Fire ships

**Emperor of The Great Unknown** · April 14, 2009, 05:55 PM

are there any fire ships in this game i only had this game for 2 days so i didn't have enough time to look for them becuase they were still used in this era.

for those who don't know what a fire ship is its a unmaned ship that is filled with gunpowered and is set on fire and sent into the enemy fleet causing confusion and panick.

also are naval battles and naval movement affect by wind?

**Plank of Wood** · April 14, 2009, 06:03 PM

No, but you can still send ships that caught fire into the flanks of giant ships, ramming it to keep them together, then exploding them both.

**Emperor of The Great Unknown** · April 14, 2009, 06:05 PM

never tried that one

i only fought 1 naval battle it was more of a skremish.

**Xstar** · April 14, 2009, 06:10 PM

No, but ships turn in to fire ships (booom!) quite randomly during naval battles! I think it's supposed to be the gunpowder reserves exploding. Who cares if it's realistic, it looks really nice

**Plank of Wood** · April 14, 2009, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by Xstar

Who cares if it's realistic, it looks really nice

It's spelled hilarious.

**Emperor of The Great Unknown** · April 14, 2009, 06:31 PM

what?

**Chilly5** · April 14, 2009, 06:48 PM

Were fire ships ever actually used? Idk, in my opinion it doesnt sound like a very feasible idea...first of all you're wasting a ship, all of that time making it and everything...and second, how do you get it to go to an enemy ship if it's unmanned?
But given CA's usual dealings, incendiary pigs and all, you'd think they wouldve included fireships, it would be a fun gameplay feature I guess. All of the tools are ready for it...you have a ship, on fire, that explodes on contact. Mod anyone? hehehe

**Emperor of The Great Unknown** · April 14, 2009, 07:02 PM

pirates used it angist navys at port you just sail the burning thing into the fleet cause panick they will cut there achors off and the win would scatter the them leaving the port for the pirates.

**Syntax Error** · April 14, 2009, 07:56 PM

Originally Posted by Chilly5

Were fire ships ever actually used? Idk, in my opinion it doesnt sound like a very feasible idea...first of all you're wasting a ship, all of that time making it and everything...and second, how do you get it to go to an enemy ship if it's unmanned?
But given CA's usual dealings, incendiary pigs and all, you'd think they wouldve included fireships, it would be a fun gameplay feature I guess. All of the tools are ready for it...you have a ship, on fire, that explodes on contact. Mod anyone? hehehe

Fire ships were used rather famously by the English to defeat the Spanish Armada.

**worm00** · April 15, 2009, 01:38 PM

Originally Posted by Chilly5

Were fire ships ever actually used? Idk, in my opinion it doesnt sound like a very feasible idea...first of all you're wasting a ship, all of that time making it and everything...and second, how do you get it to go to an enemy ship if it's unmanned?

Fire ships were heavily used in the Agean. They were loaded with tar and gunpowder, and they weren't really left to drift in the enemy fleet (at least in the cases I have in mind), they were basically suicide missions and were attached with big nails and grapples to big ships. They had a small boat to escape, and in fact a few people were veterans of as many as a dozen such attacks.

They were extensively used in the Greek revolution 1821 on, and also more sporadically in the 18th century; certainly in a big naval battle between Russians and Ottomans in 1770sth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chesma . That was in a true naval battle, not on anchored targets.

Ssee also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ship

**Ascarona** · April 16, 2009, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by Chilly5

Were fire ships ever actually used? Idk, in my opinion it doesnt sound like a very feasible idea...first of all you're wasting a ship, all of that time making it and everything...and second, how do you get it to go to an enemy ship if it's unmanned?
But given CA's usual dealings, incendiary pigs and all, you'd think they wouldve included fireships, it would be a fun gameplay feature I guess. All of the tools are ready for it...you have a ship, on fire, that explodes on contact. Mod anyone? hehehe

They were, I'd sacrifice one of my sloops to take down a freaking heavy first rate every day.

**psyclog** · April 14, 2009, 08:13 PM

The AI regularly uses fire ships against my fleets.

Since my ships usually have twice the size than the enemy's with their sloops and nutshells, they sometimes kamikaze themselves right into the flanks of one of my warships, where a salvo at point blank will cause them to explode and set everything on fire. I hate them.

Not what the OP wanted to hear, but I thought it was worth a read.

**Collic** · April 14, 2009, 09:03 PM

No fire ships persay, but fire can be a valuable weapon. Getting the enemy fleet tangled up with a couple of disposable ships and then pounding the resulting mess with rocket ships is a fun tactic. Fire does spread from ship to ship If they're close enough, I think.

**Rooie** · April 15, 2009, 07:00 AM

Fireships where used in naval warfare, not only by pirates. Just think of the scenario: You are angoring in a nice harbour waiting for full provisions before going out to sea to wage battle with the fleet of your neighbour. But the enemy hasn't read your planningschedule or timetable and descides to attack first. The wind is in the correct direction so you send a couple of fireships towards your sailorcolleges in the harbour. I garantee there would be a mass panic, ships catching flame, running into each other etcetc. Ships in the age of sail are made of wood and........sails and will burn hell when catching fire!!!!! So fireships have bin used and they can be extremely effective when used correctly.

**Zerosliver** · April 16, 2009, 01:52 PM

I think The Byzantine Empire is the most renowned user of the greek firethrower on their boats in history.

**Faris ad Din** · April 16, 2009, 02:04 PM

Originally Posted by zerosliver

I think The Byzantine Empire is the most renowned user of the greek firethrower on their boats in history.

The ships in discussion here are not flamethrower ships, these are "fire ships," a la kamikaze suicide style. AOE2 historical accuracy FTL.

Anyway, the Byzantines guarded their secrets so well that the technology was lost to the present day (modern flamethrowers reinvented around WW1) - any 'fire ship' you see mentioned here are basically disposable wooden vessels where the entire blasted thing is a disposable weapon.

**nosey aka lord welington** · April 16, 2009, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Faris ad Din

The ships in discussion here are not flamethrower ships, these are "fire ships," a la kamikaze suicide style. AOE2 historical accuracy FTL.

Anyway, the Byzantines guarded their secrets so well that the technology was lost to the present day (modern flamethrowers reinvented around WW1) - any 'fire ship' you see mentioned here are basically disposable wooden vessels where the entire blasted thing is a disposable weapon.

lets just call them burners to the dutch name so this wont happen again
and to add to the supject i think those burners must have a bail button when you press it al its crew will swim to the nearest ship and the burner will be locked in its setting so if its in a turn it will make circel for the rest of the batlle