GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURwill appear as one of theoptions in the contextsensitivelist of possible navalmissions. A second method ofrebasing involves clicking on afleet’s mission box in anyinterface that displays amission. Select rebase fromthe list of available missionsand select the base you wishto assign from a new listdisplays all possible bases. Becareful when rebasing viaeither method because themaximum range is ignored forthis order. Fleets will proceedto their new base, but if thisexceeds double their rangevalue, they may suffer a verylarge temporary organisationloss, depending on the totaldistance travelled. While it ismoving to this new distantbase, your fleet could beattacked by enemy vesselsor aircraft, which couldeasily have disastrousresults.Basic NavalCombatOverviewWhen two or more enemyfleets are located in thesame sea zone, there is apossibility that a naval battlewill ensue. Whether or not abattle occurs depends onwhether one of the fleetssuccessfully spots the otherand is currently underorders to engage. Like landcombats, naval combatsrepresent prolonged engagementsthat can take some timeto resolve. However, themethod of resolving a battle isa bit different due to navalcombat’spositioningand rangeconcepts.As I mentionedabove, bothsides aretreated as“attackers”when determiningthe maximum fleet sizebefore there are overstackingeffects (see the naval leadershipsection above). Theunderlying concepts of attackvalues, defence values, andcombat efficiencies are thesame, but the targeting is alsohandled somewhat differentlyand more selectively.When the fleets first spot oneanother, there will be somedistance of ocean lyingbetween them and each fleetwill have a starting positioningvalue. Think of this as anindication of how well a ship ispositioned, relative to anenemy, in order to bring itsmain weapons to bear on atarget. As the battle progresses,the fleets will begin toclose the distance betweeneach other and try to manoeuvrefor better positioning,something that will beseriously hampered for a sidethat lacks sufficient screeningvessels. Each ship will beginto fire at the enemy’s vesselsonce the distance thatseparates it from them iswithin the range of the ship’sweapons. Carriers will usuallybegin their attacks first, sincetheir weapons (airplanes)have the greatest range; thebattleships will then open fire,and then cruisers, and so on.At some point, one side willeither sink or will wish todisengage, though it will takesome time to disengage,during which further damageis likely to be inflicted on theretreating fleet. Let’s look atthe details.VisibilityBefore combat can begin, afleet needs to first detect theenemy fleet. The likelihoodand timing of this is determinedby the visibility and134