Naval Invasions: Everything You Need To Know! | HOI4 Guide

Naval invasions are a vital feature in Hearts Of Iron IV, but not the most intuitive. In this video, we are going to discuss them in detail!

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CHAPTERS
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00:00 Intro
00:43 Planning a Naval Invasion
05:21 Showcase 1: Invading Greece
06:38 Showcase 2: Invading Yugoslavia
12:20 Showcase 3: Invading Spain
17:00 Showcase 4: Invading The UK
20:19 Showcase 5: Invading The Netherlands (From Japan)
23:37 Outro

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[MachiavellianStrategist]

If you enjoyed this guide, or if you would like to help the channel, please consider becoming a member!

For all of my guides I also always make dedicated spreadsheets which include, in addition to focuses and researches, a list of all the steps required in order to succeed.
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[josepsamarrafarre]

Very nice guide! To make it more complete after more than 3000+ hours playing, I would recommend these advanced tactics to improve it even more:

- If you have lots of old submarines, and you have been at war for some time with neighbors of your naval invasion target, convert those subs to minelayers and build up your mine levels as much as possible in contested naval areas (mine levels count for the total for naval supremacy).

- Also connected to the previous tactic, remember to minesweep enemy mines in contested areas, to lower their mine bonus to naval supremacy if necessary (the A.I. doesn't mine much in general but it can make a difference).

- Very important but obvious: if your naval invasion is close from your friendly territory, air superiority over the naval area counts to get better naval supremacy (even old bomber planes with dismal naval attack count here) and you can even do that from puppets at peace.

- One the same topic, if you must invade far away lands often (i.e. you play Japan or the U.S.) remember that naval CAS is a thing! Many players only build Naval bombers for their carrier fleets, but, if you have the industry, having a dedicated naval carrier fleet for naval invasions can make a world of difference (your marines love it when they get that juicy air support bonus). You don't even need to build carriers for that purpose: just build the planes and switch torpedo bombers to naval CAS for the operation and switch them back when they are done. When not used for naval invasions, I just use them for logistical strikes like regular CAS until I need them again.

- Speaking of air, on top of the obvious air support to your naval invasion, don't forget that stacks of TRANSPORT PLANES are super useful to supply your landed troops while you try to conquer your first port (the combat modifiers for low supply are MUCH better than out of supply ones). I also remember a disastrous naval invasion against strongly defended ports that I could turn into a win thanks to transport planes giving me enough time to build my own level one port on that coast!

- You forgot to talk about the new artificial ports in HOI4 (those historical D-Day Mulberry ports) that can give you now a temporary port that allows you to disembark anywhere and it usually last enough to capture ports (it's also the main reason some players think that marines have become irrelevant).

- If you have transport planes AND the first tech for paratroopers (those planes are useful even without paratroopers, supplying low level supply areas deep into the Soviet Union, China or Africa for example), then you can field mini divisions (even a single battalion is enough) and you can use them in two different ways: the best one is sending one to your most important port attacks (you can even time up a simultaneous attack fairly easily) because, on top of the paratrooper bonus, it allows a "new front" that widens the battle frontage for bigger Marine divisions. The other use is sacrificing some of these super weak divisions to surround the port to give the massive surrounded malus to the trapped enemy troops just at the start of the invasion. If the enemy doesn't send reinforcements quick enough, this will also compound with the out of supply malus, if you can intercept enemy convoys to the port long enough.

- As a side note for the previous paratrooper strategy: if your country has powerful paratroopers and a big industry, nothing prevents you from sending powerful paratroops instead to do the same job. Also, if you invest into the paratrooper doctrine tree, you can unlock one of the most OP abilities in the game (the one that disorganises ALL ENEMY UNITS from a state (even when you paradrop the most insignificant one-battalion unit), making that naval invasion even easier by a BIG margin (and remember that it's not only usefull for naval invasions!).

- If you have time before your invasion and you use spies, don't forget that if you place your spy on the coast you plan to naval invade, the bonus when you disembark can be MASSIVE if you have a built a 100% strength spy network (check your spy network tooltip and you will see how big the naval landing bonus is before starting the invasion).

- If you have been at war against the target for a long time and it has a decent level of coastal fortifications, remember that you can lower them through strategic bombing the area for months before the invasion. The only problem is that you will also harm the area you are going to invade for your troops to use, but this has become less of a problem since the DLC that separated strategic missions from logistical strikes. If the area is still too strong and you are near end game, nuke the area if you have no other option.

- When I play ames where I micromanage, one tactic that I use a lot is having some tank divisions by the coast to make little encirclements against units there and launch a naval invasion behind the lines to surround them cut them off. The armoured attack is usually quick enough that the marines don't even need a port because they connect with the other troops before getting out of supply. As a reminder, you can mass LOTS of armoured troops against coastal strong points because the frontage can get the widest in the game (you can count the main thrust sides, the back side where you have disembarked, another naval invasion against the target directly and even a paradrop if you can). If you combine that with air support, naval bombardment and even railguns, well, you can imagine you wouldn't want to be the defender against such an attack... As an added bonus, attacking so often (by naval invading always with the same general) can get you the skill trait "naval invader" that also give a massive bonus (and don't forget to upgrade at least one admiral to get the shore bombardment trait bonus!)

One last VERY IMPORTANT thing to end this wall of text: if you send a single ship into a naval zone (any ship that isn't be a submarine can do, it must be a surface ship and an old destroyer is enough) and just stay there without any mission, it "scans" the troops from any coast touching that area. It can make a world of difference if you launch your naval invasion when you know that there is no one home waiting for you 😉. This is also a very nice thing to know when tha A.I. is desperate defending against another naval invasion that is just a diversion and it has to lower its defences somewhere else to defend against it .

That's all I could remember about naval invasions for now. I think it would be fun if you can cover some of these tactics in "part two" video, but you decide.

Keep doing you great videos and have a nice 2024!🥳

[akuriki]

Addiing to the Naval invasion, if the country is at war you can start a naval invasion from there as well, so if you justify on repuplican spain and declare on them and get the acceses from the francoist spain you can start naval invasions from there.

[themacker]

Amazing guide. Just love the channel! Thanks!

[Bleiser]

Thanks! Finally a good video tat explained it so well! I was so confused but no longer! :)

[esboubou]

If you restrict sea areas, the naval invasions will go around them. Good way to limit the amount of areas you need to cover with your fleet. Otherwise really helpful and informative video 👍🏻

[ihtfp]

Hmmm, Be Italy. Research marines. Stay grand battle plan, go Tip of the spear. Take the focus, Naval power projection, expand naval facilities and Forza Navale Speciale. Exercise your fleet and use the exp to take the special forces doctrine for marines. If my math is right that's 35 divisions for naval invasion in 1936... Enjoy

[BlackSmithWolves]

Searching for your navy guide that was mentioned in Fascist USA and this is the only video that popped up for me by you, where the heck is the free dockyard thing? lol

[junglelands]

Does it matter what size of template your invading with. Ie. 4 light tank divisions and 3 shock divisions with anti air support. Thanks

[teobody]

Hello, you don’t know how break through many divisions in one province? for example 20.In late game

[paologranzotto]

Ciao, non riesco a settare le invasioni multiple con 2unita' x 5, ma solamente invasione unica con 10

[DthScythe]

What are your thoughts on the best naval invasion divisions?

[daveraddy]

thank you for this video.. im having a tough time understanding naval invasions and the clicking order and naval supremacy and naval groups and urgh
its just so much and really frustrating to set up your naval invasion