The Tyrrhenian Two-Step, and other naval manuevers

**jsberry** · 07-23-2008, 18:28

OK, as Italy in Late, I invaded the French island of Crete. These two French barques in the Tyrrhenian Sea the sea area to the south were blocking my lucrative trade routes. I sent my fire galleys and war galleys to sink them, but the barques keep switching places. I guess they can move before I fire because their speed is higher. How can I sink them???

**seireikhaan** · 07-23-2008, 19:32

Get a horde of dhows, I guess.

Naval combat never really made the most sense.

**Vider** · 07-23-2008, 19:40

I've found the cpu will avoid fights with their fast ships if they are easily overpowered. So if you have a stack of 3 or 4 ships, the cpu will take their 1 ship and run. But if you split those ships into 4 1 ship stacks, they will usually stay and fight. Not sure if it would work with advanced ships vs. barques though. You could try building lower level ships in that case.

**bondovic** · 07-23-2008, 22:12

This prompts the question of wether all ships should have the same speed or not. For me, a single Dromon shouldn't be enough to keep a fleet of a hundred ships from moving trade. Naval power isn't best simulated this way. Granted, some ships would've been faster than others, something that is realistically simulated if the faster ship eludes a single enemy to an empty sea region.

I guess if the speed points were cumulative for the pursuing fleet it would be more realistic. Easy modding if one had the source code. Dag nammit.

**Martok** · 07-23-2008, 22:55

When faced with your situation, jsberry, I often end up using Vider's tactic of splitting up my ships and attacking 1-on-1. It's still not foolproof, but it does seem to improve the odds of successfully engaging smaller, swifter vessels.

**oz_wwjd** · 07-24-2008, 10:39

I've had one ship evade me by skipping as well,but what amazed me was when I spilt up up my 8-ship of galleys to try to take down one sicilian barque was when said barque managed to sink 5 out of 8 ships before he finally died...