Does anyone really use ships?

[RedGuard]

I have just finished a long and satisfying gondor campaign and found my self in a fight for survival against mordor and Harad. Harad was attacking my southern coast with naval invasions so i began building a fleet. My fleet owned all the harad corsair ships and i took umbar with a large army and began launching my own naval invasions in harad and sent a army led by faramir down through south gondor. but later on when i had taken harad i had no reason to keep my fleet around.

now i understand lore wise the numenorians and high elves were master sailors but other than that fact what is the reason for having many types of ships? it would make a lot more since to have naval power if you could go around all of middle earth and up all the rivers but that would be more work than it is worth. so my question is other than the reason i stated does anyone here use ships for anything else besides quicker troop deployment?

[knight of meh]

blocking Harads ports to kill their economy

and if you haven't one a high elf maritime invasion of Harad then you haven't lived

[eloris]

blocking Harads ports to kill their economy

and if you haven't one a high elf maritime invasion of Harad then you haven't lived

Agreed, lol. In the midst of one now. Now why o why didn't they do that in the books?

[eloris]

blocking Harads ports to kill their economy

and if you haven't one a high elf maritime invasion of Harad then you haven't lived

Agreed, lol. In the midst of one now. Now why o why didn't they do that in the books?

[RedGuard]

Agreed, lol. In the midst of one now. Now why o why didn't they do that in the books?

maybe they were too busy getting the hell outta dodge?

[StealthFox]

and if you haven't one a high elf maritime invasion of Harad then you haven't lived

Yep! Send a mighty Elven invasion force to completely destroy Harad is great fun! Or... send the hordes of Harad to exterminate Mithlond.

[ThaDoews]

I use them for blocking acces to Gondor mainland. You can block that passage at Pelargir and other passages. This make it more easy to control where Harad will do their attacks.

[LuckyPistol]

Does blockading really have much effect except for completing missions? I always get a "blockade port" mission every now and then, by land or sea, but what are the benefits to yourself and the negatives on the one your blockading?

[Trailhog250]

Does blockading really have much effect except for completing missions? I always get a "blockade port" mission every now and then, by land or sea, but what are the benefits to yourself and the negatives on the one your blockading?

Well since the AI can't run out of money, I don't know how much use it is to blockade a port if you're only trying to hurt trade. I blockade ports so their fleets stop wandering around and blockading my ports

[RedGuard]

Well since the AI can't run out of money, I don't know how much use it is to blockade a port if you're only trying to hurt trade. I blockade ports so their fleets stop wandering around and blockading my ports

same here, although apparently ships can still leave the port even when you blockade them after 2 turns which i did not know until i had to do it myself.

[knight of meh]

it reduces trade values for the port owner

no bonus as such for the ship owner except maybe complete quest gold or improved relations with other factions that the port owner is at war with (not so much in third age that last point)

[joshko]

As Gondor I use them to keep Harad in check, also I use them to transport an army from Dol Amroth to attack Umbar. Other than that no.

[Loki_999]

Well, as i've only played Dwarves recently, who don't seem to be able to build ships, my answer has to be no (although i got one as a mercenary to be able to travel to the islands to take out Harad finally). Planning on High Elves next though, so probably will be getting some good ship use in.

[Bobz]

Ships were never much use unless you playing as Gondor or Harad. Even then, once you've defeated them ships are effectively useless unless you're planning to send a naval invasion somewhere far away. The only other use of ships is as the High Elves where you keep the starting ships to deal with the occasional pirate fleet that pops up.

[ArmyCharger]

Now we're talking about ships, why can't Dale build ships on the sea of Rhun?

[Ngugi]

Now we're talking about ships, why can't Dale build ships on the sea of Rhun?

No one can build ships in the Sea of Rhûn.

In earlier versions of TATW you could but there was draw backs.
The AI couldn't handle it, often spamming ships, while there was a player advantage as the sea became no hinder but a short cut, while tha AI did not sent armies across it (IIRC).

[knight of meh]

it's not transversable water in vanilla , PCP and the DaC map change this however they are the only ones i know of

[Macilrille]

Unless I play Gondor (or Harad if I did), I dismantle the ships, they are expensive. Too expensive to keep against pirates, building one to deal with pirates is fast should they appear, and most pirates in my games turn up south of the Rast Vorn.


If you are Gondor, you want ships or your coasts will be overrun by pirates and your trading routes blocked. Not attending your fleet invites disaster. As it was in the stories... I presume the same goes for Harad. If you play HE or FPoE you also want ships when you go to deal with Mordor so you can flank them by crippling Harad with a naval invasion force.