Naval battle - not getting it

[Neblin]

Hi folks!

Well, I have a slight problem. Imagine the situation: I had a fleet packed with kickass high elven soldiers: two slots of each: eldar swordsmen (both heavy and light), eldar spearmen, eldar archers... all the elite units, you get the idea. Plus 4 generals. Well then this silly little Harad boat comes along and confronts me in naval battle. As there is no other option, I hit "autoresolve", and I lose the battle with a "clear defeat". Whatever. The thing is, apparently one of my generals dies, and the animation of the ship is that it sinks. Yes, it disappears into the sea. Ok. So. Well... where are my other 3 generals and all my huge army? Did they just... ehm... die? Then why am I getting the notice of only one general dying in battle? I still don't get how could I be defeated, really.

Any thoughts/ideas/something to help me understand all of this is mighty welcome. I am still hoping my army somehow managed to swim to a nearby coast and is waiting for my orders there...

Cheers!
neblin

[axnsan]

I get it you never played m2tw before...


They all drowned

[saglam2000]

What you have in your ships make no difference to how they preform in a battle, i can have 1 cog filled with 20 units of olog-hai vs 2 cogs and the 2 cogs win

[Blackorc]

Ships are strange sometimes , you can have 100 boats and lose from 60 boats
If your ships disapear they just drownBut if you got a large fleet they retreat after defeat and you can find them in sea.

[Theseus1234]

In any Total War game besides ETW, you can only autoresolve naval battles and in naval battles, it's the ships that count not the soldiers. Make sure if you have a strong army in a boat, spend some time building more boats to add to the fleet to protect against enemy naval attack

[Dea Paladin]

Yes, that is why I always avoid going naval with huge armies.. If i dont have an indestructable fleet

[spirit_of_rob]

or just use a merc boat and hop over the river XD i never go on long voyages due to TWs weird auto resolve hehe

[Terafis]

If you need to go on a long voyage, use the coast hop technique with a single merc ship -

Get on board, and disembark along the coast at the furthest point you can, repeat as necessary

The factions I see using boats are Harad and Gondor to the South, HE to the north west and Rhun in the Sea of Rhun, and Brigands. Out of all of them, the damn brigands are the worst

You can be sneaky as Harad and load an army up and sail right around to the north part of the map and start conquering Eriador from the north - good way to get some decent coin while you just block Gondor and build your cities up. Your early Harad units destroy Eriador.

[eugenioso]

it was answered before (yes, all your army is dead).

the main thing that you should understand is that (at least in VH/VH) if you have 2 identical ships fighting each other you will always lose.

if you must transport an army overseas through long distances, always make sure you take the time to add a strong fleet. most of the time this is not necessary, as the travelling distances are often short, and with merc fleets you get a 1 use transport that you can disband when youre done. after the fleet lands your army, use it to blockade enemy ports and really mess up the enemy's economy.

again, fleets are really not the main focus of the game. use em as you would in main game: to blockade enemy ports. i personally disdain this tactic, since upkeep of a strong fleet of ships is usually very high.