Light Cruiser Guide - Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts Tutorial

[@sirtrafalgar1]

I see there being three distinct phases of a UAD campaign: Predreadnought, Dreadnought, and Modern. In the Predreadnought era, I used light cruisers as torpedo boat leaders. It backs up the torpedo boat squadrons I deploy in choke points on the campaign map. I will usually use the Semi Armored Cruiser hulls with seven-inch guns since they can hit and sink armored cruisers if you're careful and have the speed to run away from enemy battleships if the torpedo boats fail. Then I use the traditional light cruiser hulls as an anti-torpedo boat and destroyer screen in my main battle fleets, which was your build. I have figured out that if you place the square barbette on ships, you can get almost any of the small barbettes to create a super firing design. The Dreadnought era primarily consisted of light scout cruisers or the same older Predreadnought designs. Older flawless ships get sent out for colonial duty and are constantly upgraded to provide a challenge in late-game when the AI struggles with tech. Scout Cruisers are fast but flimsy, so I avoid them except for Battle Cruiser escorts trying to hold out for the modern stuff for the main battle fleets. In the modern era, the old pre-dreadnought designs really show their age, but I still keep a few of the ones that have had storied careers around, and I convert them into colonial mine layers. I shift the old scout cruisers I built during the Dreadnought era to colonial duties. What I build here is really dependent on my economy. If my economy can support it, I build dedicated commerce raiders/mine layers light cruisers and keep them in port with some DD mine layers to help them. They are really efficient at generating convoy missions. Otherwise, they are strictly there to support my main task forces as destroyer interceptors.

[@somerandomguyfromthebeyond1821]

6 in gun is love....6 in gun is life All hail the daka ships!!!

[@nvelsen1975]

Also paint flames on it, make it go fastah.

[@KashouWannabe]

Thanks for this guide, and hope series of guides. The game is evolving and does change so having up to date information super handy. Thanks!

[@kineuhansen8629]

to be fair i dont think i had any problem sinking destroyers with my battleships special if they had trained crew and good tech

[@TheBaldParakeet]

Massed 2" or 3" guns do a pretty good job of that as is

[@maryrose2676]

​@@TheBaldParakeetI rather not have dds get within 2/3" gun range. 5/6" guns ftw.

[@TheBaldParakeet]

@@maryrose2676 good luck with that in 1900 or 1890

[@maryrose2676]

​​@@TheBaldParakeetYeah I forgot to mention I don't often go there. If I do, 2/3" are my equivalents as opposed to the 1.1" spam. As soon as mk3s are available it's 5/6".

[@johanlundstrom1561]

Agree. 8.9" secondaries are murder. (2.9" guns are murder early on, but become obsolete.)

[@Schaden-freude]

The speed isn't actually a magical barrier, it's a real life thing called hull speed. It's where at a certain speed the axis of the hull meeting the waves cancels eachother out. In order to get more speed, you either need retardedly huge engines or a different hull form. A lot of the modern naval practices for ships like extended bulges forward are a result of the science behind hulls meeting waves.

[@steveww5745]

Light Cruisers are probably my favourite ship, once you get past the early hulls.

[@bajabrainblast6075]

By the 1910s, my light cruisers had taken on the role of being a heavy destroyer, my most efficient design sporting 5 single-barrel 7 in guns and two pairs of torpedo launchers, making it formidable against everything from convoys to battleships. Ended up being so effective, I just pumped them out for 20 years and kept modernizing the design. The other design that worked well was having 4 pairs of large torpedo racks and some minor guns so that the ship could swoop in, launch 16+ torps at a line of enemy battleships, use the other side, and dip out fast.

[@Stealth17Gaming]

Interesting! I might use that

[@Keaperman]

Some interesting points. I think I may be using my CL's to conservatively, I primarily use them to sit alongside or between my Heavy ships to discourage the Torpedo attacks. Does of course occasionally mean that they get tagged by a big gun.... I think I will have to think of them more as attack ships and commerce raiders.

[@johanlundstrom1561]

Weirdly, some Battlecruisers get higher speeds than any other cruisers, so they make for fantastic (if expensive) raiders and DD-hunters, and plus they tear any other cruisers apart.

[@johanlundstrom1561]

I also prefer tighter turret placement to 360 turrets.

[@xzardas541]

If your battleships have problems with destroyers and CLs it just means you need more guns.

[@davidalldred9392]

Mostly skip light cruisers completely and opt for 2 classes of heavy cruiser, 1 hi (11") and 1 lo (ALL the 8"). Can usually get a decent number of 4" turrets on too.

[@eduardorocha1585]

Video idea: built a mortar barge make a light cruiser with the largest gun you can fit and the shortest barrel possible

[@taiko1237]

...so, a 7.9 inch gun that can't hit anything, at least in vanilla. Modding the game to allow up to 12 inchers on CLs or something would be better for this.

[@eduardorocha1585]

@@taiko1237 maybe a heavy cruiser or battleship would be better for this

[@swiftdraw]

Early game, I agree, CL's are your best defense against destroyers and I build similarly to your 1910 ship. But by the 1930's, against the AI who don't know how to swarm properly, BB's, BC's and CA's can fend off DD's easy enough. My 1930-40's CL's tend to be surface raiders or recon/escort ships, the latter I don't think you hit on. CL's usually have the highest recon stat amongst the different ship classes and having a few in a task force, particularly before you have RDF/RADAR researched, can help you get favorable encounters. Maybe not much of increase, but I noticed it helped when I had a task force parked off an enemy coast and I'd seem to get a couple more Convoy Raids or Ambushes than usual. It was particularly noticeable in with CL's acting as DD task force leaders and set to "invade." While you touch on it as something useful against larger navies, I think it is worth it to have a dedicated minelayer ship in certain regions. In the Mediterranean, Red, South China, and Indonesian Seas there is plentiful choke points where a sufficiently large minefield can get in some free damage on enemy ships. Until you get Minelayer V or higher submarine, CL is your best bet for a minelayer. It can create bigger fields and don't have to give up as much as a destroyer to mount them.

[@Sulu-s_Apocalypse]

As you said you're color-blind in the past, just a tip: in section display there is a defferent shade of red indicating where your citadel and it's armour actually is on the ship, so depending on citadel level it's armour can actually protect different areas of the ship, therefore inner decks and belts do not cover the entire area of main belt and deck but rather cascade down on one another towards the most critical components.

[@Stealth17Gaming]

Yes I show that in the video ;)

[@ronaldtermond2530]

Just want to recommend 2" inch secondairies as anti-torpedo weapons, for as long as their (mid) range can keep up with torpedo range.

[@thetacticalbowspamer850]

i like 7.9 inch cls with 3.9 in secondary's with the right ammo types they can deal with everything ch and below i find smaller guns often struggle to pen at range early game late game i find the extra range to be very helpful also found maxing out armor really helps as it becomes immune-resistant to destroyer guns i also find relatively early game cls are good because the can keep up with the latter dreadnaughts and make great escort ships mid game they seem to struggle more as after twin guns get all the tech bonuses and cls often take a while to get twin guns

[@henryprice9493]

My favorite light cruiser is the atlanta class. Just because it's weird and has 8 5" turrets.

[@catflomps]

I don't find I need light cruisers for the anti-destroyer work to protect battleships you described... Granted I tend to heavily over gun my BBs secondary batteries because I don't want them to come under that threat and be caught without an escort to help them due to combat attrition... But I do tend to build light cruisers in the style of the first one still, but with a little smaller in size for the purpose of acting as heavier surface combatants in colonial territories, specifically in areas that might not have the best port capacity. Although later on I tend to try and up the 4" guns to 6" guns, and increase the volume of torpedos... Meanwhile most of my late game light cruisers are just... Torpedo shotguns that can speed in, fire off large spreads of fish, turn and leave while laying smoke. With a modest main battery of 6" guns, and enough 3" high velocity guns to cripple a destroyer in short order, or burn anything of equal or greater size to the waterline with the combination while trying to get the torpedos off.

[@Keaperman]

Question: What do you think about having a slow CL or two sitting in formation with Battleships or CA's ? Main reason for them to keep DD´s away. Mostly for earlier era's in game.

[@shanrachel1469]

Anyone remember the legendary tale of Ariadne in The Big Guns Campaign way back?

[@astartesdylan9042]

use the no fly zone tactic on battleships and no destroyer will appear( i mean spam 2-5 inch guns)

[@scottjuhnke6825]

I would disagree on your choice of torps. The largest torps have their advantages, however, on a Light Cruiser, I would rather have more torps, which means 20", or less. I would also tend to use 7.5" guns, in double turrets. Depending on where your tech is at, you can fit 8 to 20 guns, which, at least by my experience, seems to work well. Note: I also highly recommend role play. Decide in advance how your nation will proceed. As the Dual Monarchy, I have gone quad, triple, and dual mounts for guns. It does change how your playthrough goes. You can also decide, in advance, more speed less armor, less fire power, the combinations here are very expansive in the game. Will you be the Admiral that makes the Jeune Ecole work? It adds, at least for me, an enormous amount of fun.

[@dwwolf4636]

Late period 4" guns are my minimum caliber vs. DDs. Preferably 4.5". 5" is better.

[@johanlundstrom1561]

I almost never use Light Cruisers - small heavy cruisers with 8.9" main guns do a great job, and they have torpedo defenses so that they can tank some torpedo strikes. And because the Ai is horrible and 8.9" guns are magic, they can often take on AI battleships.

[@Not.Your.Business]

good guide, but there's a 10 minutes blank segment at the end of the video

[@Stealth17Gaming]

Oh crap. My bad sorry

[@Yoda98292]

Still not fixed 😂

[@mikegershon8528]

I hope someone can answer this question. I am relatively new to the game, and playing Germany in the 1890 campaign. Several years in, all of a sudden every one of my designs is overweight, and I cannot refit them. Is this a bug? I have purposely held them to 85-89% of displacement and it happens from torpedo boats thru cruisers, all the way to battleships. Could this be from my using the save campaign slot over and over again. Thank you all, and Stealth, I have learned a ton from watching your channel. I thought I had subscribed. Fixing that now.

[@maryrose2676]

Components get better as you research them. Unfortunately they also get heavier. Example: A mark2 gun is heavier than a mark1 gun. So if all research stays the same except the mark of the gun, if you go to refit the ship, the ship is now heavier because gun marks are automatically applied to all existing guns on the ship. Some passive techs, like torpedo protection, buff your ship but also make it heavier. These are also automatically applied when you enter the refit screen.

[@KasparasPra]

Hi, a fan. Love your vids. I get that supporters matter, BUT those RUNNNING TEXT lines is soooo annoying to watch whole video :/ could u plz show them at end of the video or start, or somehow not on screen blocking the view.. tnx

[@Stealth17Gaming]

Yeah I'll move them towards the end.

[@eibolsoe]

Hmm. With you generally not using light cruisers, are you a good one to talk? :D

[@Stealth17Gaming]

Maybe they just don't fit in my personal doctrine. Doesn't make them bad ship

[@Thegrassman555]

Hi

[@jarigustafsson7620]

Thumbnail looks like a BB.

[@smokejaguarsix7757]

This game purports to be a historical wargame yet has exactly zero basis in any form of history resembling reality. No ship on Earth cost 10M dollars in 1901 and yet in this game destroyers cost millions and millions of dollars. Economies dont work at all. They just slap you with idioticly fixed rates based on starting country and then penalize you inexplicably regardless of how big or powerful your navy and country becomea ignoring massive territorial gains. Playing Spain I conquer Russia, Japan, Italy, China and karge swaths of Africa and Europe and yet my economy magically remains smaller than France who has been beaten into submission. Oh, and dont get me started about the Devs refusal to provide anything resembling a contact report we can actually use. 2 years this game has been out and yet its still basically an arcade game that wont tell you where the enemy is even though you can supposedly see smoke...in one of 8 directions. Autopilot wont work functionally so youre just running around blindly following ridiculously useless contact reports. They do this so you waste time sitting there as your ships chase around ghosts they cant catch so that their time in game numbers stay high to fool people into believing its a popular game. In reality you either waste hours chasing a few destroyers you often cant catch or leave it up to random autoengagements that you may lose because 'rng' BS. Land armies arent based on anything real or that you can impact. China has 300 troops. Really? China. 300. Are you effing kidding? A steam engine uograde for a destroyer costs me $1.5M in 1902? Really? I ahould be able to buy an entire flotilla of them for that. They havent addressed any of these issues and never will. They just dont care. They got your money. Oh, but you can make cool looking ships though.

[@GeorgTanz]

R

[@portumnadaz]

What are your PCs specs? The build screen seems very smooth compared to mine. Mine can be laggy at times.

[@Stealth17Gaming]

They're listed in the description

[@portumnadaz]

Oh ya i see them now. Your rig is slightly better than mine. I think ill just do a fresh install of windows its been a couple of years and it might be causing stuttering and kag at times.

[@ВладиславВладислав-и4ю]

​@@Stealth17Gamingso, I'm need play list with guides

[@Stealth17Gaming]

@@ВладиславВладислав-и4ю kzbin.info/aero/PLlSUA5AyYAod824DkblSGMbtjHENIAFoB

[@ВладиславВладислав-и4ю]

@@Stealth17Gaming thanks!