kongxinga
Private
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:49 am

Naval Questions (Marines, Heavy vs Light vs Raiders, High seas fleet, Sea Zones

Mon May 16, 2016 11:59 pm

Hi,

After fixing a persistent crash issue thanks to tweaking video settings, I am finally able to cut my teeth in this game. I have several naval related questions playing as Ottomans in the January 1805 long campaign.

1. What determines what I receive from my merchants in Sea zones? For most zones, I get 20 money and 0 war supply. Is it ever possible to get WS via trading? I need it badly to build more ships. Some zones I get 20 dollars per turn such as Black seas. Other zones I get merely 10 (North sea and one of the atlantic ones). What determines the money coming in, and how can get WS from this? I suspect my ships in North Sea probably were damaged by storms in the transit. There were no raiders involved.

2. I know boarding is a factor since each ship has a % CHANCE OF CAPTURE as a statistic. In AJE, boarded ships were considered sunk. Can you capture ships here? In AJE, putting special marines unit in your fleets help in the boarding phase, which was very important for non romans like the Carthaginians or Illyrians. Do marines help in the assault phase and the fire phase (boardings and sniping?) if they are combined with a fleet here?

3. I have been handily catching detached Russian fleets with my main fighting task force and handily defeating them. I am almost at par in naval terms with them due to that. I've been constructing a few ships, mostly sloops to form a QRF and to beef up my main task force. However, I noticed a few strange things. For example, heavy frigates are more powerful than 3rd rate Ships of the Line in terms of combat value. If I wanted to create a super fleet to defeat the Russians once and for all in a decisive battle, should I build heavy frigates or Ships of the Line? This is puzzling, since Frigates are cheaper than SOTL but offer slightly better combat values.

4. What is the difference between heavy ships, light ships, and raiders? I've been building sloops, which are raiders, because I thought I had not chance of facing them head on and so went for a raiding fleet. Would it be bad if these small ships joined their bigger cousins in a line? What kind of ships is good for what?

5. What are the specific bonuses to researching High Seas Fleet? It mentions better high seas performance, but what does that mean?

6. How do I fight the Russians if they insist on putting their black seas fleet in the black seas sea zone? I formerly used my sloops to raid their merchants in the zone by moving them in and setting them to aggressive and intercept fleets, but then they moved a huge fleet with several SOTL into the zone. I rapidly withdrew my raiders, and since my combined battle fleet was stronger, I moved my main fighting force inside the zone and set them to aggressive. Nothing happened for several weeks. I then turned on intercept fleets and still yet nothing happened, except my fleets losing cohesion, presumably from the intercept fleets order. How do I force the Russians to fight?

7. What statistic is most important in determining whether my raiding force sinks enemy merchants? Would ships of the line be good raiders? Frigates which are light ship? Only actual raiders like sloops and privateers? What is the statistic that determines whether my escorting force in a sea zone protects my merchants and sinks enemy raiders? I say this because a few raiders crept into one of my formerly lucrative sea zone and reduced it to only 8 money, and I am prepping a task force to clean them up.

I am currently in 1806, and was initially losing the land war until the Timariots triggered in the Balkans, after which I have annhilated a 800 power russian Landing force by sinking their escape route. I am hoping a win big at sea so I can trade my gains on sea for their gains on land, or pray Napoleon defeats the Austrians to begin fighting the bear.

vicberg
AGEod Grognard
Posts: 968
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:18 am

Tue May 17, 2016 1:17 pm

1) No WS from trading. It's how WON is configured
2) there's a 10% chance to capture ships. Marines are only for land combat. This is two questions, btw.
3) Frigates have similar firepower to 3rd rate (50 gun SOL), but don't have as many hits.
4) Firepower and the amount of damage they can sustain. Smaller ships may get targeted and sunk more often against larger ships. 2 questions again :)
5) High Seas Fleet is WW1. This is WON. Only Britain has the big bonuses and Admirals for naval combat here. You can spend your EP on naval factional modifiers.
6) Not sure what happened. Report this in the Help WON thread. You should have intercepted in offensive posture
7) For the OMB boxes (commerce, trade, etc.) that's a running debate. Some people swear by raiders. Others by SOLs, which engage less but do more damage.

kongxinga
Private
Posts: 33
Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 1:49 am

Wed May 18, 2016 1:26 am

Thank you, and good on pointing out the compound questions.

1. I will take my marines out of the sea and treat them like elite infantry.
2. When I capture a ship, I get to keep it? In AJE they simply sank.
3. I think I will keep my SOTL in my main fighting task force and the small ships as raiders and counter raiders.
4. Sorry about high seas fleet. I believe it is the national modifier that gives additional blockade capability and a vague increased high seas performance. The name escapes me.

I am still unsure why the money from trading varies from zone by zone. Is it a distance thing? Competition, so I need to sink other merchants? I don't think raiders were a factor since the game does tell you when that happens.

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