Highfleet 1.14 Hardmode Campaign - Episode 1: The Beginning! 

Survivors alone never cost you morale. It's Kindness only. Morale is only when losing crew, for example to hazards. I can see the combat time on the Audacious becoming a massive problem. Even on these small garrisons you're approaching 30%. e: For ELINT I draw a cone (two lines) at 15 degrees off the reading. So ELINT at 0 degrees I draw one at 15 degrees and one at 345. Then when it changes I draw a second cone. If the bearing change is because my ship is moving, then they're located in the overlap. If my ship was stationary then I know they're in the first bit of the second cone.

A start of long awaited new series! One reminder though. ELINT does not simply detect any radar signal within, say 1500km or 1050km. They detect signals 2.0x or 1.4x further than the signal source radar's search range. So if the signal source radar is 250km range FCR and you have an ELINT sensor boasting 1500km range(2x), you can detect it if it is within 500km. And ‘danger close’ means you just stepped into the search range(250km) of that radar. The advertised 1500km detection range only applies when the signal source is 750km early warning radar. And another tip is that if you have 1t bomb attached to your ship, enemy ships will take longer time to take off in case you sudden strike them. This trick makes a really good combo with A-220, as one salvo of all 6 rockets on enemy Gladiator turns it into a pile of fine dust.

I've tried playing around on hard mode myself just to test it out. The AI definitely appears to have a reload time on-par with the player and there is much less delay between them flashing the targeting lasers and opening fire. On medium I could solo a lightning against just about any fleet composition, but on hard it's really challenging to rely on evasion alone. I think you're finding the same issue I did, which is that the 57/37mm cannons on those garrison ships are almost impossible to completely avoid damage from. I've actually started bringing bombs on my corvettes, because despite the cost and rearm time, they do kill 1 or 2 grounded ships outright and you end up repairing less in the long run. The thing is, you need to drop every bomb you're carrying immediately at the start of the fight or you'll end up like that poor Courageous at 24:10. Similarly I've found the side-mounted Zeniths are use-it-or-lose it. While on medium difficult I'd save them to allow a corvette to punch up against a frigate, on hard I've found it's better to simply end fights as soon as possible and if that means spending 2 missiles to bring down a Navarin so be it. Better to have an undamaged lightning that'll cost 2k gold and 3 hours to rearm than a busted up lightning with 20 hours of repairs but an unfired zenith. Great stream, I've been looking forward to seeing you tackle this since your last campaign ended.

Hey @phrosphor your first run was the best one on YT in my opinion!! It helped me understand some mechanics about this game that were not very clear. Keep up the good work! 😊

you keeping the rooster name reminded me of a scene from avatar the last airbender, the one where roku says " I have mastered the elements a thousand times in a thousand lifetimes. Now I must do it once again". Except for you, its taking khiva

THE ROOSTER IS BACK BABY! Hell yeah! I was expecting this difficultly to bust your butt, given how much you were worried about it pre-game, but it looks like you’re doing great in your opening!

hell yea

Hey my name was chosen! Awesome!

I'm so excited!

Really looking forward to seeing this one, how you handle hard mode and how the new ship designs turn out! Personally, I find the increased repair times (combined with the fact that harder garrisons usually result in more damage taken) to be the biggest challenge in hard mode.

seeing people that are actually good at the game is insanely different than the newbie shit i was doing lol

I know its too early for now, but one interesting thing I noticed about planes: It seems sending big groups actually better, especially to deal with small, maneuverable ships. It seems that first group, as we know, triggers ships to dodge, BUT second attack groupm which arrives few seconds after (btw all planes enters the same battle, just few seconds apart, not then first group finish off their attacking run/run out of ammo)m will catch evading ship with dead engines and deliver if not full, but most of their payload. I know main reason to not send big groups is to reduce chance of losing them altogether, but I think on contrary sending big groups is safer because a) more targets means enemies cant focus the same plane, b) higher chances of killing something, so it cant retaliate (optional c) it faster than just sit and watch how 1-2-3 jets doing their attacking run 3 or 4 times in a row, and watching how same small ship keep dodging bombs and missiles)

Refusing the disaster event seems a mistake to me. This early in the game it’s unlikely there is anything nearby that can capitalize on your ship staying there and and that -3 kindness is going to be tough to overcome.

I really enjoy this sort of letsplay, where there's all this wonderful system mastery on display. Looking forwards to your next video!

I came back to watch this again and man. The ai has flawless shooting I wish he implemented a rank system for the ai. So the earlier garrisons and weaker ships had less accuracy... or if he gave us a slightly longer aiming reticle.

While I understand your philosophy on missiles at ~8:30, I think it might not be the best one. Saving missiles for when you really need them is intuitive. But I think people often forget the cost of _not_ using a missile. Sure, you could use it for a harder fight but does that restraint hurt you now? For example, you could have finished the Sarma much quicker had you launched a missile at it and likely avoided taking as much damage as you did. Either way you're down a missile, whether from use or from hits taken in a tense situation, but by using it you quicken the fight and avoid damage. I think that's important to consider. And this is especially relevant because choosing to not use a missile doesn't guarantee that you'll still have it. As we've seen many times, they can be shot off. I really think that the best mindset for missiles is "use it or lose it" rather than the RPG mindset of "but what if I need it later?"

Been looking ford to this for a while now. And I don't blame you for not calling a ship "The sausage hunter"

Finally! I'm really excited to see how this goes

It's quite interesting to see how others play and compare their styles to my own. One example, I never really tried to do a multiple Strike Groups approach. I am more of a single squadron guy and rely heavily on reconnoitre and long distance engagements through jets and missiles.

For some unknown reason, youtube AI overlords decided to suggest me the video 16. of this playlist over and over again. Thanks youtube AI overlords, you truely know what I need to see.

You may as well use those missiles regardless of the quality of the garrison, either that or just remove them ASAP. Otherwise, you will eventually lose them to gunfire while waiting for a satisfactory target.

In strategy map, ships that have no fuel simple land on the ground for free. So don´t worry that ships will run out of fuel while flying on the strategy map, they wont die.

In the landings, you appear to be doing damage to the central structure of the ships when you touch down. I don't know why that is, but it's probably worth checking externally in shipworks to see if there's a structural stress issue that needs to be fixed somehow.

The communique reads north*WEST* of Ur, which is likely the one you've met at Nagar.

As they say in the parlance: Let's go

Fantastic start!

Not a lot of people know this but you can actually sell excess fuel that you recover, by clicking on the right side of the fuel bar in the shop, as if you were adjusting how much fuel you are buying.

1:11 It is "Audacious", but a bit different "Derzkiy" is usually used for someone who is being audacious to get in trouble, someone who starts conflicts

Omg the free fuel is the best event. You should have enough to clap the first two SGs before having to stop in a repair town. I beat the game with 100 kh15s and using the Tarkhans as extra ships

I've noticed the AI actually uses Q and E quite a bit with the Slugger.

Hype!

I'm expecting a lot of suffering ahead

Also, if you've got excess fuel at a city before you leave it, sell it off. You're just leaving money on the table.

thanks

In its current state, with your experience is it possible to deal with strike groups using a Beyond Visual Range style of gameplay? So essentially dealing with strike groups via missiles and aircraft only? I don’t particularly enjoy playing with large ships, and the aspect of anticipating where the enemy is then launching missile/aircraft attacks is the most fun for me. Is this a viable strategy or am I wasting my time lol? I do have some groups of light fast moving ships to snatch cities, but overall I enjoy trying to deal with SGs with some BVR gameplay

Ty

Very odd, I've found myself unsubscribed to you today but I'm 99.99% sure I was subscribed! Thought id mention it in case it's some strange RU-vid thing.

I have no clue how to play this game but it looks fun :D

Don't forget to post this on the SA Thread.

You've really got to stop mounting missles on the outside of the designs. They're just abalative armor at this point. You're probably better off removing them and stuffing them in inventory to sell.

I lose those outside missiles on the fast ships so easily I just gave up and sell them. Was looking forward to how you handle those in a more efficient fashion.

I feel like you're the only person on RU-vid who knows how to play this game.

1:29 The Taranis... A Fuga: Melodies of Steel reference?

When in battle, I try never to fire in the direction of the city and civilian population

Kane lives! For NOD!

No Wiffle Bat II... I'm betrayed!!

im not sure if its youtube upload but please turn off dithering if it is on. RU-vid doesn't like that it looks very pixely. And lowers visual quality. Also try to update your aim setting to max, it really helps.

Is it just a coincidence that Frankston, Brunswick and Collingwood are all suburbs of Melbourne? I know Brunswick is also a city in Germany.

hmm regarding the kindness loss event, cant u like agree to stay 2day with the attack fleet and then make the speedy howler come from mothership and join the attack fleet and then detach the attack fleet from the howler? that way ur attack fleet wont get bogged down at all.

How did you create your own Flagship?

I think that message said the Tarkhan was far NorthWEST, not northeast of Nod?

How can you add that effect when your pilot breathes heavily?

I have another question. Do you guys use nukes or regular missiles to strike enemy groups? I know that nukes grants more damages (in theory at least) but after the first nuclear strike then I have to be aware of possible nuclear retaliations and saving my flagship from that end is exactly one of the main points to survive. Frankly speaking I had a game where I wasn't able to find hidden cities and I was forced to move Sevastopol all around the map without the chance to concretize my grand strategy, wasting ships, money etc. That was kinda frustrating. Moreover, if the enemy pursue me and I have no safe hidden cities where to hide, I can hold just against four strike groups before capitulate. After that nukes becomes extremely necessary to survive but also after that, enemy strikes back with nukes too and I end up losing Sevastopol... That is basically the end game. So... It's good to use nukes? And if yes, when I have to use it? May I save them for the times I reach Khiva and enemy forces hides inside the city? Just to obliterate whatever remains outside I mean.

Hello, how do you set another ship as a flagship? Couldn't find anything about it from cursory research

Wait a second. How do you set a flagship?

Yes, DERZKY would be very close to audacious in Russian.

How do you unselect the Sevastopol from you selected ships

You can sell excess fuel. Also you read NW as NE.

When I finished a normal campain, I started a hard one. In the first 3 garrisons were at least two paladin/archangel/cormoran. But u always fight vs small ships. Something wrong with my or your game.

1 tonne bombz, 1000kg not 1000 tonne. Also was NW, not NE.

Look! A 2D Galaga clone has fooled you into thinking this is a game lol...