Idea: How Fleets can have an impact on land battles, and a greater importence to the campaign.

Ok, I've been thinking a lot about this, and for some reason, I thought it would make it to Empire, but it didn't. I doubt it'll be in Napoleon, but we can hope. OK:

Let's say you're Britain. You have a fleet full of troops. This fleet is disembarking in northern France. Your army gets off, but your army can't move the first turn it sets foot in this new land. What if now, your fleet had some kind of Area of control-thingy that also were for land and not only at sea? Now, let's say we let this British army wait by its fleet for some turns. A French army arrives, and it attacks. Now, if this upcoming battle were to happen inside the "radar"-thingy (AOC) of the navy, then the navy would take part in the battle. On the battle map, you would see ships in the distance, and if anyone here have played "World in conflict", you would know what I'm talking about. You could now order your fleet to shoot at the enemy army, kinda like artillery, but a little further away of course. AND, if both your British navy AND a French one were to battle eachother in ther same AOC as the armies were fighting in, then we could have some kind of navy vs navy at the same time as we had a land battle.

I would love to see this implemented into the game.

What do you think?

I would love the idea.

There was a scene in the ITV series 'Hornblower' where a retreating British unit found themselves on a beach facing off a French attack. The only way they survived was due to a British ship off-shore which reigned down artillery on the French. If something like this could be implemented it would be good and I can see why the WiC style would work. However, if you were to go and have ship v ship aswell as army v army in one game I think you would find yourself pausing and micro managing too much.

Regards,
The Gallant Forty-Twa

1 ship max at a time otherwise the enemy wont stand a chance...

I like this idea. As a fan of WiC I see where you're coming from.

Thank you Yes, I see your point, the Gallant It might be too much, but it's just an idea. I'm putting more weight on the first idea, which I think is a must

I've played WIC,and if that feature as in NTW,the battles would be great!
However,you must limit the amount of ships.Or,the enemy has no chance whatsoever.

Well the artillery would be coming in at an extremely long range, so even with hundreds of cannons pouring fire onto the enemy, the damage... especially just using round shot, wouldn't be too overwhelming I don't think. Also I think ships larger than say, 4th rates (debatable) should be excluded due to not being able to get near enough to the shore ^^ Would give more use for smaller ships aswell as not being too OP.

Besides there'd usually be some ridges and stuff that, unless it were on the beach itself, would deflect most of the fire anyway I'd think.

I would love having artillery support from my fleet containing 20 Heavy first rates (20x60=1200 cannons) firing at the same time .

Originally Posted by S-te-Fan

I would love having artillery support from my fleet containing 20 Heavy first rates (20x60=1200 cannons) firing at the same time .

Sweet! But they would have horrible accuracy and only 600 cannons. Remember, they can only shoot the Cannons that are facing the enemy, and it's coming from a big distance away. But, it'd be raining cannonballs!

Make that heavy first rates armed with Organ guns and you got a deal!

Oh and that many cannon balls at once dont cause any FPS drop, Ive tried.

Originally Posted by DoomBunny666

Make that heavy first rates armed with Organ guns and you got a deal!

Oh and that many cannon balls at once dont cause any FPS drop, Ive tried.

That ain't hard to mod.

Cannons balls dont realy, that's because they're just a really low poly thingy.

Originally Posted by S-te-Fan

That ain't hard to mod.

Cannons balls dont realy, that's because they're just a really low poly thingy.

Cause it aint hard to mod, giving them rockets aint hard to mod...

I meant the smoke dont cause lagg, I use full BSM and its fine...

What about introducing battles where you you have to unload your land army while facing the enemy navy and the enemy land army. Add allies of either side to the mix and you'll have an excellent game.

i think that if there is a river nearby, then smaller ships such as sloops, brigs and sixth rates should be able to sail upriver and add artillery support.

But in a normal coastal battle, only long range bombardment ships such as bomb ships and rocket ships should be able to have an effect.
And due to them being far away from the battle, you shouldnt be able to move the ships, but direct their fire.

And the fire support the bombardment ships give should be aimed using an area of effect, instead of targeting individual units.

And how about coastal forts and units of artillery being able to shoot at ships during sea battles?

Which gives me an idea, why not be able to build coastal batteries in NTW, so they could provide fire support during coastal sea battles? They could be used to defend channels such as the long thin one in Canada, much like as in one of the Hornblower episodes.

I agree with pretty much everything HMS Empire Broadsword just said ^^

thats another good reason why big ships like ships of the line shouldnt be allowed to be involved in land battles..they would just win the battle all on their own. A first rate has 50 guns facing the enmy, thats 15+ units of land artillery, firing at the enemy from his flank, raking his line. It would just destroy his army, making it too unfair. And if the ships ever got close enough to use cannister shot...that could wipe out an army in one broadside.

And rerember the only thing that could harm offshore ships would be artillery, but that would have almost one effect. If a full broadside from an enemy ship doesnt cause much damage, the 3-6 land cannons wont do a thing.

It's a good idea, perhaps. However, very rarely did ships partake in land battles, and then mostly only for sieges. It's very difficult to accurately aim smoothbore cannons at mobile troops, it's effect would be wasted in real life I'm afraid. Unless of course it's simply to intimidate. As someone said the ships cannot be too heavy lest they run aground near the shore, and such an attempt would be very risky on the part of the fleet firing on land, lest an enemy fleet show up and catch them off balance. I don't think this is really feasible in real life, and therefore I believe it should be excluded, even if it is a fun idea.

what could happen is what sort of already happens sometimes with land battles-if an enemy fleet comes up to yours off shore, they have a separate naval battle, and if you win the ships can start pounding away at the enemy if they still choose to attack

Unless the battle were taking place on the landing beach itself, I fail to see how late 18th century ships of the line should take up the role of 20th century dreadnought battleships.

Many good ideas