Since there is a risk that lone or small groups of ships could be intercepted on the way to or from port, this feature is off by default. Once repaired, those ships will return to the patrol area and merge back with the main fleet. If enabled, ships that are damaged will leave the main fleet and return to base to repair while the main fleet continues on its mission in the patrol area. If the player does not have admirals they may be recruited with Political Power Points they cost 5 Political Power for each admiral.Īdmirals have a skill between 1 and 5, where each level provides rising bonuses for Naval hit chance and Fleet Coordination.Īutomatic split off is a toggle.

It is important to assign admirals to your fleets if you have them, as they can greatly influence combat. When your fleet is selected you can assign an Admiral to it by clicking on the empty silhouette in the picture frame. The fleet list will be reduced to only the fleets you selected when one lets go of ⇧Shift. To select an individual fleet the player can click on 'Select', and to select several fleets from this group you can hold down ⇧Shift + click on 'Select' for the fleets you wish to add. Individual fleets may be selected by first clicking on that counter which will bring up your fleets on the left side of the screen, as shown in the screenshot where 'Home Fleet', 'Northern Patrol' and '2nd Submarine Flotilla' have all been selected with one click. As such it is recommended that ships are based in ports that either have sufficient air coverage or are outside the range of the enemy airforce. Holding your mouse over that counter will show you more information including fleet names, average strength and organization for all the ships in that base, and a count of ship types.ĭocked fleets may in times of war be vulnerable to port strikes if air superiority over the continental region the port is in cannot be secured. The number shown on the counter is the total amount of individual ships currently in that base. Admirals may be assigned to fleets to improve offensive and defensive combat abilities proportional to their skill level and provide the benefits and bonuses of any individual traits they may have.įleets usually begin the game docked in naval bases. Fleets can also be ordered to engage the enemy or to avoid combat. Orders can specify how sensitive the fleet is to damage and they will return to their home base to repair automatically when predetermined damage levels are reached (it is also possible to order damaged ships to automatically break off and return to the fleet's home port to repair while the main fleet continues its mission - once repaired, these ships will later rejoin the fleet automatically). A single fleet can cover at most three adjacent regions, combining them into one large patrol area. Naval combat is mostly automated through mission orders assigned to fleets and to be carried out in particular sea regions. Each new ship produced is either automatically assigned to a designated existing fleet or to a new fleet of its own in a naval base that may also be specified by the player. It is the fleet that carries out naval missions and naval combat, and while the individual ships in those fleets can gain experience or be sunk, they are at all times assigned to a fleet and take action in the game as part of a fleet until sunk or scrapped (i.e. While these fleets are made up of individual ships of different classes which can be named and customized, in order to use them at all they must be assigned to fleets. The basic functional unit for naval forces in Hearts of Iron IV is the fleet. *info on naval combat, and more detailed info on the naval missions

Hearts of iron iv fleet composition