sea cycling

[garion]

the computer moves his ships a lot, and this can be very irritating. sometimes, i can't destroy there fleet because it's moving constantly. is there anyway around this because theoretically, if there isn't and you're on an island with enough ships to control all the seas around you, you can't lose the game as long as you move each ship every turn

[Accounting Troll]

When you order a fleet to attack an enemy fleet, there is a random chance that you won't even be able to catch the enemy fleet - it can be very difficult to catch up with fast ships.

When you want to destroy an enemy fleet assign 2-3 squadrons of ships that are at least as fast as your target and you will usually be able to engage it. Use multiple ships in each squadron to give you the maximum chance of winning the battle.

[Don Corleone]

Troll, when you say 2 or 3 squadrons, with multiple ships, do you mean to put multiple ships in 2 or 3 stacks? I always thought conventional wisdom dictated that to catch fast ships, put all of your own in stacks of 1, more chances to catch it, since each stack catches (or doesn't catch) the enemy together. I could be wrong. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[ichi]

It depends on the attack/defense stats and the command rating of the commander of the ships in question.

By increasing the number of stacks, you increase the likelihood of catching the enemy. Remember that each stack moves at the rate of the slowest ship, so I usualy put like ships together.

Vy increasing the number of ships in a stack, you increae the likelihood that you will win a battle once it is enjoined. If I am chasing a high valor commander I put more ships in each stack, but if I am chasing a single, weak ship then I put only 1 or 2 in each stack.

ichi

[Accounting Troll]

Sorry, I should have been a bit more clear about that.

If you use more than one stack to chase after an enemy, you have a better chance of at least one stack catching up with it and fighting it.

However each stack that fights the enemy has to do so without the help of the ships in the other stack.

Therefore, I tend to deploy 2-3 stacks against my enemy, and each stack has twice as many ships as the enemy stack.

[motorhead]

If you're playing vanilla MTW 1.0 it did have an uncatchable ship bug, patch up to 1.1, otherwise the advice given in the other posts is correct.

[Doug-Thompson]

DANGER: Hair-splitting ahead.

If you divide your ships and one of them catches the fleeing target, that target has to fight all of your ships in that sea zone. However, it gets to fight your ships one at a time.

I've lost as many as three ships to one that way.

Note that a fast ship can catch a fleeing enemy and lose, but then the enemy could have to fight another, slower but more powerful ship that normally wouldn't have caught up.

That's why I try to team up by putting dhows and baggalas in the same sea zones. Dhows are faster than their bigger brothers. Dhows catch them. Big brother finishes them. That makes the Tunisian valor bonus on dhows relevant throughout the game. It increases their chance of surviving once they've caught the enemy.

[katank]

really? I never found valor on dhows to actually increase survivability.

maybe I should tech Tunisia straight for dhows after all.

[Oaty]

Quote[/b] (katank @ May 08 2004,20:23)]really? I never found valor on dhows to actually increase survivability.

maybe I should tech Tunisia straight for dhows after all.
I'm almost sure valour does effect ships. As for me I train ships in those plus valour regions when I can. Funny thing is when I am heavily outnumbered on ships and it was trained in plus valour region, I find myself heavily outnumbered but somehow that ship opens up a can of Greekfire and shows them what that ship is all about.

Another thing is Wesmod I have noticed that the ships act quite differantly with this mod. My only guess is that the A.I. looks at how they can disrupt the trade route in either the Med or the northern region. But since theses 2 areas are split up the A.I. can never get ships to interupt that other region (same with human fleets are non transferrable from the med to the north or viceversa) so they just stay put and wonder what that mystical power is that stops them from passing the straits of gibralter.

Then again with this mod the A.I. goes hey the A.I. doesnt gang up on each other so why don't I take every single troop I have except 1 in each rovince and launch a major offensive against this human that always wins. all nice but the human sees the weakness and launches a blitzkrieg against thise undefended provinces. Yea the Italians are a big pisser with this mod as they seem to do this the most often.

[garion]

thanx mototrhead, now i think of it, the last time i had to catch up some last ships was before i patched it, so now I shouln't have troubles anymore

[Doug-Thompson]

Quote[/b] (katank @ May 08 2004,19:23)]really? I never found valor on dhows to actually increase survivability.

maybe I should tech Tunisia straight for dhows after all.
A dhow with a valor bonus only does as well in combat as a baggala, I guess because the enemy doesn't rout in a sea fight. The morale boost from valor should have no effect. Still, attack and defense is a little better.

Dhows are better at starting fights. Baggalas are better at finishing them.

[katank]

cool. so you actually do get a bonus.

Hmm, I always though it didn't matter as much due to randomness of naval combat.

sacrifice the peasants method works far more reliably.

[HopAlongBunny]

Quote[/b] (garion @ May 09 2004,12:08)]thanx mototrhead, now i think of it, the last time i had to catch up some last ships was before i patched it, so now I shouln't have troubles anymore
Don't be too confident http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

With the patch I have still spent 15+ years chasing a single Dhow http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-furious3.gif

[garion]

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif tha't sucks http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

but seriously (i'm like Phil Collins here)
Does it even matter how good your ships are, I mean 95% of the time the fleet that attacks first wins