Unrealistic Water Crossings

**Newstone** · 06-11-2011, 23:24

I have noticed something in EB that is unrealistic and bothers me. Its the ability of land units to cross water to get to islands, for example, from Italy to Sicily or vice versa. So why was this not allowed in vanilla rtw but allowed in EB? Since the goal of the EB2 team is to be as realistic as possible then I hope this wont be allowed in EB2.

Its unrealistic because the soldiers certainly didn't swim 2 and a half miles (the shortest distance between Italy and Sicily in the Strait of messina). So the most realistic thing would be to build ships to transport troops. Same goes for Bosporus and Dardanelles straits in Asia Minor, (even though the distances arent as long as compared to strait of messina, there are bridges there now and for a reason).

The reason i don't like this is because and island that can only be reached by ships is invaded by armies that have magical horses that can swim long distances and are composed of Olympic swimmers. So please, please take this unrealistic feature away from EB2.

**Foot** · 06-11-2011, 23:55

Originally Posted by Newstone

So why was this not allowed in vanilla rtw but allowed in EB?

It was in vanilla rtw. They are called landbridges and are available in all TW games (afaik).

Its unrealistic because the soldiers certainly didn't swim 2 and a half miles (the shortest distance between Italy and Sicily in the Strait of messina).

True.

So the most realistic thing would be to build ships to transport troops.

Or commandeering local vessels (fishing ships, trading ships) to ferry troops across the short distance. This wouldn't work for long distances (as the time for each trip would make the journey for the whole army take too long), but works fine over short distances.

Landbridges will be reappearing in EBII as they are entirely realistic representations of armies using local resources to overcome relatively small obstacles.

Foot

**CashMunny** · 06-12-2011, 00:06

Yeah I really don't have a problem with them, I just imagine that my soldiers used local ships like Foot said. If there was a 'bridge' across the English channel in this time period, that would be pretty unrealistic, but across the Straits of Messina, or the Sea of Marmara between Thrace and Asia Minor, then I don't see a problem.

And if you are defending the island or wherever the bridge is, you can block it with a naval fleet. I'd be irritated if you couldn't block it and these fishing boats were able to somehow cross a blockaded area, but since that's not the case I really don't see a problem once again. I do think the crossing between Ireland and Scotland in EB might be stretching it a little, but for game play purposes it makes sense because Casse really needs all the help they can get. Their roster isn't really as good as the mainland Celts until later, and on top of it they have a habit of sitting on their hands for the first hundred years.

**Arjos** · 06-12-2011, 06:39

Ancients even used bridges made of ships, so in a sense they did walk on water ^^

**stratigos vasilios** · 06-12-2011, 07:54

I'm a huge fan of the landbridges. I'm glad to see they will be appearing once more in EBII!

**strategos roma** · 06-12-2011, 10:51

Originally Posted by CashMunny

Yeah I really don't have a problem with them, I just imagine that my soldiers used local ships like Foot said. If there was a 'bridge' across the English channel in this time period, that would be pretty unrealistic, but across the Straits of Messina, or the Sea of Marmara between Thrace and Asia Minor, then I don't see a problem.

And if you are defending the island or wherever the bridge is, you can block it with a naval fleet. I'd be irritated if you couldn't block it and these fishing boats were able to somehow cross a blockaded area, but since that's not the case I really don't see a problem once again. I do think the crossing between Ireland and Scotland in EB might be stretching it a little, but for game play purposes it makes sense because Casse really needs all the help they can get. Their roster isn't really as good as the mainland Celts until later, and on top of it they have a habit of sitting on their hands for the first hundred years.

Actually, I dont think that you can block them; it's not impossible, just very difficult. I was playing as the Carthies a few month back and after securing Sicily I attempted to block the strait with a fleet. Unfortunately, The Romans kept besieging Rhegion and kept losing and for some reason the AI decided to withdraw the surviviers to Sicily so small stacks of depleted units kept 'washing up' despite the fact that I had a barrier of ships in place!