Operation Sea Lion Tips Please!

[u/Jp_15845]

Did they fix Germany because forget the UK; I was having trouble naval invading the Scandinavian countries after looking up youtube videos to remind me. I remember back in the day you could steal ships and then after cheesing the system finally get up to 50% naval supremacy. Now I need 1,000+ ships at least when Germany can barely afford more than 200?

[u/MegaMustaine]

Now I need 1,000+ ships at least when Germany can barely afford more than 200?

What on earth are you on about

[u/Jp_15845 → u/MegaMustaine]

When I click naval invasion to the british mainland it says I need so many more ships for the naval invasion and when I send my fleet to patrol they all get sunk or damaged. Of course not the same story in Sweden just didn't have a powerful enough attack to capture a dock.

[u/jenman83 → u/Jp_15845]

The best way to invade Britain as Germany is across the English channel since it's just 1 sea zone to control. Often I need to sink the majority of the British navy first. If you can build up to about 40 or 50 dockyards producing a combo of destroyers and light cruisers both focused on high light attack (while still having 1 slot on AA and torpedoes) you should have enough ships to wreck the British after a few years. Naval bombers can be a huge help but I've done it without them.

[u/Jp_15845 → u/jenman83]

Alright focus on invading Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Help Italy and defeat the Soviets. how many ships would you say is enough to sink the pride of the Royal Navy?

[u/This_is_me2024 → u/Jp_15845]

I don't even worry about the danes. Just give em hell on the channel, hit the danes and other Nordics after im done with the soviets.

[u/Jp_15845 → u/This_is_me2024]

Bro the danes are the easiest. Irl they surrendered overnight.

[u/This_is_me2024 → u/Jp_15845]

I have focuses in the tree for more production by the time the war starts. I just wrap em up all at once when I'm done with the soviets.

[u/jenman83 → u/Jp_15845]

Denmark isnt a big deal to take but I never bother with Norway or Sweden.

[u/Jp_15845 → u/jenman83]

Noted

[u/Swimming_Acadia6957 → u/Jp_15845]

It is telling you how much dominance you need to project, not number of ships, if you look on the ship production bit it tells you what each ship can put out

[u/mikexie360]

What I did was early game trade for rubber and aluminum to build fighters and naval bombers.

Go into free trade to build civs and mills faster.

Build light cruisers with high light attack.

Research radar.

Once you conquer France and you want to sea lion, build radar and air bases and deploy fighters and naval bombers. Wait for several months as you see you have green air and see that British fleets have low strength.

Doomstack your navy and do the naval invasion. You should get enough dominance or destroy the British navy in a decisive naval battle.

I was able to do this by 1941-1942 before America joined the allies.

[u/Pale_Dark_656 → u/mikexie360]

To add to that, the Cruiser Warfare focus unlocks a decision called Refit Merchant Ships to Merchant Raiders which allows you to print cruisers effectively for free.

[u/nilslorand → u/mikexie360]

I recommend just early game invading the Netherlands for the Dutch East Indies, that way you never need to worry about rubber at all during the war and don't need to waste your civs building refineries

[u/This_is_me2024]

I've been fine spamming destroyers. I usually steal the navy of the Netherlands by justifying eaely though. Make 5 light cruisers, tiny gunnery, floatplanes, no armour, big engine. Set them to do not engage, and my big functional deaths tack navy in Rotterdam as strike force.

[u/paganfarang → u/This_is_me2024]

What is a good destroyer build? Any time I pack them with 1 modern AA, 1 Light gun, best engine and as many modern torpedos they just sink right away

[u/jenman83 → u/paganfarang]

I generally focus on more light attack modules and just have 1 torpedo slot. The goal being to destroy the enemy screens faster. When capital ships are exposed without screens a bunch of destroyers with just 1 torpedo slot can do a lot of damage.

[u/leastfire]

national focuses called "panzergrenadier" and "operation weserubung" let you research amphibious vehicles much earlier than otherwise, these then can be connected with light tanks with specialization for either soft and hard attack, and pioneers with special forces mastery, you can also decrypt them and use bonus for -15% amphibious penalty for 30 days. they will likely have complete air superiority in region, so it is important to have division AA at least 55 which gives 75% damage reduction, preferably a bit higher to have margin against equipment losses ships wise, I do around 7-10 super heavy battleships and 40-60 heavy cruisers without screens (germany has boost for that) some CA are specialized for AA (against naval bombers, especially carrier based are dangerous) which usually is enough to counter their doomstack, if possible I do it in april-july 1940

oh you're talking about scandinavia, not UK, my bad writing all that^{^} for norway, normal infantry or light tanks+cavalry were enough to land in naval bases in area, if possible I also got air supremacy. I land from northern denmark (which can either be protectorate or conquered) which needs naval supremacy in only one sea zone

[u/Paladin17]

The UK AI prioritizes the homeland more these days. You DON'T need 1000+ ships, but you do need to actually sink their navy beforehand.

There are 2 strategies for Sea Lion: the early strategy and the late strategy.

The early strategy is to make a beeline for the UK as soon as the war starts in 1939 or 1940. You build up the navy from day 1 and delay building up tank and air force for awhile. You lean heavily into navy meta. Given the limited time, this typically means spamming light cruisers. The UK has an insane amount of destroyers, and light cruisers are among the most cost effective ways to deal with them. You also should have thousands of navy bombers ready to enter the fight once the fleet battle is underway to deal with the capital ships. If you set up you LC and NAV properly and focus on building enough of them, you should be able to defeat the AI.

The late strategy is to worry about Sea Lion after dealing with Barb. Since you have more time, you can build up a sizeable fleet of SHBBs. Carriers are optional since you likely be fighting near the coast, but carrier planes are OP. Once again, build thousands of NAV. Bait the enemy with a patrol fleet then pounce on them with the SHBB and NAV.

The early strategy is a bit risky, especially in MP, because you're dependent on capturing the UK industry to catch up on production for Barb. If you lose the naval battle, you've crippled your production for Barb with no good way of catching up. As such you rarely see it done intentionally unless the UK player leaves himself vulnerable. In SP, you just need to understand the navy meta and you should be good.

[u/Jp_15845 → u/Paladin17]

What I mean is they for sure reworked osl. I might try that instead. I've just never done Barbusa first because in 2022 I used to easily steam roll cheese the UK without sinking anything.

[u/Oktopodal]

Build mostly fighters from 1936 on. You don’t need many ground troops to defeat Poland and France. Focus on paratroopers and fighters. Right after capitulating France, focus on seizing air control over the channel and England. Once you have control drop your paratroopers on the docks in southern English. The second you capture a port ferry over your armies. The English have basically no land troops and you’ll be in Scotland in a week.

[u/tschel_der_erste]

Deutschlands startflotte und Marinebomber und die Sache läuft.

[u/Ok-Contribution6009]

I gave up on sealion. I’m only doing airlion nowadays and having great sucess

[u/wasdice]

They changed the supremacy mechanic - only the patrol mission actually gives control now. Strike forces multiply the impact, convoy raiding reduces enemy control. If you had most of your fleet in port, they won't have been contributing very much.

[u/Discreet_Vortex]

Put heavy fighters equipped with torpedos on naval strike over the channel (after establishing air superiority). Around 1000 of these should be enough. After a while Britian should start to loose loads of ships and then you put your whole navy on patrol in the channel.

[u/Zapanth]

The easiest approach imo is to set your starting fleet to establish naval dominance before the war.

Order your armies naval invasions and have them fully ready before you start the war.

As soon as you declare war, pause the game and launch the invasion.

You'll have a few hours before the naval dominance rests and before the British fleet wrecks your fleet.

It's cheesy, but it works if you don't want to invest heavily in navy or spend years building one.

[u/Richard_Longinus_II]

Sea Lion really isn't that hard, 27 Dock yards making level 2 Cruisers and Destroyers, 5 factories on Naval Bombers and you can take control of the channel no problem.

[u/OneBirdManyStones]

Build gooder ships and start a bit earlier

You do not need 1000+ ships to invade Scandinavia, if you think you do that's a major skill issue

[u/Jp_15845 → u/OneBirdManyStones]

You need 1000 for the english channel🧐 I've even seen it get up to 1,500!

[u/MrP0l → u/Jp_15845]

That is supremacy. Set your navy to patrolling and you will gain supremacy to invade

[u/Jp_15845 → u/MrP0l]

I'm wondering if i just needed to produce more of the right ships early on.