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Would appreciate advises about how to use the Navy (mostly UK and FR) in the early game ?
Not sure what to do with it ...

Thanks

Short version:

French Navy commits suicide... use them to scout, to attack at all costs. If a ship survives and joins the allies it is ok but I wouldn't count on it. Every point damage dealt to Axis ships is a good point.

UK... more complex
with the new patch German subs are no longer an undestructable threat what makes things a bit easier. But you still have to cover the Channel, prevent any break outs through the North Sea, keep an eye on Gibraltar (or Axis ships/subs may enter the Mediterranean) and deal with the Italian fleet. You may find it hard to cover all areas and I think it is always better to have more ships than necessary. Your biggest problem will be that IF the Kriegsmarine decides to fight they will use almost everything they have. So just leaving two destroyers, two carriers and two battleships around GB to fulfill that duty will hardly be enough. In fact that would be an easy prey for a combined surface ship/submarine attack.

And of course you can be happy as long as you destroy ships in a 1:1 ratio (as long as you don't lose a battleship/carrier for a German destroyer).

I would also keep an eye on the number of destroyers you have. Sure, you will get more and more but having almost no destroyers means that you are incapable of attacking/sinking subs. In one of my games my opponent saved almost all his big ships but lost so many destroyers that I could raid the convoy lines for 3 years uncontested. Even worse... some attempts to stop me from raiding ended up in even more lost ships.

In many games the Germans will have success in North Africa. Fighting with the UK ships there is a two edged sword because you will more likely lose ships than sink your opponents ships. The result is an Italien Fleet that can leave the Mediterranean Sea (especially if Spain joined the Axis) and if the Reggia Marina and Kriegsmarine join together they are a really big threat.

...just my thoughts. Naval war is always a matter of luck too. You might have nice conditions to fight and your opponent can not strike back the same way due to rough sea.

The french lose a lot of NM when there ships are sunk, it could lead to an earlier surrender then necessary, so it is not always best to suicide them. Also it invites an all of France strategy when the French Navy is gone.

ORIGINAL: crispy131313

The french lose a lot of NM when there ships are sunk, it could lead to an earlier surrender then necessary, so it is not always best to suicide them. Also it invites an all of France strategy when the French Navy is gone.

Agreed.

Use French Navy to hunt subs & ships until there is a threat from Italy to Northern Africa. Once Italy entry is imminent then protect Algiers with French Navy not used to protect GB. "Suicide missions" for French Navy against skilled player could be disastrous and isn't in the spirit of the game.