism setting.

FORCE ORDERS
Especially under Admiral’s mode, force orders offer a possibility to influence your whole
force. Right click a force in the OOB tree to open the force orders dialog.

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 Flotilla attack: This orders a
general destroyer attack. Might be
used to finish off a crippled enemy
force or as a desperate move to
cover a withdrawal. Note that the
attack might take a few minutes to
develop, as it takes time for orders to
transmit and commanders to react.
To remind you that a flotilla attack
order is in force, a black flag will
be shown on the left in the main
window. Right clicking the Flotilla
attack flag in the main map window
will give an opportunity to recall all
flotilla attack orders.

Designer’s Note: A black flag was hoisted in some navies to signal that a ship was
performing a torpedo run.

Rally: This will raise force morale, making a battered force more likely to fight it out.
Note that the effect will be temporary if your force has suffered heavy casualties or is
low on ammo.
Disengage: This will lower force morale, causing subordinate divisions to tend to
increase range or withdraw.
Change Lead division: You can also change the force lead division. This can only
be done once in a scenario, to prevent misuse. It can be useful if playing on admiral’s
mode and you need to change direction of your whole force, or if your battle fleet is
deployed in cruising formation and you want to deploy on the opposite column to the
lead division. This order is likely to cause quite a lot of confusion in your fleet if it is used
to reverse course of the battle line.

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 Battle Turn Away: If you have developed it, you can use Battle Turn Away, which works
somewhat like changing force lead division, except that it will also change the order of
ships within the divisions, with each ship doing a 180 degree turn. This manoeuvre is
optimised to reverse course of the battle line. Even so, it is still liable to cause some
confusion.

SCENARIO VICTORY AND OBJECTIVES

The basic victory levels are dependent on points for damaging and sinking enemy ships.
Sinking a ship will earn substantially more points than just damaging it.
The player is given a number of objectives for the scenario that give bonus points
when completed. These are usually to sink a number of enemy ships. Important: The
ships must be sunk within 100 nautical miles of the objective to count. Also, ships
sunk must be at least 600 tons to count. This means that sinking a lowly patrol boat or
corvette will not trigger the conditions.

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 To find the location of an objective, click on it in the objective list and the objective
location will be shown on the map.

Note: The sections below apply to aircraft operations and radar. Aircraft will only start
to have an impact in the game from circa 1916, so if you are a first time player you
can stop reading here and revisit the manual when your game reaches the mid-
1910s. Radar will only appear in the late 1930s.

AIRCRAFT OPERATIONS
AIRCRAFT AND AIRCRAFT ROLES
There are several different aircraft roles in the game.

FIGHTERS (F)
Effective in countering other aircraft, as
combat air patrol (CAP) or as escorts. Later
models can carry bombs, and with improved
glide bombing become reasonably accurate at
bombing. With development of rockets they
become even more useful in attacks on ships and ground targets.

TORPEDO BOMBERS (TB)

Can be carrier based or land based. Torpedo
bombers are the earliest kind of attack aircraft
that appear in the game. They can drop
torpedoes or bombs. Torpedoes are more
effective in sinking ships than bombs.

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DIVE BOMBERS (DB)
Can be carrier based or land based. Very
accurate in bombing of ships, though their
bombs are released at relatively low altitude
and lack the penetration of bombs dropped
from higher altitude.

MEDIUM BOMBERS (MB)

Land based only. Make level bombing attacks
that are not very accurate. Some types can
carry torpedoes. Bomb accuracy will increase
dramatically with skip bombing, but that exposes
the bomber to more AA fire. With the invention of
guided bombs and missiles, medium bombers become more dangerous to ships.

NAVAL PATROL AIRCRAFT (PB)

Land based only. Initially mainly flying boats
of various types. Primarily used for long range
scouting. Can carry bombs, but are not very
accurate with them. Flying boats contribute to
limit the effectiveness of enemy submarines
on the strategic level. In the late game, these aircraft can carry missiles, making them
more dangerous to ships.

FLOATPLANE SCOUTS (S)

Land or ship based short to medium range
scouts. Can be carried on any ship and
launched by catapult. Before catapults are
invented a launch requires the carrying ship
to stop. Later models can carry bombs, but are
not very accurate with them. Also help with local ASW.

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 AIRSHIPS (Z)
Based on land bases. Long ranged and reasonably
effective as scouts, but more weather sensitive
than airplanes. Can attack ships with high level bombing, but are rather ineffective.
Before 1920 airships are the only available really long range naval scouting aircraft.

LIGHT JET FIGHTERS (LJF)

These are the first carrier based jet aircraft that
will appear in the game. While considerably
more deadly in air combat than propeller
fighters, they have short range, especially in
their early iterations. This makes them less
suitable as escorts, and more useful as point defence fighters. Can attack ships with
glide bombing, but have limited bomb loads.
Light jet fighters can operate from non-jet capable carriers, but count as 1.5 aircraft
against aircraft capacity.

HEAVY JET FIGHTERS (HJF)

Heavier jet fighters with all-weather capability,
often with two crew. They are longer ranged than
light jet fighters and can carry a heavier bomb
load. They can also carry medium anti-ship
missiles.
Carriers need to be designed as jet capable to operate heavy jet fighters. On carriers
smaller than 40000 tons, heavy jet fighters will count as 1.5 aircraft against aircraft capacity.

JET ATTACK (JA)

Specialized attack aircraft with all-weather
capability, often with two crew. Can carry a
respectable bomb load and heavy anti-ship
missiles.

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 Carriers need to be designed as jet capable to operate jet attack aircraft. On carriers
smaller than 40000 tons, jet attack aircraft will count as 1.5 aircraft against aircraft capacity.

HELICOPTERS (H)
Helicopters are based on ships with a helipad. Helicopters can be
seen as a modern replacement for the floatplane, but has more
flexible uses. Helicopters will considerably enhance the ASW value
of ships. They can also enhance the radar range of the carrying ship.

SPECIAL SQUADRON
There is also a role called “special squadron”. This simulates an aggregate of anti-submarine,
electronic warfare or rescue aircraft that will act as a modifier on various aspects of air
combat in the game. Special squadrons will not perform missions themselves, but will
automatically support other missions.

LAUNCHING A STRIKE

To launch a strike, open the strike screen. First you select the originating division. This
can be a carrier division or a land base. When you have selected the division you see a
list of the air squadrons available at that base.
You can select the air formations you want to take part in the strike by checking the
box for that formation. At the top of the screen you will see the estimated time for arrival
at the target and the estimated time for landing.

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 Selecting coordinated strike will cause the air formations in the strike to keep
together, which will improve their chances against defending fighters and AA fire. A
coordinated strike will take longer time to form up.
Every ship carrying aircraft has a spotting value (representing a deckload of aircraft).
This is the maximum size of strike that can be launched from the ship. If you assign more
aircraft than the spotting value, it will be indicated in the strike screen, and you will not
be able to launch the strike.
To change the number of aircraft taking part in a strike from a formation, right click
the number value for that formation.
Aircraft can perform naval strikes, armed with AP bombs and torpedoes, or land
strikes, armed with GP bombs (equivalent to HE shells). To change the type of strike,
right click the strike type column value for that formation.
You can also select the loadout for each formation taking part. An aircraft with heavy
bomb load will obviously carry more bombs, but that will reduce range and speed, and
make it slightly more vulnerable in air combat. As a default, aircraft will select medium
load, or torpedoes in a naval strike if they are capable of carrying them.

ANTI-AIRCRAFT FIRE
Ships will defend themselves with anti-aircraft guns against enemy air attack. Anti-
aircraft guns are divided into heavy, medium and light. Heavy AA guns (this will be guns
with a DP capability on ships) will fire first at enemy aircraft attacking a ship or friendly
nearby ships.
Medium AA will fire at aircraft attacking their own ship before enemy aircraft release
their ordnance. Light AA will fire at aircraft attacking their own ship either before or after
enemy aircraft release their ordnance, depending on a random roll compared to the
speed of the aircraft. The faster the aircraft is, the larger the chance that light AA will fire
after the aircraft has dropped its ordnance. Thus, light AA guns will be of relatively less
value the more aircraft technology advances.
Anti-Aircraft fire has four possible results. Aircraft can be shot down, damaged or made
to abort their attack. AA fire also inflicts disruption on the attacking aircraft formation,

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which lowers the hit chance of their attack. Note that light AA will always inflict disruption
before aircraft attack, even if their fire takes effect after the aircraft have attacked.
Superstructure damage to ships will lower the number of effective anti-aircraft guns.

The accuracy of AA fire will be affected by

È Technology
È Number of AA directors (for medium and heavy AA) up to a maximum of 4 AA
directors.
È Radar level
È Visibility
È Aircraft speed
È Crew quality of the ship
Bombing accuracy will be affected by:
È Technology
È Volume and accuracy of AA fire
È Visibility

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 È Target ship speed
È Target ship type
È Pilot experience
È Pilot fatigue
The same factors will influence hit rates for air dropped torpedoes, but in a slightly
different manner.

AIRCRAFT ON SHIPS
Most regular ships can carry a small number of aircraft for scouting. These will initially
be floatplanes, but in the late game, helicopters will be carried for this purpose. Ships
specially designed as aircraft carriers have a flight deck to operate aircraft.

CATAPULTS AND OTHER AIRCRAFT ARRANGEMENTS

Floatplanes can take off from the sea, in which case the ship must stop, or can be
launched from catapults.
Most ships can have catapults. It gives that ability for a ship to launch aircraft without
stopping, but non-carriers must still slow down to recover aircraft.

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 Hangars provide protection from weather for floatplanes and helicopters and reduce
the chances of the aircraft being inoperable at the start of a battle. A hangar is required if
more than one helicopter is carried. Note: Aircraft carriers automatically have a hangar.

SEAPLANE CARRIERS
While all ships can carry a limited number of floatplanes, seaplane carriers have carrying
and launching floatplanes as their main mission and can carry as many as will fit on
board. They can even launch a strike of seaplanes, which can be useful in the period
when naval aviation is in its infancy.
Seaplane carriers can be built once you develop the appropriate technology, which
is one of the earliest in “Shipboard aircraft operation”. Seaplane carriers can only carry
floatplanes. Ships without catapults or a flight deck will need to stop to launch aircraft.
Ships recovering seaplanes always need to slow down. Seaplane carriers are not
restricted in the size of a strike by their spot number - effectively, the ocean is their flight
deck - but larger strikes will take more time.
Seaplane carriers with a helipad will embark helicopters instead, effectively being
helicopter carriers.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER CONSTRUCTION

Aircraft carriers are ships that
have a flight deck. The type
and size of the carriers you
can build depends on the level
of your “Shipboard aircraft
operation” tech. After you
reach level 3 “Flight Deck”, you
will be able to convert existing
ships into light aircraft carriers
(CVL). With more tech advances you will be able to build purpose built CVLs, then convert

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 ships to full aircraft carriers (CV) and finally build purpose built CVs. The displacement limit
for a purpose built aircraft carrier will be determined by the level of the “Shipboard aircraft
operation” tech.
The aircraft capacity determines the number of aircraft that can be operated from a
ship. CVLs are limited to no more than a capacity of 34 planes. There is no limit on CV
capacity.
Carriers with aircraft capacity larger than 100 aircraft will have reduced aircraft operations
efficiency as well as slightly increased cost. This is to reflect historical operational issues
discovered by the US navy with very large carriers.

SPOT VALUE
An aircraft carriers has a spot value, which is the maximum number of aircraft that can
be readied for a strike (not to be confused with spotting in the sense of seeing things).
The spot value is normally half the aircraft capacity, but can be increased by equipment
added to the carrier.

FLIGHT DECK CATAPULTS

Carriers do not need catapults to launch aircraft, but flight deck catapults increase the
spot value of carriers.
Flight deck catapults also allows launching of CAP and search planes without the
carrier having to turn into the wind. This might sound insignificant, but constant turns
into the wind to launch and retrieve aircraft have a considerable impact on carrier
practical mobility in battle.
Carriers below 10 000 tons must have catapults to launch aircraft with max speed
above 120 knots at more than light load.

JET CAPABLE CARRIERS

A jet capable carrier is able to carry and operate heavy jet fighters and jet attack aircraft.
This considerably increases the weight needed for each aircraft carried. This is to reflect
the larger size of the aircraft and the added arrangements needed for operating jet
aircraft, like strengthened decks and elevators, jet blast deflectors et cetera.

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 A ship must have a displacement of 40,000 tons or more, or have a displacement of
30,000 tons and steam catapults developed, to be made jet capable. On carriers below
40,000 tons, Heavy jet fighters and Jet attack aircraft will count as 1.5 times the number
of aircraft against capacity.
You can make an existing carrier jet capable in a rebuild.
Light jet fighters can be operated from any carrier, but they will count as 1.5 times
the number of aircraft against capacity, to reflect the added overhead of operating jet
aircraft.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER SPECIAL ARMOUR

The flight deck may be armoured, which will provide some protection from plunging fire
and bombs to any aircraft aboard.
Aircraft carriers can have hangar side armour provides protection from gunfire,
bombs and near misses to aircraft aboard.
Both these types of armour have a considerable cost in weight, and will in practice
reduce the number of aircraft that can be carried by the ship.

ANGLED FLIGHT DECK

An angled flight deck decreases the amount of time required to ready and spot aircraft.
A carrier must have angled flight deck to operate heavy jet aircraft.

DECK EDGE LIFTS

Deck edge lifts decrease the amount of time required to ready and spot aircraft.

SLOW CARRIERS
Carriers with a speed below 24 knots will have their spot value reduced. This is because
a headwind is needed to allow aircraft to take off from a carrier, especially if the much
of the flight deck is taken up by spotted aircraft and the distance available for take-off
is short.

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 LAND AIRBASES
You build airbases by in a manner similar to building coastal batteries, though you have
to select a specific location within the possession to place the airbase. Airbases start with a
capacity of 20 aircraft and can then be expanded in increments of 20, though this is limited
by your current technology level. Expand an airbase by right clicking on the airbase in the
“coastal fortifications” tab on the main screen, then select the ‘expand airbase’ menu item.
You can manage the squadrons and aircraft at airbases by selecting the button “air
groups” on the main interface. This will open the “carrier air group management” screen
where you can add or modify different types and quantities of squadrons to the base or
to any carriers you have built. There is also a button to automatically assign aircraft to
the base. Note that you only decide on the role of the aircraft in a squadron. The specific
type of aircraft will be assigned automatically from your available aircraft (see aircraft
types below).
New squadrons will initially have low experience, but experience will grow over
time. Re-equipping a squadron or raising the number of planes drastically will lower
experience. High combat losses will also lower experience.

FLOATPLANES AND AIRSHIPS

The player does not need to assign squadrons for ships carrying floatplanes or airship
bases. This will be handled by the game. Appropriate squadrons of the latest type will
be formed automatically.

AIRCRAFT TYPES
You manage your aircraft types using the button “aircraft types” on the main screen. This
will bring up a list of all your available aircraft types. You can also look at estimates data
for aircraft from other nations by using the compare list in the lower left of the aircraft
types screen.
You can use the button, “Request proposals for new aircraft” to ask for new models.
This allows you to select an aircraft role (fighter, dive bomber, etc.) and two aircraft traits

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 you want to be emphasized in
the new plane. One request
at a time is allowed and
usually takes 3 to 6 months
to complete. You will then get
a list of prototypes to choose
from. The aircraft will have a
variety of stats that determine
their effectiveness.
Sometimes an aircraft company will offer an aircraft type developed as a private
venture. Accepting it for further development will carry some cost.
You do not need to manually change the aircraft type of your squadrons. When you
assign planes to bases and carriers you assign squadrons that have a specific role.
The game will then keep those squadrons up to date with the latest models you have
developed, subject to availability, without any intervention required from the player.

AIRCRAFT IN BATTLE
To the right on the taskbar at the top of the battle screen you
see three buttons, two that have airplane icons and one a
thunderbolt. Those are buttons you use to control your aircraft
during a battle. The “Show air formations” button (3 plane icons) allows you to view all of the
aircraft available to you in the battle. It shows planes at airbases, on carriers and in the air.

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 The “#” column shows planes in the listed squadrons as 12/3/0 in the format:
operational planes / damaged planes / destroyed planes. The “Mission” column shows
the mission each squadron has been assigned. The “Status” column shows what each
squadron is doing at the moment: Unready, Readying for a strike, Spotting on deck,
Spotted, Taking off, Attacking, Returning, Landing, or Striking below. It also shows
amount of fuel remaining. This screen can be kept open while operating other controls
and screens in a battle.
The button with one aircraft and a gear is called: ‘Handle CAP and search’. This opens
a screen allowing you to set the size of your Combat Air Patrol (CAP = the number of
defending fighters that will
patrol over their base or
home ship) and the vectors
used for search. You can set
the search vectors for each
division separately. You will
probably want to visit this
screen immediately upon
starting a battle to set your
search pattern and CAP as

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these activities start up very rapidly. After setting the options on this screen the game
handles all the air activities associated with search and CAP, including taking off and
landing for CAP.
The lightning bolt button will open the screen for setting up an airstrike, more on
that below.

PREPARING AND LAUNCHING AN AIRSTRIKE

The button with the lightning bolt is the “Airstrike” button and allows you to select
squadrons to prepare and send on strikes.
You can either order an airstrike to ready planes and then launch them in one step,
or first ready the planes and then send them out when a target is located. The second
method is more risky, as it involves loaded and fuelled aircraft sitting on your carriers,
but it also allows a faster strike once a target is located. It also requires more hands on
control from the player.
To launch or ready a strike you use the “Set up Strike” screen. First select the originating
division. Then select the squadrons to use for the strike by checking the boxes for each
squadron on the left. When a squadron is selected it will set default settings for loadout
and range. You can see the type of ordnance carried under the ‘Loadout’ column. The
‘Number’ column shows you operational / damaged / and destroyed planes in the
squadron, while the number of planes assigned to this strike is shown in the ‘#’ column.

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 To change the settings for loadout, range or number of participating aircraft, right
click that value and select from the drop-down list.
A useful button is the “Auto select strike” button. This will automatically select aircraft
for a strike with appropriate loadout and escort. It is often convenient to use the “Auto
select strike” button and then adjust the details you might want to change.
You can set a target for a strike in two ways. Use the ‘Target’ drop down list to select a
specific target that is known or has been scouted and reported (not always accurately).
Alternately use the location button to pick any point on the map as your strike target.
If you have a target selected, you can now click on launch strike, and the selected
squadrons will now disappear from the “Set up Strike” screen and will ready, spot on the
flight deck (or airstrip) and then fly to the target.
As mentioned above, you can also ready planes even if no target is sighted. The selected
squadrons will then ready but not launch until you launch them. Note that having readied
aircraft on board will severely increase the vulnerability of aircraft carriers. Hits on carriers
with loaded and fuelled aircraft are very likely to lead to devastating fires.
After selecting a target you click the ‘Launch strike’ button to launch your strike. It will
then take about 20-30 minutes to spot and launch your strike (so take that into account
when setting your target). The squadrons selected will disappear from the strike screen
but you can follow their progress on the ‘air formations’ screen. Once the squadron is
completely spotted the planes will take off and fly to the target.
When the planes arrive at the target they will launch an attack and then return to their base
or carrier. If they cannot find a target to attack they will search the area for something to attack
until they run low on fuel and then return to base. The status of these various activities can be
monitored on the ‘air formations’ screen for each squadron. You will also see a small red icon
moving on the map that represents the
approximate location of the squadron.
Zoom in far enough and you can see
small aircraft icons and a label with the
type and number of planes in the strike
(there will never be more than three
aircraft icons, even if the strike is larger.

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Like ships, aircraft icons are oversized on the map).You will get notifications on screen
when an air attack is about to start and then notices in the ‘Log’ tab detailing the action.

SUPPLY OF TORPEDOES AND MISSILES ON AIRBASES

AND CARRIERS
Some weapons carried by aircraft were bulky and in limited supply, especially on aircraft
carriers but also on airbases. The weapons limited by this in game are anti-ship missiles,
torpedoes and guided bombs. The number of missiles is also limited in the early missile
age to reflect the relative scarcity of these new and complicated weapons.
Each time you ready a strike, the number of torpedoes and/or missiles on the carrier
will be lowered by the number carried by the aircraft. If there are none left, the aircraft
can still carry bombs.
Once it has taken off, a strike that does not find anything to attack will jettison the
weapons load. This means that torpedoes and missiles carried will be lost.
Ready aircraft that have not been launched and are stood down will return their
weapons to the store.

DAMAGE TO AIRCRAFT
Planes can be involved in air-to-air combat and can suffer losses to enemy AA. Planes will
also suffer a fair amount of operational damage. You can monitor the damage status of your
squadrons on the Air formations screen in the # column. Some damaged planes at bases or
on a carrier will be automatically repaired or judged unrepairable and marked destroyed.

AIR COMBAT
Defending fighters on Combat Air Patrol (CAP) will attempt to engage incoming strikes.
The chance of CAP intercepting incoming aircraft is tied to technology, mainly radar and
fighter direction technologies. In the 1930s it can be common for a strike to hit a target
without being engaged by CAP, but later CAP can be quite deadly to strikes.

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 Escorting fighters will attempt to engage enemy CAP and prevent them attacking
aircraft they are escorting. Providing a strike with an escort will considerably enhance its
ability to withstand enemy CAP.
The air combat capabilities of an aircraft are based on its attributes, speed, firepower,
manoeuvrability and toughness. These will also affect the ability of the aircraft to survive
to AA fire.
Jet aircraft will be considerably more deadly than propeller aircraft. Also, propeller
aircraft will be vulnerable to radar directed AA systems that are developed in the post
1940s period. Torpedo bombers in particular will be chewed out of the sky when
attacking ships with modern AA systems.

CARRIERS IN BATTLE
Your carriers will turn into the wind and go to their highest speed when launching or
landing planes. This occurs automatically and cannot be interfered with by the player.
(You will need to be aware of wind direction and where these manoeuvres will take the
carrier if it is near the enemy.)
Carrier divisions have some restrictions on the type of role they may be assigned.
Carriers on Support role for carriers will send 1/2 of any fighters it has assigned to CAP
to fly a distant CAP over the division being supported.
You will want to be careful about sending your airplanes on missions that force them
to land at night. That will cause heavy operational losses. Inclement weather can totally
shut down your air operations and it can change rapidly. The AI will send strikes against
your ships so be wary of venturing close to enemy airbases or carriers.
At the conclusion of the battle there is detailed information available about aircraft
losses and damage inflicted by aircraft.

FLOATPLANES AND HELICOPTERS

Floatplanes and later, helicopters, can be launched by any ships equipped with them.
If a ship has catapults, the ship no longer stops to launch a floatplane.” If a ship has

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catapults, the ship need not stop to launch a floatplane. Ships without catapults need
to stop to launch floatplanes, and also need calmer seas to do so. All ships must slow
down to recover floatplanes.
Ships equipped with scout aircraft can be useful in battle, as floatplanes can scout
and search out the enemy. If you have no carriers, they can at least often find the enemy.
In a force with carriers, floatplanes can be used a scouts to save the carrier aircraft for
airstrikes.
In the strategic turns, ships equipped with floatplanes or helicopters will be more
effective as raiders. They will also be more effective at hunting raiders.
In preferences you can set what method to use for floatplane launch. On automatic,
floatplanes will be launched according to the current search plan for the force, as
selected by the player in the “Routine air ops” screen.
If “Ask” is selected, the player will be asked to confirm floatplane launches, but
otherwise it works like automatic.
On manual, the player must launch all recon floatplanes or helicopters manually via
the strike screen.
Ships will always ask before slowing down to recover floatplanes.
Land bases and aircraft carriers will always launch search planes automatically
according to the current search plan for the force (which can be set to no search, if you
want to preserve the aircraft for strike missions).
At the beginning of a battle scenario, aircraft on recon missions can be launched
immediately without waiting for readying and spotting. This simulates that a search
plan has been arranged before the scenario starts.
Floatplanes and helicopters can be sent on strikes, just as other aircraft, but the most
common usage is for recon.
Helicopters carried on AV (helicopter carriers) will act in the same way as floatplanes
in recon role, spreading out to cover the search pattern.

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 Helicopters on other ships will fly out to around 20000 yards and act as local recon.
When radar equipped helicopters are developed, ships sighted by helicopters will be
sighted by the owning ship as well, in effect extending the radar coverage of the owning
ship and enabling missile fire.
Helicopters on recon missions will tend to be wary of approaching enemy ships too
closely, as they can easily be shot down.

MISCELLANEOUS AIRCRAFT RELATED ITEMS

ELITE PILOT TRAINING
This gives an elite corps of well-trained pilots. However, the system is more effective in
peacetime and hard to keep up in wartime.

PILOT FATIGUE
After pilots have flown two missions they will be fatigued. This is shown by an (F) in the
squadron list in the setup strike screen. Pilot fatigue will affect air to air combat and
attack accuracy. Fatigue is computed as an average for all pilots in the squadron. CAP
and recon also generates fatigue, but at a lower rate than attack missions.

AIR SEA RESCUE

This increases the survival chances of pilots. It helps mitigate adverse effects on pilot
experience from aircraft losses.

SUPER HEAVY AA SHELLS

Once these are developed, they can be used to give some AA capability to heavy (> 6 in)
guns of ships. You select their use in the doctrine screen. Using super heavy AA shells
will lower your available ammunition by 10%.
To represent the doubtful value of these shells in real life, their effectiveness is
randomised and highly variable from game to game.

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RADAR
Radar is divided into search radar and fire control radar. Search radar makes it possible
to detect other ships in poor visibility. Radar detected ships will show as greenish
outlines on the map. Early search radars are unreliable and prone to malfunctions. They
are easily disabled by hits or even by own ships guns firing.
Fire control radar improves gunnery accuracy, and from level 3 will allow blind fire,
where the target is only spotted by radar.
Once radar is invented, a nation will receive a number of radar sets per month. Radar
sets will be automatically installed in ships with priority given to larger ships and ships
in the active fleet. The player can manually install radar sets in ships, with the drawback
that the ship will be unavailable the current turn.

Note: The section below applies to missiles, which will only start to have an impact in
the game from circa 1945. If you are a first timeplayer you can stop reading here and
revisit the manual when your game reaches the time period when missiles appear.

MISSILES
GENERAL
Missiles are of two general types, Anti-ship missiles and anti-aircraft missiles. Anti-ship
missiles can be further divided into those launched from ships and those launched by
aircraft. The following common abbreviations are used for missiles in RTW.
ASM Air to surface missile (fired from aircraft at ships)

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 SSM Surface to surface missile (fired from ships at ships)

SAM Surface to air missile (fired from

ships or land bases at aircraft)
In the game, ASM and SSM work
more or less in the same way, the main
difference being the launch platform.
Missiles are further divided into
three categories, depending on size and
range, Light, Medium and Heavy, abbreviated L, M and H.

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 Thus a heavy surface to air missile would be abbreviated HSAM in game.
The exact classification of existing missiles can of course be subject to debate, but
below are some examples of “typical” real world missiles that would correspond to the
classifications used in game:
È Heavy SAM: Talos.
È Medium SAM: Terrier or Seaslug.
È Light SAM: Tartar, Seacat.
È Heavy ASM: He-293 or KS-1 Komet.
È Medium ASM: Exocet.
È Light ASM: Maverick.
È Heavy SSM: P-15 Termit.
È Medium SSM: Exocet. Harpoon
È Light SSM: Penguin or early Gabriel.
Heavy missiles have longer range and can be launched from farther away. They also
cause more damage. On the other hand, they
take up more space. Heavy ASM can only be
launched from larger aircraft.
Medium anti-ship missiles are faster and
somewhat more difficult to shoot down than
heavy anti-ship missiles.
With the progression of technology,
medium and heavy SAM missiles will get a
secondary anti-surface capability. This can be
advantageous, as SAM systems usually have
plenty of reloads and relatively fast reload
times, while SSM have limited numbers of
reloads and are slow to reload. The range for
SAM missiles in anti-surface role is limited
to horizon range however, as these missiles
did not have the ability to autonomously hit
moving surface objects.

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 Designer’s Note: Missile development in the real world included a number of
projects in the later part of WW2. With the end of the war, the need for missiles
capable of attacking heavily armoured warships disappeared and many projects
were cancelled. In the RTW world, it is likely that armoured warships will continue
to be present, and it is assumed that missile development would have felt more
urgent than was historically the case. Therefore in RTW some technologies that never
matured, like missile borne torpedoes or diving missiles, are available.

SHIP DESIGN AND MISSILES

In the design screen, you can add missile systems to your ships in much the same way
as main turrets and torpedo mounts, using the same weapons positions. For AA missiles,
facing is not important. SSM mounts are limited by facing. Note that heavy SSM in positions
F and G will have a more forward facing firing arc than corresponding gun turrets.
Heavy SAM systems are very large and they and their guidance systems take up
considerable space aboard ships. They have the advantage of very long range, and can
engage and destroy aircraft that are not directly threatening the launch platform.
Note that SSM have a reasonable weight and do not have a very large topside cost.
SAM missiles on the other hand, are quite costly in tonnage and use up lots of topside
space, and require a large crew to operate them.

MISSILE STORAGE
Having large amounts of missiles in storage is expensive. To reflect this in game, once
you reach the missile age, you can select between three levels of peacetime missile
storage, minimum, adequate and plentiful, with varying levels of cost. On the two lower
levels, there will be a risk of missile shortages during the first 18 months of a war.

LAUNCH AND ANTI-AIRCRAFT SEQUENCE

The various types of AA systems and methods of attack will interact in a sequence when
a ship is attacked by aircraft. In the table below you can see in which sequence various
attack types and AA weapons fire. AA weapon systems marked with a * will have an effect
against air attacks on all ships near the firing ship. Light and medium AA guns will only
affect aircraft that attack their own ship.

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The firing of AA missiles is completely automated, just like fire by AA guns.

SEQUENCE TYPE OF AIR ATTACK TYPE OF AA AFFECTING FACTORS

1 Heavy ASM Heavy SAM * Radar / EW advantage / Missile tech
2 Medium ASM Medium SAM * Radar / EW advantage / Missile tech
Light SAM, Heavy
3 Light ASM Radar / EW advantage / Missile tech
AA *
4 Level bombing
5 Unguided rockets Medium AA
6 Torpedo, Skip, Dive bombing Light AA Aircraft speed

USING ANTI-SHIP MISSILES IN BATTLE

You control the firing of anti-ship missiles from your fleet in the missile control panel,
which can be shown by clicking the missile control button in the toolbar.
Your ships will hold fire with missiles in battle until you order missile fire at will.
When missile fire at will is selected, ships that have missiles that bear will fire them at
appropriate targets at their own initiative, similar to torpedo launches.
There is also a button for ordering your ships to fire a salvo of missiles. This will
bring up a screen where you can select targets and firing platforms. All platforms in

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 theatre will be able to fire, depending on your technology level. Thus, a missile salvo can
include missiles from surface ships, coastal missile batteries and missile submarines.
Missile salvoes can be launched both against sighted ships and against reports of more
distant enemy ships, if the missiles have the range. The latter method is of course less
precise and hits will depend on the reported ships being where they are predicted to be.
The missile fire orders determine the amount of missiles that will be fired. Ripple
means single missiles will be fired. Half means that half of all loaded tubes will be fired.
All means that all available missiles will be fired.
Your technology will determine how missiles can be fired. After cruise missiles and
data link are researched, ships can fire missiles at targets observed by other friendly
ships, provided they are in range. With improved data link, the accuracy and range of
such missile fire is improved.
The firing of anti-aircraft missiles is completely automated, just like AA guns.

DAMAGE FROM MISSILE HITS

Anti-ship missiles are treated in game as very large HE shells with additional sensor,
superstructure and fire damage being applied. Some missile types get SAP warheads
once the technology is developed, to simulate the large shaped charge warheads used
in some missiles.

SPECIAL MISSILES
Some specialized missiles are included in the game based on technologies that were in
the experimental stage in the early missile age but eventually deemed not necessary, as
large armoured warships became rare as targets. Their effects are somewhat irregular.
The missile torpedo is modelled on the US Petrel weapon. It was an aerial standoff
torpedo that was carried by a missile that then dropped the torpedo when close to the
target. It can only be launched by MB and PB aircraft in game.
The diving missile is modelled on the Swedish Rb 302/303. It was similar in concept
to the bombentorpedo in that it was intended to dive at the last moment and continue
through the water to hit the target below the armour. Damage effects are as for a light
torpedo.

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AA GUNS IN THE MISSILE AGE
With technological advances, medium AA guns can be upgraded to radar controlled
MAA. These will have much better capabilities against jet aircraft, and some ability to
engage incoming missiles. They use much more space than earlier MAA, but they will
be worth it. Old style MAA is not very effective against jet aircraft and ineffective against
missiles.
When radar directed MAA becomes available, large numbers of MAA are not needed.
More than 4 radar directed MAA on a ship will give diminishing returns, and more than
8 is (more or less) redundant.
Similarly, LAA can be upgraded to Close in weapons systems (CIWS) that have an
ability to shoot down incoming missiles. These also use much more space than previous

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 LAA, but by this time the old WW2 style massive LAA batteries will be of limited
effectiveness.
Like radar directed MAA, CIWS are not needed in large numbers. More than 6 on a
ship will tend to be redundant, and 4 will usually do the job.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (Q&A)

How do I select torpedo type for my ships?
Torpedo quality is dependent on research. Your ships will always have the latest
torpedoes that you have developed, and old ships will be automatically upgraded.
This means that as heavier torpedoes are introduced, the weight of torpedo tube
installations go up with time.

Why is there no oil in Borneo/Libya wherever?

The oil fields in the game are those that were in or came into production in the early
years of the 20th century. Many well-known oilfields today were not discovered at the
time of the game.

Why is not Grenada/Easter Island/Bali a possession in the game?

The possessions in the game are there to represent important pieces of territory for
naval purposes or colonies that needed some form of naval presence. However, there is
no attempt to include every island or minor colony in the game. That would just clutter
up the map to no purpose, so a selection has been made where those that figured
prominently one way or another has been included.

How do I break a blockade?

Blockade status depends on the force ratio in a nations build area. You must whittle
down enemy strength or add more forces in your home area until the force ratio has
changed enough.

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Why do I get my worst ships selected for a battle? Why is my force structure so idiotic?
Why can’t I select the ships I want for the battles?
The battle generator is made to put the player in various situations that can arise in real
life. Real admirals seldom had the luxury of fighting with the ideal forces they would
like to have. Some of the best ships might be in dockyard, off refuelling or have suffered
a mechanical breakdown. There are lots of examples of the least modern ships in a navy
having to fight battles, and the game seeks to simulate those situations too.
You can define permanent formations in the game, and these will have the function
of ensuring that ships placed in the same formation will most often fight together.

PLAYER NOTES AND TIPS

One of the first things you must be aware of is that technical development in the game
is fast, especially so in the first and last parts of the era covered. As the build times of
ships are several years, this means that many ships will be obsolete by the time they are
in service. This might be frustrating at first, but it affects your opponents as well. You will
have to learn to live with it.
Once you have realized this, the temptation is to put off building new ships until
you have researched better technology. The problem with that is that the Navy League
or Kaiser will demand ships for national prestige, and a foreign policy crisis might arise
much faster than ships are built, leaving you with insufficient forces. As ships take a
long time to build, you will have to fight with the navy you have when war breaks out.
You should try to think of the role and context in your navy when designing a ship.
Take cruisers for example. If you have a nation with widespread colonies and interests
around the world, you might consider a colonial cruiser. This would be equipped for
colonial service, it would probably be best to optimize engines for reliability, and you
would want it to have long range. That will cost weight, so it probably won’t be very fast,
but, we’ll get a sturdy workhorse that can show the flag in the colonies and still be useful
when war comes to chase down raiders.

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 On the other hand, there might be a need for dedicated fleet cruiser as a scout for
the battle fleet. High speed is desirable, of course, but we can live with cramped
accommodation and short range, as it will only be operating in home waters. We can
even be bold and optimise engines for performance, accepting the risk of the occasional
breakdown. This is the opposite of the workhorse above. Here we have the temperamental
racehorse, optimised for one mission, but sensitive and picky.
Yet another cruiser type might be the raider. We would want reliable engines to be
able to operate for long time away from friendly bases, and long range is desirable.
Speed should be enough to avoid heavy enemy patrolling ships, but we could build her
strong enough to defeat what she cannot run from.
These considerations are similar for larger ships. If you are playing Austria-Hungary
for example, you have no colonies and no interests outside the Mediterranean. You can
go for smallish battleships with low range, cramped accommodation and low freeboard,
thus saving weight to make them compact but capable. Keeping down the displacement
keeps down costs, so you can build more of them, and you will hopefully be able to fight
an opponent with far larger resources but with worldwide obligations that requires him
to equip ships for service anywhere in the world.
There are some specialist ships that you should not neglect. The lowly 400 ton corvette
is actually an essential unit in any navy. It can patrol the coasts against submarines and
its presence in an area will reduce the risks of mine strikes for larger ships. Having a
decent number of small corvettes avoids having to use destroyers as ASW patrols, which
could denude the battle fleet of destroyers.
Another ship to consider for nations with large colonial interests is the colonial
gunboat. This will be a corvette with 1500 tons displacement or so, equipped for
colonial service. This makes it good for fulfilling obligations to have tonnage on foreign
stations, freeing up cruisers. If equipped with a couple of 5 or 6 inch guns, it can even
put up a fight against a raiding light cruiser.

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APPENDIX 1
SHIP TYPE DEFINITIONS USED BY THE GAME
These are the definitions used by the game for defining ship types. Anything falling
outside these parameters is considered an illegal ship type. The reason these type
definitions must be enforced by the program is that the AI relies heavily on ship type for
decision making. It also prevents players from building unrealistic ship designs.
These ship type classifications in the game tend to be somewhat undercut by historical
developments in the post WW2 era. In the real world, destroyers become very large after
the 1950s. Ships are sometimes classed as light cruisers and sometimes as destroyers,
even though they are of similar size. And today we have navies that designate ships
that are larger than a predreadnought battleship as destroyers (no names mentioned).
Thus, some ships that are classed as destroyers in the real world will be light cruisers
in the game.

DESTROYER (DD)
Displacement less than 2000 and speed
more than 19 knots. A destroyer must have
torpedoes and cannot be armoured. Destroyer maximum displacement will change in
game depending on your technological progress. In the late game destroyers can be
up to 3800 tons.

LIGHT CRUISER (CL)

Displacement larger than
2000 and less than 8000.
Speed must be more than
16 knots and main gun calibre cannot be larger than 6 inches. (Exception: Protected
cruisers can have guns in single mountings up to 8 inches). The maximum displacement
of a light cruiser will increase later in the game.
In most of the game light cruisers must have armour, but in the late game with
research of the missile cruiser technology, you can build light cruisers without armour.

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 PREDREADNOUGHT BATTLESHIP (B)
Displacement must be at least
5000 and it must have belt
armour at least 6 inches. Main
gun calibre must be larger than 6 inches and speed less than 20 knots. It cannot have
more than 2 main turrets.

ARMOURED CRUISER (CA)

Displacement must
be more than 4000
and speed greater
than 19 knots. It must have more than 2 inches of belt armour but no more than 12
inches. Main guns must be at least 6 inches calibre and cannot be more than 11 inches.
In the 1920s, the Armoured Cruiser will morph into the Heavy Cruiser, using the
same CA designation.

BATTLECRUISER (BC)

Must have main gun calibre larger than 10 inches and speed more than 23 knots, or
three main gun turrets and speed more than 21 knots. In some borderline cases armour
thickness can be the difference between a BC and a BB. Note: The speed requirement
for a ship to be defined as a battlecruiser rises with time, as fast battleships develop.

DREADNOUGHT BATTLESHIP (BB)

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Must have at least 3 main gun turrets, displacement over 8000 and belt armour of more
than 6 inches. Main guns must be more than 10 inches.

CORVETTE (KE)
This definition includes all kinds of minor
combatants without torpedoes.
Displacement less than 2500 and belt armour 2 inches or less. Gun calibre can be
maximum of 6 inches. Cannot have torpedoes.
Corvettes of 500 tons displacement or smaller are assumed to be civilian trawlers and
similar craft impressed for wartime duties, and can only be built during wartime. They
can be built quickly if you find that you rapidly need ASW or minesweeping craft. They
will be automatically sold off after a war, like AMCs.

ARMED MERCHANT CRUISER (AMC)

Displacement more than 1700, no armour and
gun calibre no more than 6 inches. You may
build up to two armed merchant cruisers in peacetime. This is to simulate auxiliaries,
minelayers or civilian ships prepared for rebuilding to warships (carriers or seaplane
carriers for example). After a war, all AMCs will be automatically sold off to civilian
shipping companies.
In the game, each nation can build up to two fast AMC with speed up to 25 knots.
These can be used as fast raiders or as candidates for carrier conversion. The limit of two
is set as the number of suitable liners for conversion is assumed to be limited.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER (CV)

A full size
aircraft
carrier
must have
an aircraft capacity of more than 34 aircraft. The maximum displacement of an aircraft
carrier will increase over the game and depends mainly on your technology in shipboard

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 aircraft operation. The invention of super-carriers (ship design) will substantially increase
the maximum size of carriers.

AIRCRAFT CARRIER, LIGHT (CVL)

A light aircraft carrier must
an aircraft capacity of at least
4 aircraft and can carry no
more than 34 aircraft. It can
have a maximum displacement of 16 000 tons (this does not apply to conversions of
other ships to CVL).

SEAPLANE CARRIER (AV)

Initially, small seaplane carriers
are developed. They can carry
three or four aircraft and must
be less than 5000 tons displacement. When large seaplane carriers are developed, a
seaplane carrier can be can be up to 14 000 tons.
With the development of helicopters, AV type ships can also be built as helicopter
carriers. An AV equipped with a helipad will carry helicopters instead of floatplanes.

APPENDIX 2:
EXPLANATION OF VALUES USED IN SHIP DESIGN
Below is a fuller explanation of how to use the ship designer and the meaning of the
different data fields. Note that some features can only be used when researched.
È Class name: A unique name that distinguishes the class. This is used as filename
when saving the class.
È Enemy class name: This is the name that the enemy will be told in scenarios.
Generated by the program.

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È Misidentified class name: This is the name the enemy will be told if they have
misidentified the ship generated by the program.
È Displacement: Standard displacement of the ship in tons.
È Belt: Belt armor in inches. Note. The program assumes that the belt is thickest in
the center of the ship and at the magazines, and thinner at the ends.
È BU: Upper belt: Upper strakes of belt armour protecting the upper parts of the hull.
È BE: Belt extended: Armour protecting the ends of the ship, steering machinery
and boiler uptakes.
È D: Deck: The main armour deck of the ship.
È DE: Deck extended: Corresponds to BE above.
È T: Main gun turret and barbette armour.
È TT: Turret top: Roof of main gun turret.
È SEC: Secondary gun armour.
È CT: Conning tower armour.
È Belt coverage: Can be used to denote narrow belt in classes with narrow belt coverage.
È Speed: is the maximum designed speed of the ship.
È Torpedo defence: The level of torpedo protection the ship has.
È Fire control: The fire control equipment. This is important for the gunnery
accuracy of the ship, especially at long range.
È Fire control positions: This is the number of fire control positions on the ship.
The reason to have more than one is redundancy. Fire control positions are
fragile and can be shot away.
È Main gun calibre: Rounded to inches.
È Increased elevation: Will give extra range to the main guns.
È Gun quality: This is the gun quality of that calibre. It is given by your research
and cannot be changed. Gun quality affects range and penetration, and for some
older guns, rate of fire. It can vary between -3 (short barrelled old guns, slow to
reload) and +2 (an excellent gun with good range and penetration).
È Cross deck fire: Check this if the guns of the wing turrets in positions F, G,
K, or J should be capable of cross deck fire, like in for example the historical
Indefatigable or Kaiser classes.

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 APPENDIX 3
SHIP SIDE VIEWS
You can optionally designate a picture for your ship designs. Pictures to be used should
be placed in the save directory for the game (Save1, Save2 etc) under the ‘RTW\Save’
directory. Pictures for ships should be 640 x 160 pixels and in jpg or bmp format.
You can change the picture for an existing ship class by using the change picture
function on the popup in the main ship list.
There is also an option to automatically generate a ship picture and add detail. This
can be done via the generate picture function on the popup in the main ship list, or from
the graphics step of the ship design screen.

USING THE SHIP PICTURE GENERATOR

The ship side view generator is optional to use. It is a way of generating nice side views
of your ships.
Select the set of ship elements you want to use. Originally there will be only one set,
but graphically gifted players may make their own and add for example lighter or darker
versions or even camouflaged sets.
First select the background you want and then the type of bow and stern etc and press
“Generate” to generate the hull. You can change your settings and redo the generation
any number of times. When you are satisfied, go to the next tab to place superstructure
and details. Note, you should not redo the hull generation once you have started
placing details.
To place a ship element on the ship, click on the element and then move the mouse
over the ship. Click again where you want to put the element. Ship elements should
be placed in the order from left to right, that is start with masts, then decks, then
superstructure and last accessories.
To fine tune placement, after moving it to the right area but before clicking on the
ship picture, use arrow keys to move the element one pixel at a time, finish by pressing
return.

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 Masts, decks and superstructure will be shown behind hull and turrets. That means
that you can regulate the height of masts or superstructure by sinking them into the hull.
Accessories will be shown in front of everything else. Use the deck panels under accessories
to connect raised decks to barbettes, to make them show in front of the barbettes.
When you are finished, select use and exit and your picture will automatically be assigned
to the selected ship class. You can check it by double clicking on the ship in the ship list.
The output is a bitmap that will be stored under the save directory of the current
game. It will be named Classname + NationNumber + .bmp. If you want to make some
adjustments or improvements to the finished picture, you can do so in any picture editor.

APPENDIX 4
HOTKEYS IN TACTICAL BATTLE
1-9: Runs the game that many minutes.
Enter: Runs the game until paused
Space: Runs one minute
<: Runs game 5 minutes if in contact with enemy, 60 minutes if not in contact.
P: Pauses and unpauses game
Z: Zooms map out
Pg Up: Zooms map out
-: Zooms map out
X: Zooms map in
Pg Dn: Zooms map in
+: Zooms map in
F: Zoom to view all ships
C: Increase game speed
V: Decrease game speed
A/S/D/W: Scrolls map
Mouse wheel: Zooms the map

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 HOTKEYS IN SHIP IN SERVICE TAB
F: foreign stations
A: active duty
M: move command
D: select all ships in the division, and all ships in subordinate divisions
T: trade protection

HOTKEYS IN SHIP DESIGN GRAPHICS

S: snap angle (45° degree)
D: delete last point
CTRL: hold to show alignment lines
ALT: force placement on ship centreline

APPENDIX 5
CREATING TURRET FILES

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Here is some additional information about how to create a turret file:
Turret files are drawings that are used by the game to represent the wide variety
of guns and gun mounts used by the game’s nations over different time periods. Any
player can create their own turret files using the rules below. A turret file placed in your
local Graphics directory will automatically be used by the game.

THE TURRET FILE NAME

The turret file name regulates how the turret will be used by the game. Let’s examine
the file name format using the file name XDHT2.tus as an example. Here is a brief
explanation with more detail explained below.

X = Nationality (X is a universal design that can be used by any nation. It is the default
and will be used if no national version is available.)
D = Era (“D” is for the dreadnought era. The dreadnought era is the default version and
will be used if other eras are not available.)
H = Size (“H” stands for a heavy gun.)
T = Turret type (“T” indicates the mount is turreted.)
2 = Number of guns in the mount.

So, this file represents a heavy 2-gun dreadnought era turret that can be used universally.
Turret files are located here: RTW3/Data/Graphics
They have this extension: *.tus

NATIONALITY
This identifier is used to create gun mounts that have a distinct national visual look. If
you are drawing a new gun turret it is up to you to make the turret look like a turret from
a particular era and used by a specific nation. When its nationality is selected in the
“Ship design/Graphics Tab/ Turret nation style” drop down list, a turret of the appropriate
nationality will be used, assuming there is a turret file available. If there is no turret file
with the selected nationality, then a universal mount (X identifier) will be used instead.
Note that, when you are designing a ship, there is no restriction on using a particular
national turret type - you may use any nation’s mounts on your ship design.

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 List of national identifiers:
A = Austro-Hungarians
B = British
F = French
G = German
I = Italian
J = Japanese
Q = Chinese
R = Russian
S = Spanish
U = American
X = Universal (default) These turrets will be used if no national version is available.

ERA
The era identifier is used to allow different visual appearances for gun mounts over the
years. There is no restriction on which era you choose to use for your design. The era only
affects the visual appearance of the mount; it has no impact on in-game functionality.
In the designer you set the era for this design only in the “Ship design/Guns tab/Turret
era” drop down list. The dreadnought era is the default era; if no mount file is available
for a particular era, the dreadnought era version will be used.
There are 4 era identifiers. Gun mounts have been modeled for the Victorian era, the
pre-dreadnought era, the dreadnought era and the late dreadnought era.
V = Victorian era. These represent ships from the early to mid 1890s.
P = Pre-dreadnought era. These represent guns up to about 1905.
D = Dreadnought era. These represent guns used from the early 1900s through about
the 1930s.
L = Late dreadnought era These represent guns from the late WW2 period through the
end of the game.

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SIZE
This value is used to identify the size of the gun that the file represents.
There are 3 turret sizes.
S = Small guns up to 5”.
M = Medium guns from 6” to 11”.
L = Large guns 12” and above.
See the note below about sizing your turret drawing.

TURRET TYPE
Gun mounts should be drawn in two variations: shielded or turreted. The game decides
when it will used the shielded or turreted version of a gun drawing based on the size of
the mount and the amount of armor applied to the turrets in the ship design. There is
no specific version of an unshielded gun, though you can certainly draw one if you wish
and then identify it as either turreted or shielded in the name.

NUMBER OF GUNS
The last digits in the turret file name indicates the number of guns in the mount, 1
though 4. As with most other parameters, if the game is told to load a mount with 3
guns and there is no version available the game will default to using the universal
dreadnought version of a 3-gun mount.

GENERAL RULES
Turret files are located here: RTW3/Data/Graphics
They have this extension: *.tus

SPECIAL CASE TURRET FILES

There are four special case turret files:
XVHS3 is an open top single barbette gun
XVHT3 is an open top double barbette gun
XVHT4 is an unshielded single gun
XVHS4 is used for casemate guns

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 SUPERSTRUCTURE LAYERS USED FOR TURRETS
When creating turret files, you can use two layers. The game will use any drawings found
in layers 5 and 6 for the turret. The color of the drawing may be changed while making
the turret, but it will always be saved with a neutral graycolor. The color is restricted
because the game itself colors turrets to indicate damage or destruction of the turret.

SIZING THE TURRET

The game has a function that automatically resizes each gun based on the caliber of
the gun. When drawing guns, you should draw the gun to match the size of a 12” gun.
(That is a 6” gun should have similar dimensions to a 12” gun when it is drawn. More
specifically, you should probably match the overall length of the gun you are drawing
to the length of a 12” gun from the same era. The best way to handle this is to first load
a 12 “ gun for comparison. My default gun for this purpose is XDHT2.tus. When you
make the gun equivalent in size to the 12” gun, the game will resize the gun to the
appropriate dimensions when it is loaded into the game.

SPONSONS
Any gun mount may be assigned to use a “sponson” when it is placed on a ship design.
For this reason, you do not need to draw a sponson or barbette for your gun mount
as these can be added during the ship design process. Visually, a sponson is simply
a ring drawn under the gun mount. The intent is to visually simulate actual sponsons
that were used to house many light and AA guns; however they can also be used to
visually imply the mount’s barbette, which was often visible, especially in pre-dreads
and dreadnoughts. You can add a sponson during the design process by using a gun
mount’s right-click menu for a main gun or by simply setting a sponson radius for
secondary and tertiary guns. You can set the width of the sponson by using the “Sponson
radius” setting on the Guns tab of the ship designer.

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APPENDIX 6

OFFICER CHARACTERISTICS
Speed enthusiast: This officer will get that extra knot of speed out of his ship, especially
if new.
ROF enthusiast: This officer will get his crew to improve ROF, at the cost of a slight
increase in the risk of flash fires, as he is prone to overlook safety measures in the quest
for higher ROF.
Gunnery expert: This officer will improve the gunnery of his ship.
Torpedo expert: This officer will improve torpedo firing of his ship.
Disciplinarian: This officer goes by the book. His crew will improve relatively fast, but
attention to rules and regulations will stop the crew from becoming really good.
Music lover: This officer will put much effort into improving the performance of the
ship’s band, which can have its advantages and disadvantages.
Sportsman: This officer loves sport, and will put much effort into the physical fitness of
his crew.
Lucky: This officer will somehow evade many critical hits to his ship.
Aggressive: This officer will take a more aggressive stance than most of his colleagues.
Timid: This officer will take a more careful stance than most of his colleagues.
Well connected: This officer has connections in high circles. He will be more costly to
remove or reassign.
Wily: This officer is a master of evasive tactics. He will reduce the chance of his ship
being hit.
Poor Admin: Ships under this officer are more likely to miss signals or get lost in battle.
Poor shiphandler: More likely to get into collisions or other mishaps.
Loose cannon: You never know what this officer will be up to. He may perform brilliantly
or poorly, and may get into all kinds of trouble.
Good administrator: Reduces maintenance cost of his ship.
No connections: This officer lacks connections or patrons, and will get promoted more
slowly.

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 CREDITS
NAVAL WARFARE SIMULATIONS
CONCEPT, GAME DESIGN AND PROGRAMMING
Fredrik Wallin
DEVELOPMENT
William Miller
LEAD BETA TESTING AND GRAPHICS
John Smith, Beta testing
SPECIAL THANKS TO
John Smith (NWS Lead Beta Tester and Graphics/Templates developer)
THE NWS RTW3 BETA TEAM
Joe Ball, Gary Chezem, Clive Magras , Frank Miller, Tomas Nadrchal

SLITHERINE GROUP / SLITHERINE & MATRIX GAMES CREDITS

PRODUCER
Erik Rutins
ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION
Maxim Klose-Ivanov
MATRIX GAMES TESTERS
CMagras, Searry, CharlieZulu, rs2excelsior, ImperatorAugustus, Javelin281,
Garwin, Squarehead, pz501, gasayr, Arralen, Xxzard, Pratapon51, eddoctorwho,
tiemanjw, Ecrivain, Archelaos, jimbob, Blothorn, SaltiestSalt, BjornsonIII, jwsmith26,
Wurstsalat, Nutty31, Sardaukar, GiledPallaeon, macroeconomics, BillLottJr, patronius,
OmnipotentVoid, Winkysmith, Flessar, gwgardner, Ccharge, JarlOlaf, kbullard,
Pastur, Fallenworldful, RiceGuy, dkotomski, Telekek597, Emp_Palpatine, BlueNexus,
Tex Fazio, Jarhead0331, boomboomf22, Hcabengtsson, robertevans, DeltaV112,
Silveroak2, Vivalas, Telematic, Onearmy, Orkel, gigletes, FredSanford, zGimli33,
Stardog765, Merovian, LexingtonBC, BurningApple3, kiankier, GrafKacper, Requin,
stransky43, Maschinengewehr08, Grackle, JagdFlanker, TheBlackBaron, Debaka,
IronLad42, DeltaCom, erogar, JakeN615, Connor0085, Tom_, TBR186, IntoLight,
Stealth17, Yuubari, temkc5, Tankaxe, delbert57, Sutr, teabee, herrse, iprop, Borozino,
AureliusTheThirtieth, ozmono2005, Baboulinet, Scribegrey, georgecopelan, EssexHuang

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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
A Naval History of World War One, Paul G Halpern
Jutland – An Analysis of the Fighting, John Campbell
The Rules of the Game – Jutland and British Naval Command, Andrew Gordon
Jutland – The German Perspective, V.E. Tarrant
Castles of Steel, Robert K Massie
Battle on the Seven Seas, Gary Staff
Naval Weapons of World War one, Norman Friedman
Shattered Sword, Anthony P. Tully and Jonathan Parshall
Kaigun, Evans and Peattie
Japanese destroyer captain, Tameichi Hara
Die zweiweißenVölker (Kiel und Skagerrak), Georg von Hase
Sea Battles of WW1, Geoffrey Bennett
Coronel and the Falklands, Geoffrey Bennett
Taschenbuch der Kriegsflotten 1914
Die deutschenKreigsschiffen 1815 –1945, Erich Gröner
Conways all the Worlds Fighting Ships 1906 –1921.
Conways all the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922 –1946.

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