Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)
Fair enough, you don't have to use the stronger garrisons mod if you don't like the idea! In my imagination, the garrison infantry in this mod are not militia or armed citizenry. They are a mixture of drill instructors, wounded soldiers who were recovering and soldiers in training (like the soldiers who replace battle casualties when we replenish units after battles.)
It's good to hear that you were able to make a mod to allow the creation of steam drydocks without the steam engine technology. Yes, First (and Second and Third) rates were historically built in the 17th century as well as the 18th century. I provided some information on big line-of-battle ships in the late 17th century British navy here. Having said that, a 17th century or early 18th century First Rates (and other ships of the line) were not as large or as powerful as the First Rates of the Napoleonic era. As I commented (see the link), the British navy were shocked by the capabilities of a French 74-gun ship which they captured in 1747. In his book Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy (Phoenix 2014), Ben Wilson comments on the French 74-gun 3rd rate Invincible, captured by the British at the First Battle of Finisterre, 1747:-
"[British] experts flocked to study her. Their findings sent shockwaves through naval circles. She was 50 per cent larger than her British counterparts in terms of tonnage; she was much longer and, although she carried the same number of guns, fired a broadside 75 per cent heavier. And despite her greater size, Invincible was faster and more seaworthy than the Royal Navy's third rates." (Wilson 2014, pp. 318 to 319). Wilson adds that the new generation of French warships was expensive to build, did not withstand fire very well and required continual maintenance. The British navy responded by building a new generation of warships of their own, a new type of third rates which "borrowed freely from Invincible" and, after some time, new ships were built which "had the speed and firepower of the French 74s and the the robustness of traditional British warships", according to Wilson (2014, p. 323). There seems to be a historical basis for 'early' and 'late' period warships - for larger factions, at least, to be able to recruit 'early' versions of ships of the line from the start of the game, which are inferior to 'later' versions. Similar developments happened with frigates, of course, as meme_engine explains on the A Guide to the Age of Sail thread.
I agree that Sixth Rates were disappointing in the vanilla game. I agree that, to make them worth using, they would need to be improved. You could improve their hull strength. My Equal Navy mini-mod improves their speed (while removing the longer-range guns which sloops, brigs and frigates have, since it seems very unlikely that smaller vessels with lower-calibre guns would have had a longer range than ships of the line). I also agree that a 5th rate looks like it should be a ship of the line, not a frigate - you might want to have a look at the discussion on the Guide to the Age of Sail thread. On that thread, I suggested that 5th rates could have been based on late-17th century frigates which had 48 guns. However, meme_engine's view that the 5th rate is based on the 42-gun frigate of the 1706 British Navy establishment, which had 48 gun ports, may well be more accurate than my suggestion.
Last edited by Alwyn; December 06, 2015 at 02:30 AM.