Originally Posted by
ninja51
Cannons have different ranges on land depending on their caliber and I do believe they were using essentially the same cannons on ships so why would every ship have universally 700 range? I dont think there should be a massive range differance, but a motar can shoot further than a typical cannon coming out of the side of a ship.
Cannons, imo, should have a universal range, and theres much to support this. Starting with the fact that Napoleonic artillery was always limited by sight, and a general range band where shots would simply lose all appreciable energy. If you think the increased caliber was a free ticket to longer range, I suggest reading more on projectile physics in conjunction with Napoleonic artillery. The increased caliber, generally measured in weight of shot, means a larger round is being fired, the gun itself is generally larger as well, and can accomodate an incrementally larger propellant charge. Any increase in projectile propulsion would be negated by increased size of shot. To actually increase the range of your weapon you would need to take a cannon that is large enough to be judged to fire a heavy projectile, but bored to fire a smaller projectile, then loaded with a greater propellant charge, along with a comparatively light shot for the size of the gun. That being said, simply adding more gunpowder to a standard cannon, whilst using a shot of the same weight is not recommended as the greater strain on the barrel is hazardous in an age where weapons are not manufactured to very high standards. Furthermore, regarding Mortars, as previously said, they were not battlefield weapons, both naval and land warfare. They were only ever employed in sieges, wether by the defender or attacker, and were uselessly inaccurate for point fire on mobile targets.
A smaller thought I have is making the speed differance between ships a bit more noticeable. Ships of the line dont move terribly slower than a brig at the moment so why even bother with the smaller guys. A balanced fighting force for those with great micromanaging skills should be able to be hugely effective against a force consisting of nothing but big ships of the line. Yet currently trying to stay out of their utterly destructive fireing range is pretty dang hard. It makes all smaller ships redundant and useless once you can build 122 guns.
Im pretty sure historically, navies taking to the field in numbers only ever fielded Ships of the Line and large frigates (for fleet actions that is, obviously smaller vessels would have acted as support craft and scouts) The obvious reason being, in reality, when faced with a vessel that has 4-5 times your number of guns, likely exponentially larger weight of shot, hundreds upon hundreds more men in crew, and a hull that is literally nearly impossible to damage with your pea-shooter like guns, your best option is to turn tail and flee behind your own big ships. Thus naval power has, and always will be, focused on a "primary" class of ship, which dominates the seas. Though to accurately reflect naval warfare and the power large ships entitled, there should also be immense economic strains to maintain such large ships. Provided this is in place, there should be no reason why one would argue the building of a 122 gun ship is a better choice than a Brig, especially when the tasks you expect such a ship to undertake are only limited to blockading unguarded ports or raiding trade nodes.
Love the mod, thats just my two cents
Naval Battles
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I played enough naval battles with England in my British campaign and ships do rout and surrender. I lost a big battle againts Spain because I got some of my ships of the line isolated and surrounded. Small ships will often get destroyed by a few volleys. If you want to caputure them use grapeshot. Get the PFM and open unit_stats_naval and subtract some moral from ships. This takes you less then 5 minutes.
at the minor personal tweaking. I guess broken isnt the best way to describe naval battles but I wouldnt say they're working realisticly or the best way for gameplay. For me, ships fight to the grave far too often and with such gusto its rediculous. I do capture a few ships, they do route, the problem is it just happens when another broadside would litteraly cause them to sink. I know how to capture ships, how to crush their moral, problem is it just doesnt happen. All the ships ranges being the same is odd and moral is hilariously too high. Without a detailed walkthrough and my PFM not crashing, I cant edit it myself, im just not skilled at it. Even then, its a temporary fix for a problem. And I really do have to keep saying this I feel like, but the mod is great, truely wonderful, but the naval battles are a problem that needs a real fix
