Navy preferences?

[Lichgod]

Carthage, long campaign, H/H

I eventually built up 4 fleets. I did not use single ships much.

Fleet 1 – West Med, 10-12 ships – fight Spanish, Gaul, Numedian fleets
Fleet 2 & 3 – Central Med, 12-18 ships – Fight Romans, all of em
Fleet 4 – East Med, 12-15 ships – fight Egypt and Numedia

I build Fleet 2, then 1, then 3, and 4 was last. Mix was 25% level 1 ships, 50% level 2, and 25% level 3. The big level 3 ships more concentrated in Fleets 2 & 3.

Eventually, I destroyed all navies in the Med but mine. I would actively hunt down small AI fleets and fight often at 4-1 odds or better. I lost very few ship units. I would try to end every turn in a port (Carthage) to refit. I would take my most experienced ships and use them to replace losses on newer ships to put veterans in them. I would then refit the under strengthen ships. I soon had fleets with gold chevrons. Took a long time for my first Admiral with stars. Got him from building level 3 ship in Syracruse.

One tip, try to have your fleets end their move next to each other when you spot a big enemy fleet. In the central Med, when a big Roman fleet attacked, they often found two fleets defending.

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

I try to use a stack consisting of multiples of 1 quinquireme to 2 triremes. Now that I have Deceres, I substitute one of those for a quinquireme. It's true that quinquireme-only fleets do alright by themselves, but they seem to take a lot of losses. That seems to be mitigated by using more mobile triremes to support the heavier ships.

[vodkafire]

I try to use a stack consisting of multiples of 1 quinquireme to 2 triremes. Now that I have Deceres, I substitute one of those for a quinquireme. It's true that quinquireme-only fleets do alright by themselves, but they seem to take a lot of losses. That seems to be mitigated by using more mobile triremes to support the heavier ships.

Really? Do you have any idea how the AI calculates manueverability?

[Lord Ovaat]

Navies? In this game? Snicker. I played my first campaign trying to compete with all the little boats floatin' around. Spent mucho dinero all for nothing. Still had no results at the end. I've played my last three campaigns building ONLY TWO Biremes or Triremes per port. And that's exactly where I keep them--in port. Only use them to transport when needed, or if the Senate keeps insisting I blockade someone. I don't blockade people I'm trading with, regardless what the Senate thinks. I therefore spend almost nothing on navies. I build my warchest and spend it on land troops. They ARE decisive. Unless, or untill CA changes this game and forces me to try to compete, why bother? Sea warfare is no fun, and extremely costly. I think of my fleets more like fairies than warships. NO! Not that kind of fairy. Though, there was this one cabin boy.....

[metatron]

Deceres are nigh unstoppable.

[Soulflame]

In my Scipii campaign I only built a few quinqueremes. I built huge number of Triremes.
The advantage is that these are only 1 turn to build, versus the 2 turns quinquiremes take. So you can quickly crank out an entire fleet, then go back to producing other units. Plus you can repair these at any city with only a shipwright, whereas a dockyard is less frequent, Egypt can't even build them! And since you'll probably get into some nasty naval fights with Egypt, the ability to repair ships (your whole stack of ships even) in a city you have conquered is very nice.

[vodkafire]

Navies? In this game? Snicker. I played my first campaign trying to compete with all the little boats floatin' around. Spent mucho dinero all for nothing. Still had no results at the end. I've played my last three campaigns building ONLY TWO Biremes or Triremes per port. And that's exactly where I keep them--in port. Only use them to transport when needed, or if the Senate keeps insisting I blockade someone. I don't blockade people I'm trading with, regardless what the Senate thinks. I therefore spend almost nothing on navies. I build my warchest and spend it on land troops. They ARE decisive. Unless, or untill CA changes this game and forces me to try to compete, why bother? Sea warfare is no fun, and extremely costly. I think of my fleets more like fairies than warships. NO! Not that kind of fairy. Though, there was this one cabin boy.....

Actually blockades are very useful. After the damn Egyptians dow me for no reason, I had my land forces stretched and didn't feel like expanding to that region of the world at all, so i blockaded all their ports. within 5 turns or so, they've stopped their expansion into Africa and at least 2 port cities are revolting. A few turns later they came begging for a ceasefire.

[Hamburglar]

I really don't build ships much. The AI builds frickin zillions of them and I'm always at war with every damn country in the world at once so my navies are pretty disposable.


I basically put a ship or two in every port and only use them when I really want to transport myself somewhere. If I'm sending a big army a long distance across the sea I try and mass a bunch of good ships so I can make it across. I usually just let my ships die since they're a pain in the ass anyway.



What I find completely ridiculous is how many ships the AI builds. The Crazy award goes to Egypt, who built maybe 70 ships in their own little private lake that didn't border a single enemy faction. Great job, guys.

[Colovion]

As the Greeks your trade is really important - so Naval dominance in the Aegean is equally so. Blockading the Roman ports nicely keeps them from doing anything out of the ordinary in the Adriatic or invade your provinces. I find the Scipii is the only Roman faction that showed much interest in invading by sea - which was pretty scary for a little while. At this point in the game I don't think anyone matches my naval supremacy. I don't stray too far out of the Aegean and any ships that come near to there or the Adriatic will be leaving sorely defeated from my 3 Gold Chevron bearing fleets.

However, I don't think that ships are that important to other factions that aren't really in need of a navy to unite their provinces.