homepage

Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5

Posted By: Cat

Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 12/26/10 02:37 AM

I have both of these games because I've had a lifelong interest in warships of this period.

Jutland is much better balanced than DG. One thing I don't like about DG is that in my opinion, the Russian Port Arthur Squadron's battlehsips, particularly Tsesarevitch and Retvizan, are undervalued compared to the Japanese predreadnoughts. At the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Tsesarevitch went toe-to-toe with Togo's Mikasa for hours, and was getting the better of the exchange until Admiral Vitgeft and his staff were killed by a lucky shot. You can't do that in the game, because one on one, the Japanese ship will pound the Russian into powder, in minutes, every time. Russian gunnery was much better, according to Togo himself, than you see in game. I wish there was a difficulty slider you could apply just to one side in DG, so one could tune the battle to suit herself.

Jutland, on the other hand, is simply fun. It's very well balanced. I did a duel just to test the game mechanics, between the American dreadnoughts New York and Florida and the German Kaiser and Kaiserin, with advanced criticals and poor ammo handling "on." They only affect the Entente powers and not the Hochseeflotte ships. After two hours of slugging it out, New York's captain and executive officer were both dead, two 14" turrets were out of commission, and the ship had taken moderate damage including serious flooding and a list that had her speed slowed five knots off her top, but was still in it to win it. Florida lost her main director and was on local control, and had out of control fires that the damage comtrol parties were furiously battling. Kaiser's captain was dead, and the ship was fourteen minutes from sinking. Kaiserin had two turrets out but was still hanging in the fight. You could see dozens of shell hits on the ships, it looked like British post-Jutland battle pictures.

Tonight, I took the place of Admiral Franz Hipper, and led the battlecruisers of Scouting Group I into a clash with the Royal Navy's 3d BS, composed of HMS Dreadnought and five King Edward VII predreadnoughts. It was a 90-minute free-for-all, climaxing in a daring torpedo attack by the V-class destroyers and a toe-to-toe slugfest that left three of the German ships with light damage, HMS Britannia sunk by an explosion, and three of the other British battleships, including Dreadnought battered like the Germans but unbowed. The German objective was to withdraw in good order to the Jade, accomplished with only the loss of three destroyers. Great fun. Well balanced fight, and one that called for concentration and thought, I was tired after it was over. I crossed the British "T" early on when i turned for the Jade, and it was SMS Derfflinger, pride of His Majesty's fleet, who racked up the kill on Britannia. One minute, she was steaming away from the fight at 9 knots, showing light damage; the next, she was gone and I missed it-nothing left but burning wreckage. Crazy!

Jutland is definitely the better title for the investment.

Miao, Cat
Posted By: Cat

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 12/26/10 12:48 PM

One thing I tried after the 3d BS-SG I tangle was to set the simulation sliders in DG *exactly* like those in Jutland, i.e. reducing gunnery accuracy to 20 and setting torpedo accuracy and effectiveness to 150. Then, Retvizan and Mikasa in a test duel. Much better result; a 30 minute slugging match broken up by an island getting in the way. As expected, Retvizan got the worse of it, but not by much. This might be a good adjustment to the game.

Miao, Cat
Posted By: Squid_DK

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 12/30/10 12:41 PM

Nice comparison Cat, I have Jutland, and I really like it, mostly just having fun watching gun duels develop.

Would really like a game in the same level with some early WWII battles (Denmark Strait, River Plate, maybo Savo sound aswell plus some hypothetical battles)

Staffan
Posted By: Cat

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 01/06/11 11:00 PM

I tried the 3BS/SG I fight from the British side, and lost Dreadnought in seconds flat, and two of the King Edward VII predreadnoughts about 20 minutes later. They hung in better than I thought, but it amazes me that at under 8000 yards their gunnery was so bad and the German so good! "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today...and something wrong with our system."

The battlecruisers were hardly scratched. Interesting; when I played as the Germans Seydlitz had her steering jammed and the others all were beat to yellow, and other than the one predreadnought the RN was in pretty much the same shape!

Miao, Cat
Posted By: Sauron

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 02/10/11 09:40 PM

Thanks for the comparison. I was weighing between DG and Jutland and you just tipped the scales. I think I'm going to order Jutland Pro w/Ship Pack 1 which is out now and gives you U.S. North Sea.

Cheers!

Rick... thumbsup
Posted By: Mad Max

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 02/25/11 04:33 AM

I have these sims as I am a Dreadnought fan from way back but just cannot get the hang of controlling the ships.

Things just seem to move too quickly. Very frustrating.

Is there an easy intuitive way of controlling speed and heading?
Posted By: kilosierra

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 02/26/11 12:10 PM

Try playing some of the smaller scenarios first.

Then there is a function were you can set waypoints (don`t recall it now which key, it`s in the manual)

But a full blown "Jutland" is a handfull to keep track with, that`s right.
Posted By: Mad Max

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 02/27/11 03:11 AM

Ok will persevere.
Posted By: Duchess

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 10/28/11 06:09 AM

I want to like Jutland, I really do, but I just keep getting disappointed.

The movement is so obtuse, I just can't get used to it. Left click, right click, select your ships again, it just seems all over the place.

Also, playing as the British, I have not ever won a scenario. ever. I am continually getting pounded to dust by the KM. I know a lot of research went into this game, but seriously, poor British gunnery was largely due to Beatty's Battlecruisers being shoddy marksmen. The RN was not far behind the Germans. Watching the shell cam in this game, first waaay short, then waay long, then way left, then BOOM a hit, and then it just resets itself and starts shooting way out there again. There is never a sense of 'got the range' in this game.

My understanding is ranging shots, followed by salvos, until a target is straddled and then it's off to the races. I understand that ranges/positions change, but in this game I can have two battleships running at 6 knots, at medium range, and it's like watching someone throw horseshoes blindfolded.

Funny enough the Germans have no problem hitting me consistently. Sorry for the rant, but as much as it is frustrating, I just love those big steel monsters.
Posted By: Hartford688

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 10/29/11 09:03 AM

+1 to what joe_stallin said. Including the part about wanting to like it so much. Nothing like a big beautiful dreadnought.
Posted By: Lipfert

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 11/04/11 02:23 AM

Originally Posted By: Cat
One thing I tried after the 3d BS-SG I tangle was to set the simulation sliders in DG *exactly* like those in Jutland, i.e. reducing gunnery accuracy to 20 and setting torpedo accuracy and effectiveness to 150. Then, Retvizan and Mikasa in a test duel. Much better result; a 30 minute slugging match broken up by an island getting in the way. As expected, Retvizan got the worse of it, but not by much. This might be a good adjustment to the game.

Miao, Cat


Cat,

Any changes to the other settings? Fragile Shells or Ammo Handling On/Off?
Posted By: FlyingToaster

Re: Jutland v. Distant Guns 1.5 - 11/08/11 03:29 PM

I'm having big issues with Jutland at the moment. This is primarily some silly bugs and "features" hanging around (e.g. teleporting ships, battles ending prematurely), and the developers seemingly abandoning the project in favour of their steam clone.
When the game works, it is a lot of fun, but those problems, combined with cowardly//brainless AI, mean that it doesn't often work.
© 2024 SimHQ Forums