NAVY: What do you guys like to build? Does it vary by doctrine?

10 cruisers + 1 destroyer is the standard navy stack is most games. When battling large stacks of battleships, a stack of 10 subs holds them down in close combat, while multiple cruiser stacks shoot from long range.

You guys pretty much covered it. It depends what you need navy for, but almost all of the time naval bombers is all you need. The ships themselves are often unnecessary resource sinks.

That being said, I think big navy stacks are some of the most fun units to use so I use them anyways. 10/10/10 is the ideal stack size but against idiots and/or AI you can usually do something like 10/5/5 and still shred their coastal provinces.

Against competitive players I probably wouldn't build much of a navy but 10cc/1dd would be the most efficient way to do it. Cruisers have OK anti-sub and OK anti-ship, and the speed to escape battleships. The destroyer adds sub spotting ability. BBs are great but that's a lot of resources that could be spent elsewhere.

As I mentioned in a previous post today, I like to go well above the 10-unit stacking "limit" with naval stacks. For surface stacks, a 4:3:3 BS:Cruiserestroyer ratio is good. Thus, 8:6:6 and 12:9:9 stacks would be ideal for late-game naval supremacy.

Brando Dilla wrote:

As I mentioned in a previous post today, I like to go well above the 10-unit stacking "limit" with naval stacks. For surface stacks, a 4:3:3 BS:Cruiserestroyer ratio is good. Thus, 8:6:6 and 12:9:9 stacks would be ideal for late-game naval supremacy.

Don't do that. There isn't much advantage going above 10/10/10, especially since they're usually resource wastes anyways. 4/3/3 is fine for an early-game stack if you don't know your opponents' units. 8/6/6 is probably fine later. 12/9/9 is just no

jubjub bird wrote:

Don't do that. There isn't much advantage going above 10/10/10, especially since they're usually resource wastes anyways. 4/3/3 is fine for an early-game stack if you don't know your opponents' units. 8/6/6 is probably fine later. 12/9/9 is just no

Brando Dilla wrote:

As I mentioned in a previous post today, I like to go well above the 10-unit stacking "limit" with naval stacks. For surface stacks, a 4:3:3 BS:Cruiserestroyer ratio is good. Thus, 8:6:6 and 12:9:9 stacks would be ideal for late-game naval supremacy.

Try different battle situations on https://dxcalc.com/cow and see what happens with these combo stacks.

Example 1: 10 subs versus 4:3:3 mix. Subs win, 1 loss. Mix dead.

Consider that the cost of building 10 subs is less than half the cost of 4 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers.

Subs are the most effective weapon for sinking surface ships.

Example 2: 2 stacks of 10 cruisers, 1 destroyer versus 4:3:3 mix. Cruisers win, 0 losses. Mix dead.

Cruisers are not as efficient at sinking ships, but if you pay an equivalent cost, you get 2 stacks of cruisers.

2 stacks of cruisers are a more powerful, and a more flexible weapon than 1 stack of 4:3:3.

Brando Dilla wrote:

I said that since the 4/3/3 stack works for me, the larger stacks might work too. I don't actually build those larger stacks.

Mixed stacks win in fun-ness but lose in resource efficiency