What am I doing wrong in naval battles?

[Danthrax]

I build up a navy to break the blockading of a couple ports. It's a decent force as far as I know (12 units consisting of Legionary Assault ships, Fire boats, a couple of javelins, and a Scorpion). I attack the blockade, which is made up ENTIRELY of his admiral and about 14 javelin ships. I'm given slightly less than even odds. If this were a land battle, I'd wipe him out. In the naval battle, I lose 2/3rds of my units and the battle. If I auto-fight it, my force does much better. I apparently suck as an admiral, but not as a general. I send my units out in balanced groups (legionaries, javelins, and fire), but they're all panicking MUCH earlier than in land battles. Any ideas on this? Or should I just play a landlocked faction, hehe?

[Mithridate]

Javelins seem incredibly effective vs the bunched up units on ships... Unable to take cover by Railings or go bellow deck they die like flies.

Much as i hate to say it, use transports

[johannlo]

Javelins seem incredibly effective vs the bunched up units on ships... Unable to take cover by Railings or go bellow deck they die like flies.

Much as i hate to say it, use transports

OK, I"ll take on your 12 transports with 12 javs any time of the week.

Since patch 2 at least, you ram a transport, it dies, the jav ships are faster and have missiles, do the math.

[Praetorian349]

Smaller ships seem to win the day if you are playing the ramming game. Two Biremes will destroy a Hexareme if left on their own. One may be destroyed in the initial charge but you will definitely get the Hexareme in ram-lock.

Using that strategy assign at least two Biremes to each enemy ship and ram them over and over. This works better against players as they can't react as fast as the AI and are unable to move their ships out of ram-lock. The AI may sneak out if you aren't quick enough, but generally this will work.

However, seeing as you are Romans I would say go for boarding more than ramming. If doing this go heavy on the Quadremes with Ballista Quinqueremes supporting (more range, slightly less RoF and damage than Onagers). The Marines on those Quadremes are formidable, no normal sized ship can resist a boarding party from a Quadreme without assistance. And if facing a Octeres or something with an overwhelming number of troops on board, board it from two different points with two different Quadremes. Your Marines will sandwich the crew and put them to the sword quickly, no matter who they are.

Just make sure that your Quinqueremes focus on anything that could be big enough to insta-gib one of your Quadremes before the fleets collide and you should win without any losses.

Just remember, as with a land battle, always have reserves. Don't throw everything you have into the fight to begin with. Otherwise the enemy may move to flank your attack force or ram one of your boarding ships and you can do nothing other than watch. If you don't have anything left, remember that a Quinquereme is bloody strong and a good rammer. So use it to ram if you have to. Your artillery is not as defenseless as on land. But don't let it be boarded as it has a skeleton crew, no Marines.