Naval superiority on a budget

[Drag0nUL]

In my current Epeiros campaign, I'm trying to establish a position of power in the Mediterranean. I'm not rich enough to afford Quinquirems or the like, and don't have a large enough military port anyway. Also, the enemies are fielding mainly Pentekonteroi.

My question is, what would be more effective to build, Pentekonteroi (10 atk 4 def) or Lemboi (6 atk 13 def)?

I wasn't able to find the actual formula for naval combat, so I'm not sure what's better to have: higher attack or higher def.

[Valion]

In my experience a mix of both and a Admiral with some command stars is a battle winner. In my current Epeiros Campaign i maintained the 3 Pentekonteroi that you get from the start and managed to get my admiral 3 command stars which along with another admiral with also 3 command stars i currently dominate the Aegean.

[antisocialmunky]

Can't you just build 0 ships and let the obscene pirate spawns kill everything else that floats?

[Drag0nUL]

Can't you just build 0 ships and let the obscene pirate spawns kill everything else that floats?

Sadly it's a long swim from Greece to Italy:) I usualy don't bother with navies, but this time I really need ships in order to take the mediterranean islands.

[Valion]

True but sometimes those obscene pirate tend to block your ports which annoys me alot :D

[Rien]

i have found the lemboi fleets verry effective against pirates and other low lvl fleets
just make sure to place your fleet in a port at the end of turn.

[antisocialmunky]

A small fleet of high level vessels can destroy many of those mass low level ship fleets in my experience.

I usually just buy the ship with the highest sum attack/defense.

[CashMunny]

I dont have patience for pirates, I just build 1 ship and auto_win against every pirate fleet in sight, retrain as needed.

[vollorix]

I try to "practice" my Pentekonteroi on pirates, preferably let them attack me ( defensive battles, with enough moving points left! ) seem somehow favourable. After i get enough experience for those ships, and a couple of stars for the admiral, i try to add 1 Trireme in the fleet ( it will automaticaly become the "first" ship in the fleet, once you keep your ships in a harbour where you are building Trireme ). Pents. are cheaper to retrain, and the "1st ship" in the fleet won´t be damaged in most cases. Now, with 1 Trireme and 2-4 of Pents i can take on any fleet the enemy sends on me, except of the largest Quinqeremes - you might be able to attack and kill those ships, but mostly you´ll loose your entire Pent. fleet, except for the Triereme, if you´re lucky. Once your Trireme "flag" ship has gained enough exp. you could then try to add your own Quinqereme into the fleet so it´d become the "first" ship now, and your tough Trireme would absorb the most damage from collisions on the sea.
Oh, one more thing: do not retrain the ships until they are below 15 men ( of course, you should retrain before a major engagement with a Quinquerems, though! ). Fight couple of battles in a row, so you ships gain experience, and retrain then asap.

[Marku]

great navy tips in this thread :)

[Fluvius Camillus]

Trieremiolai are perfect ships with a lot of power for relatively few cash.

~Fluvius

[anubis88]

I usualy don't bother with navies, but this time I really need ships in order to take the mediterranean islands.

There's nothing more satisfying in EB than having a huge fleet controling the Mediteranean... It also keeps your budget low at all times, which is great so that the FM's don't get ugly traits.

In my Romani campaing which i played till about 10 AD, i had a true Navy of the Empire controling the mediteranean... Talking about moving your armies around in a hurry...