fleet tactics

**Mr White** · 08-15-2005, 15:43

I'm playing as the English in early and I'm the only seapower in the north. Now I'm planning to 'invade' the mediterranean sea and without a doubt I wil encounter some resistance there. My question is how to deal with the Italians and the Sicilians in seabattle.

Is it to easy to just form a group of say 5 ships and drop them on a target?

PS I know about how 1 slower ship slows down the whole pack

**Maeda Toshiie** · 08-15-2005, 15:56

Rules of MTW naval combat:

1. Command stars make a difference.

2. The slowest ship in the stack dictates the speed of the entire stack.

3. The speed of the attacking stack must at least match the speed of the defending stack in order to be able to initiate combat.

4. Random throw of dice makes a (big) difference in combat, but can be reduced by the effect of hugely overpowering stacks.

ie. Build a huge stack of barques at a chokepoint and sink every bathtub that passes by.

**antisocialmunky** · 08-15-2005, 16:31

Have more ships that are faster. All you need to know

**dgfred** · 08-15-2005, 17:15

Welcome to the forums Mr. White

. I usually have at least 3 or
4 ships in a stack led by a captain with a couple of stars

. I've only been
playing the game for a couple of months, but this has worked every time---
Always kills the lone defender, sometimes I too will loose one ship

.

**Geezer57** · 08-15-2005, 17:59

Originally Posted by Maeda Toshiie

Rules of MTW naval combat:

3. The speed of the attacking stack must at least match the speed of the defending stack in order to be able to initiate combat.

This rule, while basically correct, isn't quite worded perfectly precisely. Slower ships _can_ initiate combat with a faster ones, it's just that the odds are strongly against them catching the enemy.

Normally, when on defense, I stack all my ships in a sea region together. When switching to attack, I divide the stack into two by speed. But when _all_ enemy ships are faster than all of my ships, I'll break my stack into individual ships before attacking. The increased number of attack attempts yield greater odds of any one of them catching the enemy. Once that happens, all the follow-up attacks will go in.

**ichi** · 08-16-2005, 00:41

Find some lone enemy ships and try to build up the command rating of your best Admiral, it'll help when you finally get to the big battle.

ichi

**Mr White** · 08-16-2005, 08:26

Thanks everybody, you've all been a great help.

Good luck on all your campaigns

**Ludens** · 08-22-2005, 15:45

Originally Posted by Maeda Toshiie, with Geezer57's edit

Rules of MTW naval combat:

1. Command stars make a difference.

2. The slowest ship in the stack dictates the speed of the entire stack.

3. The speed of the attacking stack must at least match the speed of the defending stack in order to have a 50% chance to initiate combat. If one of your fleets engages the enemy, all your other attacking fleets will initiate combat as well.

4. Random throw of dice makes a (big) difference in combat, but can be reduced by the effect of hugely overpowering stacks.

To which I want to add:

5. Succes in naval battles seems to be inversely related to succes in land battles. If you trounce your enemies on land, you tend to be beaten at sea. If you get mauled on solid ground, expect to win on the waves.

Katank suggested a (rather cheesy, in my opinion) tactic of sending a unit of peasants off to its death every turn you had to fight naval battles. He reported it worked with much succes, to the point that he even won naval battles that were stacked against him.