GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURdetection abilities of eachflotilla, and is further modifiedby their officers’ abilities andby weather conditions. A “spotcheck” is made periodicallyuntil one fleetdetects the other, or oneof them leaves the seazone. If a spot checksucceeds and the fleethas orders to engage,an enemy combat willbegin.Initiation of NavalCombatWhen combat is firstinitiated, the positioningof each fleet and thedistance between themwill be. This dependslargely on the officer’sskills and on the navaldoctrines that havebeen researched,though weather will alsohave an impact. You willbe notified that combathas begun and the fleetinformation panel willdisplay a combat quickviewthat is similar tothe one used for landcombats. The samequick view will also beadded to the ActiveCombats Hot Buttonlisting. Clicking on thequick view will displaythe detailed battle view.Naval Combat ResolutionAt first glance, the navaldetails will look very similar tothe land combat version,which it is, in some respects.You will see the flags of thenations involved, the leaderportraits (with detailed tooltip),the battle status bar andconditions icons, and acomplete list of units involvedon both sides (also withdetailed tooltip). What won’tlook familiar is the range andpositioning informationdisplayed between the twoflags, and the very smalltargeting icons that appearsjust below the strength andorganisation bars of each unit,each of which is an essentialcomponent of naval combat.There are additional vitaldetails in each one of theseitems’ tooltips. Naval battlesprogress on an hourly basis.Every hour, both commanderswill try to manoeuvre theirfleets into a more favourableposition and will try to attainwhat each feels is theoptimum range to achievemaximum effect. Their skilllevel and rank will have agreat impact on their ability toachieve this, as will having asufficient number of screeningvessels to protect the capitalships.The starting distance betweenthe two fleets will usually(though not always) be greaterthan the maximum range ofany of their vessels’ attackscapabilities, so the first hoursof “combat” are likely to be asuccession of manoeuvreswhich slowly close the gapbetween the fleets. You cantell at a glance whether aflotilla is in range by looking atthe small targeting icon. If ithas a red bar through it, therange is still too great for it tobegin attacking any vesselsthat the fleet has spotted. Youcan find out the unit’smaximum targeting range bylooking at the tooltip that isdisplayed when you hoveryour mouse over the icon. Thesame tooltip will also indicatethe flotilla’s current attack anddefence effectiveness.The commanding officer willdecide upon an overall fleetrange that he feels is theoptimum separation based onhis fleet composition and whathe knows of the enemy’s fleetcomposition. He will try toclose to this distance and thenmaintain it throughout thecourse of the battle. This willbe nearly impossible if he hasinsufficient screening vesselsto work with. At the same time,he will attempt to manoeuvrehis ships into an optimumattack and defence position.The current distance betweenthe two fleets is displayed inthe center of the small blackbox between the nationalflags. If you hover your mouseover this value, a tooltip willreport the separation that eachcommander considers to behis fleet’s optimum.Each fleet’s current positioningis displayed on either side ofthe distance value. Positioningwill become very critical oncethe fleets have come withinrange of one another, so youmay want to get a sense of thetwo commanders’ relative skilllevels by watching both valuesas the fleets begin to close toas they vie for an advantage.The positioning values willchange by small amountseach hour and if you find thatyours remains much lowerthan your enemy’s, you maywant to break off the combatto avoid sustaining heavylosses.Once a ship is in range of anenemy fleet, it will attempt tofire upon the enemy vessels.Its ability to successfully135