So I've finally started to get the hang of naval battles, and they are definitely way unbalanced

[rrgg]

I'm not even going to complain about transports here other than the fact that prices need to be rebalanced and the auto-resolve needs to be fixed. (I actually quite like that land units are able to take part in naval engagements.)

Ok, so there is some interesting stuff going on with naval battles, for instance using one ship to hold an enemy in place while another ship rams or bombards it, outflanking the enemy and deciding whether a ship should ram, board, or use missiles, etc. However, in practice (even if you discount the times that none of that actually works due to bugs, poor path-finding, the excessive micromanagement necessary, etc.) all it basically boils down to is "whoever has the most ships wins." Seriously, just spam fleets of the cheapest ship you can make and you'll simply annihilate everything else out there (Can't handle the micro? pro-tip, slelect all your ships at the start of the battle and put them into an "AI attack" group and congratulations! You are now a master naval tactician.)

Unless you auto-resolve there is practically no point to building the larger ships. Archer ships? The gulf between melee and ranged troops is so wide in close combat that your guys are done for the very first moment a tiny 60 guy assault ship sneaks by and gets close (this isn't like on land where you can easily run away or move melee troops in to help). Large melee ships meanwhile, are likely just going to end up splashing about uselessly while they get rammed or arrowed to death by more maneuverable little buggers. Plus actually trying to board with them takes such a long time that you'll rarely get the chance more than once before your stationary Juggernaut gets swarmed and destroyed. It's stupid.

Some suggestions I would make:
-Larger ships, especially large assault ships, should do more damage, and have way more health. Currently I think Hexeremes at least are able to one-shot a lot of little-boats and transports if you hit their special ability at the right time (although they still take massive damage if the AI thinks to counter-ram), it's really satisfying and should happen way more often. Meanwhile, increasing ship health should give the player more time with their big hitters. Also, some testudo-like stat boosts against tiny missile spam probably wouldn't be amiss.
-Boarding larger ships should be more difficult. For example a massive combat penalty if the boarders have to jump 6 feet up in order to actually board. If possible I think it would be pretty cool if boarding acted as a ramming attack and only "stuck" once the enemy ship had taken enough damage, otherwise it bounces off and attempts to board/ram again.
-Commands need to be streamlined and units made a bit more autonomous. In land battles melee troops will react and start fighting back even if they are hit in the flank, and if all else fails you can always just drag a box around a bunch of units and right-click on the enemy mob to order a melee charge. None of that works in Naval combat though.

[rrgg]

(Dashes are end-lines, because the site keeps bugging out for me)

[Abot_]

I agree and think the kill rate in naval battles (especially by missiles) is waaaaaay too fast even on armored roman troops, even more so than land battles. Increasing ship health, ship speed, and troop armor/decreasing missile damage would make naval battles excellent.

[Torio]

Thanks for this. I really like your tip about putting some of your fleet under AI control. I really don't like auto-resolving, but so far it has been the only way to get a fair result when fighting a lot of transports.

[Jackal2233]

Its the missile damage that is also overpowered, 2 ships of slingers on transports wiped out a Spartan assault hexeres which annoyed the hell outta me. However, I just stick to artillery ships nowadays and so far avoiding all the bad stuff. Less fun though, still, funny to sink everyone before they even come close to you.

[MrChris]

give me those scorpion/onager artillery ships and I'm happy

some of those in each of my fleets and its raining death time

but yes I think some of the missile ships can be a bit powerful, especially the slingers, I like the tower archers myself