Self-imposed rules to prep for naval invasions

[Marquis of Roland]

If that's what Spanish trade ships were like back in the day, i'd hate to fight an actual Spanish ship of the line, designed for the sole purpose of battle!

Actually, back then (or maybe back a little further lol) the Spanish galleons WERE their ships of the line. I remember on a earlier post on naval tactics, I mentioned that people were losing to fluyts and galleons because they didn't treat it as a ship of the line.

As far as warships go back then, everyone pretty much used the same, or similarly designed ships. Better designs were copied right away; for example, the French built better ships in general than the British, and as soon as the British would capture a new design they'd copy it or implement changes in their own design right away. What made the Royal Navy superior was their level of training and drill, both in gunnery and seamanship. The French couldn't practice as much since they were blockaded in port.

Anyway, back to troop transport. First off, what is 1 "unit"? I like to define mine as:
1 infantry unit - 1 battalion (grenadier and light infantry come in "half-battalions")
1 cavalry unit - 1 squadron
1 artillery unit - 1 battery

Going on this, 1 frigate can carry 1 unit of cavalry or infantry. 1 ship of the line-class hull (including indiamen, galleons, and fluyts) can carry 2 units of cavalry or infantry. Artillery batteries are obviously less in manpower and provisions needed for the voyage, so multiple artillery batteries can be carried in 1 ship(?)

@Tincow:
Will you count colonial line infantry as recruitable overseas? Because lets say I want to be REALLY realistic but the AI natives don't.....

[TinCow]

Will you count colonial line infantry as recruitable overseas? Because lets say I want to be REALLY realistic but the AI natives don't.....

Heh, depends on how complex you want to make it.

Colonial units make sense in some places and at some times. It generally depends on whether there was a large enough local colonial (read: European) population to support local recruitment into professional units. For instance, it would make sense for these types of units to be recruitable for the British in the '13 Colonies' provinces plus Canada right from the start of the game. Cuba might work similarly for the Spanish. However, the French should never be able to recruit these units from Martinique, because the population was never large enough to support a mass recruitment beyond a general militia drive.

Other areas, like the Central and South American provinces, and India might work if you put some kind of time limit on it. Maybe allow recruitment of 'colonial' units in those areas after 1750, or after you've owned it for 25 years, or something similar. The problem there is that is starts becoming too complex to keep track of easily. Maybe you could base it on religion. Perhaps you can recruit colonials from any province that is over 50% of the same religion as yours, to indicate conversion of the locals to your culture. You'd have to decide for yourself how you want to balance realism with entertainment.