Construction costs strain the budget, so the campaign mothballs ships and cuts crew training and transport spending while preserving technology funding. The financial relief is immediate, but renewed war preparations require those same ships to return to active status. The game interface makes reactivation awkward. Its simplified mechanics still expose a real tradeoff: reserve fleets save money by accepting time, personnel, and administrative costs before they can fight again.
Notable Point · 2:18:33-2:22:14
Mothball savings create remobilization friction
Budget relief from mothballing ships is weighed against the difficulty of restoring them quickly when the fleet must mobilize.