So what kind of unit would it be? Strengths and weaknesses? Price? Stats? To be used in what role?

Maybe only 10 manpower needed?

Here's what it could look like
(description)

Patrol boats are used to protect Convoys from enemy attacks, however they are not well suited to take on battleships.

The build time should be like 5 hours.
Not too much, but not too little.

i have suggested this previously. i would love to see them. my thoughts:

also like the idea of PT boats. To differentiate them from destroyers, I see them like this:


PTs would do less damage than subs. or destroyers


PTs would have limited AA defense


PTs would have very little hit points


PTs would not stand long against other naval units or naval bombers


So, why build them?


PTs would be fast. Really fast.


PTs would patrol like planes, and be able to break away from an engagement


I think that implemented thusly PTs would make sense in gameplay and in
historical fact. The only flaw I see is that they would have unlimited
ammo and fuel, but every unit in the game has the same flaw.

What would leveling up do?
Give more hp?
Damage?
etc?

Patrol boats should have like the patrol feature like naval bombers to scout out submarines but not be able to attack them.

why use patrol boats when you have destroyers?



This would be useless if it got added

being able to patrol like planes and break away from engagement, and more speed would be the reason draza.

yeah, we really see that people use armored cars for scouting.



and they would probably be stuck in combat like every other unit....

Patrol boats would be able to escape attacks like planes.

u read the whole thing. thanks man!

If my two or three armored car brigades survive the first 10 days of a game, I usually park them at promontories on critical waterways or coastlines because of their wider reconnaissance radius. Given my other research priorities, ACs are a low priority for me, and light tanks serve as about a 90% replacement in terms of speed and reconnaissance and LTs are a hell of a lot more useful in combat than ACs.

PT boats in my opinion should take as much time as a militia in a province that has an industrial complex.
Not to much, not to little.

i think that they should be tied to a friendly naval base in order to patrol. like planes are tied to an air base. i dont think they were able to sail all the way across say the atlantic without refueling. @MontanaBB comment appreciated here, or anyone knowledgeable in naval vessels

Having aircraft carriers, you have a mobile base.
But with PT boats, what would we do about that?

I appreciate the invitation, Dixie, and, yes, I think I could design an in-game PT boat (or MTB, in Royal Navy parlance) squadron that resembled the real thing. I think, in many ways, it would resemble a very fast ocean-going armored car unit that also shared several characteristics with our aircraft units.

First and foremost, PTs are coastal/littoral craft, not blue-water warships. An 85-foot wooden-hulled patrol boat has no business being more than 100 or 150 miles from shore; heavy seas would negate its speed advantage, and in daylight and open water, destroyers and naval patrol bombers would hunt them and kill them. Assuming an in-game squadron composed of 4 individual boats, four 5-inch hits from a destroyer equals the end of the unit (so, maybe 10 or 12 hit points). Their offensive value against other warship units would be very low (almost negligible vs. submarines), and they would be vulnerable to air attack.

As I see it, their greatest value would be as a coastal reconnaissance patrol unit. In this regard, they should have good speed (80 to 85 kmh), limited range (say, 200 km), and a quick build time. They would have a "patrol" function like our in-game aircraft units, and because of their limited range they would also be tied to naval bases in the same way that aircraft are tied to air bases. If they wanted to move from one naval base to another that was beyond their range, they would convert into an ocean-going convoy to get to their out-of-range naval base, just like ocean-going convoys of ground troops or aircraft units (think Higgins and Elco PT boats being transported from their yards in Louisiana and New Jersey to the South Pacific aboard Liberty Ships, etc.). Their greatest attack value would be against unescorted convoys of ground units.

I would make limited use of them, assuming (a) they had a very short research cycle like armored cars (30 minutes), (b) were extremely cheap (1/3 of the costs of a destroyer or submarine squadron) and quick to produce (say, 6 to 8 hours), and (c) with a low daily food and oil upkeep comparable to our in-game subs. If they have a long research cycle, or are expensive or time-consuming to produce, very few players would produce them because other unit types are simply going to have a much higher priority.

The key question you have to ask yourself is this: if we design a semi-realistic PT boat unit for the game, what purpose will it serve which cannot already be adequately satisfied by destroyers or aircraft?