Arab, Turkish, and Indian navies

**Zenicetus** · 08-24-2008, 21:42

Originally Posted by Khazar_Dahvos

Yeahh there were alot of Arab pirates that preyed on those shipping lanes as well as those from europe

Ugh, I really hope they don't overdo the "pirate" theme. The game is named "Empire: Total War" not "Minor Police Action on the High Seas: Total War."

I hope most sea battles are between powerful, state of the art ships owned by actual empire-seeking factions, not minor rabble. Pirates avoided real navies whenever possible, with just a few historical exceptions that prove the rule. They might take on a single naval vessel if the odds look good, but they should turn tail and run at the first sight of a serious naval fleet. Otherwise they could end up being just a time-wasting, micromanagement headache like the land-based rebels in RTW and M2TW. Just busy work, not having anything to do with your strategic expansion.

If there have to be pirates in the game, at least give us a command for an admiral to take a few ships and automatically "go kill those guys, wherever they run" without me having to do that manually.

**Rhyfelwyr** · 08-24-2008, 22:59

Pirates should probably be represented by a reduction in trade income, similar to the way corruption or devastation work. I really don't want to fight off hundreds of one-ship pirate navies.

**Gray Beard** · 08-25-2008, 00:56

I don't see that the various small states have to have unique units. I think that most musketeers probably had pretty similar stats. The difference is in moral and training.

To use an example from M2TWI, is there really any reason that the Byzantines wouldn't have equipped and trained gunpowder units if they hadn't been too busy trying not to die? Developing technology is largely an activity that is rooted in need, wealth, time and education. The place you start on the technology continuum should perhaps color your choices and limit you at least at first, but because this is a game you should be able to overcome your history.

I had a really long post on this topic but deleted the rest.

**Martok** · 08-25-2008, 06:10

Originally Posted by Caledonian Rhyfelwyr

Pirates should probably be represented by a reduction in trade income, similar to the way corruption or devastation work. I really don't want to fight off hundreds of one-ship pirate navies.

Ditto that. I would be perfectly happy with pirates being represented abstractly via decreased trade income. And if I need to keep a few 5th-raters and/or frigates to patrol my trade routes in order to prevent my trade income from dipping, that's fine -- just so long as they don't have to actually hunt down every buccaneer that shows up.