"Best" Character skills for Admiral??

[tumbitiger]

As per the title. Was wondering what is the best direction to go for when skilling up ones Admirals (zeal, authority or cunning)?
Should note that I like to use My Navy in an aggressive manner (intercepting and sacking coastal towns), and I usually compose it of assault ships, rather that missile or artillery ships.

[Augustusng]

There are several good options, but there is a specific "marine" skill in the "ferocious warrior" tree (one of the zeal trees), which helps for that sort of thing.

[juanplay]

In my opinion, admirals are best used as administrators that boost your economy, food and research. I do this because i dont really play naval battles as i prefer to autoresolve them and with DEI´s new economy system reducing corruption is a must.

[Ivan_Moscavich]

If it's a mostly ranged fleet, the logistics and additional ammo traits work wonders. 50% more ammunition for ship borne units and artillery is great, and the extra armor can help them somewhat during boardings.

[james26aus]

I usually take the ability that improves unit replenishment rates as soon as possible because I find ship crews take a long time to recover from battles otherwise.

[ablebodie]

I go a completely different route from other posters here.

The fact is any sort of significant naval presence will put more upkeep on your army than any elite 20-stack of Praetorians, Cataphract Archers, or what have you. Currently playing Arche Bosporus, and the cheap, Greek Slingers in a Hexeres Admiral costs 372 talents per turn in upkeep. Artillery ships are nearly 200, which is the only ship type I've found whose costs mirror their land-based counterpart. Even a Hemiolia with basic javelinmen is over 120/turn. These units as an infantry force would be something like 90/180/80 per turn - A massive cost difference over even a few short turns.

So in that vein, I think the most valuable traits to pursue are under the Camp Administrator tree - the trait that reduces non-mercenary recruitment and upkeep costs.

Let's face it, if you're using your navy at all, it's mostly in port or facilitating transport/land invasion actions 90% of the time it's in use. The rest of it is generally spent screening against possible invasion routes or just putting a legitimate threat on your enemies' flank. You lose a naval battle, you generally aren't gonna lose any cities - the AI requires an incredibly powerful navy to easily handle even an unsupported garrison. So instead of a key part of your military forces, it's the bouncer at the door most of the time - keeping folks from getting into the Black Sea, in the Arche Bosporus example. Keeping Corsica et Sardinia, Syracuse, and the middle Mediterranean in your possession. Protecting southern Brittania from ze Germans.

So making your fleets cheaper allows you to put more boats in the water for a given price - this gives you more flexibility in a role where flexibility is absolutely key to overall effectiveness.

The other "best" options are probably under Military Logistician (ammunition & replinishment, especially for siege-heavy navies) and Ferocious Warrior (Naval talents eventually buff ram damage, the primary benefit of this talent chain). Alternatively, build them into campaign-side bonuses if you don't care to make them more effective in combat. Every campaign has different needs, so your values will vary.