Atlantic Fleet

[Burning Bridges]

Just wanted to give a thumbs up for this little iOS game that is actually really well made. It's a turn based, pseudo realistic ship action game of the Battle Of The Atlantic with a long but shallow grand campaign, and lots of rewarding moments when you actually hit enemy ships. It is huge fun when you actually hit.



The game was fascinating at first because of the countless capital ships modelled in considerable detail and realism, and good graphics. There even is a Battle of The Atlantic Grand Campaign which could theoretically be played almost forever. Unfortunately after a few days the huge potential of the gc was killed for me due to it being originally an iOS game.

I will not even rant how the game has a terrible interface with no tooltips, where I was at first afraid to click buttons, because it can be overcome by just going through the 4 tutorials (all together 20 minutes max) where everything is explained. Mouse control is a disaster but the game can be controlled reasonably with the keyboard. I just wrote down all key commands on paper and made screenshots of tutorial instructions, and everything was ok.

The tactical AI is rather decent, although it mostly selects the wrong targets. It posed quite a challenge at first but when I had learned how I can kill capital ships and submarines with ease, it became a rather stupid, one sided affair. Strategic AI is nonexistent, the AI will send capital ships to the most imprudent attacks where you can just slaughter them. After less than a year I had incurred 15:1 losses and no matter if I play German or British, the enemy fleet gets wiped out in roughly 6 months. From which point I mostly fought against remaining destroyers and submarines and lost interest. I never got past 1940 so the inclusion of some later ships (like the never built H-class battleships) was rather superfluous for me.

But anyway. For 9,99 it is really worth it, and a ton of fun at first. It is very much like like Enigma Rising Tide which was also stupid and unrealistic in the long term, but somehow also extremely rewarding short term. It's a pity that people still make such good games for the most terrible devices, but who cares, as it costs almost nothing and is a lot of fun.

 

[Beastro]

Strategic AI is nonexistent, the AI will send capital ships to the most imprudent attacks where you can just slaughter them. After less than a year I had incurred 15:1 losses and no matter if I play German or British, the enemy fleet gets wiped out in roughly 6 months. From which point I mostly fought against remaining destroyers and submarines and lost interest. I never got past 1940 so the inclusion of some later ships (like the never built H-class battleships) was rather superfluous for me.

This goes back a ways and was the same in the old SNES PTO ones.

AI would send all their ships at one target until taken and move onto the next allowing you to spot vulnerable positions and send their fleet to effectively ambush them. Unless the AI spotted you on it's turn it kept focusing on it's target.

Was very easy to wipe out the AIs fleet at this one point and left the rest of the game a mopping up job as you captured positions as the AI trickled out ships, which took months to build, so you'd only have like 2-3 destroyers to deal with a month trying to land troops on a godforsaken island before getting wiped out.

I do find it funny they the Atlantic for this, since it was commerce raiding campaign and not an even, entertaining match. Makes me wonder how they handle Germany getting 2-3 capital ships at the start and smattering of other lesser ships against the dozens of battleships and carriers and hundreds of lesser ships the RN fielded. For that reason they should have placed the setting in PTO where two proper fleets could butt heads and it would take less abstraction to give the Japs a leg up.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Both sides get roughly the same number of capital ships. The British have heavier artillery, the Germans more modern ships, but the AI can not make use of it, so it will always be the player who befits. If he plays German he will have lots of uboats and eventually even slaughter whole convoys with surface ships. If he is British he can shoot the few impressive German ships to pieces, then rule the convoy routes with destroyers and destroy uboat after uboat. The Germans are also somewhat handicapped that they cannot build more ships than they had historically. If for example all 3 Deutschland class cruisers are gone (Lützow, Admiral Scheer, Admiral Graf Spee), they they are gone for good, and he cannot build a fourth.

As it is I had total superiority over the Atlantic by early 1940, no matter if I am British or German. Also the AI seems to be totally unaware that you can not send battleships into areas where the enemy has airstrikes. Even a fleet of destroyers, which normally outrun battleships or will sunk one by one, can be a potent force by ordering airplanes. So you must simply avoid zones with enemy air power, everything else is suicide.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I do find it funny they the Atlantic for this, since it was commerce raiding campaign and not an even, entertaining match. Makes me wonder how they handle Germany getting 2-3 capital ships at the start and smattering of other lesser ships against the dozens of battleships and carriers and hundreds of lesser ships the RN fielded. For that reason they should have placed the setting in PTO where two proper fleets could butt heads and it would take less abstraction to give the Japs a leg up.

Well, actually this is the successor to "Pacific Fleet". And since there is no real action in the Mediterranean I wouldnt be surprised if they model the Italian fleet, and put everything together in a game of global naval warfare. Although without stronger AI there wouldn't be much point in this, and I would instead prefer medium sized campaigns like Admiral Graf Spee or Bismarck, where you just play a few ships and a few months of the war.

 

[Beastro]

Well, actually this is the successor to "Pacific Fleet". And since there is no real action in the Mediterranean I wouldnt be surprised if they model the Italian fleet, and put everything together in a game of global naval warfare. Although without stronger AI there wouldn't be much point in this, and I would instead prefer medium sized campaigns like Admiral Graf Spee or Bismarck, where you just play a few ships and a few months of the war.

PTO had those as well where you had the choice of three objectives and had to take them in a few months while the AI was prepositioned around to help it work on it's goals.