Here is my take at 3.4.4 Deploying Naval Units for the Players Manual.
Naval unit’s deployment in MWiF is an art in itself. Naval units normally sail just twice during a turn, once to reach the patrol area, once to return to safe the haven of a port (unless they are reorganized and can sail again). They can fight virtually an unlimited number of naval battles against enemy ships, but kind of air units can only “act” once in regards to sea to land operations (shore bombardment, loading, unloading troops, air missions).
Task Forces’ composition
The first thing to master to have an edge at sea is the Task Forces’ composition. Normally you assemble Task Forces for special tasks, as their name means, but there are important characteristics of Task Forces that can enter in the decision too, which are :
• Speed & Range. Try to gather ships with comparable speeds. It is easier to plan their moves thereafter. The best is to have fleet(s) of ships that have a speed of 6, fleet(s) of ships that have a speed of 5, and fleet(s) of ships that have a speed of 4. Ships with lower speeds usually are useless in fleets, and are used in convoy escort duties. You’ll gather / arrange your various fleets depending on your needs from turn to turn, but having stable Task Forces across some game turns will help you assess your own forces, and help you organize yourself.
• Number of ships (Target Size). 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, 29. These are the maximum sizes of each row of the Naval Combat Chart. Having 8 ships is worse than having 7 ships, because for only 1 extra ship you are representing a significant larger target size. My experience is that 7 or 11 ships were the best sizes for medium sized Task Forces. Above 11 ships, you generally don’t bother anymore for your target size.
• Air to Air strength. If you can, evaluate the air-to-air strength of the enemy in the sea area you will operate, and build a Task Force that have, with or without land-based air units, the right air-to-air strength. Superior if you need that, or at least comparable If you don’t need to be superior. My experience is that I always try to reach +2 in provisional air to-air strength when I am in situation of air superiority. I may need more, and I’ll use more in that case, but that’s a general rule of thumb to try to evaluate what I need to send. Avoid massing too much unneeded forces in the same task force, they will be missed elsewhere.
Other important characteristics :
• Air to sea factors. You need to have some, obviously, otherwise you lack teeth.
• Surface combat factors. Same, but you will use it much less often. You may never use that for all the game.
• Shore bombardment factors. If it is a shore bombardment fleet, you need to evaluate how much shore bombardment you need for your upcoming invasions, or land combat, and also for the probable enemy counter attack.
• AA strength. When in doubt between two ships, take the one with the most AA.
• If possible, include a weak / cheap / non important ship in your Task Force for a cheap first loss.
Personally, I like to have many medium sized Task Forces, which I arrange and re-arrange within themselves from turn to turn depending on my needs, as if they were modules. I rarely change the composition of those medium sized Task Forces, except when better ships arrive or when I have losses.
Sorties
You need to plan your sorties carefully. Remember that if you sail your “big fleet” somewhere for example, this will also mean that your “big fleet” won’t be somewhere else, so the enemy could take advantage of where you’re not to do something nasty to you. Where you are not, can be more important than where you are.
You should always analyse the situation both by asking yourself where you need to strike the enemy to pursue your global strategy, but also where the enemy could strike you to pursue his own global strategy, even if his global strategy is only to make your life a misery conquering him.
You can also analyse the situation seeking what you might be able to do with your fleets that would oblige your enemy to do something you want him to do with his fleets, that would benefit him less than if he had done something else. Some kind of distraction mission.
Having analysed the situation, you will sail the fleets you need in order to accomplish the tasks that your global strategy needs, and you will also cover the places where you think your enemy could harm you (now that you have moved your ships somewhere) with other (reserve) fleets, or rather land based air units (that can be quite dissuasive by themselves). These cover fleets can either be sailed into the possibly threatened places for immediate defence, or simply held in reserve in a port, able to jump on the enemy after he will have moved.
When you are on the “reacting side” of the naval war (it is your enemy that has the strategic initiative, and you only react most of the time), you need to analyse the enemy’s fleet placements and try to understand his strategic goals. Then see if you can counter them by sailing in the same sea area and seek battle, or if you can counter them by sailing somewhere else, or if it is preferable to sail somewhere else again to take advantage of the enemy being absent from there to achieve some of your own goals, or simply not sail at all.
Land-based air units
Land-based air units are everything at sea. They literally rule the seas. There is nothing that fleets not accompanied with their own air power (CVs) can do in places where Land-based air units abound, so they should not even try. Remember the Repulse & Prince of Wales and the Bismarck for example, and never trust your AA to repel the enemy land-based bombers, even if sometimes AA can make miracles.
As a naval power that seeks to “gain ground” at sea, you should always first aim at gaining new airbases (islands with ports are the most preferable when there is no continent nearby) to base your Land-based air units to contest the enemy’s Land-based air units (unless there are none, but in that case there is nothing to difficult to do to “gain ground”), to contest the sea area.
Deploying Land-based air units at sea obeys the same general rules as deploying the fleets at sea, because air units at sea are treated about the same way as ships : They patrol the 5 sea boxes, and stay at sea for all the turn, or many turns maybe. A difference is that they can’t generally patrol sea areas that are not very near their base, contrarily to ships that can patrol very far way from their bases (example, air units in Pearl Harbor will be able to patrol the 3 adjacent sea areas without problems, but not more far, while naval units in Pearl Harbor will be able to patrol sea areas as far as the China Sea).
Convoy escort duties
The Sea Box Sections to cover with escorting ships are :
• Section 0 : always, because the convoys are here. Normal escort size : 2-3 ships to reach 4-6 ASW points. Air unit if possible, to deny 4 surprise points to the enemy.
• Section 4 : desirable, because this is from this section that the raiders & SUBs will be found and hurt. Normal escort size : 2-3 ships to reach 4-6 ASW points. Air unit if possible, to better find the enemy.
• Section 1 : if possible, because the ships that sail here will be sailing in section 0 during the first impulse of the next turn, and will be the only defence of the convoys if you play second.
The minimum escort size would be 1-2 ship where there is a very little chance of enemy raiding, 2-3 ships in places with some chances of enemy raiding, and 3+ ships or more in places with large chances of enemy raiding. Air units are very desirable in section 0 (remember they can often come here using a naval interception move, to spare air missions), and section 4.
At the end of the turn the ships in Sea Box Section 1 move down to the Sea Box Section 0, the ships in Sea Box Section 4 move down to the Sea Box Section 3 and the ships in Sea Box Section 0 return to base (except CP and ASW that stay here). During the first naval action that follows, you should move the ships that are in the Sea Box Section 3 to the Sea Box Section 1 and the ships that rebased home last turn to the Sea Box Section 4 (cruisers).
For example, for the CW during most of the Battle of the Atlantic (end 40 / early 43)
• Places with large chances of enemy raiding would be the Bay of Biscay (very high chances here), the Faeroes, the North Atlantic and the Cape St Vincent.
• Places with some chances of enemy raiding would be those sea areas that are just away from those cited above.
• Places with very little chance of enemy raiding would be the rest of the sea areas that the Euro Axis could reach.
Also, try to arrange to have spare ships to replace some losses, and especially spare convoy points to replace the convoy losses. Having reorganization power near the port where you have returned to base your aborted ships can be good to help replace the losses.
Raiding the enemy
SUBs
SUB raiding major powers are Germany & Italy (combined most of the time), Japan and the USA. The CW in a much lesser extends. They follow the same rules, that are :
• SUBs need to be numerous to achieve something durable. As much as 10-15 SUBs on a theatre is a respectable quantity that will achieve havoc in your enemy convoy lines. 5-10 SUBs on a theatre is a fair number that you can aim at reaching easily, that will give you good results, and less than 5 is nearly harmless.
• Have a steady BP rate of SUB construction / repairs to keep up the number.
• Avoid daring too much. There are sea areas that are death traps for the SUBs, these are the ones where there is fine weather and plenty of LBA available to cover section 4. Be wary of sudden weather changes.
• Don’t hesitate to sortie on bad weather. Storm & blizzard reduces the chances of scoring, but also reduces the enemy’s chances against you.
• Search often, possibly each impulse. You can vary the major power that is initiating the searches in a sea area. Italy can initiate for Germany, the CW for the USA or vice versa, just plan this from the start by mixing your SUBs as much as you can with allied major power’s SUBs.
Raiders
Raiders are less efficient as SUBs, and more at risk because they can’t choose to avoid combat as SUBs can.
• Strike where the enemy aren’t. If possible, strike where it is not escorted, far away from possible warships that could come hunting you.
• Spread up as much as possible so that the enemy spreads up seeking you.
• Abort combat if the place becomes too hot. There is no loss of pride saving a ship.
• Don’t risk precious powerful warships in raiding (Personally I’m very cautious with the Mogami and the Baltimore classes, that I prefer not to waste raiding as they are much more useful at fleet tasks, Mogami for their very good surface and defence factors, Baltimore for their high AA factor.
• Try varying the places where you hunt to keep the enemy on his toes, and to spread out his defence as much as possible.
General useful trickeries
You have to know a number of tricks on the MWiF oceans :
• Have fleets (or just SUBs) placed on the enemy’s way back from the Sea Area where you intend to fight him, so that you can try and intercept the damaged & aborted ships at an advantage. This looks like a stab in the back, but no one ever said that war at sea had to be fair.
• In the same idea, stay at sea at the end of the turn to intercept enemy ships that return to base across a sea area where you’re strong and in high sea box section. Obviously, this is even better when you’re the non phasing player, as you’ll know the decision of the phasing player whether to stay or not in each sea area.
• Stay at sea at the end of the turn to avoid having to take a naval action next turn (when you are busy with land campaigns) to sail your ships again. This is at the cost of lowering the efficiency of all those ships, but it may be better than to have to sail them again at the expense of a precious land action.
Safe Haven
• When basing important ships in a port, try to choose ports that have a back door. These are ports with more than 1 sea area adjacent. Ports adjacent to 3 sea areas are the most preferred. This ensures better supply, and a back door to flee in case of threat.
• Never have your important fleets based in port without land forces. This is too easy for your opponent to just invade here, and worse, to have his fleet intercept your fleeing fleet in case of success.
• Be careful that the ports where you place important fleets are in supply from multiple paths, because being out of supply in a port is the worst a fleet can suffer (except being sunk) as it becomes harmless.
• When an important and defenceless ship return to base in a port (either by accident or by need), consider returning to base a couple of warships with comparable speed & range in the same port to escort her when this ship will leaves that port next turn. It is entirely possible that enemy warships will blockade that port, and having 2-3 escorts with her will allow her to sail with some protection with only 1 naval move.
• When you return to base in a port, check that there is no immediate Port Attack threat in the vicinity. Take into account the possible reinforcements that the enemy might have at the beginning of next turn, and the disrupted air units that could be reorganized, or simply threatening next turn if they move first.
Reorganisation
Reorganization, for naval units, is less interesting than for air or land units, first because you can’t reorganize ships at sea, and second because naval units tend to have to work as Task Forces to be useful. There is usually no point in reorganising only 1-2 ships.
What would be better needed is to reorganize whole fleets or reorganise ships at sea, and those are only possible with the old version of the naval Offensive Chit.
But there interesting cases :
• Reorganizing sea lift (AMPH, TRS) after it has unloaded its cargo in a port. Only possible with cases 1, 5 and 6 below, where the sea lift ends its move in a port. This enable the sea lift to be used again, either to flee an endangered port, or to relocate to a port where there is a need to transport something out, or simply to immediately transport something else, or the three at the same time.
• Reorganizing aborted convoy escorts, or convoy points, so that they can sail again to fill in some holes caused by enemy raiding.
• Reorganizing key naval units that either got aborted during a previous combat at sea, or just arrived (disorganized) from the homeland as reinforcements, into a port that is near the warzone, with the goal of either sailing that ship as soon as possible in a key sea area where you need it or simply to sail it somewhere else.
Port Attacks
Ports attack can be deadly, but they are more often quite harmless. The real thing is that surprise port attacks are deadly, but regular port attacks are not that deadly.
Three reasons why Port Attacks are more often are quite harmless are :
• The ships in the port are in section 3 or 5, and the attacking planes are in section 3 if they are LBA, or section 4 at best if they come from the sea (counting as 5 if the CVP have sufficient range). So the initial surprise is more in favour of the defender and it all will depend on the search rolls. If the enemy rolls 3-4 less than you on the search rolls, he will cancel the combat. Your air unit will be disorganized for nothing.
• The Port Attack only has 1 round, thus no second chance.
• Half of the time, sunk ships won’t be really sunk, only bottomed (if playing that optional rule), much decreasing your attack efficiency because instead of having dispatched a naval unit, you only have rendered it useless for 5 6 turns, 3-4 for a TRS / AMPH.
Surprise Port Attacks on the other hand are nearly always very deadly, because the ships port struck are considered to have 0 surprise points, so the surprise points of the attacking force can be quite high. 15 max if the enemy rolls a 10 for the search roll and you are in section 4 counting as 5 because of CVP that have good range, and 15 surprise points is really huge as they allow you for example to increase your Naval Combat Chart 6 rows and select a target, which means that you will choose the 3 first targets in a row).
Bottom line is :
• When you have a Port Attack opportunity, don’t jump on it blindly, but analyse carefully the chances of success versus the air units that you won’t be able to use for something else later (except fight at sea).
• And more importantly, when you are threatened by a Port Attack, don’t hastily order your fleet out, because the enemy might benefit better from battling you at sea (unlimited combat rounds at sea, versus only 1 combat round in the port) than in your port. The enemy might only be baiting you to sortie. If you can leave from a back door (with ports that have more than one sea area adjacent) you can do that to end the threat, but this might be exactly be what the enemy is trying to make you do, so that he is free in turn to do something else.
Invasions
• When planning invasions, plan all your fleets with the necessary resources that your invasion combat will need (mainly air support & shore bombardment), but also plan enough resources for an eventual enemy’s counter attack as this is the moment when you’re the most vulnerable. Eventually, think in advance to spare 1 air mission to rebase a fighter air unit to the island you will just have conquered, to protect it against enemy air units that could help counterattacks.
• When (strategically) reacting to the enemy, try to always keep a counter invasion force that could be able to counter invade a place that the enemy just have invaded. The reason is that the enemy is often the most vulnerable just after having invaded, as his air units might be depleted, his shore bombardment might be depleted too, his land units may be disrupted, etc…
Transport Duties
You need to know all the ways to transport and unload units here & there. They are :
[here I have a diagram I had made to help people grasp all the sea transport concepts -- included at the bottom of this post]
Case 1 is the classic Port to port naval move. Very useful as the transported unit arrives without disorganizing and is ready for action.
Case 3 is loading by stopping its move in the sea area.
Cases 4 & 5 are loading by moving through a port. This is very important to master those ways. Case 4 is during a return to base naval move.
Supporting production
Carrier Planes
Carrier Planes will suffer a lot from air to sea combats. Air-to-air combat in itself is very damaging, and anti-air should not be underestimated, it destroys a lot of CVP, more than air-to-air combat sometimes.
To cope with those losses, you must, as a naval country, have a regular output of CVP from your factories. 1-2 per turn for the CW & Japan, and more for the USA, it can be 3-5 per turn. This regular output will also be necessary to keep the CV filled with the best CVP, even when the CV size is lowering each year and new better CVP can fit onto the CVs. Lacking this output, you will find yourself with empty or undermanned CVs, and this will mean that your CVs are becoming useless. There is no interest in having 20 CVs, If some of them are empty and some are undermanned. Better in that case to have only 15 CV.
Damaged ships
You should repair your best damaged ships quickly. It is cheaper & quicker to repair a ship than to have a new ship built, even if a better one. Neglecting to repair ships can lead to severe lack of warships later in the war when all those damaged ships will add up in a large miss of warships.
You should always repair the AMPH & TRS, except the worst one (3 movers) when you don’t need them.
Building a fleet
As the USA particularly, and also for Japan, your fleet is not ready to fight WW2 at game start. You should decide of what you need and have your build plan made up from day 1 so that you have what you think you need to win the battles that will allow you to gain the ground.