The design exercise balances speed, draft, protection, main armament, secondary guns, torpedoes, and weight distribution. The best ship is defined as the best fit for the United States around 1910, rather than simply the largest hull the game permits. The attempt to reach 24 knots while mounting triple 14-inch guns forces armour and weight-distribution choices across the belt, decks, and conning tower. A warship's value here depends on a coherent set of trade-offs rather than a single impressive statistic.
Chapter · 4:55-15:01
What makes a best-in-class 1910 battleship?
The simulation begins by asking what the United States and Japan could plausibly get from a capital ship around 1910, rather than simply building the largest hull.