Self-imposed rules to prep for naval invasions

[Kraxis]

Just note that Indiamen and their likes (not the eastern ones though) were extraordinarily large merchantmen. Many were no bigger than Sloops and Brigs, and Frigate-size would generally be a pretty decently sized ship.

How can I know? Well, the number of ships involved. Ships the size of Indiamen were investments on the scale of early 20th century atlantic liners. They were not common due to costs for the 'common' company. The Indian Companies obviously had the currency to get them made.

As a little pointer in the Gunboat War Denmark persecuted against the UK in the Napoleonic Wars she relied very heavily on gunboats (duh) and privateers. The greatest success came when an entire convoy of more than 100 ships were captured, by tiny little privateering ships with a handful of guns (and mind you not even military personel so pretty crappy in a fight). If even just 5-6 ships had been Indiamen or that size there wouldn't have been an incident at all... The convoy would have passed through safely, perhaps the odd ship captured.

Indiamen should easily carry 2 units.

[Servius]

I'm going with Kraxis then.

Were it 2 ships / unit, a full stack would require 40 ships, and since you can only have 14 ships per fleet stack, that would require 3 fleets

[Didz]

Indiamen should easily carry 2 units.

I disagree.

The Arniston was an East Indiaman, it was was requisitioned by the Royal Navy in 1814 as a troop transport to bring wounded soldiers of the 73rd Regiment back to England from Ceylon.

It was wrecked and only 6 men of the 378 aboard survived and that included the crew.

see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arniston_(ship)

Assuming that a Battalion numbers around 600 men that still equates to 2 ships per battalion.

Incidently, the Arniston was 176' from stem to stern and 45' across the beam.

A further wreck of HM Troopship Birkenhead in 1845 reveals that this ship which was 210' in length and 37' across the beam was only carrying 643 people fully laden, no where near the 1,200 you would suggest.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Birkenhead_(1845)

[Kraxis]

The Arniston was carrying wounded and civilians... Obviously not the most 'compressable' passengers. Further it appears that the entire trek from Ceylon to the wrck was done with no ports of call, leading to less room for people and more required for stores.

In any case, the Birkenhead was a Frigate and was larger than the Arniston apparently. So the Arniston is not a comparable ship to the ingame Indiamen. You can argue that the Indiamen were of that size, however then you ignore the ingame possibilities, given that the Indiamen there are very clearly of ship-of-the-line size. Wrong or not, that is what we have to work with. And at the very least they are still very easily capable of carrying more than 1 unit per 2 Indiamen.

[Didz]

Well we will have to agree to differ. I've given you two perfectly vaild examples of 'actual' carrying capacity, if you still wish to go with the 1,200 men jammed on a deck idea then clearly I'm not going to persuade you otherwise, and at the end of the day its your game, so play it how you wish.

I'm going with the two trade ships per unit approach, with the possibility of an 'enflute' frigate carrying a single infantry unit for journeys of one turn duration. I will just need to be disciplined enough to switch 'fire at will' off and keep it off for that ship if its attacked.