What will a naval battle actually look like?

**NakedBarbarian2** · August 20, 2007, 10:48 AM

I think the prospect of naval battles is heaps choice, but what are these battles going to look like? When you recruit a warship in M2 u get a unit card with a number in it. For example cog(20). Will this mean

1. One Cog with twenty crew members

OR

2. One fleet of 20 Cogs?

On top of this what will the battlemap look like? will they introduce waves, storms, etc? Other than sinking an enemy ship outright will you have the chance to board and capture it?

Argghhhh im so torn by what era i want next and how i want naval battles to be represented. THus far i've argued for Napoleonic TW just coz running naval cannon fights would be sooo cool. But the more i think about it a 'romanesque' sort of game with tiremes ramming each other, shooting ballista's or catapults of boiling oil, spraying greek fire on each other and boarding actions would also be so amazing.

And what about battles fought on beaches with the offensive player making seaborne landings on the beach with the defenders fortifying the beachhead? Dagnamit i can't wait to hear waht CA say in Leipzig and what it means for naval warfare in TW...

hang on what was this thread about again?

**Ged** · August 20, 2007, 10:56 AM

1 cog with 20 members on is the correct one, methinks. For the next game it would probably be pretty in-depth on what's there, and there will probably be things like "Unhappy due to stormy weather" and things like that.

**guyyug** · August 20, 2007, 12:23 PM

it's 20 men on one cog, why do you think you only ever get mainly 1 or 2 ships sunk and there is men remaining section on the end scroll.

**Fafnir** · August 20, 2007, 12:34 PM

A naval battle between 4-8 ships doesn't seem very epic... Battles with pirates would be pretty tedious too. Kinda like bandits.

**Saibot** · August 20, 2007, 03:28 PM

I agree on that Fafnir. Naval battles would be pretty nice though.

p.s. I love the GoW quote in your sig, that's the part where they first see Therons right?

**Condottiere SOG** · August 20, 2007, 03:35 PM

yeah, right. keep dreamin'

**Empress Meg** · August 20, 2007, 09:07 PM

So long as the ships and various smaller vessels tack instead of "turn" I do not much care what they look like.

Devoirs The Empress

**Condottiere SOG** · August 20, 2007, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by Empress Meg

So long as the ships and various smaller vessels tack instead of "turn" I do not much care what they look like.

Devoirs The Empress

and only when heading into the wind, right.............?

**mjobling** · August 21, 2007, 04:07 AM

The wind will have to play an important role and will need to be visible to allow the tactics to play properly.

Will they be missile battles or actual boarding parties? Ramming as a special attack would be nice too.

**Scorch** · August 21, 2007, 04:33 AM

I really don't think Naval battles will work very well. They'd need to do a very good job of it for it to actually be a cool feature, and not just tedious.

**Evolution** · August 21, 2007, 04:41 AM

Actualy a naval battle would be great because there is alot of strategy involved. like the wind, flanks, formations and lots more. but then again it would be hard for the total war team to come up with a solution to ' Where are those 2000 units of Swordsmen going to be placed'

**Scorch** · August 21, 2007, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by |MeMw|Obi-Wan

Actualy a naval battle would be great because there is alot of strategy involved. like the wind, flanks, formations and lots more. but then again it would be hard for the total war team to come up with a solution to ' Where are those 2000 units of Swordsmen going to be placed'

But then, it would require some serious changing of hard-coded limits, or else modders would have done it by now.

Does anyone know if they're actually doing it?

**sapi** · August 21, 2007, 05:34 AM

Does anyone know if they're actually doing it?

There'll be an announcement at the LGC on the 23rd. Thamis suggested that you look here for totally plausible scenarios as to what it'll be about. Okay, no, he didn't

**Vanquisher** · August 21, 2007, 07:58 AM

Sounds almost like a new game

You will soon see lol

**sapi** · August 21, 2007, 08:02 AM

It most likely is a new game, working off a new engine.

**scivian** · August 21, 2007, 02:45 PM

Anyone remember the Nvidia graphics card demo of a ship on the open sea firing its cannon? Thats what I picture the naval battles will look like.

**daffyff** · August 22, 2007, 08:33 PM

I hope it will be like AoE style naval battles with each ship just shooting at eachother while dead in the water until one sinks.....that would be the awesome. And if you have more than one ship...they clump together to make the historically feared "Super Barge o' Death!"

Sarcasm aside, I think Naval Battles are a tough nut to crack due to the enormous amount of variables involved in a sea battle. If two navies join battle on the campaign map, how will they determine who ends upwind of the other? will you be able to shepard an opposing navy into shoals prior to engagement, limiting their mobility? And how will that be fair if the campaign map is turn based?

If CA can pull this off i will be duly impressed. thing is they will probably have to make cuts to other features to make the game on time, i.e Diplomacy and AI will not be much different.

**Sher Khan** · August 22, 2007, 09:14 PM

Well, with the announcement of ETW's naval battle feature, I say this thread is now a bit redundant. You can continue discussing the way naval battles will take place in Horsearcher's thread in the ETW forums.

This thread is now closed.