Quote Originally Posted by PBI View Post
There seem to be a lot of people using 2nd rates. Am I missing something here? I thought 3rd rates were meant to represent the best balance of cost and firepower, and the 1st rates the way to go if money is no object, so why build 2nd rates? They would seem to represent a pretty unhappy medium between firepower and cost effectiveness.

Same goes for the AI; the unit description even says that only the British really bothered with 2nd rates, so surely the AI should rarely build them?
The AI does build them because when upgrading docks the hospital becomes available before the steam dock. The build them and are stuck und 2nd rates forever. I haven't yet seen neither an AI 1st rate nor an AI build steam dock.