The modern light cruiser hull and superstructure, to me, is this game's true apex of 'utility over aesthetics'. As someone who loves making ships look good if they can help it, I can safely say that I do not like the fact that this hull is often the only good option. It works, yes, and it works _well_ too, but it's as bland as dry toast visually. Anyways, very helpful tutorial! Making these was a great idea in my opinion

I really wish they'd balance the torp mechanics. The AI torp spam is way too accurate and player torps almost never hit because AI ships magically know exactly when they launch or player ships launch them in the opposite direction of every enemy.

The modern light cruiser hull is a thing of beauty, like an early battlecruiser hull but smaller.

Spot on, because of the cost (and useless hulls) I usually just build a destroyer leader or a lighter heavy cruiser. They both do the light cruiser job at a better value

Because they lack torpedo belts, light cruisers do benefit from taking a triple-bottom hull. I've built small, cheap, nasty light cruisers as "escort cruisers" before to free up more useful assets, I'll have to see if they're still viable in the current patch.

You can make absolutely terrifying light cruisers for the 1890-1910 timeframe, with single 7.9in guns and up to 8 4in guns and 5-6in armor everywhere on the ship including the superstructure. At practical battle ranges in 1890, the 7.9in can penetrate BB armor, while massed 4in fire incinerates everything else. They’re able to hold a place in the battle line and I’ve had divisions of them take on divisions of enemy predreadnoughts and destroy the enemy division without loss on a third to a half of the tonnage.

I'm in awe at the lack of hull variety for this class of ship, especially for nations such as Britain and the US which got much use out of vessels of this type. The Italian and Japanese options in the game presently are excellent, it would be wonderful to see a similar treatment for many of the other nations, in due time. I've been wishing for a Town class hull for years now, maybe someday... 😞

In one of my past British campaigns, I built the planned Neptune class (Design Y) with improved armour and it was surprisingly efficient against other light and heavy cruisers

I love destroyer killer light cruisers. Kind of halfway between light and heavy cruisers with as many 6 inch gun turrets as possible. Usually do at least a quad torpedo turret too. If you have the mark 5/6 5inch guns those slay too and you can fit more. More guns=more fun

well, since 1.09, the role a CL has is a high recon stat. All other tech being equal, the CL is king. So I'm making sure to have a CL in each fleet, in case it helps battle generation. Not sure recon is working properly yet though. I dunno. I'm unsure about a lot of it.

I have tested high unrestricted torpedo dorifto tactics with both japanese and german cl's, use them as big destroyers that can also kill cruisers from mid distance, pack them with torpedoes, underwater or deck ones, then get them to sneak at a flank or behind the enemy, go as close as they will go to the bigger strategic target, torpedoes off, preferibly from a distance, then smoke up and retreat, or if you have good distance circle around the back to the other flank in a cloud of smoke, then again torpedoes away, retreat, rinse and repeat. they can also serve as "heavy escort", usually this is the job of the heavy cruiser, but what if you don't have any?, heavily armored cl's aren't super good, but they get the job done, I don't like to use them like this though as it usually means they will either die without doing anything, or in their defense, half cripple a cruiser or a bc, then procede to die. Use the "heavy light cruiser" to protect the ca's in case they are damadge or crippled and got to retreat behind the bigger units like bc's or even bb's, from there they will still attack while being protected by the bb/bc fire line, then when they are relatively safe, retreat behind a flank and attack if undamadge, attack inmediatly with a torpedo wall, then retreat if damadge. or if anihilated, just accept that your cl's have done the lord's job and abandone them to die while they serve as a distraction for the enemy, while your bigger units still are intact and annihilate the enemy from a far. I usually armor my cl's with as much armor as possible while maintaining range and speed, so 5 maby even 6-7 inch belt and 3 to 5 fore and aft belts. This is for me a "heavy light cruiser" your opinion may differ, but they can resist some medium punches and even a torpedo atack (pls note, you got a rudder, USE. IT. to steer away of as many torpedoes as possible). I use a balance of armor, guns, and torpedoes, favouring the torpedoes because they are the main defense-ofense they got, guns can go far, but they are 7 inch tripple barrel guns at best, not great, use them as destroyer guns. pokey pokey flamethrowers with more range. usually works fairly great as a convoy hunter tactic, as the cl's can be nearly undetectable to the enemy if far enough. Sometimes they CLEARLY HAVE A GOOD SHOOT AT THE TARGET but choose to not fire the torpedoes, disengage torpedoes and retreat a while, then go at it again. sometimes the torpedoes are a litle retarded on when to fire, but they get it most of the time. Attack the leader of the line of fire, be it bb or bc even ca's with a wall of torpedoes, if in formation the ones folowing the leader (that you have attacked with torpedoes) will panik, becoming sitting ducks to the heavier lines of fire that can then aim at them with jesus like precission. build cl's as chaply as possible, build them in great numbers as they can serve great pourposes if used in a tactical context that favours them, like raiding convoys or scorting other units. I hope this helps somebody.

Splendid guide 👍 In CLs case game lacks unlock in campaign where all older tech stays available. 🥺

when it comes to having a tree turrets in the back you can have a front weight upsett untill you put on a funnel. i usually will putt down the towers and a funnel to get the engine weight placed where it got to go before desiding as engines are massive weights to move about

Very good build here Brother, but do not underestimate the value of using incendiary fusing for your HE shells. Using capped ballistics fusing for HE penetration can be nice, we all know there are a lot of factors that regulate how we get a pen. On the other hand, HE-I shells can be utilized regardless of firing angles. Spamming HE-I will ensure a massive conflagration all up and down a target from bow to stern, which will cause sinking via extensive fire very quickly. My typical build: DD, CL: Max HE main shell ratio, Max HE secondary shells, Incendiary fusing, Semi AP shells, Standard (or Light, to save on displacement) shell size, Increased shells ammo, best available Tube Power propellant, best available TNT bursting charge. CA, BC, BB: Standard main shells ratio, Max HE secondary, Incendiary fusing, Capped Ballistic I / II AP shells, Heavy (CA, BC) or Super-heavy (BB) shell size, Increased shells ammo, best available Tube Power propellant, best available TNT bursting charge.

I often make a garrison cruiser using a minimum displacement light cruiser hull to command and provide backup to colony garrisons and to do mine laying operations. It has the cheapest towers, minimum reasonable armament, and moderate durability. These lead TB/DD flottillas and see a lot of action.

When in doubt get max bulk heads . And flood controll. Well worth the cost.

16:00 You only have 2.6" of armour on your Conning Tower...

Another belter! Thanks BrotherMunro

I started 1890 USA campaign, got my torpedoes to 7km range, focused hull construction reduction time, then maxed out displacement. All my ships are long range boats with underwater torpedoes and solid destroyer defense except Torpedo boats, Torpedo Destroyers, and Destroyers which I use only after their AI Heavies engage & leave their CL, destroyer, torpedo boat coverage. Once they are dead, i close distance for the 6” guns and other lower caliber guns to rip apart the enemy. Basically, I KITE the AI. I had 6 destroyers engage 1 long expensive, high tonnage, long range weapons Battleship (British) and went in main guns off and torpedoed the hell out of the Battleship. Lost 1 destroyer. 😂 I control a huge number of provinces & currently fighting 4 nations that are begging me to peace treaty. 😂😂😂 It was five at one point, but Germany surrendered & gave me 3 top tier battleships. Woohoo!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Watching all of these videos so far, is there a reason you haven't messed with the fractional sizing on the guns at all? Such as making the 15's into 15.9's on the BB to get nearly the power of 16's, but with the higher mark 15's? Is the cost (either in $, mass, or RoF/damage tradeoff) not worth it? And even with secondary's, you talk how good the 2" guns do, would they do even better at 1.1", or going the opposite way? Would also be curious where cost is concerned, if there are any places you'd possibly consider it worth down-teching to save $ and trade off by getting more ships instead. (mainly looking at older armor or especially engine tech tech, but any other areas as well) I'm just curious if one could significantly increase fleet size (and thus firepower) without significantly impacting effectiveness by slowing down a bit and lowering engine tech, or something along those lines?

I see light cruisers as supper destroyers with a few bigger guns for use on heavy cruisers

This is getting a little tricky because between updates and the rebalancing mod my 7" guns are 38s by default. Going to have to bring mine in closer, we'll see.

Is there a reason light cruisers always seem to have such terrible engine efficiency? I noticed you struggled to fit enough funnels to get above 100% efficiency, and I've always found the same problem designing light cruisers

Hi, I'm late into the campaign and my light cruisers (all broadly following your building tips) are starting to have problems defeating enemy CAs. I'm finding the 7" 55 cal shells are just bouncing of enemy heavy cruisers, whereas earlier on in the campaign they could comfortably defeat them with superior accuracy and rate of fire. Is there anything I can do in my shell and charge setup to over come this? Thanks

Given what we have seen with your Chinese campaign and the really interesting light cruiser hulls, has anything in this guide changed?

Appreciate the video but as a true noob I find so many videos say they are “guides” but are really recordings of the creator building a ship rapidly pushing buttons without explaining what, why, what the considerations are. I often pause to see what was selected, don’t know why it was Vs any other choice. Don’t mean to be fussy but it seems to be difficult for experienced players to remember new viewers won’t know what you’re doing and end up trying to copy without learning what the concepts are which is what I’d hope for in a “guide” - matching ship’s purpose to design choices and teaching lessons applicable across nations and eras would be so helpful but everyone seems to just record themselves playing and if from scratch label it a “guide.” Perhaps for experienced players this is useful as a “next level” design ideas video. Still appreciate it but wanted to share some feedback.

The american large scout cruiser hull is the worst light cruiser hull

Light cruisers, if not Japanese or before the 1920s, are usually the most boring things to design and look at in my humble opinion.

when division 1? im really excited for it

I hate that the light cruiser towers have such absurd borders, so that you cant fit torpedoes. We really need new light cruiser towers with slots for torpedoes.