Help me Understand the Historical Costs of Fleets and the Frequency of Engagements...

[AussieGiant]

I've read a fair bit about naval warfare at the time and I've certainly seen most action between ships of the line being a very nice sweet spot of between 3 to 7 ship at a time.

Hell you needed to be an very highly ranked officer to command more than 3 ships, at one time.

Many of the 64 and 74 gun variants operated alone as Sir Beane has stated. This was the best way to project naval power.

I'd expect most of the sea battles to be in the 1 to 4 ships on each side range. Monster 20 a side battles will require huge investment and resources...you'd certainly expect CA to make a concerted effort to make the scale of the engagement as realistic as possible at the time.

And I can't emphasis this enough. Frigates were in most respects far more valuable than two deckers. They had the range, speed and size to deal with just about most issues, barring a pitch fight with a ship of the line.

One account described frigates as the grey hounds of the ocean. If you put them in packs they become very dangerous.

[Sol Invictus]

I just hope the cost and upkeep will make truely large naval forces rare.

[AussieGiant]

I just hope the cost and upkeep will make truely large naval forces rare.

I would say so.

CA are going to be able to gather more than enough information in order to accurately put a price, a recruitment frequency and an upkeep cost on a typical ship of line.

There were is very accurate information available if you look hard enough.

Zenicetus's post about ship type is a classic example.

[Martok]

I'd expect most of the sea battles to be in the 1 to 4 ships on each side range. Monster 20 a side battles will require huge investment and resources...you'd certainly expect CA to make a concerted effort to make the scale of the engagement as realistic as possible at the time.

I just hope the cost and upkeep will make truely large naval forces rare.

It sounds like we should get our wish. CA has already stated that ships in ETW are expensive, and that building a decent-sized navy will require a significant investment of both time and money. I suspect that larger engagements (10+ ships on each side) will be fairly rare.

[AussieGiant]

It sounds like we should get our wish. CA has already stated that ships in ETW are expensive, and that building a decent-sized navy will require a significant investment of both time and money. I suspect that larger engagements (10+ ships on each side) will be fairly rare.

And rightly so given the historical parameters.