Air/Sea questions

[Juan Peron 2]

While waiting for HOI4 I have been spending a lot of time on Air and Sea perfection, which I mostly neglected for years.

Question 1: As Italy it is difficult to build powerful surface fleets due to IC limitations. Has anyone tried ignoring BB's altogether and just cranking out up to date Heavy Cruisers? Obviously they will take significant losses but right now I am having trouble having enough BB fleets in order to project power as I want to.

Question 2: I have really been learning the value of NAV's. In a recent game I have 15 NAV's paired into 3 groups of 5 each. I was able to totally shred the British in the through port strikes (mostly from crete).

Having done so, my question is does anyone have a lot of success with Naval strikes by themselves or is the goal always to damage with a naval strike and then finish them off with port strikes?

Right now I have taken Spain and am sinking convoys at an unbelievable rate with my NAV. Eventually the US enters the war and the area is full of US ships, however I am never able to sink any. I damage them, the leave and get repaired, and then come back.

Is the goal to move half or more of my NAV's to where they are in range of British ports and then finish them off there with port strikes (in which case I will need more fighter cover)?

Thanks

 

[marxianTJ]

1. I found Italy's starting navy (with a bit of reshuffling) to be more than sufficient for what I wanted it to do. The problem for me is every IC put into more ships is less IC in - well not ships to protect my expanding borders.

The basic thought is DDs and BBs are sort of a natural fit for each other (because they'll speed up the close rate of BBs and get them in quickly), and you want at least a 1:1 ratio between BBs and DDs - with more DDs being even better (more speed). The same would go for CAs I imagine. CVs tend to match up better with just CLs and maybe a DD here or there - since you're mainly just wanting meat to block your CV from getting hurt (and CLs are meatier than DDs).

2. Navs are totally viable in the Med, you can do all sorts of crazy stuff if you put enough IC and research into them. The starting Italian fleet should be sufficient to push the UK around and bomb them once they head to port or another fairly good option is to engage them in a ship vs ship battle, and then call in your Navs - normally Navs don't get too long to shoot at ships, but once they're locked into battle, it's easy pickings - and it'll go on for a while.

3. if you can take Gibraltar (via naval invasion or air borne) and lock out the Suez you'll never have to worry about USA ships That's why I don't sweat Italy's navy too much - because the only thing you've got left for it to do after you control Gibraltar and the Suez is... Invade England? Invade the USA? All fairly ahistorical, but doable things, and you don't really need a super massive fleet to accomplish it. So, even if my entire fleet gets sunk taking the Suez and Gibraltar, it's mission accomplished lol.

 

[therealpete]

Some things you should keep in mind about Italy & trying to build a surface fleet is this:

1) Albeit you start with some ships in your fleet, they're older classes and relatively smaller than British Mediterranean fleet.

2) Not only do you have to distribute IC for building/upgrading a navy, you also need to bolster your ground forces and perhaps even your airforce if you wish.

3) You will never be able to outproduce Britain in ship building, requiring you to chose how you use your fleet carefully. My biggest issues whenever I was deciding how to properly & effectively utilize Italy's navy was avoiding massive naval engagements with the UK at all costs.

4) The shore bombardment & transport capabilities you can use are helpful for any campaigns you might launch in / around Greece or the general Mediterranean sea.