Hands-On Usage
naval_strength_comparison is commonly used to determine whether a nation's navy has reached sufficient strength to suppress its opponent, making it suitable for focus tree unlock conditions, decision availability checks, or AI strategic triggers. For example, you can require that a nation's naval strength be at least 1.5 times that of Britain in a "Dominate the Atlantic" decision to activate:
available = {
naval_strength_comparison = {
other = ENG
ratio > 1.5
sub_unit_def_weights = {
battleship = 2
destroyer = 1
submarine = 1
}
}
}
Synergy
[enemies_naval_strength_ratio](/wiki/trigger/enemies_naval_strength_ratio): Both measure relative naval strength, but the former targets all current enemies in combat. They can be combined to form a dual verification of "against a specific country" and "against all enemies."[has_navy_size](/wiki/trigger/has_navy_size) (by analogy, [has_army_size](/wiki/trigger/has_army_size)) pairs well with naval_strength_comparison. Use an absolute size threshold first to filter, then apply ratio comparisons, avoiding distorted ratios when both sides have nearly no fleets.[declare_war_on](/wiki/effect/declare_war_on): Typically triggered only after naval_strength_comparison returns true, ensuring that the AI or player declares war only when enjoying naval superiority.[alliance_naval_strength_ratio](/wiki/trigger/alliance_naval_strength_ratio): Use this trigger as a replacement or in parallel when you need to include allied fleets in the calculation, creating a "single nation vs coalition" comparison logic with naval_strength_comparison.
Common Pitfalls
- Forgetting
sub_unit_def_weights calculates all ships with equal weight: If this field is omitted, carriers and submarines receive the same weight, causing nations with large numbers of cheap submarines to show artificially inflated ratios. You must manually assign weights according to combat value; otherwise, the trigger condition may activate in unexpected situations.
- The
other target may point to a non-existent scope: If the other field is omitted, the game defaults to using the FROM scope, which often doesn't exist in focus tree or many decision contexts, causing the trigger to fail silently or error. Always explicitly specify other pointing to a concrete country tag or legal scope.