Naval Strategy

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    • Naval Strategy

      Hi, all.
      What is your preferred naval strategy? Corvettes are used as early game coast guard, blocking unguarded transports.
      But after I get corvettes, it gets murky. Or should I even get corvettes in the first place?
      I have tried getting corvettes then going to frigate- but max level frigates get defeated by level 1 destroyers(if in range)...
      And then, I have tried mass producing destroyers, but they get bested by Cruisers. When I get cruisers, I get ambushed by AIP subs.(Or attack subs in the deep sea)
      I know the answer, "escort your cruisers with destroyers". But when I put 2 destroyers with 3 cruisers, I get destroyed by a team of 5 cruisers from my enemy...
      I never have the resources to research everything(Other than in flashpoint, of course :D )
      I typically use the counter to any units my enemy has. But when I fight an enemy coalition, one country gets subs, the other gets cruisers, the third gets naval recon or ASW helicopter...
      I also have found that my frigates often get destroyed by a wing of ASW helicopters...
      So, what is your naval strategy?
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • I am far from the best person to ask on this matter, but I do have some experience as an island nation so here's what I took away...

      There is no set strategy. You cannot have one solid stack that will destroy everything. Your best bet is to research, at the very least, frigates, destroyers, and cruisers (attack subs are also nice). My go-to is usually 1 destroyer and 4 cruisers. Although it is still incredibly vulnerable, a lot of players seem to neglect a solid airforce. The point of naval warfare is essentially to cut off transports and bombard on-shore troops while simultaneously making sure your enemy can't do the same (I think).

      If worst comes to worst, a few cruise missiles are the best answer to most problems.

      Oh yeah, and also continuously be active, and be able to switch out ships in your stacks. If you see a sub lurking nearby, shoot a stack of destroyers that way. If you see only ships, use cruisers. Or just spam cruise missiles.

      Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong!
      "Dealer of Death has counted to infinity... twice"
      -Kurtvonstein
    • Thank you for your replies!
      In my experience, attack subs are kinda useless until very late game where people are regularly crossing the atlantic or the pacific. I once had a "subophobic" enemy who had his cruisers and aircraft carrier hug the coastline of asia and europe with waypoints- leaving my subs completely useless. Frigates can also be sunk easily, I had a max level frigate get sunk by an attack sub in "hit and run" even though my frigate wasn't even moving... I will take into consideration the one destroyer 4 cruisers idea. Is researching max level corvettes useful? I don't think so... Right?
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • Good point. On flashpoint if I'm playing as USA I like to complete the research tree when I am the only one left. Like the real USA.
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • Also as to respond to your previous thread- Frigates are more to give your enemy a headache when he is airlifting-
      No one uses a strike fighter on a 300HP stack...
      Only if someone has like 5 wings of 5 naval strikers each do frigs really become important.
      Meanwhile, a cruiser's anti air can deal with people using low level non naval strikers...
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • As the very often inactive person, I generally go with one main type of unit (almost always Frigates nowadays), Max it out then go for another ship (usually Destroyers, but if I’m sure nobody else is using subs I’ll go with Cruisers for more powerful ship-to-ship Attack). If necessary, I’ll build a Corvette or two if suddenly under attack, to protect my ports early game.
      Of course, this is just how I play it of course! I am far from good at properly playing navy, especially since I’m inactive a lot of the time ;)
      Currently on (potentially permanent) hiatus

      Instead of choosing wings to fly, we chose hands to hold with each other.

      Yet the sky still fascinates us, is it such a crime to keep on dreaming?
    • Mmmm hmm...
      Very interesting. Although frigs seem to be nerfed recently.
      And no one seems to use strikers on ships anymore so frigs are more like a "minor annoyance" to an enemy(shooting down his air transports or unlucky jets that flew over)
      And Cruisers cannot be directly researched: You need to research destroyers first.
      That's kinda annoying.
      Cruisers are scared of just one thing: subs. Unfortunately subophobic people will use waypoints to hug the coast- highly effective unless it's like day 50 and people are constantly sailing through the atlantic or the pacific. Once I was too lazy to protect my cruisers with destroyers so I sailed through the arctic. The enemy had like 15 attack subs but none in the arctic... :D
      Anyhow, I like the replies. Keep them coming!
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • ewac123 wrote:

      Mmmm hmm...
      Very interesting. Although frigs seem to be nerfed recently.
      And no one seems to use strikers on ships anymore so frigs are more like a "minor annoyance" to an enemy(shooting down his air transports or unlucky jets that flew over)
      And Cruisers cannot be directly researched: You need to research destroyers first.
      That's kinda annoying.
      Cruisers are scared of just one thing: subs. Unfortunately subophobic people will use waypoints to hug the coast- highly effective unless it's like day 50 and people are constantly sailing through the atlantic or the pacific. Once I was too lazy to protect my cruisers with destroyers so I sailed through the arctic. The enemy had like 15 attack subs but none in the arctic... :D
      Anyhow, I like the replies. Keep them coming!
      you will call frigs a minor annoyance until you face cms lol
      I am The Baseline for opinions
    • CMs- My favorite stack of 3 cruisers and 2 destroyers can shoot down any low level CMs. However, when the enemy upgrades them, they become a big issue... Good point.
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • Although unless the enemy is able to fire like 5 at a time, I sometimes split my ships up to confuse the missiles. Maybe it was a bug but one of the missiles literally crashed into the sea.
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • ewac123 wrote:

      Hi, all.
      What is your preferred naval strategy? Corvettes are used as early game coast guard, blocking unguarded transports.
      But after I get corvettes, it gets murky. Or should I even get corvettes in the first place?
      I have tried getting corvettes then going to frigate- but max level frigates get defeated by level 1 destroyers(if in range)...
      And then, I have tried mass producing destroyers, but they get bested by Cruisers. When I get cruisers, I get ambushed by AIP subs.(Or attack subs in the deep sea)
      I know the answer, "escort your cruisers with destroyers". But when I put 2 destroyers with 3 cruisers, I get destroyed by a team of 5 cruisers from my enemy...
      I never have the resources to research everything(Other than in flashpoint, of course :D )
      I typically use the counter to any units my enemy has. But when I fight an enemy coalition, one country gets subs, the other gets cruisers, the third gets naval recon or ASW helicopter...
      I also have found that my frigates often get destroyed by a wing of ASW helicopters...
      So, what is your naval strategy?
      So here is my naval strategy.

      Aircraft carriers are all for show. with that being said I usually get frigates for the start of the game depending on the country I play as (If I have ports) eventually down the road I like to get destroyers as well and add them to a frigate/destroyer stack. 2 frigates and 3 destroyer.

      Corvettes are good in and only in shallow areas. However I prefer to have mostly frigates and destroyers to help protect my home cities. These 2 ships will have a great offensive standpoint and a great defensives stand point too especially with air attacks. I do not really use ships anymore to attack costal cities due to the fact they do barley any damage to the troops themselves more or less it hurts the cities moral and the cities population causing it to produce way less resources. Which is not a good thing if you plan on taking it over.

      As far as subs I make those once I've got a few good stacks of ships and am somewhat set off in the game. Typically i make a 5 stack of subs and have them sit in the ocean as more of a buffer zone from either the Americas or as a buffer zone protecting my home continent.
    • Okay. Are frigs underrated? I don't like them- They do literally less damage at level 7 than a level 1 destroyer(To ships), and have less HP on level 7 than a level 1 destroyer.
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • Considering a larger portion of players utilise aircraft compared to navy, as well as the potency of aircraft against ships, and the cheaper costs of Frigates compared to Destroyers, I personally prefer them, as do many other players.
      Nothing wrong with using Destroyers! It really just depends on what you want to focus on and what you want to cover.
      Currently on (potentially permanent) hiatus

      Instead of choosing wings to fly, we chose hands to hold with each other.

      Yet the sky still fascinates us, is it such a crime to keep on dreaming?
    • What I found worked best for me was a stack of a ship commander, 2 frigates and 2 corvettes. Research them all to their max. Build other flotillas of frigates and corvettes as standbys to replace those in the command stack as they are damaged. Why that combo? It protects against every type of threat except for high level ASW helicopters, (which i can count on one hand the number of players I've seen use them). Also, it can be generated relatively early in the game. And if you need deep sea combat, swap out the corvettes with literally any other unit you care to use.

      A secondary strategy, available if/when you have access to the elite sub, is to put one or two of those in with a stack of frigates and corvettes. Then watch the cruisers go swimming "under the sea". :>

      Third, if you get the Security Council membership, you can put your fire control on aggressive and never have to worry about dying en route to some location. I'm not trying to push buying gold, but that really made a huge difference for me.

      However, having said all that, I really don't like naval units because the hit and run tactic is murderously effective if you catch someone offline, especially in a 4x map.
    • Teburu wrote:

      DOA70 wrote:

      a stack of a ship commander, 2 frigates and 2 corvettes
      thats a really really really really dumb stack
      and yet, I won a game with it playing an island nation ... so, I have the word of some ... person, on a forum vs what I have experienced in a map just concluded ... decisions, decisions ...

      The game just concluded. It is number 3683025. I don't know if you can load it or not, but if you can, you'll see I used nothing more than what I listed in my post and my first attacking stack was as described.
    • Was it flashpoint? Lol.
      Your stack of 5 ships can be defeated by: 1 naval officer+2 cruisers(3 ships).
      OR
      2 attack subs+submarine officer.(3 subs).
      A corvette has literally 10 HP on the high seas- not a great idea.
      Your stack has like 160HP.(Max level corvettes/frigates+naval officer)
      Now, let's see what the opponent has.
      2 cruisers alone have 150 HP.
      AND they can sink pretty much anything you through at them.(other than subs).
      Add 2 destroyers, and a level 4 naval officer, and that stack is invulnerable.
      "Le patriotisme, c'est aimer son pays. Le nationalisme, c'est détester celui des autres."-Charles De Gaulle, Leader of Free France in World War 2.
      English: "Patriotism is to love your country. Nationalism is hating that of others."
    • ewac123 wrote:

      Was it flashpoint? Lol.
      Your stack of 5 ships can be defeated by: 1 naval officer+2 cruisers(3 ships).
      OR
      2 attack subs+submarine officer.(3 subs).
      A corvette has literally 10 HP on the high seas- not a great idea.
      Your stack has like 160HP.(Max level corvettes/frigates+naval officer)
      Now, let's see what the opponent has.
      2 cruisers alone have 150 HP.
      AND they can sink pretty much anything you through at them.(other than subs).
      Add 2 destroyers, and a level 4 naval officer, and that stack is invulnerable.
      See, I keep forgetting people can't read. I said in my original post: "And if you need deep sea combat, swap out the corvettes with literally any other unit you care to use."

      I also said, "Build other flotillas of frigates and corvettes as standbys to replace those in the command stack as they are damaged."


      True, I never went up against another naval officer stack, but my stack sank two stacks of cruisers/destroyers. Now, I had my ships all max researched, and the enemy had lvl 3 destroyers and lvl 1 cruisers (they are so much more expensive to build/research) so I had the advantage there as well.

      You see, when you only research 3 naval vessels, vs others researching 5/6, you can use those advantages. You build more, get higher levels, and end up with significant advantages in battle. It's the difference between "strategy" and buffoons playing "what number is bigger".