Naval Tactics on Campaign Map - advice Pls

[Meraun]

Hey Guys

In my current FotS-Game i play sa former Shimazu. i controlle most of Kyushu (the rest is hold by
my ally or vassals.)

iam at war with 5 Shogun factions. But we dont share a border. So its mainly a big Naval war.

My Problem: i used to fight with ont big fleet(1x 26 cannon Frigate and at least 5x 14 or 16er) an one small
fleet (one or Two 16er Frigate)

I have a about 7 ports and costlines in every single province. So the AI is attacking my ports and bombart my
provinces with a lot of Ships. They operate alone and mainly do hit and run.

And at least two of the factions have big main fleet.

How do i handle that? my enconomy is under pressure because i always get cut of my tradelines because i cant protect them. My Mines, and Farm get bombared from see. I can even afford to fix all the damage the enemy is doing...

my last move was that split up my main Fleet and build more ships (my fleet is about 15 Ships strong now)
so i have one "Homefleet" wich is guard my Mainport and my shipyard. I have an "Huntergroup" wich trys to hunt down the small little Ships wich bombared my Provinces and Ports. And i have an mainfleet wich is support my army and fight the enemy mainfleet's (i just lost the hold fleet yesterday :-(

So now i still dont have enough ships to protect my ports. but now i have so many ships that i cant afford a second fullstackarmy (Wich i will need to attack the enemy on land).

So waht the do i do know?!

[crimson2404]

I have found that most of the time if you keep your ship slightly out of range of the enemies ship and keep firing in third person mode, 1 or 2 shots of a volley will miss and hit the ship and eventually sink or explode it. weirdly even when the ai is taking shots that technically miss they budge. So recruit a single ship with a decent amount of guns to guard the port.

I will upload something to youtube by the end of today when i have time.

[Humble Warrior]

I`m seriously beginning to wonder if i`ve chosen an easy level by mistake. i`ve found my whole Campaign way too easy and Naval combat has been like nothing. I have yet to be truly challenged by anyone in this Campaign.

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Hey Guys

In my current FotS-Game i play sa former Shimazu. i controlle most of Kyushu (the rest is hold by
my ally or vassals.)

iam at war with 5 Shogun factions. But we dont share a border. So its mainly a big Naval war.

My Problem: i used to fight with ont big fleet(1x 26 cannon Frigate and at least 5x 14 or 16er) an one small
fleet (one or Two 16er Frigate)

I have a about 7 ports and costlines in every single province. So the AI is attacking my port and bombart my
provinces with a lot of Ships. They operate alone and mainly do hit and run.

And at least two of the factions have big main fleet.

How do i handle that? my enconomy is under pressure because i always get cut of my tradelines because i cant protect them. My Mines, and Farm get bombared from see. I can even afford to fix all the damage the enemy is doing...

my last move was that split up my main Fleet and build more ships (my fleet is about 15 Ships strong now)
so i have one "Homefleet" wich is guard my Mainport and my shipyard. I have an "Huntergroup" wich trys to hunt down the small little Ships wich bombared my Provinces and Port. And i have an mainfleet wich is support my army and fight the enemy mainfleet's (i just lost the hold fleet yesterday :-(

So now i still dont have enough ships to protect my ports. But so many ships that i cant afford a second fullstackarmy (Wich i will need to attack the enemy on land).

So wath the do i do know?!

I play on the smallest ship level (Only six per stack) so this might not work for you, but...

I have three fleets. I try to station them in a triangle around Kyuushu, so I can counter anything that comes at me.

But that would cost quite a bit if they were more than six ships per stack...

[tottiittot]

The best defense is a good offense - Just tell your hunter fleet to go and bombard all their military ports (make sure you have enough guns or your ship will be bombarded by the port instead)
Destroy every ships and fleets you see on the way!!

I thinks its not comfortable that ship's control area (It's the red radius around your fleet when you hover your mouse over it - not circle dash line) are smaller than its bombardment range so you can't just place your fleet there to protect your ports or coastal buildings, this is the reason that passive naval strategy is not a good idea.

I tried to spread out my fleet to cover large area and ended up slaughtered due to the lack of strength / I tried to used more ship and ended up bankrupting

[Ifernat]

The thing you need to understand is where you need to be to intercept the incoming ships. The AI absolutely fixates on your primary trade port if its undamaged. If you're Satsuma that's down on the southern end of the Kyushu island. I find that a small group of ships just to the north of the channel between Honshu and Kyushu is key because the ships that are being built in the ports on the north coast of Japan are typically going to take almost an identical line down the north coast then turn at Nagasaki and then go south.

Ships being built on the southern coast are going to skirt the south side of Shikoku and go for the same place so another group is needed along that pathway hanging out to the SE of Osumi.

A third group needs to watch the channel of the Inland Sea.

Once these groups are in place, don't pull them out to kill any ships that have gotten loose unless they have enough movement to get back on station afterwards, more AI raiders will slip past if you do that. Build a small but durable group to slowly clean out the ships that are already past the key patrol points.

Eventually you'll want another group roughly half a movement length behind the main group to pick up the slack if one gets past or if the the main blocking groups need to spend a turn in port for repairs.

As to battle tactics...get explosive shells as soon as you can. Explosive shells do horrible things to wooden (not armor plated) ships. But they have low range which can be problematic. Hence my standard battle tactics is to form the bulk of my ships in line formation (manually as I find the group controls cause wonky behavior) and the sail at an angle until the AI fleet (if it is a fleet) is off the beam of my ships but out of range. Then I sail one ship and either trigger the AI to counterattack by either tagging them manually (in first person mode) or just barely clip through their firing arcs. The little gunboats are great for thus until you can field a Koetsu. Once you get a Koetsu this is painfully easy as the Koetsu has longer range than the rest of the ships and it can fire straight forward. Once the AI attacks they'll come towards the "bait" ship or the Koetsu class ship and get raked by the rest of my ships. Use solid shot until the get in close then switch to explosive once they get in range. The AI will heavily prioritize your general's ship so you may have to pull it out of the firing line.

As long as your ship isn't taking too much damage you can also turn on damage control (repair) in the middle of a fight. I've won a number of naval battles where my general's ship basically spent half the fight in repair mode while the rest of my fleet killed off the AI ships who were fixated on him.

[Humble Warrior]

As to battle tactics...get explosive shells as soon as you can. Explosive shells do horrible things to wooden (not armor plated) ships. But they have low range which can be problematic. Hence my standard battle tactics is to form the bulk of my ships in line formation (manually as I find the group controls cause wonky behavior) and the sail at an angle until the AI fleet (if it is a fleet) is off the beam of my ships but out of range. Then I sail one ship and either trigger the AI to counterattack by either tagging them manually (in first person mode) or just barely clip through their firing arcs. The little gunboats are great for thus until you can field a Koetsu. Once you get a Koetsu this is painfully easy as the Koetsu has longer range than the rest of the ships and it can fire straight forward. Once the AI attacks they'll come towards the "bait" ship or the Koetsu class ship and get raked by the rest of my ships. Use solid shot until the get in close then switch to explosive once they get in range. The AI will heavily prioritize your general's ship so you may have to pull it out of the firing line.

As long as your ship isn't taking too much damage you can also turn on damage control (repair) in the middle of a fight. I've won a number of naval battles where my general's ship basically spent half the fight in repair mode while the rest of my fleet killed off the AI ships who were fixated on him.

Pretty good. I don`t mind the BAI tactic of staying back, but sometimes this is a major disadvantage for them. For instance, I was facing 6 big ships and was attacking. The enemy ships stayed back, but all I did was go wide round onto their flanks. Eventually one of the ships at the end turned to me and I blasted him out of the water. The others didn`t move, I edged closer, they begin to move, turning to me, I blasted him out of the water. Eventually they were all on fire with one exploded. Basically, I destroyed them one by one, single file.

Now I`ll admit I did have a Warrior, hurriedly built, but if those ships had gone about me, circled and attacked from several angles together, they would`ve put my Warrior in serious trouble. I couldn`t hit them all if they had done that and some would`ve hit me. Even the Autocalc originally indicated a massive win for the enemy BAI.

[assistec24]

Hi guys,
I am a TW naval veteran(more then 2500h only on NTW and a member of best naval team on NTW- SEN);
I bought fots JUST bc of new naval (much better then shogun 2!) - probably bc CA resolve to take some of NTW naval and "insert" here (i confess, like I am more an admiral then a soldier, I don.t like shogun 2 naval fights bc - its a fact : SUCKS!) BUT, in fots, the things are MUCH better now: u can control now the broadside fire, all ships have canons, in just a sentence: congrats CA.

Now, after I play some 60-70h fots, i discover the fact the AI are SO STUPID (compare with the AI on NTW, who i see, not only one time, in hard settings are much more competent then a 4-5 stars player, lol)
So, my friend, if u want to simply erase the AI ships, its so easy...
1. build 16 or 26 canons ships
2. put ONE unit of each in key points (e.a., in trade routes) - THEN
3. ATTACK with ONLY one ship AI fleets !
Yes, i say ONE ship (better a big one, a 26 guns) bc. IF you have a bigger fleet (bigger then the AI fleet) the AI will flew; (u loose time and points to hunt them down) BUT if AI have better ships then u or more ships - the AI will stay to fight.
4. Essential: the key to win its to research faser faster the Armour piercing projectile! Yep, this are the key. The effective range of this ammo are 30-40% BIGGER then the red zone on your screen . So, sure u discover if u are the attacker, the AI simply wait 4 u with all ships broadside ready;
5. Approach them to a distance who are 25-30% BIGGER then the red zone of fire cover; DO NOT USE auto-fire !
6. Turn your ship broadside, select armor piercing then start shooting the 1st ships of the AI line; ANY ship will catch fire after 1st salvo, max. second one. After 3-4 salvo they will surrender burning like hell.
The stupid thing here (4 the AI) its u are OUT of fire range BUT your armor piercing ammo will still hit the AI ship deadly. IF u do not enter in AI "red zone" - the AI ships will stay immobile, and u will kill them one after one. Sometimes some ships will turn back with fear, bc they are burning a lot. Keep shooting, if u calculate well the distance, u will kill all.
Its only a factor here: DO NOT enter in the fire range of AI - stay out but IN-RANGE 4 your armor piercing ammo; After 4-5 fights, your ship will get a morale boost and max xp; u will have the best crews on campaign and rule the sea;
7. If AI attack u, try to avoid the fight. In aggressor role, AI are much better. BUT if u are the aggressor, u will win always.
Hope this help u.
Also, remember the BIG help if u have 3-4 fleets near to your land fight: i see sometimes 6 rounds of 48 shells to my disposal: only this can erase a huge AI army if u aim with care ...