Build the fleet
A design on paper is one thing. A fleet is an industrial act, and designs live lives of their own: a gun moves from concept to drawing board to tooled production line to service in the fleet, and each step deepens the commitment. Tooling makes a design cheaper to build and more expensive to abandon; a weapon in service brings spares, training, and refits along with it. When something better comes along, you choose - modify the old design and keep its tooling, copy it as the starting point for something cleaner, or start fresh and pay for it. Your navy inherits designs, tooling, and compromises.
And every fleet is built for its seas. The game opens in 1900 with seventeen playable nations - eight major naval powers and nine minors, each with its own fleet, budget, geography, and problems. The Kiel Canal carries the real canal's transit limits, and a battleship designed a metre too broad for it is a strategic problem - exactly as it was for the Kaiser's navy. For a tour of the setting, start with Setting the Scene and the nation overviews on the blog.
This deep dive is still being written, and will grow over time. Follow along with the latest updates.