What's up with light galleys?

[Tully Bascombe]

Do they really have a firepower of 256 though having only 4 guns? Are they mounted with modern "quick fire" 6 inch breech loading guns or something like that?

[Smellycat]

64lb

[Guru]

Rule number 1 on the first page of the manual: Never trust any information the game gives you.

[Fisherking]

I have not seen any details of their specs but light galleys have only two guns but of the same power as galleys which have four. All guns are forward firing and the guns will be in the range of 32 to 36lbers.

The biggest deal is that they are such small targets with very heavy guns. I can only guess that the game gives them long guns where most guns in that range are carronades with a much shorter range. As they are rowed they the don’t rely on wind.

Needles to say, they are highly dangerous in this game. Gunboats, of which I would class them, were a danger but a single hit was enough to sink most of them. These are a bit more robust even having 0 hull strength. Hitting them is the trouble. A couple or three hits will sink them, but getting those hits is not as easy as you would think.

[Smellycat]

they have 4 guns just as galleys do

[Smellycat]

and opening the files reveals that both galleys and light galleys have 4 42lb cannons

[Fisherking]

The menu said two, but no matter, there are strange things going on with them.

It doesn’t matter if they have 4 or only one. The still have the hitting power of a heavy first rate and can explode or hole a ship with a single shot if they are lucky.

The best way to fight them is to have everyone target one of the devils until it is dead and then go to the next one.

The best way to fight with them is in line abreast, if you can get it to work right. Otherwise have groups of two target a ship. They will sink it soon enough, then go to the next best target.

Their drawbacks are they sink very easy if hit and are slow on the campaign map movement.

They are cheep and the loss of one is usually more than paid for in the damage they did to what sunk them.

That said, a big fleet of them is not worth it. The denser the population the easier they are to loose. But if you are broke they will give you a navy that can do damage.

They can be good as trade ship escorts though.

[Miracle]

Galleys and Light Galleys are bugged.

Go compare their in-battle stat cards with their in-campaign stat cards.

The former says 0 firepower and 1000+ hull strength.

The latter says 256 firepower and 0 hull strength.

Both cards say they mount, "light cannons."

I expect an upcoming patch to fix this.

[Smellycat]

i think their power compared to cost ratio is just right, they're easy to sink or rout and sometimes they get lucky

[SpiritFox]

As noted above, lights are good if you don't have the money or facilities for better. Personally, I'd choose them over sloops and brigs simply because they have far greater firepower for cost. They can easily sink a 5th rate before it can even get in fire range. Unfortunately, they're pretty slow and definitely not as maneuverable, on top of being even more fragile both in morale and structural terms.

Best used as fire support.

[Uxbridge]

I have asumed that the firepower was per gun

[Walrus]

a real pain ive always had is trying to board (or not) light galleys or even regular galleys. it seems that because they are so small, the game bugs and the boarding troops just fall into the water - even if they jump onto the actual ship. i watched in horror as almost the entire crew of my 4th rate went overboard trying to capture the damn thing, then routed.