Understanding navy.

[Taboritsky]

To understand the HOI4 naval system. you need more than 5000 hours. but we can make it less so just uhh share tips here!

[General WVPM]

Read up on screen efficiency. Sufficient screening forces give you significant bonuses.

The dlc man the guns adds complexity with the ship designer and components. If you play vs ai or struggle with navy, you're probably better off without that dlc.

[Rina Ravyn]

My 4850 hours tips

- Never release a ship with less than 30 knots speed.
- Damage Control Research is a must-have.
- CL is king
- Only ever use DD for mine laying and sub hunting.
- Positioning and Screening eff. really good to have.
- Torpedos are only really useful for SS and fleets of Torp Cruisers, otherwise a hail-mary-shot weapon and not to be relied on. (because screening eff. defeats them)
- CA is either for the LARP or the economicly handicapped ---> if you can afford BC/BB/CV then you should not be building CA.

Composition wise, for me 1 : 3 has proven itself as adequate minimum. It keeps your ships alive, even though often times it may look as if youre teetering on the edge.

So, whenever available, i attempt to keep it at least 1 Capital 4 Screens.

For me this is like being fluent in a language by now, but for those that dont have the basics down yet: CV Stacking penalty starts at 5, so you dont want to ever operate more than 4 CV in the same task force.


And dont listen to the hoitubers. Most of them are trash.

[Möscha]

Bait enemey Forces into 1 Seazone. As Japan for example, raid American Islands and hit them with overwhelming force when they try to secure their Supplylines, once you wiped their Screens you basically won the Naval Game since AI is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and puts like 80% of their IC into Carrier and other Capital Ships while totally negelecting Screens.

[Pea Green]

1) Have multiple lines of screens in production, not just one with 15 dockyards assigned to it.

2) AI can't really deal with naval mines, so it's rare you'll need minesweeping if singleplayer.

3) don't assign your fleets with BB or CV to the patrol mission, use a new admiral with only DD and CL to patrol.

4) those BB and CV you had in point 3, assign them to strike force in sectors you have a patrol, watch the enemy Navy sink!

5) as has already been said, have a good ratio of screens to capital ships, I prefer a 25% capital to 75% screens ratio, but you do you.

6) NEVER put submarines in with other ship types when creating a fleet. [Unless you want to larp as the British inter-war Admiralty...]

7) unless you're heavily nodding the game, you won't have the research to build a decent Navy until late game, so focus on what you truly need; No, Liberia doesn't need 4 CV's by 1938...

[drewbstar]

#1 advice I have is to spam submarines. They’re the cheapest to build, punch above their weight, are expensive to counter, and will shred the AI’s fleets.

IIRC convoys have 60 hp, so once you hit 60 damage you’ll one shot convoys. Keep that in mind when using Sub 1/2s. (Research, admiral skill, etc)
Over 60 isn’t as important, but more damage is always good.

Sub 3s are the best. You can get them early, especially if you have a focus tree with a submarine branch. Arguably better than Sub4s as they require less IC/steel and don’t need chromium. (You can put 1944 modules on Sub3s)

Max out the torpedos, add snorkels, spam them out in fleets of ~10. Put them on convoy raiding. Start in the deep water zones until you can build up your numbers/research/doctrine/admiral skills/etc. Once you have enough, switch them to Always Engage (they’ll flee any battle with an enemy screen otherwise) and move in. The AI is awful at building good destroyers with Sonar/depth charges. In other words, you’ll quickly thin their screens then start Big Game Hunting their capital ships.
Bonus points for surrounding countries like the UK or Japan which rely on naval routes for fuel -> oil -> functioning navy.

Truthfully, I’m pretty lazy now so I try to keep the ships and designs as simple (and few) as possible. So beyond the submarines, I also build: roach mine DDs and maxxed out CLs.

Roach mine destroyers are straight forward. Cheapest DDs you can make with the minimal requirements (engine/basic gun) and mine laying equipment. You can print these out by the fistful. You can go up in the hull if you need more range, but IME the 1936 version is just fine. Put them in their own fleet, have them do mine laying, set them to do not engage. They’ll quickly flood the seazone with mines which are great because it makes it easier for you to do naval invasions, makes it harder for them, and increases the odds of the enemy navy having accidents. Great for when your enemy is just parking their navy and building supremacy.

For CLs just max out damage and related modules, plus scout planes. Your fire control systems, engines, etc. I personally max it out, but you can also do the reverse where you try to keep them cheap and hit them with numbers. I prefer the one with less micro, even if less effective.

If you really need a cap ship, heavy cruisers are cheap, BCs are efficient, BBs are effective. Subs will kill caps and CLs will kill screens, so it’s not a hard requirement. They do help with shore bombardment and naval supremacy though.

[joe.manuci]

I learned naval from few videos only. I dont't find it more complicated than land mechanics. Just different. Wiki can help as well. There is also a difference between land-based and CV-based planes (4 times more often attack, if I remember well).

My playing is a role-play with some min-max elements
I see several strategic elements which I usually combine:

1. 1-2 wings on naval patrol plus 2-3 on naval strike (light planes) per sea zone. Good for mediteran sea, to reduce/damage the enemy fleet. Fighters may be add, if enemy fighters should appear. Some sea zones only.

2. Scouting CLs (patrol/never engage) with scout planes, radar and smallest gun for maximum speed. They help by 1. and by 3. Just 2 CLs per sea zone, but only there, where my battle fleet can get within a reasonable time.

3. Battle fleet (strike): 4 CVs with 8:2 topedo bombers: fighters + 4 or more BBs with 2 current gun turrets a lot of AAs and some dual secondaries. + 4-6 CLs with maxed light attack + 30 DDs with 1 gun, torpedo and deep charge.
I target 4:1 at least just in case I should have bad positioning.
Sometimes I put a 5th CV in. Yes, penalty for bombers, but not for fighters; and it's a backup, if one CV gets a bomb and is send for repairs.

4. Subs at choke points posible away from land but blocking enemy trade routes. 5-10 subs per sea zone. Sometimes I build scouting sub-cruizers, 2 per zone.

5. Occasionally I use sub-miners to slow down enemy fleets. It increases the range in which my battle fleet can get the enemy.

This way I can play with a fleet (as a major, of course).

[HappySack]

Learning the navy isn't actually that important since the naval AI is retarded and you can win with mass naval bombers or doomstacking instead of learning the nuances but there are a few things to know:

-Like how four carriers are the max you can have in a fleet before they suffer overstacking penalties
-Carrier naval bombers do full damage compared to land based ones that do about 20% damage
-Use strike force and convoy raiding in conjunction as convoy raids will bait out the enemy fleet into an ambush by your strike force
-And for ship design stacking light attack is good to destroy enemy screens which combined with your own destroyers designed with 2 or more torpedoes lets you dominate naval battles

[GerthQuake]

I treat it more or less just like I treat the land battles.

Use orders and sectors when it's convenient - but micromanage the important stuff and leave it off orders completely.