Drommon ....GRRRR

**Serpent** · 01-13-2005, 16:48

right now Im playing whit Italians and there is 3 Dromons that are Blocking my trade....And I cant kill them.....I have tried all the tricks that i can think of and these little cowards just move from sea to sea and blocks my trade and armys. I my self have Dromons I also have firegalleys and galleys. also my generals are better. Any ideas how can I kill these little rats. Another than destroying Byzantine Itself. Im right now in War whit Hungary Egypt Germany and France. and Pope is my only ally.

**lugh** · 01-13-2005, 16:53

Try attacking them individually with individual ships.
The faster ships can usually just outrun a single fleet, but if they get attacked 2-3 times a turn by three seperate ships, the odds are one of your ships will clip it.

**Ash** · 01-14-2005, 02:19

Tough one. Naval battles are flawed in favour of the AI. Also ship speed is also a factor if the enemy ship can get away.

It helps attacking in stacks. 1 on 1 your ships has a really high chance of losing (especially when attacking). When the odds are stacked in your favour the AI almost always loses.

**Ironside** · 01-14-2005, 09:17

Usually it works to have dramons of your own, either a huge stack or using several single ship and one stack. It seems like when the single ship catches the enemy, the huge stack is also allowed to attack.

**Hold Steady** · 01-14-2005, 11:52

I believe it works like this:

Bigger stack: better chance of winning
More individual ships attacking: better chance of actually catching them and having a fight.

**lugh** · 01-14-2005, 16:05

Yeah, the way I describe definetely you lose more ships, but I get tired very easily of chasing a single ship arounf with a stack of 8 and never oince getting a battle in a decade.
Attack individually, you may lose half your fleet but at least your shipping lines are open, especially important if you crusade a lot like me, or if your a trading nation like the Italians

**Ludens** · 01-14-2005, 21:02

Originally Posted by Hold Steady

I believe it works like this:

Bigger stack: better chance of winning
More individual ships attacking: better chance of actually catching them and having a fight.

Hold Steady got it right: the best way is attacking with a couple of stacks of about two or three ships. Try to keep ships of the same speed together: the speed of a fleet is that of its slowest ship, and the slower the fleet, the less chance it has at catching the enemy fleet. Do make sure that the odds are stacked in your favour: the AI ships get a bonus. It seems however, that this bonus is to compensate for lost land battles. A few players claim that sending a unit of peasants on a suicide mission in the same turn as the sea battles are fought gives a bonus to their own ships. I have never tried this, though.

**Hold Steady** · 01-17-2005, 10:31

Originally Posted by Ludens

A few players claim that sending a unit of peasants on a suicide mission in the same turn as the sea battles are fought gives a bonus to their own ships.

&^%&* Damn, I should have attacked the sicilian Fleet last turn, I would have won as I totally screwed up my land battles..

**HopAlongBunny** · 01-17-2005, 14:48

I believe a stack of ships have the speed of the slowest ship in the stack.

To attack a dromon you will want to have at least one (if not more) ship of comparable speed attack to "tag" the dromon. When you use separate stacks in the same sea area, if one ship makes contact all ships in the area get to attack.

I like to have at least one of my fastest ship designs in each stack of ships.

Good luck-I have in the past spent 20 yrs chasing a dromon with barques.

**ichi** · 01-17-2005, 19:00

Ludens (as he usually does) got it right.

I also try to place a few fast ships in surrounding sea regions in the hope that when the Dromon moves it will move into an area where I lay waiting. Nothing more frustrating in the game than being one region behind a DRomon every turn.

ichi