Transport fleets.

[Raghar de Ishi]

Transport fleets? Bwuahaha. It seems someone loved Civ V.

Also you didn't headed my advice about flaming pigs. Now this backslash is a consequence. Every day can be brighter with flaming pigs. And even bugs can be viewed in a brighter light.

Basically it kills strategy and it massively simplifies some stuff.

[karamazovmm]

rise of nations used this same mechanic

and it raises the strategy level not decreases

[Raghar de Ishi]

rise of nations used this same mechanic<br>
<br>
and it raises the strategy level not decreases

<br>
<br>Well perhaps you should remember Civ IV fuly patched, and compare it to Civ V. Of course Civ V couldn't do the same as Civ IV without breaking paradigm one unit per tile, or without doing something really clever.<br>
<br>There isn't one unit per tile paradigm in Rome 2, ships should take while to build, or cause problems that hurt merchant navy.

[karamazovmm]

rise of nations used this same mechanic

and it raises the strategy level not decreases

[RedGuard]

rise of nations used this same mechanic

and it raises the strategy level not decreases

not here it doesn't. Knowing how far a fleet can go seems really random and the ai almost never attacks a city with them if it is garrisoned. Instead they go around and attack undefended cities. Its made worse with the Double Time mechanic, as a conventional fleet can rarely catch up with them if they are evading and of course if it does it cannot attack the same turn

[Castel]

1 turn is 1 year, an army waiting 2 or 3 years for some transport boats would really ridiculous. Shouldn't be free though.

[karamazovmm]

there is a heavy penalty on movement points, I don't believe that no one noticed that.

navies have patrol stance and they have the forced march stance as well.

what you may want is more balance, I don't have much experience in naval battles to determine the balance or not of the transport ships.

aside that this topic has already been discussed to death, and it does bring more strategic thinking, specially given that now you actually have to pay attention for naval invasions.

[Strattios]

There needs to be some draw back. Some simple ones;
1) General first recruits navy. M2 had merc ships for generals. Super simple, costs money, don't get to turn soldiers into expert sailors.
2) Make transport ships speed greatly inferior. These should be slow moving barges. Limit Battle speed (shouldn't be as fast as actual navy ships), limit campaign map movement (again, these are soldiers not sailors).
3) Make transport ram do very little damage since they are slow. They should rely on boarding.
4) Soldier effectiveness. Give a unit modifier. Yet again, these guys aren't sailors. Some conditions for soldiers to reduce their base stats. Have this be effected by both army and general traits to reduce the negative effect. They already have a bunch of admiral traits.
5) Give a turn and/or cost to build ships. Boats aren't free, especially ones this large. This can also be effected by army and general traits.

Just a few quick ideas that would prevent armies from wandering out into the ocean all the time.