Basic Question about Ships

[esanaan]

Umm.. I've tried and so have my RL friends to figure out why I we can't get armies on ships? Is this because of the size of the naval vessels or something else? I've looked through the instructions over and over but don't see anything about how to do this. Help

[KukriKhan]

Welcome to the.Org, esanaan

In MTW you don't actually embark and disembark troops on boats. The vessels are meant to represent the ability to move troops over the water to another province.

If you have:
1) an unbroken string of ships from say Constantinople to Rome
2) troops in Constantinople you want to move to Rome in 1 turn (instead of the 6-7 turns it would take overland.
3) ports in Constantinople and Rome
Then:
Just pick up your troop unit & move them to Rome.
Obviously, the 'trick' is getting the unbroken string of ships.

[RunAway!!]

Actually, you only need a port on the receiving end for agents moving port to port; regular armies are allowed to do amphibious assaults. But like Kukrikhan wrote, just get a ship in every water territory from a port you control to a water territory adjacent to where you want to land, and you can move your troops in. Also, while you're in the process of doing this, if you connect your string of ships through territories that have docks belonging to other factions, you can build merchants in your territories. These merchants drastically increase your income, so try them out If this seems confusing, just build a ship for every water territory, and build merchants and docks in all your provinces that can use them.

[Gregoshi]

Hello esanaan.

To build on what the others said, that unbroken string of ships is broken if an enemy ship is in a sea territory with your ships and there is no other clear ship-path around that sea territory.

[Mr Frost]

As I understand it :
Those ships represent naval assets in place to defend your actual civillian trade fleets . That is why Denmark {for an example} can only produce one GAME longboat per three years at maximum ; in reality Denmark could have produced many individual longboats in that time {they are an entire country , after all} but to micro-manage production on a unit-by-unit basis would probebly be too fiddly for most players .
Thus each ship can be considered to represent several {one ship could not possibly cover , say , the entire North Sea} .
It is the trading vessels which transport your troops , but the traders of your country can't {or won't} put vessels to sea unless you can protect them from piracy {so they only venture IN NUMBER in seas you protect with your navy} . That is why when an actual enemy faction has even one game ship in a sea , you can't use that sea for trade or troop movements ; it is not just one single enemy ship but a small fleet represented by one game ship , which can prey on your merchant fleet unless you destroy it .

[rasoforos]

this might be helpfull to some people new to the game. to understand better how the thing works and where you can go or not you can use the 'v' button to see your trading routes ( these routes mean that you have a ship to the sea areas that are marked green and that there is no blockade so you can transfer armies if you have a port)

[Mr Frost]

Oops , forgot to put this in : It is those merchant ships {that you neither see , nor deliberately create} that transport you troops and for that matter , the goods your trading provinces make the nice florins from .
All your navy does is provide security . So , for trade flow and troop transport , it is simply a matter of :build it {the navy} and they {the traders} will come

[KukriKhan]

Yikes Mr Frost You are one prolific poster

I guess I'll quit chasing you 'round the Entrance Hall and just say it here: Welcome to the.Org

Good thoughts on naval power.

[RunAway!!]

I'm curious...what does yellow mean when you hit V? I know red is blocked, green is clear; but I get yellow if there's an allied fleet in the sea.

[LadyAnn]

That's exactly that Run_away: yellow means neutral ships in area.

Annie

[rpasell]

I thought yellow meant you don't have a ship in the region.

[esanaan]

Thanks for the help

Makes total sense now that I think about it.

[RunAway!!]

Ok...checked a bit again; I get yellow when I have no ships in a territory; but an ally does. I get red when an enemy does; and when there's no ships, there's no coloring.

[Balrog]

Quote[/b] (RunAway @ Dec. 11 2002,22:51)]Ok...checked a bit again; I get yellow when I have no ships in a territory; but an ally does. I get red when an enemy does; and when there's no ships, there's no coloring.

does this mean that an ally can complete a trade network for you in this way?

In other words if you have a one ocean section that is occupied by your ally in between two ports will the ally complete the link?

[JoeBax]

First off, and maybe I am wrong. You need a certian type of ship to move troops across water. I made longboats and couldnt move across, I read the book 5 times and was getting really frustrated. Then I tried making the other type of boat, and lo I could move my troops across water. So I figure longboats are for taking/holding a water region and the other boats are for troop transport.

One tip, if you send your army to take over a territory that does not have a port, or if the port is destroyed during the invasion then you troops are STUCK there. So dont send any troops thinking you can get them home if you need them.

As for yellow, when trying to move across land you can move a troop thats more than one province away. When you hold it over the province its yellow to let you know that it will take more than one turn to arrive there.