Will we enjoy Naval Battles?

[skimyy]

Not much of a historian, but I do know that naval warfare in the timeline of R2TW are something along the lines of:

1. Ramming.
2. Ramming.
3. Ramming.
4. Few archers?
5. Occasional boarding action.
6. More ramming.
7. That one ship with a single balista or catapult.

Really wondering how CA is engineering the naval play style when it's all about ships trying to thrust their mighty big rams up another ship's arse.

I'm guessing most of us didn't enjoy Shogun 2 naval battles, compared to Empire/Napoleon. I'm hoping R2TW won't be as dry.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

It will be interesting to see how they're gonna tackle the naval battles in this game. They have said that there can be multiple ships in one unit now (maybe like 3 assault ships in one unit) so maybe the naval battles will be more epic?

[Fishdawg]

I'm looking forward to it actually though I think it will become an auto resolved issue after a while hope I'm wrong though. What will keep it alive I think is the use of a naval is in an invasion of a city like Carthage

[Dreagon]

I think it has potential. And it's definitely more varried then the empire/napoleon battles which are basically: shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, boom, board sometimes.

[Splatterfox]

I think it has potential. And it's definitely more varried then the empire/napoleon battles which are basically: shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, boom, board sometimes.

This!

[Sir Sesshaku]

Did someone ever enjoyed naval battles? Im sure someone did But Im not one of them. I think I must've played like....4 battles since Empire. Having naval battles it's cool....but the way the battles are managed....I don't like it at all. I think managin more than 5 ships in that small map, it's really annoying and boring. Perhaps if you could have decent IA and command ships in first person mode. But only if they make it interesting and real, and not a vessel with some magic engine that takes you full speed ahead in every direction shooting howitzers that blow up enemy ships. If I wanted that I would be playing Assassins Creed IV.

[panzerschreck]

Did someone ever enjoyed naval battles? Im sure someone did But Im not one of them. I think I must've played like....4 battles since Empire. Having naval battles it's cool....but the way the battles are managed....I don't like it at all. I think managin more than 5 ships in that small map, it's really annoying and boring. Perhaps if you could have decent IA and command ships in first person mode. But only if they make it interesting and real, and not a vessel with some magic engine that takes you full speed ahead in every direction shooting howitzers that blow up enemy ships. If I wanted that I would be playing Assassins Creed IV.

indeed, i am really found of naval battle but I don't like the ones in TW. Not enough immersive, soldiers standing like statues in their ship, I really fear that it will be the same in Rome 2.

[Sowilo]

trying to thrust their mighty big rams up another arse.

What this thread left me with.

[gaunty14]

Did someone ever enjoyed naval battles? Im sure someone did But Im not one of them. I think I must've played like....4 battles since Empire. Having naval battles it's cool....but the way the battles are managed....I don't like it at all. I think managin more than 5 ships in that small map, it's really annoying and boring. Perhaps if you could have decent IA and command ships in first person mode. But only if they make it interesting and real, and not a vessel with some magic engine that takes you full speed ahead in every direction shooting howitzers that blow up enemy ships. If I wanted that I would be playing Assassins Creed IV.

Actually, I like naval battles compared to land battles in NTW due to the increased hull strength compared to ETW and ships tend to surrender due to gun/crew loss instead of hull damage/sinking. Plus with a smoke mod and the naval battles look rather cool. The fact that I'm in the RNR probably skews my opinion slightly

[jamreal18]

Movie 300 is going to have part 2. Its about naval battle between greek and persia. i hoped ca watches it first before releasing the game to get more idea about naval battles.

[Dreagon]

Movie 300 is going to have part 2. Its about naval battle between greek and persia. i hoped ca watches it first before releasing the game to get more idea about naval battles.

Because 300 was so accurate. And btw, the naval battles are done so nothing is going to change anymore.

[Holger Danske]

Movie 300 is going to have part 2. Its about naval battle between greek and persia. i hoped ca watches it first before releasing the game to get more idea about naval battles.

I hope CA actually reads some books on the subject rather than taking everything from retarded entertainment with zero historical value.

[kamikazee786]

Roman and Hellenistic naval battles were mainly all about ramming.

Ballistae and catapults were added to larger ships and during the first punic war many technological advances were made which included such as the Harpax ( a catapult fired grappling hook which made its first appearence in the battle of Naulochus in 36 BC)

collapsible fighting towers also made an appearance at this time where one or 2 towers on a ship would provide cover fire for boarding troops

[CnConrad]

Not much of a historian, but I do know that naval warfare in the timeline of R2TW are something along the lines of:

1. Ramming.
2. Ramming.
3. Ramming.
4. Few archers?
5. Occasional boarding action.
6. More ramming.
7. That one ship with a single balista or catapult.

Really wondering how CA is engineering the naval play style when it's all about ships trying to thrust their mighty big rams up another ship's arse.

I'm guessing most of us didn't enjoy Shogun 2 naval battles, compared to Empire/Napoleon. I'm hoping R2TW won't be as dry.

I am really worried about this part. Shogun 2 navel battles were miserably not Fun. FOTS was actually enjoyable.

[caratacus]

It would be great seeing naval battles in RTW2. I found these videos on Youtube of some very good models of ancient ships to wet the appetite. The last one is about the development of the Trireme

Roman Liburna Ship

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Roman Fleet

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hellenistic ship ram

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Roman Quinquireme ship

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Pentecontor Ship

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Greek Bireme ship

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hellenistic Fleet

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hellenistic Ship

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Trireme Dreadnought of the Ancient Mediterranean

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[skimyy]

It would be great seeing naval battles in RTW2. I found these videos on Youtube of some very good models of ancient ships to wet the appetite. The last one is about the development of the Trireme

Nice post!
+Rep

Don't have high expectation for the naval gameplay, but I hope it will at least be some good eye candy with epic music.

[MrChris]

I liked naval battles a lot in Empire, especially after having something like Darthmod on

but I have always wanted to have the triremes etc that the Greeks used, with the ramming etc

[torongill]

Not much of a historian, but I do know that naval warfare in the timeline of R2TW are something along the lines of:

1. Ramming.
2. Ramming.
3. Ramming.
4. Few archers?
5. Occasional boarding action.
6. More ramming.
7. That one ship with a single balista or catapult.

Really wondering how CA is engineering the naval play style when it's all about ships trying to thrust their mighty big rams up another ship's arse.

I'm guessing most of us didn't enjoy Shogun 2 naval battles, compared to Empire/Napoleon. I'm hoping R2TW won't be as dry.

Not really. By the time of Rome 2 ships had become bigger and less nimble, meaning that ramming was not employed so often. The better trained crews still preferred ramming attacks, but boarding began to supersede them. Even more important, the more stable platform that the bigger ships provided allowed for artillery to be used effectively and with it shooting with incendiary materials. The Romans perfected the boarding technique with their deployable drop-bridge, the corvus. So the bigger the ships, the less ramming you will see.
This is not to say ramming will be easy and boring. If they make it the way it needs to be done, group tactics will be very important - you could cripple some of the enemy ships while passing through the enemy formation and then ram them with other ships. Also, in some cases you want to be able to ram - a group of small ships attacking a bigger one would probably prefer to surround it, cripple it by smashing the oars of the enemy and then ram it(if their construction is sturdy enough).

Still, this is ships hitting one another. On Purpose! Even if you don't normally enjoy naval battles the pure potential of breaking things must appeal.

I also don't understand why people didn't enjoy naval combat in NTW for example. Sure, the vanilla version was arcadish, but with a good enough mod it was loads of fun - crossing the T, smashing the enemy into submission with grapeshot and then boarding their ships... that stuff was awesome!

[Col. Tartleton]

Ramming is all about placing the strike. Port Oars hit, Starboard Oars hit, Port Hull hit, Starboard Hull hit, Port Rudder hit, Starboard Rudder hit, Aft hit, Stern hit.

By the same argument melee land battles are just blind stabbing with no intelligent use of movement or maneuver.

On top of that you add in the fact that there are going to be missile infantry, artillery, and melee infantry on the ships.

Moreover you're wrongly assuming that every faction is going to be using Mediterranean styled galleys.

[rrgg]

My main concern is having to micro the movements of every individual ship in a massive fleet. Hopefully there is some degree of AI that lets your ships attack nearby vessels and attempt to dodge incoming rams all on their own.

From what I remember in Empire and Napoleon, even something as simple as an attack command tended immediately cause your ships to flip out and spin in circles. In large, 10-20 ship battles it was pretty tricking to try anything more complicated than "put all your ships in the bow to stern formation and snake around the map until everything is dead".