Best Size of Fleets?

[Soltharon]

Hello everybody!

can someone tell me how the Fleets in HOI4 are ideal? How much Ships should be in one Group? When is a Group to big or to small? and is there a best Combination of how many Ships I use per Fleet? For Example 4 Destroyer and 1 Cruiser?

Is it right that one Admiral can control 3 Sea-Areas with his Groups?

Thanks for your answers!

[Bored Peon]

4 Destroyers and 1 Cruiser is fine for a patrol fleet, 10 for a mine sweeping fleet.
5 Submarine is good for raiding fleet/mine laying size.
About 30 screens and 10 capitals is good for a strike fleet. Only because the AI prefers doomstacks.

I do not use escort fleets because they do not engage unless attacked. Patrol does the same job but will engage everything.

Admirals should be in charge of fleets that fit their job and skills. As in your submarine admiral will have a totally different set of skills than your strike fleet. I have found patrol fleets should have mine avoidance and minesweeping while submarines have minelaying efficiency.

An admiral can cover as many sea zones as you want. However the effectiveness is going to depend how many fleets there is to do the job. Like if you got 10 submarine fleets you could easily cover a dozen sea zones at %100 effectiveness, but if you only have 5 submarine fleets then you would only cover 50% effectiveness.

Also keep in mind just because you see only one naval battle in a sea zone does not mean there aint more fleets in it. You take a "popular" sea zone like Cape Horn, Straits of Malacca, Red Sea and you can easily have a dozen engagements in the same sea zone.

The last thing is during an engagement the number of ships in the engagement is going to be determined by what you have in the area. So if you have say 10 submarine fleets of 5 submarine and you attack a transport you can get 5-15 or so in the engagement from different fleets.

[Dagoth Brain Made Of Tired]

5 destroyers cover a cruiser usually i have 15-20 mix of light attack cruisers and couple of battleships with about 80 destroyers to cover enemy torpedos reaching my cruisers/battleships. When you start going above 100-120 penalties can get worse reducing your positioning which will probably half your damage output.

[JDouglasBarson]

I just build enough ships for naval invasions. Cheap heavy ships and cruisers.

The big annoying part of naval is that you need spotting to actually be in combat. That's largely the reason why experience players skip naval combat. Its too much time wasted on research and upgrading spotting on light ships.

[velvetcrabman]

Originally posted by JDouglasBarson:

I just build enough ships for naval invasions. Cheap heavy ships and cruisers.

The big annoying part of naval is that you need spotting to actually be in combat. That's largely the reason why (SOME) experience players skip naval combat. Its too much time wasted on research and upgrading spotting on light ships.

On the other hand many of us love the navy side of things and relish how proper designs, strategy and tactics can do the job the job way more efficiently.


This guy does some decent guides that are useful for both solo and MP games:

https://steamcommunity.com/id/emstelegram

[Toaster]

Recently I did an experiment as the USA with a singular task force consisting of 3 '44 carriers with max decks (radar and aa) and 25 '44 DDs (with radar and aa) with as much light attack and torpedoes as possible, and this task force single handedly destroyed the entire japanese navy regardless of them having numerical superiority, I think at most 3 DDs were lost through the whole pacific campaign.

[Bored Peon]

Originally posted by JDouglasBarson:

Its too much time wasted on research and upgrading spotting on light ships.

Two sonar and radar tech is hard?
Without spotting tech it makes it hard to find the submarines harassing your transports.

Originally posted by Toaster:

Recently I did an experiment as the USA with a singular task force consisting of 3 '44 carriers with max decks (radar and aa) and 25 '44 DDs (with radar and aa) with as much light attack and torpedoes as possible, and this task force single handedly destroyed the entire japanese navy regardless of them having numerical superiority, I think at most 3 DDs were lost through the whole pacific campaign.

You do not even need to go to a 1944 model. Even the 1940s models wreak havok on the AI navy because most of it is Early and 1936 designs.

The destroyer was most likely sunk by a battleship and most likely sank because it was previously damaged as a single destroyer does not trigger the fleet to go repair if the fleet is over a certain size.