Ralegh -> More on Naval Combat (9/7/2005 3:29:39 AM)
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1) The big impacts on naval combat are the morale of the ships (mainly intrinsic national morale and the level of the BARRACKS in the port where the ship is built - changing in 1.2), naval upgrades, type of ships, strength of each ship (see below) and the wind guage. 2) Don't go into battle with ships with a strength of 3 or less - they should be detached and sent to home ports to recover. Why? Ships with a strength of 3 or less have to make a morale role every round, not just when they take significant casulties - they are unlikely to stand and fight. 3) When the fleet has taken some damage, it can be better to fill up some ships and send some others home to repair - this reduces the likelihood of the partially damaged ships falling under strength 3 in the battle. 4) Once a naval combat starts, make an assessment: do you WANT to fight? Wind guage is random (2/3 of the time in favour of the attacker, I think), and provides a HUGE impact on the battle. If I have any concerns about the battle at all, then if I don't get the wind guage I will withdraw. (To withdraw from Quick Combat, leave all your units in the routed area and press DONE. The enemy may get a pursuit, but at least you are out of there. Half the time they wont get a pursuit at all.) 5) IMPORTANT NOTE: Mainly think of frigates the same way you would think of merchants or transports - not much use in combat. However, they contribute to enemy pursuit losses and preventing your pursuit losses, so having them is useful. Accordingly, I will often rejig my fleets to have "combat fleets" as opposed to fleets for ferry duty and blockading ports. Combat fleets want some frigates, but no transports or merchants - and all the HS /S I have. 6) Final victory in naval battle is based on having 4 times as many unrouted ships in the battle as your enemy. 7) Therefore, STRATEGY 1 is try to protect your weak ships. for example: this diagram shows a pretty good deployment for a major battle: <the enemy> _ S S H - - - - _ _ S S - - - - T T F F - - - - T T F F - - - - Note that my front 3 combat ships will be the only ones firing or being fired upon at first. The transports and frigates are at the rear, where they get defensive bonuses, and the combat ships positioned to both do the fighting and shield the others. The frigates will prevent the transports moving starboard into the way of enemy fire. 8. With more combat vessels, I might try: <the enemy> _ S S H - - - - F F S S - - - - T T F S - - - - T T F S - - - - Since my starboard flank are combat ships, the frigates and Transports will be kept out of battle a bit longer. 9. Since I set up only over half the battle grid, half of the enemies ships wont be able to fire on me, while my ships should be able to find ample targets. 10. STRATEGY2: alternatively, in some situations you want particular ships to get a few licks in before they rout (ie. they start weak) - put them towards the front. Sometimes, my whole fleet is weak, and I will put them all in melee, because I know that if I don't get some licks in fast, I will lose the battle. And I probably will lose the battle, but occasionally can get an upset win.
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