Naval Battles

**Red Harvest** · 09-29-2004, 06:53

Watch them with regards to strategic vs. tactical use. Even though they have naval superiority they don't do much with it. As Carthage I'm at war with the Roman factions, Gaul, Spain, and Numidia. Yet none of them are blockading my ports regularly. I can also put a boat in and move an army safely. If I'm at war and have naval superiority, I'm going to blockade enemy ports and make sure they can't get any boats into the water to contest it (as well as cut off trade.) I used this on the Carthaginians as Scipii and rapidly shut them down financially. It allowed me to take each of their cities in turn. They had no money to build any units.

**desdichado** · 09-29-2004, 07:15

good point - theyv'e been quite defensive now that I think about it but didn't really threaten me just made my invasion harder. They paid for it of course - they're now serving tea & biscuits to my family.

they were being pressured from the Numidians (and the senate & Julii fleets) as well so maybe they never had a chance to do anything I'm not sure but you're probably right.

**Hosakawa Tito** · 09-29-2004, 17:37

In my Brutii campaign, I've built a big fleet, 14 Biremes in one stack. I retrain them in Tarentum, which has a Blacksmith, enhancing their armor & weapons.
I've been kicking Greek, Macedonian, Gallic naval butt with this Grand Fleet. Most ships in this fleet have gold chevrons and I've taken on navies that are 1/3 larger and have beaten them. Definitely try retraining your fleet in a port with a Blacksmith, it gives your warships that little edge. When starting out, concentrate your fleet and attack smaller fleets and single ships to "blood" your fledgling navy, get them those "chevrons" of experience.
I don't think troops in transport on your ships have any effect on naval battles, and if you lose the battle, you seem to lose the ship the troops were on, losing the army also.

**Blodrast** · 09-29-2004, 20:24

hmm, so do the "regular army" units that you put in a fleet, besides your crew, take part in the naval combat ?
Or is it just enough to have full crews, and the rest of the non-crew soldiers make no difference ?

**SpencerH** · 10-12-2004, 15:07

I've been engaged with the Romanii for some time now on the high seas and its clear that naval warfare in RTW is much better than in MTW (which had no naval strategy to speak of) and I've found it possible to actually use strategy to increase your chance of victory. What a concept! Its a pity that an option for tactical combat wasnt included though.

I haven't had the 'win land battle-lose naval battle bug'. Sure, I've unexpectedly lost a few battles that I thought I should have won and vice versa but for the most part things seem fairly reasonable. I've even got a heroic victory 'crossed swords' in the middle of the med.

One bug though, the AI does seem to chase after my fleets with armies in transit.