Question - Navies and Fleet Composition

[0celot]

Hi all,

Firstly, I should start by saying how much fun im having with the new naval overhauls that 1.1 introduced. Until now I cant remember the last time i fought a naval engagement, but on my current Macedon campaign I have fought some great battles at sea, and having fleets to wage my wars against Rome, Syracuse and Athens have been essential.

I wanted to see what peoples thoughts were on their fleet compositions? Forgive me for not using the full unit names, but just general terms. My fleet is usually 1 supply ship (is there a benefit to bringing more than 1?), 6 fast archer raiding ships, admiral in tower ship, 4 fast greek marine ram ships. Iv been fighting a lot of fleet engagements against garrison troops on ships and small fleets from athens, rome and rhodos.

Iv never really seen the point of artillery ships as they are quite inaccurate, and you can get a few fast raiding archer/javelin ships for that price which can sink a lot more enemy ships.

Do firepot ships have any advantage over other marine ramming ships? I know the firepot can set the enemy ship on fire, but usually the ram does enough damage by itself to sink a ship so it doesn't matter if its on fire or not.

Does a navy have the attack power to take on a garrison by itself? The few times iv blockaded a port and the enemy has put their garrison to sea and attacked iv destroyed them, but iv never tried a direct assault.

When the enemy fleet is in a big ball of ships (usually when they enter as reinforcements and clump together) do you engage or wait for them to form a line? Each time i try to attack the ball of ships my ships get swamped with missiles, stuck on wrecks or boarded and trapped by enemy ships. It seems much easier to let them form up and then single out ships to attack and there is more space to maneuver.


Any responses would be great and thanks in advance.

[TFCAliarcy]

1. I haven't had a naval battle between navies but I tend to have an early game navy of 12 fire pot ships then 16 medium marines, the numbers may have to be reduced do to higher upkeep in this version along with less resources are required to destroy embarked armies.
2. I used artillery ships for ramming as they miss less often when they are not only pointed right at it but also they are less than 10m away, that coupled with their larger size makes them effective at ramming.
3. Fire pot diremes should be effective now that you need a shipwright to make them as that will increase their health.
4. Large navies can capture settlements with mass casualties (at least for the Hellenic and Carthage) I advise not using navies to take them unless you can reinforce.
5. It is better to let them form if you intend to ram or board them, if you have slinger ships or good archers you can shoot them whilst they are clumped and that will make boarding later easier.

[Soontir]

I'm using heavy mele general, 4-6 heavy meele ships, two artilery ships, one transport and some trihemolias if I'he too much time for recruitment. Artilery ships have a bit larger marine contingent, can shoot and aren't much more expensive but their marines seems to be lighter version in roman case.
They are really helpfull as support army in city assault. When both armies are stuck on the walls, they can easly land, take out few units on central plaza and take the city by capturing all victory points.

[ptagi]

As Rome my navy always exists of 2 artillery, 3-4 missile, 1 supply ship and 9-10 melee. But i found out that the AI always retreats, even when they have a full stack.

In the beginning they will destroy their 20 stack landtroops on a much smaller navy. Mostly 3-4 missiles and 5-6 melee granting me a heroic victory and instant silver chevrons

[Easyone]

Try Pontos emperor edition navy