sea channels

[lar]

In order to invade, you will have to sink their ships, thus losing surprise and possibly incurring Papal displeasure.

oh no, im doing this to gain popes favour, he is at war with them and he will take sicily soon so i was gonna take malta, im just taking my chance to gain every port i can and just amass a huge wealth and do alot of crusades :). (GA game)

[Barbarossa1221]

You can only invade an enemy province by sea if they dont have their navy there. And you have an unbroken chain of ships.

[Bregil the Bowman]

I'm just thinking about the logic behind being able to land troops when there isn't a port but not being able to remove troops in the same circumstances.

My conclusion is that it's because of the poor navigation techniques and communications of the day. An invasion fleet would set off in the general direction of the country it was aiming at, dump it's troops wherever it could (beaches, fishing villages etc) and hope that they were able to gather together before the enemy turned up. For example, did Duke William plan to land at Pevensey or is that just where the wind took him.

On the other hand, for an army to meet up with a fleet, it would need a definite point of rendezvous and facilities to get large numbers aboard quickly. Once ashore, an army wouldn't dare split itself up in order to use little fishing ports etc if it had enemy troops, or even unfriendly peasants, on the prowl.

The exception to this rule being the Vikings, who were used to breaking up their raiding parties in order to escape using the minor waterways - hence the excellent rule in VI that allows the Vikings to "hit and run" where there are no ports.

Convinced anyone?

[naut]

I agree, makes good sense