Warships

Warships are naval ships that are built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a country, except in the case of the West Carthage Company.

Pre-Dreadnoughts
Pre-dreadnoughts are a type of battleship. They are the first naval unit in the RP, and are large warships powered by a steam engine, used to fight other battleships in a line of battle. They were for many years the largest warships, and a status symbol of a nation's wealth and military might; as such, they have been used for gunboat diplomacy. Historically, the largest pre-dreadnought fleets were operated by Humerland and the Solis Federation; however, they are no longer widely produced as they are very ineffective (only half or one-third as good) compared to dreadnoughts.

Armoured Cruisers
Armoured cruisers are smaller and faster than pre-dreadnought battleships. They are a good option as a budget battleship, as they are almost as good against other cruisers, and are fast enough to chase smaller, faster ships such as frigates, and are considerably cheaper. They are more heavily armed than protected cruisers. They will be rendered obsolete by battlecruisers.

Protected Cruisers
Protected cruisers are faster than armoured cruisers, but are less well armed and armoured. Unlike their cousins, they cannot stand in a line of battle; they are too lightly armoured. They are very good against frigates and other fast ships, and are good for patrols.

Coast-Defence Ships
(Abbrev. CDV)

Coast-defence ships are essentially scaled-down pre-dreadnoughts, but lack the range and speed to conduct blue-water operations. They are good for a budget navy, and are obvious used for defending coasts, river mouths, and other littoral locations. Occasionally, railway guns are used for coast defence, but cannot move as easily; coast defence ships can. They are sometimes called monitors.

Gunboats
Gunboats are best used for coastal bombardment. They are slow and small, but are cheap. They are useful for amphibious assaults, attacks on coast of people with no navy, and gunboat diplomacy. Essentially, they are like CDV's but on the other side.

Frigates
Frigates are small, fast, ships, often powered by sails as well as steam. They are cheap and fast, but are obsolete or at least obsolescent due to being sail-powered ironclads. Many of the nations that favour a fleet of small, fast ships rather than slow, heavily armed ones prefer frigates to battleships.

Torpedo Boats
Torpedo boats are very small, fast, and carry torpedoes. The torpedoes make the copper upkeep significant, but this is made up for in that torpedo boats are cheap to build, to the extent that some navies have 50 or more, and are extremely useful against battleships.

Destroyers
Destroyers (technically torpedo boat destroyers or TBD) are large, fast torpedo boats, used against torpedo boats, submarines, and even other destroyers. They are often powered by a steam turbine.

Submarines
Submarines are torpedo boats that use stealth to attack other ships by hiding underwater. They are very useful against cargo ships and battleships, but are easily defeated by destroyers. They also, like torpedo boats, have limited range.

Dreadnoughts
Ah yes. The biggest ships of all. Even the name conjures up a vast, seagoing castle cruising through the water. These huge ships are armed with a single calibre of main gun, with little or no secondary armament, allowing a strike on a pre-dreadnought well beyond the pre-dread's firing range, and are powered by oil-fired steam turbines. They are so OP that it takes 2 or 3 pre-dreadnoughts to even come close. They have rendered pre-dreadnoughts completely obsolete, and, being as fast as armoured cruisers, have removed their main advantage. They are also very expensive, and only four countries have built them in large numbers. It seems likely that dreadnoughts will dominate any future naval war.

Future ships
These are near future ships. Of course, later one, we'll get the good stuff; guided missile ships, nuclear subs, super carriers. For now, this is the foreseeable future.

Battlecruisers
These will replace armoured cruisers. Intended to destroy cruisers, they will have the armament of dreadnoughts while lacking the armour, but being able to go faster. They are essentially to armoured cruisers what dreadnoughts are to pre-dreadnoughts.

Aircraft Carriers
These will be able to carry aeroplanes, when the time comes. First, will come the seaplane tender, which catapults seaplanes and recovers them after. Then will come larger carriers, with a runway, which can launch and retrieve standard biplanes. These will revolutionise naval patrol, and likely render airships obsolete.

Super-Dreadnoughts
These will be even larger, faster, and more heavily armed than dreadnoughts. Expect them around 1912 or 1913.

Ship vs Ship Stats
'''NOTE: These are very rough and do not take into account tactics. It is assumed that the ship will be used the way anticipated. It also assumes a standard ship.'''

In the case of N/A, the ship is unable to penetrate the defender's armour or otherwise incapable of attacking

If the answer is a fraction, it will be rounded upwards, with the "true" score in (brackets). Numbers are ratios of ships, not individual ships (usually)

Please do not edit this table * Armed with 4 maxims or 1 cannon

** 1 battalion, assuming they don't have large artillery guns but do have 4 cannon, 1 howitzer

This table could perhaps be used for the Battle Engine later on

Warship Doctrine
There are two basic doctrines for warship use; either, a country will prioritise large ships such as battleships and cruisers, or smaller, lighter ships especially torpedo boats and submarines. There are advantages to each; a navy composed of large ships is more impressive, so is better for diplomacy, whereas smaller ships are cheaper, and the loss of a single vessel is not so bad. Smaller ships are also typically faster, which allows more rapid deployment. As such, they are better for commerce raiding and surprise attacks. Larger warships are superior in other ways; they have far greater firepower, and can be used in a small number of decisive battles to defeat an enemy; only large ships and submarines are also capable of blockading an enemy. Recently, with the invention of dreadnoughts, the doctrine of small ships "anything larger, we outrun, anything smaller, we destroy" has been made obsolete. Generally, newer nations tend to prioritise small warships.