Naval RTS?

[Coyote]

I've been playing Axis & Allies on my laptop lately and enjoying it; for some reason I've been on a "Pacific War" kick so I'm lining myself up against the various Japanese AIs. One thing about A&A is that there is only one Japanese General, Kuribayashi, and the rest (Yamato, Nagumo, etc) are all Admirals. Which is odd because there is no sea-based combat in the A&A videogame at all (the Normandy landing doesn't really count, the ships don't really maneuver and all they do is pound inland targets).

This train of thought reminded me-- are there any RTS games that are Navy based? There are flight games to pilot fighters like the Battle for Midway game that came out a year or so ago... and some games like Command & Conquer and Warcraft have navy components to it and usually at least one or two missions that require navy power, but that's about it.

I was wondering if anyone knew of any good RTS naval warfare games out there at all, of any time periods (although WW2, Cold War, and Pirate-era) would be t3h ub3r).

Google-fu takes me to standard RTS games like Age of Empires, etc; and putting in specific naval campaigns (ie, "Midway") takes me to Youtube videos, historical sites, veterans sites, and so on. Is there a magic combination of words I should be using?

Thanks!

[Uraniun235]

I think the closest you'd get would be Harpoon.

[MKSheppard]

Carriers at war by SSG/Matrix.

It's sort of a pausable real time game.

[Melchior]

Distant Guns, about the naval component of the Russo-Japanese war.

[montypython]

Distant Guns, about the naval component of the Russo-Japanese war.

There's a Jutland follow on being developed too.

[ray245]

What about Navyfield?

[RogueIce]

Jane's Fleet Command is my personal favorite. With the patch it actually got rid of some of the micro involved in defending yourself from ASM attack, although they only tended to auto-launch at the last moment.

[weemadando]

Yeah, Janes Fleet Command is good.

Dangerous Waters is a pseudo-sequel, but has a much more "micro" feel to it.

Fighting Steel is a pretty good WW2 game.

[Vympel]

Too bad you can't get Fleet Command anymore. Sucks.

[SylasGaunt]

Well there's Submarine Titans a sci-fi undersea RTS involving 2 human factions and a group of invading aliens.

[Stark]

Well there's Submarine Titans a sci-fi undersea RTS involving 2 human factions and a group of invading aliens.

Without doubt the single worst RTS I've ever played. And I played Dogs of War.

[Darth Wong]

Are we looking for a naval game that actually rewards something resembling real-life strategy, or a naval game that follows all of the well-worn RTS conventions? Because Supreme Commander is a naval RTS if all you want is a conventional RTS that allows sea battles.

[weemadando]

Too bad you can't get Fleet Command anymore. Sucks.

You can get it via Steam.

I still have my CD copy though. Anyone want to rumble?

[Vympel]

Unfortunately, I don't have Steam.

[PainRack]

Jane's Fleet Command is my personal favorite. With the patch it actually got rid of some of the micro involved in defending yourself from ASM attack, although they only tended to auto-launch at the last moment.

One bad thing about the patch was that it removed the phoenix missile in favour for realism.
What about the micro-management for fighters?Its a naval game, I don't want to order my fighter to constantly fly high/low and fast to evade enemy AA missiles.

Its also be nice that my lead fighter be the one scoring the kills, not my wingman:D

Lastly, how on god green earth do you win the second campaign mission? I can either cover my carrier, or cover the frigates. I can't cover both, especially when they throw in the submarines. It seems that the only way out is to be prescient and shoot down the bombers at extreme range.

[RogueIce]

One bad thing about the patch was that it removed the phoenix missile in favour for realism.

Really? I thought the Tomcats still had it in the AAW role? I'll have to check again.

What about the micro-management for fighters?Its a naval game, I don't want to order my fighter to constantly fly high/low and fast to evade enemy AA missiles.

Well they actually do, sometimes. They just kinda suck at it. Yeah, micro-ing them is generally the best way to get 'em to avoid it, though sometimes they manage on their own.

What really bugs me is when they shoot torpedoes at your subs. The only time they ever miss is when it was a really long range shot and I order my subs to run like hell. Otherwise...bam, they're done.

Its also be nice that my lead fighter be the one scoring the kills, not my wingman:D

Damn gloryhogs!

Lastly, how on god green earth do you win the second campaign mission? I can either cover my carrier, or cover the frigates. I can't cover both, especially when they throw in the submarines. It seems that the only way out is to be prescient and shoot down the bombers at extreme range.

I only played the first one. But did you recon all the unknown aircraft? Is there time for that?

I found, for the first one especially, that since civilian air traffic follows those corridors, once you figure out where they're coming from you can generally ignore that direction, and anyone flying from somewhere else is probably a hostile.

Of course once I find the airbase I just send my planes up that way and have them engage anyone coming from there (after a proper ID, of course).

My biggest thing is that, sometimes, when I'm firing off SSMs, even when I specifically target one ship, they'll go after whatever's closest (even the non HARMs and I never lost sight of them). Which has sometimes led me to destroying a neutral ship on accident because the damn TASM went after it rather than what I aimed at.

Fucking collateral damage.

[Uraniun235]

Unfortunately, I don't have Steam.

I'm pretty sure Steam is free.

[Sea Skimmer]

What about Navyfield?

You can only control one ship in a battle, so its not much of a strategy game, I’d say its closer to a naval first person shooter. Plus they basically force you to pay for upgrades to be competitive, so it’s damn annoying to play.

Personally Harpoon is the only game that provides a remotely satisfying experience, but Fleet Command and Fighting Steel are okay when played with some of the big fan mods floating around. None of them let you build ships or compose fleets for specific operations though, so they also aren’t really RTS games if you ask me. More like naval versions of Close Combat.

[MKSheppard]

Which has sometimes led me to destroying a neutral ship on accident because the damn TASM went after it rather than what I aimed at.

And that is precisely why the USN withdrew TASM. Because they had no control of it when they went over the horizon and began their own search patterns. Harpoon on the other hand, you control pretty much throughout the flight.

[RogueIce]

And that is precisely why the USN withdrew TASM. Because they had no control of it when they went over the horizon and began their own search patterns. Harpoon on the other hand, you control pretty much throughout the flight.

Ah. Then in that case it's nice to know they preserved that little bit of (extremely annoying gameplay-wise ) technical accuracy.

None of them let you build ships or compose fleets for specific operations though, so they also aren’t really RTS games if you ask me.

Well you can use the map editor to basically make any kind of naval battle you want in FC, although in the campaigns you're stuck with what they give you.

On a side note, do the various resupply ships actually serve a purpose outside of flavor and being a nice missile sponge if you can manage it? I haven't seen any. At least the LHDs give you Harriers, though the other amphibs are kinda useless.

[PainRack]

What really bugs me is when they shoot torpedoes at your subs. The only time they ever miss is when it was a really long range shot and I order my subs to run like hell. Otherwise...bam, they're done.

Oooh..... That's another dozer. Especially since it takes forever for your sub to line up a torpedo to attack and it only takes seconds for ship/airborne torps to launch.

Lastly, how on god green earth do you win the second campaign mission? I can either cover my carrier, or cover the frigates. I can't cover both, especially when they throw in the submarines. It seems that the only way out is to be prescient and shoot down the bombers at extreme range.

I only played the first one. But did you recon all the unknown aircraft? Is there time for that?

Depends.... Its possible to identify the first wave, but the second wave is a tad difficult.... Haven't played for ages but IIRC, the problem was identifying the strikes headed towards the British warships.

I found, for the first one especially, that since civilian air traffic follows those corridors, once you figure out where they're coming from you can generally ignore that direction, and anyone flying from somewhere else is probably a hostile.

The main threat here actually comes from shipborne missiles. In particular, the missiles heading towards the British frigate since they lack your AA defences. The only real way to protect both groups is to spam SM2 missiles at unidentified ship contacts, damaging them enough that gives you time to launch follow up harpoon strikes.Which leaves your carrier open to missile attacks from bombers. I haven't really found a way to complete that mission without suffering crippling losses to my airwing(above micro-management problem with fighters) and denuding my escorts.... And I got scrubbed when an enemy sub sneaked in and inflicted critical damage on my ship.

My biggest thing is that, sometimes, when I'm firing off SSMs, even when I specifically target one ship, they'll go after whatever's closest (even the non HARMs and I never lost sight of them). Which has sometimes led me to destroying a neutral ship on accident because the damn TASM went after it rather than what I aimed at.

Fucking collateral damage.

Some of the non campaign missions were pure overkill D: Deploying a ship taskforce destroyer to take on a pirate plane:D Of course, they had to hide in the middle of an aircorridor.

And of course, the mission with your amphibs was pure fun.

On a side note, do the various resupply ships actually serve a purpose outside of flavor and being a nice missile sponge if you can manage it? I haven't seen any. At least the LHDs give you Harriers, though the other amphibs are kinda useless.

Wasn't there a non campaign mission where those amphibs were critical?

[Ypoknons]

Battlestations Midway is a RTS, although at the same time you can drive the boats and planes yourself, so technically it's more of a Battlezone-type hybrid.

[Stark]

Battlestations Midway is a RTS, although at the same time you can drive the boats and planes yourself, so technically it's more of a Battlezone-type hybrid.

Isn't it a first person sailer? I mean, I thought each unit needed a player?

[Ypoknons]

In single player the units can be given commands and they're under AI control. You could even have the AI pilot the boat that's your current vantage point as long as you don't use the WASD keys.

[CaptHawkeye]

You can control and give orders to multiplayer units as well. Though the amount of units you can control on your own is dependant upon how many people are in the server. I could be given control of the whole Combined Fleet on one map, and on the next, I could just have a raft and maybe a beach ball.