RTW: Increasing the Challenge--Naval Invasions

[Red Harvest]

If you want to increase the challenge of the game, while not doing anything too hokey/gamey, and being more realistic, give this "ironman" rule a try:

Allow only 1 army unit transport per boat.

Now that the AI doesn't build large navies, and there are powerful pirate fleets, the naval aspect is different. Massive invasions by the AI are reduced. But a crafty human player can still sneak armies past on quick hops using a single boat, or a couple. So try to be *realistic.* In real life, naval invasions were a nightmare. It was a HUGE undertaking to land a large army in hostile territory. You couldn't do it with a handful of boats, you needed a massive navy. So play by a rule that CA should have used from the start. Match the army size with the navy size. Now logistics really matter. Assembling a full stack of ships is really expensive. Assembling a half stack is very risky if you can only land half an army.

I've been doing this as Carthage and it is a big challenge to get into Italy this way. I even had trouble holding Cordoba, because I couldn't ferry enough troops in on time, when the AI decided to attack. Result is that funds are very tight on VH/VH.

[Mongoose]

One other thing:

If i load 20 elephants on to one Naval unit, and the enemy sinks all but one of the 32 ships in the unit, how many elephants do i have left? That also always annoyed, it just felt so cheap.

[Red Harvest]

One other thing:

If i load 20 elephants on to one Naval unit, and the enemy sinks all but one of the 32 ships in the unit, how many elephants do i have left? That also always annoyed, it just felt so cheap.

Yes, the naval aspect of the game is rather sophomoric in several regards. Not much I can do about that part. I have to chase around single boat AI army stacks endlessly to actually sink them. I would undoubtedly suffer fewer casualties/less financial penalty if I fought the battle on land vs. the stack.

[Kekvit Irae]

I dont feel as if using 20 boats to transport 20 units would be a challenge, if they were in a fleet. 20 boats to transport 20 units, none of the fleets having any more than one boat... that's more of a challenge, because you stand to lose more against pirates. Even more "ironman" would be to transport all 20 units in a single boat halfway around the world

[Red Harvest]

I dont feel as if using 20 boats to transport 20 units would be a challenge, if they were in a fleet. 20 boats to transport 20 units, none of the fleets having any more than one boat... that's more of a challenge, because you stand to lose more against pirates. Even more "ironman" would be to transport all 20 units in a single boat halfway around the world

Unless you are rolling in money, buying and fielding a 20 boat stack is quite a financial burden, and it lessens your ability to launch multiple invasions with half a dozen boats. As for splitting the stacks, I could do far more with 4 stacks of 5 boats anyway. The problem with fielding large fleets is that they don't help boost loyalty--so there is a lot of opportunity cost lost in a large fleet. Plus they tend to project naval power in a very limited zone.

Normally for an invasion hop I would need only 2 or 3 boats. I did a hop to Southern Italy with only 7 boats (cash strapped) and managed to make two trips from Messana during a turn for a 14 unit army. It wasn't enough troops to take on all those Brutii stacks. The 3rd stack did my army in. I was going to repeat the experience, when the plague broke out in Messana and lasted for 12 turns. (Kept getting attacked in Messana by a single Brutii family member who could escape to a powerful fleet that I couldn't afford to engage. No way to kill him as he retreated every time on the field. This kept resetting the plague clock.)

I'm going for something less gamey. I'm hoping it will also prompt the AI to build larger stacks in response.