Navy | National focus Hearts of Iron IV Guide
Last update: 01 February 2017
In the case of the navy-related tree, you will be presented with a very clear structure. One common goal associated with both routes without a clear ultimate goal. It all depends on whether you have access to the sea, and if you see any chances to achieve sea supremacy. In the case of separate routes you must decide whether you want to focus on fleet implementing tactical solutions, or on one that relies on brute force. A similar procedure was used in this tree, one which allows you to choose between the reduction of time needed to complete a technology and decreasing the penalty for it.
Below you can find a characteristic of separate routes of development for the navy tree. In this case the manner in which they are grouped represents the one that was used in the game.
Development of the navy
If you are using a country that has access to the sea, you should devote some attention to the navy. The introduction to the tree associated with the navy comes with additional experience points and dockyards. Those will be helpful whether you will use them to construct destroyers, or you will be producing transport ships only. It's one of those national focuses that can be completed in the early game. Thanks to that you will be able to deploy a larger amount of convoys, which in turn will allow you to gain recourses from the further corners of the world.
Icon | Name | Benefits |
 | Naval Effort | Navy Experience +25 Building Slots +3 Naval Dockyards +3 |
Commentary: In this case it's impossible not to notice that in one fell swoop you will gain a large amount of dockyards and an additional boost of experience points that will allow you to create a small fleet. Remember, that the new docks are associated with the creation of additional slots and three dockyards used within one production line will significantly increase the creation speed of new ships.
Special fleet
If you are planning to focus the military power of your country around navy, you can quickly start researching technologies associated with it, provided that the "elastic" version of the navy suits your playing style. Before selecting a focus you should think and adapt your tactics to the taken actions. You must plan everything in advance, otherwise it will quickly regret your choices.
Icon | Name | Benefits |
 | Flexible Navy | Convey Interdiction 2x 50% Unrestricted Submarine Warfare 2x 50% Wolf Packs 2x 50% Advanced Submarine Warfare 2x 50% Combined Operations Raiding 2x 50% |
 | Submarine Effort | Reduce ahead of time penalty by 100% or gives a 50%, research bonus if not ahead of time. 1x Submarine I / II / III / IV |
 | Destroyer Effort | Reduce ahead of time penalty by 100% or gives a 50%, research bonus if not ahead of time. 1x Destroyer I / II / III / IV |
Commentary: in the case of the tactical-oriented tree you will be able to research various doctrines in a lot shorter time than you would normally do. Additionally, depending on the current technology and the time of the game you can unlock bonuses to technologies associated with submarines and destroyers. As in the case of the airplanes, a lot depends on how you plan the work between researching new models of ships and national focuses. However, the bonuses to the doctrines are still the most important benefits of the above described focuses.
Large Navy
If you decide for the "brute force" solution, you must also simultaneously research technologies associated with other branches, namely the naval aviation and bombers. You should compose your forces in such a way that they can supplement each other. You can postpone the decision until you decide for a specific course of development, but remember that in multiplayer games there won't be time for that, and even the AI opponents will try to compose combinations that will be hard to counter.
Icon | Name | Benefits |
 | Large Navy | Fleet in Being Doctrines 2x 50% |
 | Cruiser Effort | Reduce ahead of time penalty by 100% or gives a 50%, research bonus if not ahead of time. 1x Light Cruiser III / IV ; Heavy Cruiser III / IV |
 | Capital Ship Effort | Navy Experience +25 Reduce ahead of time penalty by 100% or gives a 50%, research bonus if not ahead of time. 1x Battlecruiser II ; Dreadnought II / III / IV ; Heavy Dreadnought I / II ; Aircraft carrier I / II / III / IV |
Commentary: Note the amount of units that are influenced by the reduced time of research for specific technologies. Everything depends on how you divide the work and you will be the one to decide how far-reaching benefits you want to get through those national focuses. There's a rather high diversity in units affected by those focuses, but all of them are concentrated on the brute force approach. Additionally, you will be able to use the bonus for two navy-oriented doctrines.