The German Fleet
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German ships are designed to outlast their foes. Speed and maneuverability are weighted much lower than armor and structural integrity. "German leviathans are heavily armored bricks, built for battle endurance over speed and range" (Leviathan's Core Rulebook, p 111). The ships boast generally higher armor, but slower speed than their contemporaries, intended to be flown together in formation to punish enemies with coordinated fire that get too close.
With this design in mind, the Germans have two faction specific slots for their ships. The Bracketing Crew allows a ship to coordinate fire either between its own guns of different calibers, or firing its guns in support of another ship's attack. The Screening Crew allows a ship to use offensive or defensive screening for 1 movement point (MP) instead of the usual 3 MP, a vital upgrade for slow German ships.
German Ships
Battleships
Kaiser Class
Prussia Class
Battlecruisers
Saxony Class
Cruisers
Grief Class
Koenigsberg Class
Destroyers
Falke Class
Bremen Class
German Admiral Cards
German specific Admiral cards - with one notable exception - are likewise primarily focused around protecting from damage, repairing damage, or ignoring the effects of damage.
10 points - Focused Gunners: Choose a ship at the start of each round, that ship does not receive negative firing effects from damaged Tesla Coil Slots. A cheap and effective way to keep effectively firing even when your big ships start to get damaged. While it is only a single ship, that can be 2-3 points of attack rolls per gun.
20 points - Hard Burn: A single ship gains +2 MP for the duration of the game. This allows you to attempt to mitigate one of Germany's greatest weaknesses, slow speed. It only applies to a single ship, but with Battleships or Battlecruisers only having an MP of 3 or 4, this can be the difference in keeping your opponent at arms length and in your gun sights, and getting outflanked. With that in mind, take a look at the generic Admiral Card, "Commander".
30 points - Armored Hulls: You may repair Armor Slots. A purely defensive upgrade, the German ships have many +2 Armor slots on their ships, which normally once stripped are gone for good. Taking this as your Admiral Card gives you the option of not only being able to repair normally unrepairable slots, but doing so also gives you back that bonus to your defense.
40 points - Chaff Experts: All Chaff rolls are given a +1 to hit. This might seen a bit expensive for a 40 point ability. Chaff slots let you roll a 1DRed against torpedoes that would hit your ship on that facing, with an 8+ resulting in the torpedo being destroyed. This would bring the target number down to 7+. But if you're playing with the official dice and not using a D10 substitute, this is actually a little bit better than you think. The DRed has two "7" sides on it, actually giving you a 1/6 better chance (5/12) instead of just a 1/10 better chance (4/10) of avoiding torpedoes.
50 points - Balanced Vessels: The first Tesla Coil Slot destroyed for each ship does not give a -1 to fire. The highest value German upgrade could potentially be good, but if your opponent is just focusing fire is more likely to be a more expensive version of the 10 point upgrade that is strictly worse. While it helps your whole fleet avoid the negative effects of Tesla Coil Slots, it only does so by a single point, and only if a Tesla Coil is destroyed. This seems far overpriced, and there are better uses of your points than taking this Admiral Card.
Other Admiral Cards in a German Fleet
10 points - Improved Keel: Once Per Game: Before an enemy Breaking the Keel Roll is made, announce that you will apply -1 to the die roll result. Nearly worthless. A -1 roll on a 2DRed is basically a one time +5% chance to not die. Even at 10 points you can find something better that you can use to avoid getting to the point where it might be useful.
10 points - Airman: Choose one Ship Type at the start of each turn. All ships of that type may ignore one destroyed Armor Slot. Not a horrible use of 10 points, especially with the number and value of armor slots on German ships. Worth a look at least.
20 points - Breaking the Keel: Once per turn: Add 1DGreen to one non-Saturation Fire gun shot. It's an average of +2.5 to a single shot, and works before you've taken any damage, which makes it better already than the German 10 point upgrade. It's only to a single shot a turn though.
20 points - Lieutenant: Choose one Ship Type at the start of each turn. All ships of that type may ignore destroyed Steering Gear Slots. German ships don't have a lot of steering gear slots, with none on the Battleships.
30 points - Type Reduction: Once per game: A ship may reduce its Type to 0 for movement order. This one can potentially be a devastating trick. You get one ship, once a game, that can move after every other ship on that turn. As you move, and then simultaneously shoot, this isn't as devastating in this game as say Star Wars: Armada, but being able to steal the initiative in a Battleship duel, and move yours after even all of the opponent's destroyers, can make for a huge difference. Probably the most efficient Admiral's Card in terms of value for points.
30 points - Commander: Choose one Ship Type at the start of each turn. All ships of that Type have +2 MP. Strictly better than "Hard Burn", but also 10 more points. You get to choose which ships get to go faster each turn, and it effects potentially more than 1 ship. If you were looking at "Hard Burn" look here instead if you've got 10 extra points to spare.
40 points - Tesla Support: Twice per turn: You may ignore a ship's damaged Tesla Coil effect when firing. Twice per turn isn't enough to fire an entire ship's weapons. The 10 point Focused Gunners does this job better.
40 points - Rear Admiral: Choose one Ship Type at the start of each turn. All ships of that Type have +1 max range. If you can use this to out-range your opponent, great. Worth looking into depending on the match up.
50 points - Repair Bonus: May repair twice at 12+ when a Crew Slot is on the same side as the damaged Slot. This one may be the most German of the generics. Better repairs, and a 12+ is better than 50/50 odds with a Green crew. 2 repairs in a turn can turn you from nearly destroyed to functionally back in the fight. Expensive but potentially worth it.
50 points - Sky Admiral: Choose one Ship Type at the start of each turn. All ships of that Type may ignore one destroyed gun battery Slot. Taking shots even when you shouldn't be able to can win games. It's expensive because it needs to be. Maybe too expensive though, as there are other upgrades that work right away and don't require you to already be in a bad position.
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