best naval doctrine for an aggresive german navy?

[Nern Guan, Master Orator]

I want to work towards building to go toe to toe with the U.S. and the U.K. is this even possible in hearts of iron 4? I've done this in hearts of iron 3 before.

[BoydofZINJ]

i defeated the British, but their navy was too powerful for me. You can do a few things:

Navy bombers and throw them in the ocean - where the British would be at - and added some fighter coverage. I did defeat the British and invaded their island and won. How? If you control France you only need 1 piece of water to patrol and send your troops to the British main island. The British Channel... patrol that with all your navy and then land your troops and send reinforcements and then send your ships to a safe harbor and let your ground troops win the war.

Against America... take over South Africa and then invade SOUTH AMERICA and work northwards and the US Navy could not do anything to stop me (since I am on land) and they do not patrol the south part of South America.

[Nern Guan, Master Orator]

thanks for the advice, hearts of iron 3 was very different with tactics. I had a superior navy over the brits and U.S. as in it was so advance they couldn't do anything against it.

[Phoenix VII]

Going through South America is probably the most reliable way of getting to the US, but I actually took out the US by supporting a coup and then sending troops over to help the American fascists after I saw that the German AI was safely getting troops across. I was playing as Italy however, and they start with a good navy so I already had taken out many Allied fleets though an American fleet eventually came along that mauled it pretty badly.

[Nern Guan, Master Orator]

Originally posted by Phoenix VII:

Going through South America is probably the most reliable way of getting to the US, but I actually took out the US by supporting a coup and then sending troops over to help the American fascists after I saw that the German AI was safely getting troops across. I was playing as Italy however, and they start with a good navy so I already had taken out many Allied fleets though an American fleet eventually came along that mauled it pretty badly.

How did you handle your naval operations with italy? I went down the first doctrine and fully researched it as italy, was steadily building ships as I focused more on the army ( so i could secure africa) and after stomping frenchie teeth in after they declared war I was stumped after by the navies.

[Phoenix VII]

Originally posted by Jim the Knight:

How did you handle your naval operations with italy? I went down the first doctrine and fully researched it as italy, was steadily building ships as I focused more on the army ( so i could secure africa) and after stomping frenchie teeth in after they declared war I was stumped after by the navies.

I didn't do anything special. I sent my submarines on convoy raiding while I had all my surface ships set to search and destroy in the Mediterranean as one big fleet. The French navy was sunk early on and afterwards one British fleet after another came into the Mediterranean and got sunk because they came piecemeal. I might've just lucked out but this is how things went on two separate playthroughs.

I also captured the Suez and Malta early on (but not Cyprus until later), which might've been the reason the British fleets came in piecemeal and didn't have much in the way of air support.

[Nern Guan, Master Orator]

I wish it worked out like that for me, I did the same thing, massive fleets, had naval bombers, in one battle, the french sunk 24 ships.

[GOT_NO_SKILLZ]

I tried to go with a carrier doctrine in my Germany playthrough, but my carrier task forces (4 carriers + typically ~20 Destroyers) simply got mauled every time. It could have been overwhelming British numbers (sometimes with a combination of carriers and battleships/heavy cruisers), naval bombers, or maybe my German carrier air groups were just crap. I'm not sure.

I succeeded doing what the players above did: use air superiority and my whole navy to amphibious assault the UK, then use either "Boost Popularity" or a coup to get a civil war in the US, and just move my army into the Fascist American territories. The Fascists had the whole west coast, so I sent my armies from ports in France and (Nationalist, Axis) Spain all the way around South America to land at the secure Fascist ports of San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Eventually that attack stalled (made up almost entirely of crappy Expeditionary Forces) so I used Marines to secure the Caribbean as a staging base for some Panzer Armies, did another amphibious assault on Florida with Marines and then landed the Panzers as a second wave. 48 panzer, panzergrenadier, and motorized divisions then drove up the East Coast. Mission Accomplished.

[Phoenix VII]

Originally posted by Jim the Knight:

I wish it worked out like that for me, I did the same thing, massive fleets, had naval bombers, in one battle, the french sunk 24 ships.

Hmm, I also didn't have my surface fleet leave the Mediterranean until after I destroyed most of the enemy fleets and when I gave them the Search and Destroy mission, I only had them cover the southern and southeastern Mediterranean, I didn't have them go into the sea zone adjacent to France.

But again, I could've just been lucky.

[Smurf-O-Pax]

The UK i brought down with paratroopers, 20 divisions in the North to get a Harbour. Then ferry the rest to the Island if needed.
To the US i went over Greenland and Newfoundland. Helped a lot to have 60 Subs hunting convois in front of the Eastcoast.
But i lost 150 Divisions at the first trys :). Naval invasions just suck if you try to land in fortified coasts.

My fleet was able to sink the British fleet but only 3 years after i succesfully invaded Britain. 4 Super BBs, 8 BBs, 8 CVs and tons of cruisers and destroyers were enough to sink them.

[Nern Guan, Master Orator]

I recently caused a political change within the UK. and it backfired as denmark, republican hungary, and legionary romania joined them , I crushed all of them very quickly as my decrpytion, air superiority, and superior firepower doctrine were maxed out and or just overall better.