Naval Combat

**A Nerd** · 06-07-2010, 00:36

How will this be implemented? I noticed in the conceptual art thread the samurai standing on what looked like glorified row boats firing arrows at one another while some men were hit and fell overboard. Will naval battles be as such? Maneuvering ships while firing arrows into eventual proximity then board to have melee combat eventually wiping out every man aboard multiplied by the whole fleet to win the day? The preview mentioned using shallows and sandbars to strand ships. Would they be left there and/or boarded then fought over? If sunk in open waters, how so? I know nothing of the period so I am doing my best to relate it to what I saw in ETW. Any opinions would be welcomed.

PS Were Japanese ships anything like the Chinese Junks? (hopefully a Chinese ship is called a Junk!

)

**antisocialmunky** · 06-07-2010, 02:35

I would enjoy how completely broken Turtle ships were.

**Intranetusa** · 06-07-2010, 04:08

Originally Posted by A Nerd

PS Were Japanese ships anything like the Chinese Junks?

Yes, they were. It was great tech, so was widely adopted in East Asia.

Originally Posted by A Nerd

(hopefully a Chinese ship is called a Junk!

)

Yes it is. The word "junk" iirc, comes from the Taiwanese/Ming Na word for ship, which is pronounced "jung or joon."
Westerners thus started calling it junk, etc

**Kagemusha** · 06-07-2010, 07:42

Originally Posted by A Nerd

How will this be implemented? I noticed in the conceptual art thread the samurai standing on what looked like glorified row boats firing arrows at one another while some men were hit and fell overboard. Will naval battles be as such? Maneuvering ships while firing arrows into eventual proximity then board to have melee combat eventually wiping out every man aboard multiplied by the whole fleet to win the day? The preview mentioned using shallows and sandbars to strand ships. Would they be left there and/or boarded then fought over? If sunk in open waters, how so? I know nothing of the period so I am doing my best to relate it to what I saw in ETW. Any opinions would be welcomed.

PS Were Japanese ships anything like the Chinese Junks? (hopefully a Chinese ship is called a Junk!

)

The ones in the pictures are just simple boats like you said. Here is a Japanese coastal warship of the era:

The fighting went pretty much as you phantomed. Firing arrows and teppo´s to enemy ships and then boarding them.I can dig something more out for this later on, once i will be near my source literature.

**al Roumi** · 06-11-2010, 16:51

For more, see the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura

http://forums.samurai-archives.com/v...4dbfc70f5f3964

**A Nerd** · 06-11-2010, 17:05

I see why they are going to use land masses and the like in naval battles. I wonder if they are going to implement tides as well? I don't recall reading anything about it but I may have overlooked something. According to those reads, tides made a big difference. I wonder how the passge of time/tides will be implemented in the naval battles? If at all.

**Tsar Alexsandr** · 06-12-2010, 06:20

Japan's an archipelago, as we all know. And is made up of big islands, and little ones. And the land will just make nice tactical challenges. The might Atakebune and the Iron versions of the same ship were mainly used for coastal bombardment. So it wouldn't be unusual to see them close to land. As naval engagements in the Sengoku were fought near Japan, not open sea. I think it'll be great... :D

I can't wait to run my enemies aground. XD

Boarding parties would have been the main offense. Samurai were skilled marine fighters. XD Their crews and boarding parties were quite a force. Especially in the Korean war of Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Cannon would also be used by ships like the Atakebune.

**A Nerd** · 06-13-2010, 03:22

So it is true that during naval battles boarding parties would board each others ships and have a melee fight. Now, do you think these battles will be similar to naval battles in ETW, whereas crews would board and fight independent of a players input, or would they be controllable. Also, would crews be generic to ships when said ship was produced or would special boarding parties potentially be recruited in your ports? Perhaps have a unit produced inland and garrison them on a produced ship. Just curious, the generic crews in ETW were kind of boring. Aferall, who mans the ship when the boarding party is fighting it out on the enemies ship?

edit: It would be fun to produce an archer heavy ship or an infantry heavy ship depending on your playstyle. It might make ships less expendable as well.

edit2: And too similar (ships that is)

**Tsar Alexsandr** · 06-13-2010, 04:11

Originally Posted by A Nerd

So it is true that during naval battles boarding parties would board each others ships and have a melee fight. Now, do you think these battles will be similar to naval battles in ETW, whereas crews would board and fight independent of a players input, or would they be controllable. Also, would crews be generic to ships when said ship was produced or would special boarding parties potentially be recruited in your ports? Perhaps have a unit produced inland and garrison them on a produced ship. Just curious, the generic crews in ETW were kind of boring. Aferall, who mans the ship when the boarding party is fighting it out on the enemies ship?

edit: It would be fun to produce an archer heavy ship or an infantry heavy ship depending on your playstyle. It might make ships less expendable as well.

edit2: And too similar (ships that is)

I've never played Empire.

But Samurai would be part of the crew's fighting force. There would be both ranged and close quarters troops employed in the crew of a Japanese ship of the era. :D

**A Nerd** · 06-16-2010, 04:20

But Samurai would be part of the crew's fighting force. There would be both ranged and close quarters troops employed in the crew of a Japanese ship of the era. :D

I was just hoping that the fighting part of the ship could be recruited seperately from the ship and put on the ship once it went to sea. A generic crew that sailed the ship would be automatically assigned when the ship itself was produced. Just thought it might add some interesting variety. Perhaps this method of arming a ship is more complicated than it needs to be though. Especially if ships skirmish, dock and fight independently instead of selecting units on the ship to do such things. As I type this I think I am starting to realize that this method is indeed more complicated than it needs to be! :P

**Tsar Alexsandr** · 06-16-2010, 05:40

Originally Posted by A Nerd

I was just hoping that the fighting part of the ship could be recruited seperately from the ship and put on the ship once it went to sea. A generic crew that sailed the ship would be automatically assigned when the ship itself was produced. Just thought it might add some interesting variety. Perhaps this method of arming a ship is more complicated than it needs to be though. Especially if ships skirmish, dock and fight independently instead of selecting units on the ship to do such things. As I type this I think I am starting to realize that this method is indeed more complicated than it needs to be! :P

If the rumor that sea borne invasions is true, than you will be able to put your army on your boats. Making quite a bit of divesity in your crew's fighting force. :D

**A Nerd** · 06-16-2010, 06:11

If the rumor that sea borne invasions is true, than you will be able to put your army on your boats. Making quite a bit of divesity in your crew's fighting force. :D

That would be great, but in past titles the army on the ship did not fight in naval battles, but rather the generic crew that was on the ship when produced (before boarding an army). A nice feature would be for the army put on an existing fleet to engage in melee when two navies met!

Also size constraints, ie. the size of the fleet determines how large an army it can transport. For example, two ships in a fleet could not transport a full stack army.

**Tsar Alexsandr** · 06-16-2010, 15:27

Originally Posted by A Nerd

That would be great, but in past titles the army on the ship did not fight in naval battles, but rather the generic crew that was on the ship when produced (before boarding an army). A nice feature would be for the army put on an existing fleet to engage in melee when two navies met!

Also size constraints, ie. the size of the fleet determines how large an army it can transport. For example, two ships in a fleet could not transport a full stack army.

Yeah. Makes sense. Can't transport everyone on a few ships. It would be great to use people already on the ship! XD

Imagine a fight going on and your men need some help... the enemy thinks they've got it... XD And then.... some warrior monks come up from below deck. XD Doom for the enemy lol!