v1.1 patch breaks ships?

[icebrain]

Since installing the 1.1 patch, I have yet to be able to win a naval battle. I can have three of the gray sailing ships up against a single Italian rowboat, and guess who loses? It doesn't matter whether I'm offense or defense, I cannot sink a single Italian ship. Which really pisses me off too; they started a war with me but there's no way to kill them off. Their king retreated to the islands, and because I can't sink their ships there's no way to land said islands.

[Quokka]

I don't know for certain but I think 99% of the people here share your anguish and frustration. Fleet battles seem to be a total lottery as to the results.
The only way is to build a large fleet out of constested waters and then move in and attack. You'll probably still lose some ships even if 10:1 but you will eventually kill that sucker. Keep ships in indivual or at most 2 ship stacks. Ten 1 ship stacks have a much better chance than one 10 ship stack of sinking the enemy. The only sure solution I ever found was numbers, or a 4-star admiral, it seems whoever has one of those is invincible.
You didn't say what year, but grey boat suggests Barques and they suck on attack, similar to using Peasants as assault infantry. If its close to 1160(Compass) wait until Caravels, they attack much better, if not smothering is the go.

[Oaty]

I have noticed that stars seems to be play a bigger role than ship numbers so when it comes to naval tactics I make sur I always outnumber them and if they have lots of stars I keep my ships out of reach of that big star ship till I can send in a horde of ships and have a smashing victory. unfortanetley there were many major naval battles with huge upsets. So heres one you could say CA hit on the historical accuracy. But it was'nt accurate on the part that 1 small fleet (I look at 1 ship as a small fleet under an admiral) could tie up some major trade. The reason naval battles had so many upsets was that weather was a major factor in them plus the wind. As with the wind 1 fleet gets the advantage and the other gets the disadvantage so if the smaller fleet gets the advantage of the wind, this could in fact turn the favor in there odds. I was so mad when I had 16 ships destroyed by 9 and they did not lose a single one but battles like this did happen. I hope to see this get great improvement in RTW wich I think it will

[superman]

On the same note, if it's the Italians that are beating you. Venice has a valour bonus for their galleys. So they have an extra star which could be hitting you.

[brent_james]

I never really had much of a problem with ship battles until recently.

Yesturday I had one ship, I forget the name, but has attack and defense of 3, and travels long distance. There was a rebel fleet of one ship, the weakest ship in the game (i forget the name, the one weaker than the barques), and it attacked and destroyed my ship. TheN I attacked it with another ship of the same type, and I lost that ship as well. UGH

The thing is, this is happening on normal difficulty

[Mega Dux Bob]

Quote[/b] (brent_james @ Nov. 03 2003,11:53)]I never really had much of a problem with ship battles until recently.

Yesturday I had one ship, I forget the name, but has attack and defense of 3, and travels long distance. There was a rebel fleet of one ship, the weakest ship in the game (i forget the name, the one weaker than the barques), and it attacked and destroyed my ship. TheN I attacked it with another ship of the same type, and I lost that ship as well. UGH

The thing is, this is happening on normal difficulty

Well the insidious thing is as they win battle they gain stars, which makes them tougher to beat, so then they win more battles,... Had that problem with a Spanish Admiral 3+ as the Byz recently and finally settled on aviod him like the plague then hunted down the rest of the Spanish fleet until I could get my own three star admiral, then I attacked and defeat this naughty Iberian with superior numbers.

[juststeve]

I am playing MedMod 3.12, and the ai builds very large fellts - mulitple stacks in the same seas. I got a late start on ship building/trade, mainly because everything I built got sunk within two moves away from home port

My solution was obtain most of the coastal regions of the Black Sea and the seas near Sweden - so that once I got them teched up for ship building, I could pump out 4-5 ships every 3 years. That got me larger stacks fast, and I have been able to fatten up a few admiral's stars/stats by jumping small stacks. Seems like you need at least two star admirals leading a ship stack just to have a chance of staying afloat LOL

Anyway, it was also a good excuse to take more lands