HoI4 Guide: Singleplayer Naval Guide - Ships, Missions, Fleet Build - 1.10.5 Meta (2021)

#hoi4 #guide #meta
A Singleplayer guide to the Navy in HoI4 with the current meta;
I apologise for the audio, something went wrong in processing and I have no idea what!
00:00 Intro (Audio problems)
00:58 Stats
07:18 Ship Types
16:10 Missions
30:10 Doctrines
31:10 Fleet Composition Meta
The lovely countryballs are courtesy of our community member Zatwinki (Zatwinki#2839) over on our Discord! Check out their work here: www.deviantart.com/zatwinki
I upload new video's frequently, so subscribe for more regular content!
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Twitter: @Bitt3rSteel
Outro Music: Wild Pogo
I do not own any of the games, all rights are reserved by their respective companies. Paradox games: Copyright © 2016-2021 Paradox Interactive AB. www.paradoxplaza.com

[@bodives]

Naval warfare in hoi4: naval bomber goes brrrrr

[@benjaminnorton6368]

yes

[@Snipurss]

Just like irl

[@MrNicoJac]

@@Snipurss No... IRL, American proximity-fuses went Brrrrt. The Japanese ONLY went for intentional Kamikazes because getting close to a US ship was basically suicide anyway, so you might as well go all-in... (the Bomber Maffia is a GREAT recommendation!)

[@jankopanajotovic1466]

Me when i play italy

[@simpumoon]

Lmao true, but I want to leanr

[@omega2876]

I treat the Man the Guns navy like I treat Caravan in new vegas, something really interesting that I am terrified of.

[@LiberRaider]

This comment made me lul. I can relate 100%

[@hescoming4544]

Bruh how u even play it?

[@GoldenKast]

@@hescoming4544 with my hands

[@tymekka3031]

"A carrier is a lot easier to see than a submarine" Japanese I-400 carrier submarine: Pathetic

[@niyazikoken8836]

I just try everything until i get green sea for naval invasion -some guy with more than 3000 hours of hoi4

[@dawsonsnyder2996]

Lol take that from someone with over 4000

[@sushimuncher282]

Anyone with 2000+ hours on HoI4: Exists. "So you're a good player, right?" Insert crying cat meme.

[@samtesh2900]

Literally me….

[@alc3biades262]

I just deathstack everything and build new ships according to a dice -a guy with ~8000 hours on hoi4

[@thebluntrealist7180]

I still can't figure out how/why the Navy patrols work the way they do. I'm on my 1st play-through and as the USA b/c you kinda HAVE to use the Navy w/them, or so I think/thought. All SORTS of weirdness going on. Like, why do all escort groups under one Admiral ALL go patrol ALL zones instead of what would seem to have been the easiest way -- take one task force of say 16 destroyers; YOU go to THESE 3 naval regions to patrol. OTHER task force w/say 15 destroyers...YOU go over THOSE 3 regions over THERE. Seems simple enough. ....which is exactly why that doesn't work, it seems. ALL raiding convoys from ALL groups under one Admiral MUST go over ALL sea squares....with a 4% efficiency.....smh

[@memeking912]

The bathtub model isn't the submarine meta. The bathtub model is to just spam the cheapest submarines so you have more ships and therefore naval supremacy. The bathtub subs will be completely destroyed by naval bombers and naval battles

[@timothyhouse1622]

They are short game strategy. They aren't supposed to maintain naval supremacy, only enough to get your invasions off for nations that are hard to invade, such as Britain and Japan. There is NO META for navies. Navies are for the most part irrelevant in HOI4, no matter how many bells and whistles they added to navies.

[@coolbob5781]

@@timothyhouse1622 Well I wouldn’t say irrelevant, you need the three branches to be well developed to have a good long game, it sucks trying to invade a country when you can’t naval invade it or air invade it, and you can also run into issues if you over develop one without the others being well developed

[@infini_ryu9461]

@@timothyhouse1622 Yup. They are unnecessary. That said, they ARE useful, so long as you're not chipping into your land force which should be high priority. It's really kind of pointless trying to build a navy unless you already have one to refit or just for the lols. They really need to fix naval supremacy mechanics, there's no reason t1 subs should be getting supremacy over entire updated fleets. I do like building navies for the lols, though. :P

[@bismarckandthekriegsmarine2954]

@@infini_ryu9461 imo subs shouldn't give naval superiority unless they are up to date and able to actually fight. If not, they should only get naval supremacy if there are no enemy ships in the zone.

[@benharris7358]

@@bismarckandthekriegsmarine2954 , tell that to the USS Indianapolis, sunk by a submarine.

[@robertusrenegades7836]

Even after 2k hours of HOI4 there's something new to learn. Nice.

[@Stiann86]

1200 hours and i feel like such a noob watching these videos, but very informative

[@NubDiePie]

700 hours and i still cant invade Britain lol

[@adoscz9812]

@@NubDiePie Vs Ai it is easy. You just invade France and after you will put all your ships in eng channel after you already have 70 days of naval invasion preperations done. Submarines do patrol and basic templates ( battleships, cruisers, destroyers) do strike force. If you want you can add ship to do naval invasion. You put all air in there and just defend your land with fighters to not get bombed and there you have it. Then you basically win and when I fight Soviets in while they have enricicled all divisions and until they capitulated they can end up with 15-50 easily, so after British invasion I dont play anymore actually. France is easy too, you just take fast and declare one after another on Netherlans, then Lux, then Belgium and you just crush them before british will even start helping. I dont even call Italy in, only if i have troubles destroying them (I even use just basic tanks btw and only infantry with artilerry meaning I dont make any new until Barbarossa because of fuel shortage).

[@touch_of_cobalt]

That sounds pretty much be the tagline of this game!

[@rotarydude9737]

1.9k hours and I still almost never touch ironman or navy stuff, I prefer alt history, not grand stagey.

[@silver535311]

You forgot the third naval meta for singleplayer. The NAVAL bomber meta. I swear, if you have the rubber and aluminium, just dont bother with ships go for planes. My macau my day portugal sank both the Japanese Imperial Navy, the French Republic armada and the Royal Navy, their mighty battleships and carriers reduced to ashes as they sank to the depths of the watery hell they so loved. And as such, my Luso-Brazillian fleet of like 70 ships escorted my marines to the shores of brystol as the 8 remaining british destroyers stared their bretheren being gunned down by chinese soldiers armed with brazillian weapons with portuguese planes garanteeing CAS support and Air superiority. It was because of this achievement run that i realized how powerful planes are in this game.

[@FLUX.2226]

Partially because the AI is trash. The AI seems to *always* want to have a patrol in their sea zone, so once your naval bombers have sunk all their patrolling screens the AI will pull screens from their strike forces to put them on patrol. And once you've sunk those, they send their unescorted capital ships on patrols, and suddenly they don't have any ships for naval supremacy anymore. And you can invade them with just a handful of ships. I noticed this during a German playthrough where I was consistently sinking DDs and CLs in the English channel for several years, and suddenly I was sinking all kinds of capital ships on a daily basis. Both the British and American navy completely destroyed by a measly 5 mils on naval bombers. While in real life the bulk of the royal navy would sit in a Scapa Flow, completely safe from enemy bombers, and prevent an invasion with the threat of their presence alone - with or without patrols. If the AI left their strike forces untouched and stay in port even if there were no patrols left, naval bombers wouldn't be as powerful since there was still 20.000+ naval supremacy preventing an invasion. You'd have to do port strikes, which aren't as easy to pull off since they generally require bombers with bigger range and you'll encounter their entire fleet at once instead of picking off lone ships.

[@ParanoidMaster]

@@FLUX.2226 100% true. Nonetheless naval bombers are OP

[@OnlyGrafting]

How to get Pride and Extreme Prejudice Achievement. As Germany don't attack any nation, just British Malaysia, and do naval bomber spam. If you can't find the Hood cheese a naval invasion into Hull, yoink the airport if possible and start spamming over Ireland or Scotland for range and try find it without capping the UK. If another major joins allies cap the UK, leave the Isle of Man and NI because their fleet will always go back to it eventually, and you can harass with bombers at sea and in port until the Hood gets chased to port to repair and then bombed to the seabed in repair. I had them in a spot where 23 of the High Seas fleet were under thousands of naval bombers and just raiding like hell in the Western approaches. They couldn't kill them because the bombers got them too quickly, and eventually I baited the Hood out and chased it to the port in Belfast before a port strike took it out as it was repairing.

[@thebluntrealist7180]

I'm playing my first-ever game of HOI4, AS the USA, and the toughest match-up BY FAR is the user interface smh...

[@axion4499]

Patrol = Light Ships (and Submarines) Strike Force = Battleships, Cruisers, Capital Ships (Screens) Convoy Raiding = Submarines (10-15 per region) Convoy Escorting = Destroyers (6-8, depth charge and a light gun) (Heavy Ship guide) Every heavy ship has 8 destroyers in that fleet. OR Every heavy ship has 4 light cruisers in that fleet.

[@kyeloinsan.]

nc

[@Pax.Britannica]

Na, soft attack light cruisers dominate as raiders. Escorts become futile, thus the enemy must seek decisive battle, freeing up your fleet when you win.

[@damn8179]

My fleet never finds the big navy fleet of UK should i let them all go on patroll or waiting on the docks

[@Pax.Britannica]

@@damn8179 Think: why would the Royal Navy be at sea? You've got to coax them out first with convoy raiding.

[@damn8179]

@@Pax.Britannica so i should go for convoy raid and let my troops in the docks until the big fleet was found

[@doggo1605]

If you want super heavies then go Japan, they have a focus that gives you two that are significantly pre built

[@trinalgalaxy5943]

they are usually a novelty thing I add toward the end of the game, after I have already had access to significantly better ships. Japan getting early access is quite helpful if you are actually going to try and face down an enemy fleet.

[@garrettjohnson343]

@@trinalgalaxy5943 Even then for a country like a Japan, it already has a navy that can provide regional supremacy where it goes, so investing into an air force is more effective and you can switch production queues into something later.

[@trinalgalaxy5943]

@@garrettjohnson343 Even so it is on average better to go the carrier focus rather than the battleship one due to the better power.

[@CT-th4gy]

I allways do the zero bc you get a pretty good fighter and as japan you have no proplem with exp

[@albertiofbelgium7083]

What a timing, I just bought Man the guns lmao

[@lovablesnowman]

So?

[@generalgrievous9503]

@@lovablesnowman what lol?

[@voDkabmb]

@@lovablesnowman another So? guy -_-

[@JoeBurner1720]

@@generalgrievous9503 This guys a troll on this channel he constantly comments hate

[@KramutS]

Thank you for this guide, I've watched a few about the navy but still leave with more questions than answers. This is the idiots guide to hoi4 navy I needed.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I hope to update and expand on this! I received a lot of great feedback

[@danielgloyd4529]

Upgrading old outdated battleships to carier conversions is a fast way to increase your carrier count towards the end of the game. They are also faster than normal cariers when using battleship engines, if you want to meme with carrier convoy raiding or something.

[@Cerabelus]

If you are playing a long game and Annex some puppets that have cruisers or battleships you can convert them to carriers turning an old obsolete ship into something useful that you can upgrade.

[@zacharytaylor2423]

Unfortunately you can't refit ships that you did not originally build.

[@Cerabelus]

@@zacharytaylor2423 Yeah it would be nice if you had even limited ability to upgrade annexed ships. Like if there was empty slots you can fill them out and maybe you can upgrade guns but only to the same model year as the ship? How hard could it be to upgrade torpedoes and depth charges to a foreign ship?

[@chrisscott6254]

@@zacharytaylor2423 Well, yes you can. You just need to get the production license first.

[@zacharytaylor2423]

@@chrisscott6254 Oh, neat! TIL

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

Mine laying is AMAZING in single player. 80% speed reduction. What does that mean? It means that if you have an inferior navy you can EASILY avoid the enemy and engage in hit and run tactics. The fact that you increase their accident chance is a bonus, not the goal. Just make sure your mine laying ships are built for as much speed as they can get to avoid retaliation and you're good. These are amazing for Germany and Italy who can essentially shape their own battlefields and force fights on their terms.

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

The AI doesn't build minesweepers, right?

[@tallenta6071]

@@danieltemelkovski9828 ofc not

[@SkYHawK2600]

If they add, reduce refit cost to the equipment conversion tech. I think that would change every meta and make the naval more competitive.

[@brataj9525]

Aaaaaand they did :D

[@NocticonPlays]

thank you so much for making this. I have almost 900 hours, and still couldn't quite wrap my head around this navy stuff. This is super helpful!

[@ImmaOnDaInternetz]

Personally I think if they just rolled the naval gun research in with the ship models, but then kept the improvement research as separate it would help make the naval research feel more manageable. In all honesty I think actually just making everything locked behind ship models (torpedo launchers etc) you could streamline naval research so it feels much less of a timesink.

[@pikajew3578]

time SINK HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

Or alternatively, if naval supremacy (in the abstract sense of having the most globally dominant navy, not just some sea zone you're trying to naval invade) were more consequential for the outcome of the war, you could justify devoting more research slots to naval. As it is stands though, trying to achieve naval supremacy is mostly a waste of time.

[@pikajew3578]

@@danieltemelkovski9828 that's really sad bruv. Boats are cool and Paradox does not understand or appreciate the art of boat warfare! >:( MtG was good though, glad they made that at least.

[@Adumb_]

All the different modules are really annoying to research, they should be combine them into a few techs spread across the tree, that way you don’t have to research everything but still have progression through the years.

[@Cramblit]

@@Adumb_ I hate this logic.. Why are all of these awesome in depth war games constantly being dumbed down like this? 'Justcombine it for simplicity!" Or use your brain... Seriously though.. The more you have to research, and more you have to pick and choose what you do and don't go for, and when can swing the way wars and battles go. By comining them all together you're removing those differences ultimately making every army fight the same no matter what... Maybe that seems better to you, but I'm not a simpleton.

[@alexanderholt4679]

SPEED most important function is that it lowers enemy hit chance. RELIABILITY determines how likely a ship is to recieve a critical hit on pierced attack

[@thebluntrealist7180]

thanks, at least that's simple enough!

[@peterjensen9913]

A future I wish was added would be the ability to save ship designs across the game. Just so long as I have the naval XP and research it is waiting for me on the production menu. I play a lot of shorter games with friends so having to manually redo the ship designs every time is very draining and not fun. I find that a lot of this game in the first hour or two is fixing the bad templates and ship designs that you start with.

[@finale3853]

Same for every game building the cavalry templates for the garrisons

[@ritenger87]

Dope idea.

[@ricardomeijer7164]

I have learned quite alot from you for the game, just putting on your videos, getting black to playing the game and running into something that i need more information on. I like seeing your playthroughs and learning stuff from it. You´ve made me enjoy a game i didn´t understand shit from at the start.

[@berkeaydn8706]

This is the best naval guide a have ever seen well done!

[@gallendugall8913]

Thank you. Another well organized guide. Clearly I picked up the game at the right time. Channel is subscribed and bookmarked.

[@oscarpg2758]

i really needed this guide, thank you so much

[@EnderGraff1]

Thanks for all the great content!

[@mortalcoil8585]

I was seriously wanting this you read my mind

[@dominicc3521]

I was thinking yesterday, that this guy needs to make a navy focused vid. Today..... I’m impressed 🤗

[@outsidein2898]

I’ve been wanting a naval guide for ages

[@cronochaos38]

Base strike also give a lot of naval targeting bonus so you can also go with that if you don't want to build and manage a navy go with that and build a planes for naval strikes, a radar if you can spare and use air power to destroy ships and convoys. It works surprisingly well.

[@Soylent2024]

There just sint enough research slots to go into Navy. They should make a separate research slot that only research navy, for balance.

[@danielgloyd4529]

This, or making the techs faster when they are old. Hoi4 forces people to specialize research too much. It's hard to justify going back and and spending multiple years of research grabbing useless techs in the naval tree to get the up-to-date stuff. Even countries like the UK and USA who can get 6 slots and 40+% research bonuses can never really stay up to date in evwrything while doing doctrines. Hopefully this new update can help fix this by moving doctrines to the high command freeing up another research slot.

[@Soylent2024]

@@danielgloyd4529 exactly. When actuality, these would all be apart of standard military research. The navy doesn't jusy stop doing stuff because the army is researching stuff.

[@JoseNeto-sx5pc]

@@danielgloyd4529 Hopefully in barbarossa this will be less of a problem because doctrines will no longer take up a research slot

[@danieltemelkovski9828]

@@Soylent2024 That's true, but the idea behind limited research slots is to simulate a country managing its intellectual resources and being able to specialize more in one area than another. Just like in real life, you can't EVERYTHING you want to do; choosing to do one thing means sacrificing doing something else. That's not to say I think the way HoI4 simulates this is very good - eg am I gonna spend 200 days on a kick ass army doctrine, or 200 days on a better snorkel? Obvious choice. I don't know why the game designers thought that any more than 4-6 research slots would be "too confusing" for players. Research and focus tree management are the most interesting part of the game to me, so it would be pretty cool if there were like 20 or shit even 50 research slots.

[@Soylent2024]

@@danieltemelkovski9828 but if you look at the US or Germany, they had ALL those techs researched

[@richardsvensson]

A really good naval guide! Thank you!

[@thealphasam7350]

Literally just started a German Empire naval game. Thanks helped a lot.

[@Xix1326]

Excellent, excellent guide. Oh, so much info. Just how to read the furschlunger Navy panel was amazing for me. (I know, really simple but...). Thanks so much.

[@hedgeearthridge6807]

I've always HATED the Navy aspect of Hoi4, but this is definitely going to help me have an easier time and actually know what on earth im doing. Thank you so much!

[@Burrgundy]

Thanks, great to see new meta

[@AccelEng]

Thanks for the detailed guide; I would usually deathstack everything I've got and throw it at the enemy; well, no wonder it's lost me so many naval engagements. Keep up the good work!

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Glad I could help!

[@AccelEng]

@@Bitt3rSteel replying to a comment from a half-year old video? BASED, I'm glad I subbed.

[@Malak-ok7kg]

This was the video I needed to make the Navy click for me, thank you!

[@jacksonjennings9960]

This was great. Thank you.

[@littledango7674]

I agree with everything except that carrier 1> battleship converted hull. in my experience i found that in all cases carrier 1= battleship converted hull as both have equqal number of slots and both can have the same number of planes i.e 60. The area where carrier 1< battleship converted hull is the engine equipping as since its a battleship converted hull you can equip a battleship engine to match the speed of the carrier with the fleet cause if your carrier leaves before the escorts then the enemy just obliterates of heavily damages the ships(especilly if a enemy carrier is present) and if the fleet leaves before the carrier then well best case scenario, you get a heavy damaged carrier. other than this i think you did a very good job with everything else and explained it really well.

[@Bitt3rSteel]

Thanks, I must have been looking at a converted cruiser hull because I swear those are smaller in terms of deck size...

[@littledango7674]

Yep they’re small 40 planes max and are completely useless as you said in the video

[@mrv.c6291]

u helped a lot bro thx

[@jesse9638]

Thanks for this. Certainly earned a like and subscribe. Cheers.

[@gustavok7447]

Thank you so much!!

[@alyssafaden9443]

BRILLIANT GUIDE and very well presented

[@LiberRaider]

Great video. Thank you!

[@zacharytaylor2423]

If you're going for the sub strategy it is very important to pay attention to your engagement rule. Submarines will not engage screens unless they are set to "engage at high risk" or "always engage." Submarines using the default engagement rule will run away from enemy task forces instead of fighting them, unless they happen to come across a task force with poor screening efficiency (in which case they will try to take out the capital ships.) This can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the stage of the game. But if you have enough advantages (admiral with sub traits, experienced crews, good technology, etc) it may be worth grouping your subs into larger task forces of 30-40, setting them on a higher engagement rule. This works especially well if you've run the enemy out of fuel with convoy raiding first.

[@Tapsomebong234]

Thanks for this guide! Really helpful. Would love to see a quick guide on spy agencies and how to use them effectively.

[@DesertCookie]

That was exactly what I was looking for. Only have two years left until WWII and haven avoided the navy until now.

[@lightweight9815]

This was awesome

[@HelicopterShownUp]

Amazing video! Thank you good sir.

[@henrykri2067]

At 02.40 Reliability is mentioned. One very important thing that comes from reliability is the chance for a ship to being hit by a critical hit. A critical hit is very bad, well it's critical!, and the higher reliability the lesser risk for a ship to take a critical hit.

[@DeathEatsCurry]

More than 4 carries worth of planes operating in a battle: Crowded skies. A whole coastline worth of 2000 capacity airplanes: Nothing.

[@batzing]

Only 3 screens are required per Cap. I tend to use 4 per Cap because you never want your screening efficiency to fall below 100. (Or trops will start hitting the Caps) Heavy Cruisers are broken. Each medium turret you add on adds to the HP. Battle ships are pretty much useless due to this. You always do damage regardeless of piercing. The damage is only reduced if you can't pierce. It is never completely stopped. What this means in practice is that by IC a group of heavy cruisers will always defeat an IC equal group of battleships. This has been tested to death and you can see tests here on youtube for yourself. Speed also helps you avoid being hit in battle. This is why I seldom use armor on my ships. It slows them down and just makes them cost more.

[@lovablesnowman]

Naval combat really is fundamentally broken and has been since day 1. It's a shame because naval combat was so pivotal to ww2

[@MrNicoJac]

No man, maxed out LCs beat HCs (mostly because they're cheaper but don't count as capitals, so torps don't hit as hard once the screen gets blown apart) Speaking of, maxed out DDs are more cost efficient than LCs. Speaking of, SS-3s are more cost efficient than DD4s. Speaking of, naval bombers are more cost effective than subs. (which basically makes the whole naval game a massive waste of time and resources, which makes me VERY sad)

[@batzing]

@@MrNicoJac HC's beat LCs if you build the HCs with only one heavy turret and maxed out light guns. Light attack HCs beat LC and LCs beat HCs setup for heavy attack. It"s been tested many times with equal naval costs. The HCs are also able to get better bonuses from Admirals doctern and high commands for many nations. I've seen DD spam tested. Both the light attack HCs and the LC win every time. Each cruiser one hits A DD. So basically the DDs get shredded before the screens go down. All tests I talk about are done with equal forces by naval production tested both with and without doctern/Admirals/High Command The biggest problem for the DD spam is thier torps hardly ever get hits on Crusiers. So they're fighting with the tiny pop guns only. If the torps were more effective the situation might change. Naval bombers can be countered by maxing out your AA and using DP secondaries in all available slots instead of LA turrets. Your can easily get the cruisers AA attack above 20 which I find makes going in naval bomber range possible. I agree that sub 3s break the AI. Truth is you don't really need much of a navy against the AI. The AI can't manage fuel so even crappy sub 1s can't get windows of naval supremacy for invasions.

[@Greensiteofhell]

Great stuff! Finally the game is kind of playable ;)

[@DustyFlair3]

Thank you for this.

[@harshitrawat811]

i just started playing the game and am overwhelmed by so much thanks for the help tho

[@derpinguin8307]

Sehr gut erklärt. Danke!

[@boon1580]

in the sea of stupid guide videos that seems to have flooded utube these days, your's the most informative. kudos, liked and subscribed. i dont know what the hell the other channel owners were on, some think they are rapping and have to speak as fast as humanly possible, some are just laughing non stop at themselves while talking about stuff that is completely not funny at all. again thanks for taking the time to make this video.

[@s.antonio9554]

I just lost my Enterprise and other 6 carriers like an hour ago, and that was because my horrible composition, thanks for the guide and amazing video

[@thinkwithportals5018]

From what I have tried, CL convoy raiding is super powerful. You get 3-5 CL with max light attack and you shred convoys as they cannot run from your CLs. Pluss when the destroyer escorts come up to try and defend the convoys, you sink those too. Additionally, if you rush Cruiser 3 (very possible with many nations), and throw 2 torp tubes on it, it can effectively deal with capitals as well. I usually put a CA with max spotting just to find ships. I do often add in a Cruiser Carrier, even though it is not ideal, as a Minor, you cannot afford the research for more than one carrier, and the cruiser carrier benefits from your cruiser engines so it is able to keep up with the cruisers without dedicating more research. And if you rock up to an engagement with aircraft, and the enemy have no aircraft, you are golden. OR you just fill it (usually only have 1/group) with fighters and use it to keep your cruisers safe from enemy aircraft. I have been fairly successful in sinking much larger fleets with this comp. Not sure how it would compare to the torp meta

[@bobmichelle]

the best ! thanks

[@RunRiot_]

Good video man, thanks for the pointers, sucks how long it takes to build capital ships as a minor nation even majors takes forever.

[@MrBjeun]

Excellent guide

[@cirken2127]

Very good video, thanks

[@perkele2845]

Thanks you for this video. How I used to use navy in singleplayer was to merge all together with only one task force and I would only use it to naval invade. This is like opening a new game

[@hmabboud]

You are how every other HOI4 KZbinr should be. You explain exellently.

[@theempai]

I got about 300is hours in HOI 4 and even before man the guns i skipped all the naval part as it was way too complicated for me. It ruined every war with england japan etc as i just couldnt reach them and paratroopers also were hit or miss. At least for me. But now i won my first game with germany and Naval battle are such a blast. seeing the subs biting chunks out of the enemies convoys, the battleships obliterating the enemy navy. Thanks for this tutorial man. Improved my game by a lot

[@metallisika2745]

Note on heavy attack, it can also be used to destroy light ships if no enemy heavy ships or carriers are present. Also, dual purpose guns are pretty good on heavy ships, they give a bunch of light attack for assisting on shredding the light screen and also provide a lot of anti-air. There is no reason to avoid light attack on your heavies if you already have lots of heavy attack. Remember, more heavy turrets = slower ship.

[@littlebigplanet321]

21:12 the mic change makes it sound like your really excited about the battleships and the big boys! haha :)

[@pouriajafarikia65]

Great vid

[@chaselouie9965]

Yay finally a guide to the cryptic and confusing naval system

[@laurencesmith7436]

Did you know that you can train up carrier aircraft if you fly them to a land base? When returning them to the carriers waiting in port they'll tend to all stack on one deck, but you can organize them after clicking on the airbase icon that represents the various carrier decks in that port, just as if you were transferring from one airbase to another.

[@CronoTime]

Very solid and detailed guide as always,but this is why i dont play islands or naval invade, i just build enough subs and naval bombers to blot out the sky and the sea to protect me from naval invasions

[@nevets2371]

22:50 yeah that is how it is supposed to work, the British did that irl by keeping their fleet anchored in Scapa Flow in Northern Scotland where it was safe from German air raids but close enough to dissuade any invasion. That is the point of the "fleet in being" doctrine, that the threat of the navy is at times enough to force an enemy to go around or otherwise avoid what the navy is protecting, be it the home Island(s) or another important objective.

[@nevets2371]

One thing, the faster a fleet is the better it is at spotting enemy fleets, so I always have a few task forces of a couple light cruisers and destroyers out spotting for my bigger Strike force.

[@giovdb]

Awesome video. Thank you. I'm looking for a good video on refitting ships... Especially as Japan. In other words, what to do with the starting ships, and what to do later on with the ships you built early on. Do you refit, or just build new ones?

[@scavulous6336]

I'd build new ones, boats a boat even if it's old

[@arhugrey2285]

Light cruisers are the best for convoy raiding. Job is done in 1-2 days. Subs kill convoys in weeks. Also there's good training for admirals.

[@ggsimmonds1]

One thing I'll add to the fleet makeup as intended, if you go for Carriers you probably will want to pair them with Battlecruisers rather than battleships. Battleships are slow if you don't upgrade their speed and they will slow down your fleet. And in scenarios where your carrier fleet is late to the party, I *think* its possible they will arrive later than your carriers. So user battle cruisers because they have the speed to not slow down your fleet while still packing a decent punch.

[@dichebach]

Compared to the absolute joke of naval play in older versions of the game, the current state (with the DLC) is an enormous improvement. I've played as U.S. just up to the point where Japan declares and with my navy organized in a somewhat historical fashion and Japan did surprisingly well and most things functioned about like I would expect for a game that is striving to reflect naval warfare of the era. There was nothing really "wrong" about how things played out, except that some of the assumptions I had in mind when I organized and deployed my navy were faulty given how the game actually handles things: the stuff about task force limits on numbers of provinces and also how the missions work exactly was fuzzy, but your video has clarified that very well. It isn't the best naval mission system, but it works. I was impressed when my CV task force was searching down an enemy task force! 😂

[@iwantcrawfish6110]

Actually I find spamming out cruiser conversions as escort carriers to be an extremely effective strategy if you can. With some good naval dockyard output I was able to spit out one escort carrier and half a year almost. Get a handful of lines going of escort carriers to let it run for a year or two early game by the end of it you'll have a decent fleet of carriers. Granted for that method he won't have much for AA or anything else, but just having one hanger is all you need for an escort role

[@leog3145]

Just thank you

[@silosneeded]

I'm playing Germany rn, should I go Plan Z? or stick with U-boats.

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

U boats are simpler but there's nothing more satisfying than building a proper navy from the ground up to wreck the allies. Either one are good options and really you should try both sometime.

[@seriousgoat76]

Never go plan Z, you will never match the british or american navy, its better to use the U boat bonus to get 1940 or 1944 subs early.

[@1Madlycat]

If you go with plan Z you’ll end up diverting most of your war economy toward building a fleet Leaving you in a weaker position against The Soviet Union.

[@MundaneThingsBackwards]

@@seriousgoat76 That isn't even true for casual multiplayer, my man. Forget a single player game even on the highest difficulty. You can and should do whatever you like there so long as you're having fun.

[@flamingoxe5984]

just uboat stack

[@Cerabelus]

My favourite Fleets at the moment. Destroyer with 2 Torpedo, 1 Depth Charge, Active Sonar set to Escort. Lightcruiser with 2 or 3 Light battery's, 2 or 3 catapult, Armour and Radar set to spotting. Battlecruiser with 2 or 3 Heavy Battery's, secondary or dual purpose guns and Armour set to strikeforce. All under the same Admiral they will support each other if assigned to the same region's As time goes on I make newer models and more firepower, add 1 torpedo to the lightcruisers and Radar 3, battecruiser upgrade to dual purpose guns and Radar 3. Don't bother upgrading Armour and Engines it takes way too long. I go Battlecruiser because they have similar stats and the armour only adds +7% to production cost rather than +20% for the Battleship.

[@redwall1521]

15:00 "[The AI] is not really suited to naval warfare" Neither are we. Neither are we.

[@flaqo_]

For the light attack surface fleet meta, how do you organize the Torpedo DD? In its own task force? Which settings makes it work as intended? Or is it used manually?

[@boran2796]

I just use LC with maximum torps and 1 depth charge, HC with maximum light attack turrets (only 1 medium to make it heavy), absolutely destroys anything ai throws at you because they make really bad ships

[@Swrdfshtrmbns]

"I will not get too in-depth here" > 38 min video > "Yeah this is a paradox game"

[@kairon156]

I may have to watch this a few times. I'm playing a co-op game as Australia focusing on subs as America does the main push against Japan. Lots of good tips here... Just as I was watching this video I heard there's going to be some changes to the Navy. More realistic but maybe less fun.

[@jasonmendelsohn6316]

When I play US I typically take the pacific fleet and split it into 3 taskforces The ones with surface ships generally get 1CV, 5BB, 5CA, 10CL, 30DD I make sure to modify a few of the destroyers in each taskforce to have sonar II and all new CL get a fuck ton of catapults and RADAR. And generally by endgame each taskforce will have 3CV. I don't bother making more BB or BC. As for the Atlantic I make some small escorts with 1CA, 3CL, and 10DD.

[@MrScarduelli]

It is funny how the cheese way is kind of the evolution of naval strategy, smaller and faster ships to support for the carriers

[@maj.kingkong3004]

Just curious how applicable this guide still is after No Step Back and By Blood Alone. Love your guides. They have helped me so much.

[@mich8453]

Finally! I understand!

[@cloudkelsey]

Some notes about carriers. If you are a major power with a lot of resources the 1936 Carrier is probably the best option and spot for you. If you are a minor the converted hull light carrier works really well especially with the Pacific Design Company as it will make a 40 deck CVL into a 50 deck. Thats just 10 planes less than a major powers pre-researched 1936 carrier for just a single research on carrier 1's. Also light Carriers (CVL's) are very very effective at being a total nuisance to fleets. By making a Heavy Cruiser to guard the CVL and an appropriate screen you can put the CVL in a sea zone and do air missions in the zone or all around and start tagging subs and enemy fleets with NAV1's or NAV'2. If that sub or fleet runs into you then you engage with those NAV's and unless they are built up they are going to pay a price. I will say that the Converted BB carrier is probably the weakest of the bunch and while many of the original majors (USA, England, and Japan) come with them they are at least free carriers and will tide you over just fine. The carrier 2 (CV2) research is the best bang for the buck production and research wise for a large nation but not so for a smaller nation due to the steel cost unless you are planning on building a cut down version and then refitting later. Again for a small nation a light carrier is a good sweet spot. Example as Australia you can very easily go with Carrier 1 research (or just license it from England and covert the CL1 to a CVL) then go into either CL3 or DD3 production. You could even go cross eyed and make BB1 or BB2's and refit but it will take the steel to do so and I suggest going Heavy Cruisers (CA2) instead as CA's kill anything but battleships and your light cruisers well kill everything.

[@Nikola95inYT]

It should be noted that strike force will intercept any enemy fleets, not just the ones who were found by patrol missions. If your convoy escort is being attacked, strike force will try to join the battle as well. So while defending against superior enemy fleet patrol missions aren't necessary. But of course, finding the enemy and striking first is always better.

[@fwisser1010]

The converted battleship has an advantage that paired with a high level battleship engine it can go faster than carrier 4s but they are so limited in capacity that they are hardly worth it

[@Strelnikov403]

You only need four screens per capital, of any type, to achieve 100% screening efficiency. 4 destroyers, 4 cruisers, doesn't matter - as long as you maintain that 1:4 ratio, you'll get 100% efficiency. The rest is down to combat stats. Any additional screens in the task force beyond the amount required to fulfill the 1:4 ratio aren't counted for your efficiency, but are still included in the actual combat.

[@ezganks71]

I started playing the game a little over a year ago and navy was the very last thing I learned because it just gave me headaches every time I tried to learn how to do the proper navy. I stay determined and continued to research as much as I could giving myself breaks so my brain wouldn’t hurt but now I can say I very much enjoy navy. Not just spamming submarines but having a proper navy although without the unlimited docks mod building any battleships or refitting them is almost impossible

[@bradleystevens4618]

I'd really like to see a video where you do the cruiser + torpedo destroyer + tugboat strategy

[@kristiqn9924]

i just really like the sound when i send ships somewhere

[@icook1723]

Higher speed also makes you harder to hit. As the ods to hit are based on you visibility/speed. Light guns have a much better profile than heavy guns, and both are much better than torpeados. This gives CA a very clear role. Without armor, top engines, and lots of light guns, you have a screen killer. As a "capitol" ship, light guns will have to clear the screens to take a shot. With a moderate visibility but high speed, heavy guns will have trouble scoring hits (BB penetration is so high that it is better to go without armor and try and evade). This burns thru enemey screens, letting you CLs and DD unleash torps on the capitol ships. Of cource there are counters, the best is a traditional CA with armor and meadiun guns. They are cheap enough to bring that they can bring a lot of guns to shread the light CAs.

[@edmundcowan9131]

Very good

[@Ulfbhert9000]

Theres a way to make really cheap carriers for escort or for a poor mans fleet carrier called an 'Escort Carrier' you take whatever carrier hull you have and just have 1 hanger and add on radar to give that little extra detection along with the escorting destroyers found them to be a interesting tool to both harass targets with low cost carriers to keep them on their toes and give them that extra punch against subs or standard warships

[@meili4790]

Hi I love your guides! I was wondering if you had ever considered doing guides for Kaiserreich nations?

[@Bitt3rSteel]

I really don't know enough about KR to do guides on it, but I do plan to play it some more

[@meili4790]

@@Bitt3rSteel that's awesome! I look forward to it ^^