GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURthat let you decide whether thefleet should automaticallyreturn to base once themission is complete. If myflotilla’s strength level fallsbelow this value, the fleet willreturn to its naval basefor a period of time until allflotillas in the fleet have beenrepaired to a suitable strengthlevel, at which pointit will resume its mission.The lower half of the interfaceallows you to adjust themission’s time parameters,possibly delaying the date thatit should begin the missionand setting its duration byassigning an end date. Thedefault values are usually forthe mission to begin immediatelyand to continue for onemonth, but these can bechanged to whatever valuesyou desire by clicking theappropriate “+” and “-” buttons.If you have recently setparameters for another fleet’smission, the default settingswill be identical for the nextfleet’s mission. Once themission is complete, the fleetwill return to its assigned navalbase to await new orders. Ifyou use Darkest Hour’sdefault message settings, youwill be given a mission statusreport when it arrives back atits base, informing you that itis ready for new orders. Thismessage has a “select” buttonthat allows you to quicklyselect the fleet and issueit a new mission.RebaseI’ve already described thisorder, so I’ll simply remind youthat moving a fleet to a newnaval base or to a port will notreassign it to be based there.You must use the rebaseorder.MoveThis order is one of the availablealternatives when“targeting” a province. Thisinstructs the fleet to enterthe port or naval base of thatprovince, but since this is notits assigned naval base, it willnot take on any fuel orsupplies. The move order ismost often used to sendtransports to a port to pick upa land division for a subsequentsea transport oramphibious assault mission.AttackAlthough this isn’t a missionthat you can select from themenu, this is the missiontype that will be displayedwhen you use asimple right-click to movea fleet to a new seazone. The fleet will moveto that sea zone via themost direct path and willengage any enemyvessels that it encountersthere. Because it issteaming at full speed toits destination, it is quiteunlikely that it will spot anenemy fleet during itsvoyage, though it willengage any that itmanages to detect.Naval InterdictionThis is a naval order thatinstructs your fleet to patrolthe sea zones within a particulararea. It will randomlymove through those zonesand will initiate an attackagainst any enemy surfacefleets it encounters. Thechances of it spotting a fleetare slightly less than thechances of it doing so whenstationary in a single seazone, although this allows youuse a single fleet to cover asomewhat larger area of waterwith a lower likelihood ofspotting submarines.Naval Combat PatrolThisorder is nearly identical to thenaval interdiction order;however, a naval combatpatrol is designed to cover amuch larger section of theocean. It will move randomlythrough the sea zones in aspecified region, but becauseit is covering a much largerregion, it is somewhat morelikely that an enemy fleet -enemy submarines inparticular - could escape itsdetection or slip by itunobserved.Convoy RaidingThis order instructs your fleetto patrol a sea area with theprimary purpose of disruptingenemy commercial shipping.Any enemy convoys that tracetheir path through a sea zonethat is currently patrolled by anavy with this mission mustattempt to slip past the patrol.There is a reasonable chancethat at least some of themwill fail to do so and will besunk, although their chancesincrease significantly if theyare accompanied by escorts.These limited actions are notdisplayed as battles in thegame, but are reflected by areduction in the convoyefficiency and trade efficiencyvalues that are displayed inthe Production Folder. Acountry that relies on foreignshipments and trade to obtainthe necessary resources is in138