Tips with light galleys

[lemming3k]

It seems I'm the only one who doesn't see these units as worthless, but I'm finding them very effective up until the enemy gets 3rd rates, so I'm going to post some tips.

First of all they are war of attrition units, costing less than 'proper' ships but dealing good damage for their cost. If you have a full stack you will beat half stacks of 5th rates, which cost more. Against a full stack of anything more than brigs/indiamen, don't expect to win, but you WILL do a lot more damage than they will. Call it a pyrrhic victory for the enemy - who will probably capture your half damaged galleys so this is the reason you have a second stack nearby. Again, they're cheap and quick to build so you build them up at the start of war and any losses are fine as you're dealing high damage to an enemy fleet for minimal loss. You can afford to do this in short term warfare and it's less costly than losing even 2 4th rates.
It pays to be agressive with them.
It's a pretty low-risk strategy, why? well lets say you lost your fancy 4th rate fleet - enjoy spending all that cash again and taking all that time to build it back up - all the while your trade routes are being ed. With light galleys they take 1 turn to build and can be built in trading ports - hello cheap instant army.

Battle tips -
DO NOT USE THE STANDARD NAVAL FORMATIONS OF THE TIME WITH GALLEYS. I suspect this is where people go wrong and think they are useless - they are forward firing vessels, so line up the way you would for LAND warfare, straight line across. Do NOT take the enemy on 1vs1 - they will come towards you in a single line so focus fire on the lead ship, then the second, then third. 4 galleys takes out a brig/sloop, 5 or 6 for 5th rates, and use the lot for 4th rates(I haven't tried anything higher yet so can't give tips on what it takes to bring them down) - I usually use a few light galleys to get some sneaky early hits on the second and third ships depending on how big the lead one is.
You basically just take them out one at a time, they'll get a few shots off, and depending on their fleet size and strength will deal varying amounts of damage to your ships.

[Wingate]

How about suicide boarding attacks? I found that Xebecs in particular, captured or enemy, blew up nicely and if next to an enemy ship could do some damage, while boarding ties them up as a target. Have you tried that with lighter galleys?.

[lemming3k]

How about suicide boarding attacks? I found that Xebecs in particular, captured or enemy, blew up nicely and if next to an enemy ship could do some damage, while boarding ties them up as a target. Have you tried that with lighter galleys?.

I haven't intentionally tried it due to the low morale on galleys - whilst they hold in a fight you may find charging them in you're lucky to reach the enemy line - However I have had a brig reach my line and try to board my galley, so I shot at the brig through my galley(knowing it would explode) and yes, it does take out anything nearby - the brig went up in flames in 3 seconds and even the galley on the other side caught fire!
So yes, suiciding may be possible.

[Temuzu]

Pity that theres no suicide ships. But you could use rocket ships, they blow up easily. Just sail next to the enemy and let it fire at you, ship will blow up and maeby make the other one set on fire too.