Overview
A newbie-friendly guide to design your ships. Revised by me 18/07/2021.
Introduction
This guide’s purpose is to guide the players who have almost no experience or no knowledge with naval mechanics in Man the Gun DLC. This guide is meant for players who mainly play in single-player.
The ship designs you will see below will be optimal for any major or minor nations. All of those are based on the 1936 hull design. Later hull designs will be added in this guide sometime. You will focus on producing cheap and efficient ships as much as possible. The biggest enemy of the navy is naval bombers. The naval bombers are very deadly against warships. They are the only thing you need to worry about when controlling your ships.
Submarine Designs
A cheap and deadly submarine that is meant to hunt the convoy ships. It can even hurt capital ships when you are stacking up a large number of submarines. You can upgrade the modules to Tier III and up to Tier IV when you can, and then you can refit them. Refitting with advanced modules is an economical alternative to get advanced ships. It takes less time to refit them comparing to building a whole new hull design.
Destroyer Designs
A cheap convoy escort ship that can do well against submarines.
A ship with anti-air capabilities that is good for patrolling or escorting.
A cheap ship to clear the mines. You can swap both minesweeping gears with minelayers to perform the minelaying operation. Alternatively, you can swap one minesweeping gear with one minelayer to turn this ship into a hybrid mine warfare ship to ably do both operations.
The all-purpose destroyer that can take everything. This is a standard screening ship.
Light Cruiser Designs
A light cruiser with anti-air capabilities that is suitable to escort your capital ships.
A light cruiser with seaplanes that is suitable for patrolling. Can be used in hit and run tactics.
A standard screening light cruiser to hurt the average screening ship.
Heavy Cruiser Designs
If you have capital ships at the starting point, then I recommend you skip this heavy cruiser design. Heavy cruiser is not worth producing unless you do not have the capital ships and have weak economy. As far I know that the AI in the base game does not upgrade their battleships, so you can beef up and upgrade your heavy cruisers where it can sting them with your improved firepower. The only good thing for the heavy cruiser is that it does not take too long to build compared to the battleships.
Battlecruiser Designs
It may look like a discounted battleship, but the battlecruiser has an utmost advantage over standard battleship – speed. It is an excellent leadership of raiding fleet, exceeding at hit and run tactics with its speed.
Battleship Designs
A simple but expensive battleship that can hurt capital ships and annihilate the screening ships.
Aircraft Carrier Designs
A cheap carrier design when you need to grab and go in a certain deep sea with this carrier. Recommended to fill the deck with 20 Carrier Naval Bombers.
A basic fleet carrier design with a capability of carrier airplanes. Recommended to fill the deck with 20 Carrier Fighters and 40 Carrier Naval Bombers.
Naval Doctrines Explained
- Fleet in Being:
This is the well-rounded general purpose set of naval doctrines that most substantial navies used. It enhances Search & Destroy for capital ships, submarine detection for screening ships, and bonuses for all classes, although subs seem least favored. This is the most powerful doctrine for surface action. It is the most efficient in responding to the escort needs of convoys and in anti-submarine warfare.
- Trade Interdiction:
This is an offensive doctrine focusing on attacking enemy convoys with coordinated stealthy surface and submarine raiders that have superior abilities to find and destroy enemy shipping while evading enemy detection. Such stealthiness can also be valuable in normal combat or escaping from it, which is usually the best course. Submarines are made very dangerous to the enemy. The trade-off under this doctrine is that light cruisers and destroyers have mediocre anti-submarine warfare capabilities and weak escort efficiency bonuses, so vulnerable friendly shipping may require more effort to defend. Germany adopted the raiding strategy in its efforts in both world wars to strangle Great Britain by cutting off its shipping, but this can also be suitable for minors seeking a naval presence to strike enemy trade with moderate risk and expense.
- Base Strike:
This is similar to the approach of Japan and the United States. It focuses on blue water navy carriers and their light cruiser and destroyer screens, with submarines also receiving decent bonuses for supporting carrier operations. There are no class-specific bonuses at all for battleships, battlecruisers or heavy cruisers, but if built they share the array of global bonuses under this doctrine. Having at least a few fast heavy cruisers that can keep pace with the carriers for bombardment and surface action is advisable, but it is possible to focus just on research and production of carriers, screens and carrier aircraft to make the best use of limited resources.
Trade Interdiction favors Submarine (SS). Fleet in Being and Base Strike tie in second place.
Fleet in Being favors Destroyer (DD). Base Strike favors in second place. Trade Interdiction favors in third place.
Very situational. Fleet in Being helps Light Cruiser (CL) to hunt the submarines the better. Trade Interdiction helps Light Cruiser (CL) to raid convoys effectively. Base Strike helps Light Cruiser (CL) to fight against warships.
Trade Interdiction favors Heavy Cruiser (CA). Fleet in Being favors in second place.
Trade Interdiction favors Battlecruiser (BC). Fleet in Being favors in second place.
Trade Interdiction favors Battleship (BB) being versatile in stats. Fleet in Being gives strongest Organization stat. Base Strike gives a small increase in Organization stat
Base Strike favors Carrier (CV). Fleet in Being and Trade Interdiction tie in second place due to the situational usability.
Fleet in Being has most versatile stats. Trade Interdiction ranked second in versatility. Base Strike ranked third in versatility.
When researching one of three naval doctrines, you can choose one of those to fit your playstyle. In this case, Fleet in Being doctrine has more versatile in stats and benefits destroyers the most; Trade Interdiction benefits submarines overall and benefits capital ships in raiding convoys; Base Strike benefits aircraft carriers the most.
Tips & Fleet Compositions
- Screen ships are referred to destroyers and light cruisers.
- Capital ships are referred to heavy cruisers, battlecruisers, battleships, and carriers.
- The rule of thumb for the ratio of screen to capital ships is 4:1. Maintaining exactly 4:1 or with more screens will boost your efficiency of cover and screening during naval battles. For instance, Capital ships with a balanced ratio of screen to capital can wipe out the enemy capital ships with an unbalanced ratio of screen to capital.
- Here are some fleet compositions that are viable for their tasks. You may need more than just one fleet composition to cover more region. In other words, you want to have one fleet composition in each region of sea. Produce and have numerous fleet compositions to maintain your naval supremacy.
For your reference to some abbreviated ship identifications:
ASW-DD – Anti-Submarine Warfare Destroyer
AA-DD – Anti-Air Destroyer
DD – Destroyer
AA-CL – Anti-Air Light Cruiser
R-CL – Recon Light Cruiser
CL – Light Cruiser
CA – Heavy Cruiser
BC – BattleCruiser
BB – Battleship
CVE – Escort Carrier
CV – Fleet Carrier - Submarine Group — Minimum: 20 Subs
- Convoy Escort without Anti-Air Group — Minimum: 5 ASW-DDs
- Convoy Escort with Anti-Air Group — Minimum: 5 ASW-DDs, 1 AA-CL
- Convoy Escort Task Force — Minimum: 5 ASW-DDs, 1 AA-CL, 1 CA or 1 CL
- Patrol Group — Minimum: 5 DDs, 2 R-CLs; Maximum: 10 DDs, 4 R-CLs, 2 CAs or 1 BC
- Carriers Task Force — Minimum: 4 CVs, 4 CLs, 4 AA-CLs, 6 CAs or 6 CLs, 30 DDs, 1 BB
- Carrier Group — Minimum: 1 CV, 4 CLs, 2 AA-CLs, 5 CAs or 5 CLs, 24 DDs
- Escort Carrier Group — Minimum: 1 CVE, 6 AA-CLs, 20 DDs, 2 BBs
- Light Strike Force Group — Minimum: 1 BB, 8 AA-CLs, 4 CLs, 2 CAs or 2 CLs, 30 AA-DDs
- Medium Strike Force Group — Minimum: 1 BB, 10 AA-CLs, 6 CLs, 3 CAs or 3 CLs, 40 AA-DDs
- Heavy Strike Force Group — Minimum: 6 BBs, 16 AA-CLs, 16 CLs, 6 CAs or 6 CLs, 50 AA-DDs
What to Work On & Considered Suggestions
Disclaimer: My guide ain’t perfect. This section is to discuss my guide. I will appreciate taking your feedback and suggestion to improve this guide.
So far, below the list indicates that I need to make the edits in this draft.
- Naval radar technology
- Invest AAs on Battleships or other capitals as the bombers are intending to target the capital ships. *need to test & verify this*
- Add some more ship designs for battleships and 1940 ship hulls with better modeules.
Closing & My Other Guides
This concluded the guide. Thank you for reading my guide. I hope you find this guide helpful. Please leave a comment if you disagree with something of this guide or want to leave a thoughtful feedback.
Best Regards,
~Nost
Let me know in the comment section!
