Hearts Of Iron 4: Best Fleet Compositions

Hearts of Iron 4 is a complex grand-strategy game developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive. The game focuses on World War 2 era warfare and politics, where players can take control of a country leading up to or during the Second World War. Aside from the incredibly complex and wide range of gameplay mechanics, including diplomacy, research, production, economy, and industry, players must funnel their efforts into building and managing a military worthy of war.

Warfare in Hearts of Iron 4 can be conducted (at its most basic level) from land, air, or sea. Players who have chosen a coastal country to begin their journey must invest in their country's navy to maintain sea power. Enthusiastic players will quickly discover that merely sending out a bunch of subs will ultimately result in their naval forces being decimated. To bring out their maximum potential as admirals, it is important to understand fleet composition in Hearts of Iron 4. Here are the best fleet compositions that Commanders can use to ultimately win the World War.

Important Information

Before diving in, there is some important information players should know.

There are three types of ships in Heart of Iron 4:
- Capital Ships: Battleships / Battle Cruisers
- Screens: Cruisers / Destroyers
- Submarines
Navies consist of one or more fleets which has one or more Task Forces, which then contains a number of Individual Ships. A group of fleets is called a Theater.
Reserve Fleets will fill in the gap left by losses within a fleet or its subsequent parts.
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6 Sub-Hunting And Coastal Patrol

Tanks and soldiers invading a coast in HOI4

Hearts of Iron 4 players can assign the help of CL (Light Cruisers) x1 and DD (Destroyers) x3 to maintain sea superiority in certain key regions along their coastlines. This fleet composition is especially powerful and dynamic since it can not only inhibit submarine activity in their zones but also guard important establishments along their coastlines.

An optional addition to naval theaters could be ASW (Anti-submarine warfare) air and seacraft. The surface ships are used to detect and engage enemy submarines, while the ASW aircraft provide additional detection and attack capabilities. Commanders should set their Sub-Hunting/Coastal Patrol fleet to Patrol and set Engagement to high-risk, i.e., ships attack any and all enemies detected.

5 Convoy Raiding

The Convoy Raiding composition focuses on assigning task forces of 9-12 submarines in each fleet. Each fleet should ideally be sent to a location with negligible to no air cover. Each fleet is given a deep water zone to control (i.e. Raid convoys). Ideally, players should try building at least 5 fleets with submarine task forces, giving each an adjacent zone to control.

Battle commanders should set their Convoy Raiding fleet to Search and Destroy, or better, give the order to Raid Convoys.

4 Anti-Aircraft Fleet

Different Aircraft types in Hearts of Iron 4

Commanding Officers can enlist the help of CL x1 and DD x2 to solidify their air defense in a certain region. Care must be taken that these ships are equipped with AA (Anti-Air) components. Thus, players are encouraged to design fleets taking into account the AA ratings of individual ships.

Players can scale this task force to their required proportions, depending on their opposing country's air supremacy. Up to CL x20 and DD x40 is pretty powerful and gets the job done for most games. Of course, players can also choose to fight fire with fire and incorporate CVs (aircraft carriers) into their anti-air task force.

3 Convoy Escort

Tanks escorted by planes heading towards a battlefield in hoi4

But instead of just attacking enemies, how can players protect their own ships? That is where the possibility of a convoy escort comes in. Considering that the most popular convoy raiding fleets make good use of submarines, fans are going to want to use ships that can effectively counter them and aircraft alike.

DD x (5-20) is an optimal combination for this purpose. Each destroyer must have AA components, sonar, and depth charges to effectively counter enemy submersibles and aircraft. Commanders can also enlist the help of CL x (4-5) and CA (Heavy Cruiser) x (2-4) to further increase the strength of their escort missions in Hearts of Iron 4.

2 Sea Zone: Patrol Fleet

There may come a scenario where players need to gather intelligence on enemy presence in certain sea zones. For that purpose, a final fleet consisting of CA x(2-4) or BC (Battle Cruiser) x(1-2), CL x(4-7), and DD x10 is a fleet composition to be reckoned with.

Initially, owing to lesser resources, players may only manage to scrounge together a few DDs for patrol, but as the game progresses and the need arises, commanding officers can invest in creating larger task forces to create a fleet that is formidable.

1 Strike Fleet

Strike Fleets are amalgamations of a majority of a nation's seacraft into a singular task force. Usually, fans are going to want to keep a few solitary patrol ships nearby to watch out for intruders and to snuff out enemy ships for the strike fleet to annihilate. Because of this, players will find it effective to keep their strike fleet close to their patrol ships.

Strike Fleets, thanks to their size, are costly to maintain and keep active. These fleets consume fuel very quickly and can only perform operations in a single sea zone at a time. Thus, players must only engage their main strike fleet when victory appears absolute. Strike fleets don't have a set number of ships/submersibles; the more, the merrier. However, players must keep some rules of thumb in mind: These ships are recommended in a strike fleet: