Navies and transports

[Post Hoc]

Is there any point in building a navy? Transport ships are huge and can stand up to most ships. Why invest money in a navy? I thought transport ships were suppose need "protection", they seem pretty capable of protecting themselves. They are huge!

Notice something in the balance of power meter? Leads me to believe they are not suppose to be this way.

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[Jacob31593]

i actually just came here to post a similar thread
my navy as the iceni was destroyed by a couple of transports despite the balance of power bar saying i had the most power
when the battle loaded the power bar had reversed and their transports beat my actual navy because the transports carry more levy spearmen than naval ships

[Mephalamos]

No, there is no point.

Playing as Athens, I am war with Egypt and its allies, and frankly, I could not imagine diverting funds away from my army to built dedicated warships when my transports are decent enough to defend themselves on the rare occasion they are attacked, and since I don't actually need dedicated warships to aid in transport, 'warships' would simply be redundant.

[krisslanza]

Transports are only dangerous in two ways:
1. The units on board may have access to fire.
2. They're large and deal a lot of damage.

Unless your fleet actually has ramming ships do NOT engage them. They're slow, and support ships can easily outpace them and pepper them to death. Transports are strong, but they're only good in melee.

[marmeladu]

I found dedicated navy useful for support; transports are good in melee, but just buy a big ship and ram every transport ship that stands in your way

[zbeck008]

I noticed this problem as well. I made two huge navy's and got my behind whooped by a couple transport ships. After that, I quit making navy's and saved a lot of money!