14 DAY TRIAL // The team at Paradox Development Studio still has a lot of details to offer about Hearts of Iron IV before the game is launched later in the year, and the focus is at the moment on the naval combat mechanics and how they have evolved.
In a new development diary, the company explains that there are some similarities with the air war features of the grand strategy title.
A fleet will mostly spend its time executing a mission in a major area of the map, but the player can also choose to move them manually from zone to zone.
All fleets are spread out or concentrated in Hearts of Iron IV, which will affect their ability to find the enemy quickly and to bring all their guns to bear in an efficient fashion.
Gamers will be able to influence these values via tech and naval doctrines and Paradox states, "An example if you pick the Trade Interdiction doctrine you can unlock Wolfpack tactics that will make sure your subs find more targets and can all get together and strike more often."
All fleets in the game will be able to start missions like: patrol, a spread out search for enemies, search & destroy, aiming for big fleet battles, convoy raiding, which aims to reduce the enemies traffic in a sea zone, convoy escort, to counter the previous mission, invasion, to cover a landing, and hold, which tells a fleet to stay put and defend themselves.
Hearts of Iron IV will allow gamers to replicate actual World War II
Paradox says that it wants naval warfare to have a big impact on a country if conducted properly by an enemy.
In the real world, Germany managed to use surface raiders and submarines to try and starve the United Kingdom out.
In Hearts of Iron IV, gamers will be able to try a similar strategy and improve on it.
The developer explains that convoys will be vulnerable and cannot be easily replaced, which means that a solid manufacturing base is not enough to deal with concerted enemy attacks.
Offensive players can also use their fleets to try and take out lend-lease shipments and other resources to disrupt an entire alliance.
Hearts of Iron IV will arrive later in the year on the PC.
