Tips for Naval Battles?

[Flavius Gonzo]

Man, I am terrible at Naval Battles. Though I'm a TW vet since vanilla Rome, I cannot figure out how to be effective at sea. I consistently get far worse results by playing naval battles than I do with autoresolve.

I've only won battles at sea versus significantly weaker forces; with one exception where I defeated a single 5th rate with a 6th rate because I cheesed the AI into getting stuck at the edge of the map.

The biggest problem I have is that when the AI ships fire their guns, they seem to hit my ships. Everytime I have a perfectly lined up shot and fire a single broadside volley, my cannonballs always seem to fire right over my target's deck, or if I'm lucky, hit a few sails.

Can anyone enlighten me with some good tips for being more effective at sea?

[Slaists]

Man, I am terrible at Naval Battles. Though I'm a TW vet since vanilla Rome, I cannot figure out how to be effective at sea. I consistently get far worse results by playing naval battles than I do with autoresolve.

I've only won battles at sea versus significantly weaker forces; with one exception where I defeated a single 5th rate with a 6th rate because I cheesed the AI into getting stuck at the edge of the map.

The biggest problem I have is that when the AI ships fire their guns, they seem to hit my ships. Everytime I have a perfectly lined up shot and fire a single broadside volley, my cannonballs always seem to fire right over my target's deck, or if I'm lucky, hit a few sails.

Can anyone enlighten me with some good tips for being more effective at sea?

Try this thread:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=233651&page=3

pay attention to post # 46: his approach is pretty good.

Also, I personally get much better results with auto-fire (toggle it on and off) with boats rather than trying to time it myself.

[anweRU]

A properly delivered broadside can be deadly. But it has to be done at close range. Otherwise, when the ships are still relatively far from each other, Slaists' approach will work fine.

[Slaists]

A properly delivered broadside can be deadly. But it has to be done at close range. Otherwise, when the ships are still relatively far from each other, Slaists' approach will work fine.

Just wondering: how would that be different from just toggling the auto-fire on at close range?

[Flavius Gonzo]

Slaists, from the thread you sent me, the difference would be that with a single broadside, you would do less damage because more cannons would miss, but the morale penalty would be higher.

In my experience though, the raking tactic the AI employs with autofire on does seem to be more effective. I think I need to try this out more, I've been making a point of firing broadsides. Also, I haven't used Alt-+ at all yet, people seem to think that is worthwhile. Also, while I was paying attention to the wind, I wasn't putting an emphasis on maneuvering upwind of my opponent... I shall try this too.

Any other thoughts?

[Marquis of Roland]

Flavius, what do you typically do strategy-wise when you fight a fleet battle?

That TWcenter post, diagram 3 on #46; hard to pull off, and it creates a logjam (thats if you didn't forget to drop your anchor; otherwise you're whole fleet will be raked as well). When the enemy ships crash into yours, they will try to get around, and eventually end up with both ships' broadsides facing each other at point blank range. While probably already considerably damaged from being raked, anyone who plays H or VH knows an equivalent ship with even 2/3 the cannon of your own at point-blank range will sink your ship, and considerably damage her on medium. Any shot that misses (I know its point-blank but a few shots will always go astray) will hit your own ships. Also, once you attempt that maneuver, your fleet cohesion is effectively no more, so you can't use when fighting multiple fleets.