Attacking Ships

[Poison Arrow]

Will an attack on a ship declare war on that faction?

[Lord Godfrey]

Yes, thats why you get the warning are you sure you want to attack.

[Poison Arrow]

Never done it yet, just started playing about a week or so ago, but thanks. I'm playing Byz in early and I have in mind to be a major sea power. Plus I wanna eleiminate the Italian ship that always sits right next to Constantinopal (SP?) blocking my trade.

[Bhruic]

It will only be blocking your trade if you are at war with the Italians. If not, it doesn't matter who's ships are in your seas, as long as your ships are.

Bh

[katank]

if it's neutral, it doesn't harm your trade.

however, if they decide to declare war, your trade maybe tanked.

therefore, I sometimes preempt by sinking those ships but that's just my preference. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Poison Arrow]

Ah, ok. Well, if they decide to go to war I am going to have fleets everywhere, so they will only block trade for one year. I would sink all ships that would cause blockades first, and fast. Thanks guys.

[Poison Arrow]

If it's neutral, and not blocking my trade, what the h*ll is it doing just sitting there? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-confused.gif

The Italians have ships scattered about without cause then? They don't have routes created, they just have ships off by themselves. Somtimes they will have two sitting next to Constantinople. Are they spying? I haven't noticed that ships allow you to see the units or buildings of a region they are next to. Then again I haven't looked, so....

[son of spam]

It's because the AI sux and doesn't know how to make trade routes. Use it to your advantage http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-2thumbsup.gif

If you want a real challenge tho, I suggest you download medmod ASAP and give it a whirl. Besides knowing how to make trade routes, the Italians also get some pretty nasty spear units http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-anxious.gif

[motorhead]

@poison arrow: which version are u playing? Plain 1.0 has buggy uncatchable enemy fleets.
- keep in mind that a large stack of ships is probably the worst way to sink a single enemy boat. Best to break your fleet down into stacks of 1's and 2's.
- speed counts. Equal speed ships have a 50% of engaging in combat. Chasing a speed 4 ship with a speed 1 ship will often result in no combat.
- auto-ceasefire. You can pretty safely attack italian ships if you have very limited sea/land contact with them. If you attack and sink italian ships off of your coasts, then have one complete turn where neither you nor they have any sea and land contact then an auto-ceasefire will kick in. Keep in mind sea contact includes sharing a sea with italian boats and any sea containing an enemy ship that touches a province. Say you hold Greece, there are 4 seas that touch its borders, and all 4 must be clear of italian ships, otherwise you'll remain at war. If you share a land border with the italians, then no chance of auto-ceasefire.

[Poison Arrow]

Motorhead, up until about 10 minutes ago I was playing 1.0, I had to uninstall a day or so ago and forgot to add the patch. Duh, I had it before but forgot. What do you mean by uncatchable? Do you mean if I try to attack a ship, it will simply outrun mine and nothing will come of the attempt? If I have the faster ships do I have the same option and does that also improve my chances of winning an attack?

In regards to your second point, you mean in any attack there is first a outrun to avoid combat phase? If a battle occurs what are the factors that determine the winner? That gets to my above question as to whether the faster of the ships has a better chance of winning the battle. Or, is that only a factor in the outrun phase?

[motorhead]

1.0 had ships which were impossible to catch. ship speed, number of attacking fleets, none of it mattered, they were uncatchable, which was fixed in 1.1.

If faced with a superior enemy fleet, you can prolong the blockade by splitting your fleet into singles. I've never seen the AI break a large fleet into 1's or 2's, even if ship for ship they're superior.

Yah, there are two phases to ship combat. First is the chance of engagement (COE) where speed counts, second is ship-to-ship combat, where attack and defense counts. Faster ships have better COE, but generally faster ships have lower att/def stats. If I had 3 barques(Att-1,Def-2, Speed-3), i wouldn't break them down into singles when attacking a single caravel(Att-3,Def-3,Speed-1), but i'd break 3 caravels into singles to attack a single barque.

edit: also, don't forget ship command. A fleet led by a high command captain should be tougher to defeat. But sea battles are not as elegant as land battles. Don't be shocked to see some very strange results on occasion. Sometimes your stack of 5 will defeat 10, and sometimes your stack of 10 will lose to a stack of 5.

[Poison Arrow]

Rightyo, ok, thanks. I'll see what happens as I progress towards hopeful sea mastery. I am now playing 1.1 btw.

[Bhruic]

You can use ships to spy on surrounding terrain if the province's owner doesn't have a ship in the same water.

To make that clear, let's say, as the Byzantines, you don't have a ship off the coast of Constantinople and the Italians do. They can spy on Constantinople. However, if you move a ship into that square, then they will not be able to. Effectively, it's just like troop movements, except you don't need a chain to be able to spy with a ship.

Bh

[Serpent]

I just had sea battle whit 12 ships in 2 stacks and ship whit 5 stars (caravel) Destroyed them. DAMN
My general had 3 stars http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-computer.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-furious3.gif