Combining Naval fleets and land units in combat

**Jeava** · June 27, 2006, 11:41 AM

Hello again all

I was wondering if anyone had a trick to helping me combine my navel fleets? I can't seem to fiqure out how to tell which fleets will combine and which ones won't. In my current game I must have fifty different fleets and none of them seem to want to combine

Also is it possible to combine troops during combat? From time to time i'll find that units have decressed in size to the point that it would be better to combine two of the same together, but it doesn't seem possible. I know you can do this on the main campain map but is it possible to do that in a battle map?

Thanks for any comments

**Hannibal Barca** · June 27, 2006, 12:32 PM

As far as i know you cannot merge units during a battle.

And as for the naval fleets i have experienced this too. I find it very annoying when it claims 'an admiral will not relinquish command to another admiral'. Well i say that admiral will do what i freaking tell him to or i'll have his head on a pike. He didn't listen though. I think this is the most annoying feature of the campaign map and only occurs with some generals. You can still move units under one admiral to the other though. I often just disband these annoying generals or attack someone to get him killed.

**NobleNick** · June 27, 2006, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by Hannibal Barca

As far as i know you cannot merge units during a battle... You can still move units under one admiral to the other though. I often just disband these annoying generals or attack someone to get him killed.

Agreed with Hannibal. I have not found a way to merge land units on the battle map; but you can move units out from under an admiral.

I don't think I've ever been able to merge fleets unless one was a partial fleet that was dispatched from another existing fleet; but moving units from one fleet to another will help you consolidate. If you have 40 admirals, however, I don't see a way to have fewer than 40 fleets.

What I do in this case is just move all units except one, from a fleet I want to combine, into the other fleet. Then let the lone last boat (carrying the admiral) follow the other fleet around. If I want to engage an enemy, I move the lone admiral up next to the enemy, first, then attack with the bigger fleet. Both fleets typically get in on the action that way.

Don't retrain your lone admiral's fleet, and the cost of his upkeep will dwindle. Small partially manned ships make economical sea scouts.

To keep a cap on your naval force might take a bit of pre-planning: To make more ships without making more fleets, move an existing fleet into harbor before building another ship there.

Oh, and in case no one has already said it: WELCOME to the forum, Jeava!

**Lucius_Galba** · June 27, 2006, 02:25 PM

I agree with Nick and Hannibal. On land or sea you can't merge units during battle. In my opinion however, the naval aspect is the most pointless part of this game, all-be-it a nessarcery one(sorry for spelling).

You do have to bring a fleet into port in order to increase it, and also do as Nick says about merging fleets, they are a bugger to use but he is correct, lone admirals do make excellent scouts.
I second Nick here, welcome to the forum

Cheers
LG

**modernfd** · June 27, 2006, 04:21 PM

ive been able to merge two fleets by having 1 in a dock and then merging into that one. the same two fleets would have not merged in open water.

**Severous** · June 27, 2006, 04:46 PM

Hi

You cannot merge land units during battle.

Merging ships on the campaign map has something going on I have not mastered. Sometimes I cannot merge fleets, yet if I try to merge the other way around it works, or if I move one or both stacks they will then allow a merge at their new position. Other times, quite often, nothing I do can get the ships to merge.

Not merging ships becomes particulary annoying when trying to transport land units a long way using several ships in sucession.

**Hader** · June 27, 2006, 06:15 PM

You cannot merge any full fleet that has an admiral with 1 or more command stars. You can merge all but one boat under his command though. For example, if you have 2 fleets, 1 with 3 boats and a 1 star admiral and another fleet with 4 boats and no admiral with command stars, then you can merge the fleet without command stars to the one with command stars, but not vice versa. However if you have 2 fleets with any amount with boats and they both have comand stars then the only thing you can do is merge all but the lead boat, so in the end you will have 2 fleets no matter what.

**Hanno the Navigator** · June 27, 2006, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by Hader

You cannot merge any full fleet that has an admiral with 1 or more command stars. You can merge all but one boat under his command though. For example, if you have 2 fleets, 1 with 3 boats and a 1 star admiral and another fleet with 4 boats and no admiral with command stars, then you can merge the fleet without command stars to the one with command stars, but not vice versa. However if you have 2 fleets with any amount with boats and they both have comand stars then the only thing you can do is merge all but the lead boat, so in the end you will have 2 fleets no matter what.

This is correct.

The only things to add are:
- you can merge fleets (without merging units) - under these restrictions - anywhere, on the high seas or in port.
- you can merge naval units - under these restrictions - anywhere too.
- if moving ships out of a fleet, the last ship remaining will hold the Admiral.

The last two are a good thing to keep in mind when you barricade seaways. Say, you have a 2-ship fleet, but suffer casualties in battle. Assume one of your ships is 3-gold-chevron and the other, less damaged one is 2-bronze (unlikely but it happens). What you do is to restock the better-trained crew with the other ship's sailors, and then move the latter out to port for rebilding. Thus, you have your best vessel AND the admiral still guarding the seaway. And a 3-gold ship under an admiral's command should be able to beat a raw vessel with just a captain one class above its own.

**Severous** · June 28, 2006, 01:25 AM

Thanks for those comments. I will pay closer attention next time I have such a situation. I felt sure I had some merges involving admirals but probobly not.

On the replacing of battle casualties I take the opposite approach to you Hanno. I use the crew from the best ship to replace casualties in less experienced ships. This will increase the overall experience of the lesser ships. The now depleted very experienced ship goes to port for replacements. These replacements will be at the high experience level. In your example replacements would have been at 2 bronze, mine would be at 3 gold. So whilst it takes the better ship out of action for a turn it does increase overall naval experience.

**lastofthelight** · September 29, 2007, 04:42 PM

How exactly does one merge land units on the campaign map?

**Severous** · September 29, 2007, 05:26 PM

lastofthelight

Both units must be the same type and in the same location.

Point at the unit card at the bottom of the screen where you want to take men from, left click and hold, drag to the unit card you want to place the men into. Release mouse button.

This does not use up movement points. Can do it back a forwards multiple times and often see different experience outcomes.

OK?