An Intermediate Guide to the Navy in Multiplayer

This guide will cover more intermediate knowledge and tricks of the HOI4 Navy, as well as comment on the current navy metas, why they work, and how to deal with them.

Forward

While the main event of a multiplayer game has always been that of land micro, it is an undeniable fact that the performance of your navy can make all the difference. The navy protects your trade, keeping your factories running, and disrupts the trade of your enemies, hurting their own production. The navy protects your shores, and also presents an existential threat to the shores of your opponents. The navy gives you the agency to go and do anywhere, and not be locked to the limitations of a contiguous land passage.

Your navy, whether over the course of years or in one decisive battle, can make the difference between humiliating failure and righteous success.


a tragedy that will halt Japan for the rest of the game


This is a sequel to The Basic Guide which you should refer to for standard information on how the navy operates and what different stats mean, or what the different ships are.

The purpose of this guide is to elaborate upon the popular naval builds of the game, and share some insight into deeper naval strategy in a casual multiplayer setting. As with last time, most of the information here will also apply to singleplayer and non-casual multiplayer, though it should be noted that in singleplayer you'll have a much easier time (considering you're fighting an AI) and that in serious MP games the meta will probably be very rigid.



So, let's dive right in (tee hee), and talk about BOATS!

Spies

I'm sorry, did I say we were talking about boats first? Because we're not.

If you are a country large enough to put large amounts of care into your navy, you're probably making a spy agency anyways. And for good reason! Your spies will bring you invaluable information on the enemy fleet, as well as incredible buffs and abilities that sound like cheating.

As a general rule of thumb, the Axis does something and the Allies react. This is no different for the navy. It is the job of the naval underdogs of Italy, Japan, and Germany, to figure out which sort of wacky build they'll use in order to surmount the beginning advantage that the US, UK, and to a lesser extent France have. If you are playing as an Axis major, your best hope is that your naval opponents neglect their navy and send out completely inferior ships; but the second best outcome is that they do not pay attention to what you are doing and sink time and resources into a navy that isn't suited to countering yours.

As an Allied nation paying attention to the navy (namely the US, UK, and by proxy the Commonwealth) it is your duty to figure out what your enemies are going to throw at you and react accordingly. Of course, you will figure out what they're doing with the intel ledger.

And no matter who you're playing, if you intend to take your navy seriously, you will require, yes, require spies to do the best you possibly can. So, let's take a gander at our fantastic wealth of information:



Er, well, at the start of the game, you won't be able to see much, especially in the Axis nations (although it is worth nothing that you'll typically have a rather high naval intel in most countries, due to its relation with trade laws) so you'd be well advised to start doing some spying and getting that percentage up.

Getting More Intel

All nations will have a base amount of intel that is shared, and you can build upon that number with your spies. These base amounts are determined by the nation's ruling ideology and trade law.



Free Trade will give away 20% intel for everyone to see, descending to Closed Economy which shares 0% extra intel.

Democracies and Non-Aligned nations have a base free naval intel of 20%, whereas Fascists share 10% and Commies 12.5%.

You can also gain extra intel from radars, although this isn't a huge benefit for your intel compared to your spies (and let's be honest, when's the last time you built a radar?) and the nation in question will have to be pretty close unless it's real late-game. At the start of the game, the UK, which starts with radar, gains a very minor intel bonus from radar on the Netherlands and Ireland.

So, let's get our spies ready to pump those numbers up.

These are all of the relevant agency upgrades for increasing navy* intel:
(the Cryptology department upgrades will, of course, only provide benefits once you reveal the cipher)

Having intel network strength will give you a boost to your intel ledger %, but only to a maximum of 40%. Depending on who you're spying on, you may need some more intel, so you can take the Infiltrate Navy mission to give yourself an additional 12% that will remain for some time.



As the UK, I've been able to get over 80% (that's as much as you'll ever need) navy intel after taking the operation and rebuilding my intel network in Germany. So, now what can I see?

The Dinner Menu

Greetings, my dear guests. I'll be your waiter tonight. The name's Garcia. Juan Puhol Garcia. I hope you'll enjoy tonight's specials.
























This week's fresh appetizer is the ability to hover over any of your target's ports and see what fleets are docked there, an excellent pairing with our Base Strike red wine.








For entrees, this season we are offering locally sourced statistics on the exact stats of every single ship the target has, and how many of each very design.








And for dessert, a delicious medley of candied fruit, Belgian chocolate, and every single naval tech and doctrine the target has and is currently researching.



Now, where are my manners? Why don't I just let you see the menu for yourselves.




Oh, and here's some bread for while you wait.

OK Enough with the Waiter Joke

Suffice to say, your spies will be of immense value to a good naval game. Bear in mind the vastly important 40% intel threshold you will need to cross in order to avoid a straight-up naval supremacy debuff. With all this knowledge at your fingertips, you should be able to play your opponent like a fiddle.

I should also remind you that it is very important to watch the naval section of the Civilian Industry tab, which tells you how many dockyards are assigned to each type of ship (Capital, Screen, and "other", those being convoys and subs).



Do keep in mind that for the first few months or maybe even years, these numbers will likely represent the ships that are already mid-production at the start of the game. Keep an eye out for when the numbers change dramatically.

But once the real numbers roll in, that information combined with your knowledge of their research should make predicting their fleet composition a piece of cake. From there you can create a fleet made proper to destroy theirs, but bear in mind you'll need to do this early, as acting too late means you won't have enough new boats to fit your plans.

Oh, and of course, remember to keep your own spy defense up as well, since your enemy can do the exact same thing to you, too.

Now finally, we can actually talk about boats.

Destroyers: of Pests and Pest Control

Think of destroyers like escorts, or bodyguards.



Destroyers are by all means not the centerpiece of any fleet, and if they are, that fleet is pathetic (I'm looking at you, Colombia). But despite that, they are the vital first line of defense, the very life and blood of any capable surface fleet. If anyone says your navy isn't impressive because "it's just mostly destroyers," they're wrong.

As explained in the first guide, your surface fleet will require a large number of screens in order to protect it from torpedoes. Destroyers are the natural answer to the screening requirement, since they are significantly cheaper than the only other screen ship, the Light Cruiser.

Destroyers also excel as sub-hunters, as they can arm themselves with sonar and depth-charges just as capably as cruisers, while also having higher speed, making them more likely to avoid torpedoes, and of course, they are cheaper.

And with this cheapness, we see the two schools of thought on destroyers: Cockroaches and... Not Cockroaches.

Cockroaches

Are you ready? I'm actually going to give you a ship template this time.



That's it.

That's the roach destroyer.

The philosophy behind Roaches is that destroyers are built to be destroyed. And if that's the case, you might as well make them as cheap as possible, so that you can have more and it's not a problem if they sink. This is a sensible philosophy, especially if you have a very large surface fleet and need to keep the ratio going. In the Art of the Roach, destroyers will act as disposable damage sponges that do a "get down, Mr. President!" with your non-screens, keeping any light-attack focused ships from attacking anything worthwhile and keeping torpedoes neutralized. You will lose many, many, destroyers during major naval battles, but it's all for the greater good.

Not Cockroaches/ "Fill It"

The other opinion on destroyers is, naturally, that they shouldn't be bare-bones buckets of crap. It's worth noting that even a fully decked-out destroyer is still leagues cheaper than a Light Cruiser, and if you have even mildly decent stats on a destroyer, then having many of them multiplies these stats in battle. These destroyers will rely on their better engines, weapons, and HP to actually survive a battle. Whereas Cockroaches provide a safety cushion to keep the screening ratio, 'proper' destroyers aim to keep the ratio up by not dying. These destroyers can do some good work on other destroyers, especially, you know, ones that are worse than they are.

The prevailing concept of this idea, really, is that if you're a nation big enough to make a huge fleet, then why can't you afford to make the ships good?

Sub-Hunters

I wanted to make a separate sub-heading to make it clear that no matter which of those two ideas you choose, if you are a large nation and your enemy is building subs, you should absolutely build destroyers whose sole purpose is to counter them. If you're playing the UK I would suggest teching up on sonar and depth charges, maybe even Destroyer 3 even before finding out what my enemies are doing, simply because of the sheer frequency that Axis members make subs.

Just put the best sonar you can in the bastard and ram it full of depth charges. Put them in nice little task forces and put those suckers on convoy escort. You won't regret it.

Light Cruisers: the ship that Santa forgot

Light Cruisers are in a bit of a sad position.

Destroyers are much more efficient for screening and sub-hunting. Heavy Cruisers are much better at doing any combat that Light Cruisers would otherwise be suited for. Fortunately, there is one thing that Light Cruisers have their own special niche in, but it's so niche that, depressingly enough, the explanation doesn't even really belong in the Light Cruiser section. You can read about it in the heading for Patrols. Yeah, that's all they're good for. Sad, huh?

To help pad out the word count for this section, I guess if you were a minor nation and for some reason you needed to fight the navy of another minor nation, and that country only had destroyers, Light Cruisers would be your ideal option to build, since they're the cheapest ship with armor. So uh... yeah. Sorry Light Cruisers.

Heavy Cruisers: the Seabear Circle

There is one thing that Heavy Cruisers are used for in the meta, and not in a sad way like Lights, but a very potent and annoyingly gamey way.

Heavy Cruisers are Capital Ships. They are the smallest, cheapest, and weakest of the capital ships. The only thing that separates a Heavy Cruiser from a Light Cruiser is a singular medium battery. Medium batteries kind of suck. And yet they're what breaks Heavy Cruisers.

By drawing that line in the sand, that is, putting on at minimum a singular medium battery, your Cruiser is now sorted in battle with the rest of the Capitals, like actual Battleships and Battlecruisers. It may not be nearly as well armed or armored, but because of that distinction, it is arbitrarily immune from any and all light attack until all your screens die.

The Light Attack Heavy Cruiser

The typical build is a heavy cruiser with only one medium battery and light batteries for everything else. Best engine and (ironically for a ""Heavy"" Cruiser) no armor. The goal is to maximize speed (thus, torpedo and heavy attack evasion) and light attack. Having no armor is no problem since it probably won't ever have to deal with light attack ever, and if anything else managed to hit it it would've been crippling anyways.

The LAHC sits comfortably in the safety of the second battle line mowing away at the enemy's screens. This ship is most commonly used in the Torpedo Fleet meta, explained further below.

If you are wondering why you wouldn't want to build these, it is simply a matter of strategy and opportunity cost. Heavy Cruisers come with a hefty price tag, and all they do is attack screens, albeit effectively. Perhaps you'd rather put that production into a couple shiny new battleships or an aircraft carrier? It all depends on what you and your opponent is doing.

Battlecruisers: Daniel

Battlecruisers are just Battleships except they have less armor in exchange for more speed. They're also cheaper since they have less armor. So, are they better than battleships? No. Are they worse? Also no. For all intents and purposes, Battlecruisers and Battleships hold the same exact place within the meta.

Whether you use a Battlecruiser or a Battleship is entirely up to your own personal preference, and available resources, or lack thereof.

I'll talk about the actual place within the meta below.

Battleships: a Lesson in Economics

Before I say anything else, I want to make it very clear that Battlecruisers and Battleships (from here on out, I'll just say Battleships for simplicity) are not bad. In fact they're genuinely good and a viable choice for fleet building.

It's just that no one ever seems to want to build them in most cases. Battleships are powerful and great multi-taskers, yes, but they're expensive. Expensive in resources, expensive in time, and worst of all, expensive in opportunity cost. And when I say opportunity cost, I don't just mean in comparison to an aircraft carrier or multiple smaller ships. Battleships take tech time.

I am willing to bet that one of the biggest turn-offs for battleships to the playerbase is simply the number of associated technologies. It's always a rush to tech up the next tank, the new guns, industrial bonuses, etc.; who has time to spend research slots in the Naval Tree? And to be fair, yes; the ideal battleship will take up more research time than just the hull. There are heavy batteries, secondary batteries, control systems, and a bunch of other things to be upgraded, and if you're going to make such a long-term investment as a battleship, don't you want it to be as best as it can be?

This daunting conundrum makes battleship apathy incredibly easily, especially for the nations who are most capable of building them; otherwise known as the nations who already have a lot of them.

To wrap up my soapbox, I will admit I have seldom built battleships as a major myself. But, although this is hypothetical, I am certain that spending due time in the tech and producing Ships of the Line could prove to be very powerful. Battleships, so long as well screened, are hard to kill, and they are the most reliable source of big damage there is in naval combat. Your aircraft carriers' performance may be hindered by imbalances in the air war, and torpedoes are nothing but gambling. You can always rely on a battleship to pound out heavy and light attack, and what with the many, many bonuses you can stack for that in the tech trees, they certainly deserve the fear they once struck.


Formidable... but is it necessary?

The actual meta information on these is one sentence long, that being big nations are well advised to refit theirs with more and better AA.

Carriers: misunderstood and used anyways

Most of what I would say here I'll just say instead in the section on the Carrier Build meta, so I can keep this section short and to the point on the odd treatment of carriers in multiplayer.

There seems to be a reasonably large misconception that there is no reason to build aircraft carriers since you can just use planes based in airports. I don't want to just repeat what I said in the Basics guide, but for ease of access, I'll make the reminder that naval bombers based on carriers deal 500% damage, and that naval bombers based on land are subject to a wide slew of penalties that make them far less efficient, at least where major naval battles are concerned.

Another thing that no one ever seems to talk about concerning carrier strategy is the fact that you can change the airplane composition of your carriers, even in the production menu:



If you're playing somewhere like Europe and are confident in your ability to attain air superiority, perhaps it would be a prudent strategy to put nothing but naval bombers on your carrier and let your ground-based fighters take care of supremacy?

Oh yeah, and remember that there's a penalty for having more than 4 carriers in a battle. Deathstacking with carriers does not work.

Submarines: and how not to use them

Can your submarines wreak havoc on supply lines? Yes.

Are your submarines invincible? No.

Can your submarines sink some of the enemy fleet? Yes.

Can convoys sink some of the enemy fleet? Yes.

Are either reliable options for sinking the enemy fleet? No.

Some people think Subs are overpowered.

They're not. Any decent fleet of anti-sub destroyers will make them as dangerous as a bathtub.




The fact of the matter is that the AI practically never can organize a proper anti-sub defense, and that people in multiplayer can't be bothered to most of the time.

Of course, I'm being harsh, but I want to dispel the worst navy myth of all, that being the Legend of the Overpowered Submarine. Are there situations in which subs can do great? Yes, but never, never use them to do the job of a surface fleet. Restrain them to convoy raiding, and use them in the right places for efficiency.

Raiding in Deep Ocean 'terrain' regions will help keep your submarines hidden better. One of the best spots for raiding in the game is the Cap Verde Plain between Brazil and Africa. It is a Deep Ocean as well as a bottleneck. It can be especially potent if your enemy does not have access through the Suez, and/or the Panama Canal (but mostly the Suez).

Raiding in Fjord and Archipelago regions also provide a big bonus for submarines in significantly reduced visibility. A notable Archipelago region is the Caribbean Sea, which can be abused in tandem with the Cap Verde.

Raiding in Ocean tiles provides no modifiers, but at least there aren't debuffs. Many of the other good raiding spots are Ocean, so look for those.

Raiding in Shallow Seas are for Chads. Sure, Subs may have +100% visibility there, but only the bravest and best among your country's sailors would dare embark on such a suicidal mission, so they'll probably just plot-armor their way out of it. The English Channel is the most notable of all the Shallow Seas, so be sure to put all of your submarines there if your lovely, supple-skinned face has just as few wrinkles as your brain does.

Of course, it would be well advised to move around your subs if your enemies actual start trying to stop them, since it will piss them off and that's really funny.

Now for some tips and tricks on submarine models:

Using Submarine 1s and Submarine 2s

Using Submarine 3s

Submarine 3s are when they get good. I'm aware that a whole lot of servers ban heavy tanks because they're not fun to fight and force the opponent to do something they might not have wanted to do just to counter the heavies, but- oh, I'm sorry, I meant sub 3s.

Yes, trust me, sub 3s are no more bothersome than the pre-No Step Back tank meta. Sure, you need to do something to be effective against them, but come on. Sub 1s and 2s are the most worthless ships in the entire game. If you want to convoy raid, you really gotta go to the next step.

Submarine 3s unlock the snorkel module, and after researching and adding on the snorkel, your submarine will be a whole lot better at hiding itself. Place your subs where you think troop convoys will be crossing, and if there don't seem to be any go for trade lines. The increased sneakiness of the Sub3s will allow them a chance against enemy navies, making them the true "poor man's navy," so to speak; minimal cost for decent potential reward.

Like with destroyers, some people prefer to pump out bare-bones submarines ("bathtubs") for quantity, and others like to make well-moduled subs. I for one think it is wiser to make better, more capable subs (they're still cheap anyways); producing bathtubs should be limited to the sorry fate of producing sub 1s and 2s, since they suck so bad to begin with the only viable option is to make a bajillion and hope you can produce some results, a la Infinite Monkey Theorem[en.wikipedia.org]

Cruiser Submarines

A select few nations have access to Cruiser Submarines, either at the beginning of the game or unlocked via focus (most importantly, probably, for Germany with 'U-Boat Focus'). Cruiser Submarines are cool. They have a different module setup from regular submarines, including one for a floatplane, somehow (that increases your spotting... and thus your ability to find convoys) and are adept at raiding missions at extremely far ranges. If you're stuck in a banned 3s game, I suggest trying to license production a Cruiser Sub off of Germany, America or Japan.

Edit: apparently Greece can unlock cruiser subs through a focus as well? I... I don't know why, but they can. And in addition, the Greek starting Admiral can get both Lancer and Torpedo Drill Master, so for some odd reason Greece is in an oddly apt position to go on a submarine rampage.

Using Submarine 4s

H-how long have you been playing for?

submarines: and how to counter them

you can't :(

SUBMARINES: AND HOW TO COUNTER THEM!

OF COURSE YOU CAN COUNTER SUBMARINES!

FIRST!
You will MAKE ANTI-SUB DESTROYERS! Yes, that's right, you need to spend a GRUELING 69 DAYS OF RESEARCH on SONAR 2! And maybe even another 100 for the next level of depth charges!

SECOND!
You will PUT THOSE DESTROYERS IN THEIR OWN TASK FORCES! And then set them to do CONVOY ESCORT in the regions where the subs are sinking your convoys!

THIRD!
THERE IS NOT A THIRD STEP! EVEN VALVE CAN COUNTER SUBMARINE ALYXS!

Furthermore, if you're having such a dire problem with a specific naval zone, just tell your convoys to not go there! And then if somewhere else gets raided, go somewhere else!



You can also send out naval bombers to bomb submarines!

But seriously, by and large, send out some destroyer escorts. Even if they aren't proper anti-subs, just the presence of a few destroyers will usually be enough to coerce the subs into retreating from the engagement before they even shoot anything.

On Fleet Composition

Now that the general roles of each ship within the meta have been established, and before I discuss some of the most popular fleet compositions ("builds"), I should at the very least make a brief statement on how to compose your fleet.

Firstly, there is no such thing as a "perfect build"; there will always be some sort of counter or flaw, and were there a truly "perfect build" it would be awfully expensive and time-consuming to produce.

Always consider what you intend for your fleet to do, what you have available, and what your limitations (namely fuel) are. A fleet do not have to have every type of ship in them to be good or versatile, as the light cruiser section made clear. In fact it would be well advised for some of your fleets (patrols, anti-sub, etc.) to not have certain ships in them as it would be a waste.

On the other hand, when making main/battlefleets, there's no problem whatsoever with having 'non-ideal' ships (like light cruisers) in them. You have them, so you might as well put them to use.

Also don't obsess over exact numbers. It would be a waste of time to try to over-organize the battlefleets of nations who start with large navies. The only numbers you need to worry about are the screening ratio (just be somewhere above it) and the number of carriers, which should not exceed four.

Furthermore, on the subject of carriers, if you plan on working closely with an allied navy (ie UK and France) consider having less than 4 carriers in that fleet so that there is no penalty should the navies join forces in a battle. Your spare carrier(s) can be used as the centerpiece of another fleet.

Some people will insist that certain task forces have ideal sizes (ie 20-30 subs to a convoy raiding task force) but in reality the "ideal" task force size is the most realistic amount you can field for all of the zones you need to cover. Forcing a single large task force (that isn't on strike force or invasion support) to do work across multiple zones may not always be as efficient as having smaller groups covering several areas. But ultimately this is up to personal preference.

The only exception to this would be patrol groups (expanded upon below) which should be a handful of destroyers and preferably a light cruiser.

Lastly, if you don't have any time to build anything big, you can never have enough destroyers (assuming you have an actual surface fleet) and submarines.

Now it's time to cover meta builds, and what to do about them:

The Meta: Torpedo Spam

Probably the most popular naval meta at the moment revolves around making a metric ton of cheap ships with torpedoes on them and then also producing the Light-Attack Heavy Cruisers I mentioned earlier. The idea is that the Heavy Cruisers will decimate the enemy screening line, allowing for the rest of the fleet to get torpedoed to death.

Obviously, this is a big meta for a reason. It works. It's gamey, sure, but it indeed works.

Countering this

There are two primary weaknesses inherent with the build, and they provide two ways by which it can be defeated.

Firstly is the torpedo-ships. Typically, they are destroyers or submarines for maximum spam. These are very weak ships, and thus you can try to destroy them before they become problematic. If they are torpedo destroyers, you can dunk on your opponent and also use light attack heavy cruisers to kill them.

Secondly are the heavy cruisers. If your opponent is using subs to provide the torpedo spam, these will be your primary problem as your more efficient anti-sub ship will be a destroyer (though of course you could make anti-sub cruisers just for this, I suppose). Since the typical LAHC build is stripped of anything "unnecessary", it will be particularly weak from heavy attack and aerial attack. Carriers and Battlecruisers/ships can be used to try to knock those out.

In any case, it would be advised that you build many, many cockroach destroyers to buy yourself time. Making all high-quality destroyers will be pointless as they will be absolutely outclassed by the LAHCs.

a note: if the user of this meta is a Japan (in fact, this is a typical Japan build) they may use the Japanese-unique Torpedo Cruiser as their source of torpedoes. They also might not, though, as word on the street is that they're bad now, apparently.

The Meta: Carriers On, Wayward Son

Aircraft Carriers are incredibly powerful ships and can pack a powerful punch in a naval battle. Most ships that exist before the game begins are likely to have somewhat poor AA, and it is a very popular mistake among players to forego putting AA even on the ships they design out of concerns for cost.

As a result, carriers can deal serious damage to fleets unprepared for them.

There's uh... not to much to talk about this one, come to think about it. It's pretty straightforward.

Countering this

The primary problem with countering aircraft carriers is that aircraft carriers are in the very back of the battle and thus they cannot be dealt with directly before dealing with either the Capitals or Screens line first. Killing the Capitals will leave the Carriers open to heavy attacks from your own capitals, and killing the screens can open up the opportunity for a torpedo hit (although you'd still need to kill some capitals first to clear up the carrier's second screen line).

In fact, the only real direct way to deal with aircraft carriers is with... other aircraft carriers. Huh. I think we can see why this became a meta now.

In most cases, sinking enemy carriers will be a stroke of luck. When facing a carrier-focused enemy, the best you can do is have good AA and ideally your own carrier(s). At that point, if your two fleets engage, it will be just as much up to your carriers as it is the composition of the rest of your fleet; your capitals and screens will decide which side's carriers are exposed first.

The "Meta": an aside on Doomstacking

Deathstacking is.... interesting. You see, as explained in the Basics guide, Positioning is a value that will affect all of your stats in a naval battle. One of the most important factors in determining positioning is the relative size of fleets. If you, say, engage a single destroyer with your entire combined fleet, your positioning will be awful. Positioning discourages the popular tactic of deathstacking.



But... it's not like that destroyer would win. Sure, your positioning is abysmal, but what can a small fleet do against such sheer numbers, with cumulative stats so high that even a big positioning debuff makes the battle over before it started?

There remain two recurring penalties for deathstacking:

1. It increases the chance for some humiliating "Victory" where you sink something but lose a disproportionate amount of your own ships, which is a waste.

2. You are at risk for getting Sweet-Spotted by a fleet that is smaller than yours, but not too small, and also modernized. Any deathstack is going to be chock-full of those crummy start-of-game ships, and a tech-superior fleet with just the right positioning is going to cream through them.

However, there still are merits for deathstacking:

1. If your opponent is deathstacking, it is safer to also deathstack

2. It can deter enemies from wanting to do so much as contest your superiority in the greater region (most frequently, the Mediterranean seems to be where this sort of phenomenon occurs).

The "Meta": Airplanes

Naval bombers (and especially tac bombers or CAS) are not a substitute for a naval program. Trust me, it is not nearly as effective or efficient as you think it is. Is it useful, does it provide results? Sure, but it won't be nearly as good as any other method, and if you lose the air war then it's all bunk.

The problems inherent of using land-based air to tackle naval problems are explained in the first guide.

Naturally, the "counter" to this is your own air force, and putting newer or more AA on your big ships.

The "Meta": Submarines

Making nothing but U-Boats is a very popular, but SUB-optimal strat, to say the least.



If this is your opponent's "build" for the game, congratulations, you've won the seas already. Just make sure you've built some proper anti-sub destroyers to take care of them. Keep in mind that you may not ever be 100% safe from convoy raiding, but that's only fair.

Not the Meta

Here are two things that are absolutely not the meta but could potentially work if done right:

1. The Battleship Primacy: build where you say ♥♥♥♥ all to carriers, ♥♥♥♥ all to torpedoes. We're going classic baby, classic, just big guns, big bangs, big booms! We're going balls deep into that tech tree and producing the most beautiful, high-tech battleships or cruisers the world has ever seen, with a healthy compliment of screens. Just pull right up, blast the hell outta everyone who gets in the way. Heavy cruisers? Gone. Inferior battleships? Humiliated. Aircraft? Dropping like flies to the AA. You know you want to see it.


In all seriousness this would need some heavy coordination to pull off, solely because the amount of navy research for an ideal ship would mean the nation doing this would be slacking off on land or air research, which would be something your allies would need to put extra effort into.

2. The Superheavy: alright, so I didn't even make a section about the Superheavy, but hear me out. It's just like Battleships and Battlecruisers except the materiel and time cost is ridiculous but what you get out of it is an absolutely incredible hulking beast of a ship. With the right accompanying fleet, the Superheavy could duke it out against more than you could believe. High AA to cover its historical weakness. Plenty of screens to keep torpedoes at bay. Shell upon shell firing out, with every shell that returns doing peanuts in damage. Who knows? Maybe its viable.

Patrolling, Expanded

This will be a brief review of the best possible patrol you can do.

Of course, patrols are very important. They can help detect subs, spot convoys, or find the enemy fleet so your strike force can engage it. So how do you patrol as best as possible?



The ideal patrol group is one Light Cruiser (aha!) and four destroyers. Since these ships are meant to find other ships, not find them, you should keep their engagement priority on never or low and save some cost by making them very cheap, and only loading on extra modules that increase spotting.

You can put sonar on the destroyers for sub-spotting, and, importantly, the Light Cruiser provides the bulk of the surface spotting with the floatplane module. Since the LC is the cheapest ship you can put a floatplane on (actually, what about cruiser subs? Well, regardless, they'd still have worse spotting) it will be a cornerstone of your patrol groups. You can also throw on radar if you actually research that too for even more spotting.

Your spotting in general, aside from patrols, can also be increased via radar stations and with scout planes.

Edit:
Hello! It is I, Future Ems! Instead of putting a mostly redundant patrol section in the advanced guide I have returned here to add additional information on patrolling:

1. Your navy's base spotting is abysmally low, so seriously make some effort to do some sort of patrolling.

2. Using actual ships to do patrolling increases spotting significantly. An additional benefit to using ships as patrols is that if you have a task force set to Strike Force, the patrol task force will follow the enemy fleet they have spotted (provided it stays in the zones you have selected), enabling your Strike Force force to engage the enemy the moment it arrives.

3. If you lack the ships (or oil) to use ship patrols, your next best option is to put out scout planes. Scout planes are a fine substitute but lack the aforementioned instant engagement bonus. They do, however, use significantly less fuel.

4. You will gain a very large bonus to spotting if you have air superiority over a given region.

5. You will gain a spotting bonus (or malus) depending on your level of decryption and the enemy's level of encryption.

6. Detecting submarines, even with sonar, is difficult, and typically you will have to engage submarines once they start a battle instead of intercepting them preemptively yourself.

Is This Loss? Checking your K/D

There are a variety of places where you can get further insight into how many ships you've lost/sunk, as well as why.

To answer why, simply press the button in the lower left corner of a battle for an in-depth report of what damage each ship did/took:




You can also view your total (or over a recent period of time) ship losses and losses inflicted onto the enemy by going go your Navy overview tab (under the date) and clicking the report icon with a skull:




Additionally, although it isn't necessary, it is fun to see how many kills and assists each of your ships have gotten. You can do this by hovering over the report icon for your ship in the task force view, and get specific data on its kills/assists by going on to click on it.

The London Naval Treaty

The UK, US, France, Italy, and Japan are all signatories of the London Naval Treaty, which limits the total production cost of cruisers and heavy ships. This is of benefit to Italy and Japan as they are afforded options to "cheat" on the treaty, increasing their maximum cost while forcing the others to continue obeying the standard cost. It is also easier for Italy and Japan to leave the treaty.

Leaving the Treaty will start a ticking timer of 1 year, which will then increase the production cost cap under the "escalator clause." Nations may leave the treaty before the Second one is signed in the first few months of the game, but leaving after the Second one is signed will be locked behind a tension limit.

For some circumstances, leaving or breaching the Treaty (namely if Democratic, or not an original signatory) can give every other nation a wargoal against the offender. I have once seen a game in which the Italy and Japan players became the "good guys" in 1937 and punished the UK for abandoning their own treaty. So... just be sure to read things before you click them.

Country-Specific Tips

USA: You can unlock cruiser subs in your focus tree. Speaking of which, the navy section is a nice place to spend your off time between passing those reform focuses. Japan players are typically forced to be the sweatiest at navy composition, so look out for that.

UK: Be sure to get what research boosts you can from the Commonwealth. Keep a close eye with your famous spy network on Italy and Germany and be ready to counter their builds. Germany, at least, should be rather obvious in threat level depending on how early (if ever) they take their naval focuses.

France: You have a good navy! Makes for a fine deathstack all put together. I wouldn't advise working too hard on it though as there are more pressing concerns for France on land.

Canada: can get Destroyer 3s faster than any other nation (2 focuses in)

Australia: small navy, but with a little work makes for a nice personal escort

Germany: Don't get too excited. Your navy isn't that great at game start. You have some good naval focuses, including one for cruiser subs. You have potential, but going navy-heavy as Germany means forfeiting a whole lot of land power. Remember that the best way to Sealion the UK is not by outright naval confrontation, but by slipping in while the Royal Navy is away.

Italy: With the right build, can dominate the Med, or at least distract the British sufficiently.

Japan: where dreams of navy perfection come to be put through trial by fire. Lots of good focuses, including the most broken one in the entire game


Romania: the Soviet Black Sea Fleet will crush yours, don't even bother

Greece: Turkey's is better

Turkey: Greece's is worse

Sweden: a fun navy sandbox nation, as you have ample resources to make one.

Argentina: surprisingly... good? The best in South America.

Brazil: in the event Portugal tries to absorb you as a monarchist, be aware that your fleet is actually better than theirs. I have once capped a player Portugal who tried to do this, and so can you.

A Variety of Other Things

1. Please keep in mind your available fuel supply when planning to build a fleet

2. Pay attention to naval terrain, especially with subs

3. Pay attention to weather in naval zones, too. You might want to refrain from forcing a battle during a storm.

4. The naval game is not always about sinking ships; damaging them can be just as good. If you can force the enemy fleet to spend a prolonged amount of time in repair, then that means you'll have free reign over the seas until they're back in action.

5. Bold is an extremely valuable Admiral trait

6. I have heard a rumor that giving away docking rights gives the receiver an espionage bonus but I haven't been able to find any word on the matter, nor tooltips.

7. Newly built ships start out green, so try to train them before they go into service.

8. Given the large amount of naval techs, stealing Naval blueprints usually won't do you very much good.

9. Refitting a ship is much cheaper than building a new one. It may be very advantageous of nations with large starting navies such as the UK and US to make a modernized fleet by refitting their existing ships instead of building new ones.

10. Think critically about your Admirals' traits. Some will increase or decrease the chance of the enemy retreating instead of your own. While this may sound like a straight debuff, there exist scenarios in which you may actually want this to happen. Patrol groups, for example, will want to avoid conflict, or perhaps you want to assert naval superiority with your fleet but avoiding forcing a decisive battle since your fleet is worse.

11. Remember to research your doctrines! They provide powerful buffs to things you can't really improve otherwise, such as ship organization. Keep in mind that you don't need to research every tech in every branch. Just stick to the most relevant ones for your scenario.

12. Lastly, I should admit that in a lot of casual MP games, even players with large navies may neglect making a genuine naval build or strategy. This should become apparent if you get enough naval intel and see that they haven't researched anything naval. In these cases, even the most basic applications of this guide can handily win you the naval war for the entire game, uncontested.

Note: as this guide was published prior to the No Step Back DLC, it does not contain any information concerning the Officer Corps or the changed nature of naval doctrine "research." I will update the guide as soon as I can provide some reliable and helpful insight on them.

Backward

Hopefully you are now better equipped than ever to make a total mockery of your foes' navies.




If you happen to have any lingering questions or spot any errors, please feel free to say so down in the comments and I will respond to the best of my ability.

Also be sure to check out the Advanced guide, which addresses changes introduced in No Step Back, among other things.

So, best of luck, and Anchors Aweigh!

[Jalash]

Wow, again great guide.
As non native speaker it was little bit difficult to follow it because of the jokes but anyway thnx for this effort, for people like you that take time to make these guides you help other people to enjoy this game better.

[HellbornSamurai]

When will Hungary be a viable Naval Power?

[Battletank09]

Feelsbadman, for those who never got to see it, it was 3 post battle results of British Naval Forces destroying a single american Fleet from first encounter to its final wipe stackwipe.

[ems]

it seems that I've lost the image entirely so I'll just replace it with a different one

[ems]

@Battletank09 huh... i dunno. I'll see if i can fix that.

[Battletank09]

what happened to the images of 'a story in 3 parts?'

[froot by the foot]

never knew that there's a penalty for having over 4 carriers in a battle

[iftachb]

why does poland own a carrier in german occupied cal-ay (Calais)?

[MacComie]

No worries, thanks for the advice!

[ems]

@MacComie sorry for the late reply, but I would advise taking a more active approach against Germany and a defensive one against Japan until you can afford to create a powerful enough fleet. Japan far outclasses you so it is indeed best to keep them at bay just with subs, bombers, and mines.

Germany on the other hand is a better match. Theirs is only slightly better than yours at game start, although half your fleet is stuck in the Black Sea. In general though the Soviet naval debuffs are harsh and I would suggest ignoring the navy for the most part as it would take too much time in your focuses, so a similar defensive approach is wise.