I know the meta says to separate battleships from carriers due to the former slowing down the latter, but historically battleships and carriers did operate in the same fleet. In fact, the US specifically developed fast battleships like the Iowa to keep up with the carriers to act as screens and provide bombardment support for landings.
I'm not sure if this was actually necessary IRL seeing as carriers on their own out-ranged, out-sped, and out-reconed battleships, making it very unlikely for BBs to get into range of a CV in the first place. But I suppose it was done out of an abundance of caution.
HoI4 tries to incentivize BB escorts by making CVs need capital screens, but it does so at the price of realism where surface ships are somehow able to always get close enough to CVs consistently to threaten them and make the battleship screen necessary. Not a good trade off, even if it does actually incentivize you to invest in batttleships or at least battlecruisers.
So is there any advantage to having battleships in DH carrier fleets other than roleplay? My planned composition was:
4 Carriers
2/4 Battleships
4/6 Light Cruisers
6 Destroyers
=
18 ships commanded by an admiral.
Which is in contrast to my usual Carrier Fleets of 4 CVs, 4 CLs, and 4 DDs and Battleship fleets of 6 BBs and 6 DDs commanded by a Vice Admiral. Its less economical to be sure, but America can swing it and frankly my battleships are probably better off rolling alongside carriers. Who is escorting who again?
Only setback is that its probably not a good tradeoff to have a CV fleet parked off of a beach for the BBs to provide gunfire support to landings when it could be hunting enemy fleets.
Hopefully my 'all round' small task forces comprised of 3 CAs and 3 DDs will be adequate enough to provide such support when massed together. Should probably replace a CA with a CVL honestly.
I'm not sure if this was actually necessary IRL seeing as carriers on their own out-ranged, out-sped, and out-reconed battleships, making it very unlikely for BBs to get into range of a CV in the first place. But I suppose it was done out of an abundance of caution.
HoI4 tries to incentivize BB escorts by making CVs need capital screens, but it does so at the price of realism where surface ships are somehow able to always get close enough to CVs consistently to threaten them and make the battleship screen necessary. Not a good trade off, even if it does actually incentivize you to invest in batttleships or at least battlecruisers.
So is there any advantage to having battleships in DH carrier fleets other than roleplay? My planned composition was:
4 Carriers
2/4 Battleships
4/6 Light Cruisers
6 Destroyers
=
18 ships commanded by an admiral.
Which is in contrast to my usual Carrier Fleets of 4 CVs, 4 CLs, and 4 DDs and Battleship fleets of 6 BBs and 6 DDs commanded by a Vice Admiral. Its less economical to be sure, but America can swing it and frankly my battleships are probably better off rolling alongside carriers. Who is escorting who again?
Only setback is that its probably not a good tradeoff to have a CV fleet parked off of a beach for the BBs to provide gunfire support to landings when it could be hunting enemy fleets.
Hopefully my 'all round' small task forces comprised of 3 CAs and 3 DDs will be adequate enough to provide such support when massed together. Should probably replace a CA with a CVL honestly.
Last edited: