GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURcomposition. Squadrons areusually smaller groupingswhile fleets are usually larger.For the sake of clarity, I willuse the term “fleet” throughoutthis section to denote anygroup of two or more navalflotillas.A capital ship is a large navalvessel such as an aircraftcarrier, battleship, battlecruiser or heavy cruiserand may also sometimes bereferred to as a “core vessel”.Unlike all other units inDarkest Hour, where a divisionrepresents a large number ofsoldiers or a full division oftanks, these naval units areactually individual ships,despite the fact that they arecalled a flotilla. A screeningvessel is a smaller ship typewhose primary functionis to protect and escort otherships.The destroyer is the standardscreening vessel and eachdestroyer unit in Darkest Hourrepresents a flotilla of similarships. A light cruiser also actsas a screening vessel, eventhough each unit representsan individual ship. You shouldtry to ensure that you have atleast one screening unit foreach capital ship in a fleet, oryou will be subject to combatpenalties. The third class ofvessel is the submarine.Again, a single unit representsa flotilla of subs and willusually perform the duties ofconvoy disruption or act as astealthy, predatory componentof a larger fleet. The final classof vessel is the transport, aflotilla of non-combatvessels used for ferryingtroops across the seas. If atransport flotilla is forced intocombat, it will behave as acore vessel and try to maintainthe greatest possible distancefrom the enemy forces.Naval BrigadesSimilarly to land units, thereare naval brigades that can beattached to naval units. Here'sa brief list of them:naval anti air: increases theair defence and air attack of aship;naval anti submarine:increases the submarinedetection and submarineattack of a ship;naval fire control:increases the seaattack and shorebombardmentvalues and themaximum firingdistance;naval improvedhull: increases thesea defence and airdefence of a ship;naval radar:increases thesurface detectionand air detection;naval torpedoes:increase theconvoy attack andlater modelsincrease the seaand submarineattack too;naval floatplanes:increase thesurface, air andsubmarine detection and latermodels increase the seaattack, convoy attack andsubmarine attack too;Carrier AirGroupAircraft carriers have a specialnaval brigade: the Carrier AirGroup (or CAG). The productionof CAGs is orderedfrom the Air Wing section ofthe Production Ordersinterface and then may bedeployed from the force poolto any available aircraft carrier,using the same method youuse to attach a brigade to adivision. However, a CAG mayonly be attached to a carrier,and a carrier may only haveone CAG attached to it at atime.The CAG represents astandard complement ofaircraft that can operate fromthis moving nautical platformand are able to perform avariety of functions. Theseroles include spotting, directattacks against enemyvessels, providing air cover forthe fleet, and also shoreassignments that are normallyconducted by tacticalbombers, although they lack128