Naval battles

[Baghera]

I have not seen anyone talking about naval battles yet:

How are they resolved?
Does anyone have any screenshots?
Is the "admiral" marshal skill at all useful?

[Largefry07]

Naval battle's aren't that great. They are simulated. The Admiral skill is very useless in my opioion. The only use is that you don't need a coastal villege is make a ship. Also the naval battle's are very rare.

[Illuminatus!]

Naval battle's aren't that great. They are simulated. The Admiral skill is very useless in my opioion. The only use is that you don't need a coastal villege is make a ship. Also the naval battle's are very rare.

When you're doing lots of fighting early on in areas like the northern portion of Europe (mostly the British Isles, the coast of France, and Scandinavia, but maybe also the Baltic), it can help a lot, depending on your style of play (number of marshals, cavalry or foot-soldiers, number and strength of enemies, etc.).

[Elvain]

Admirality skill is also very useful for Byzantia as it lies on both sides of Aegean sea. When you have only 1 or 2 marshalls and need to concentarte your troops somewhere and a rebellion emerges on the other side it's real advantage to board a ship anywhere you need (especialy when you need to leave Thrace) this is one of reasons why I like Byzantia so much. One really tastes the feel of basileos of Romaioi who need to defend eastern Anatolia from infidels and northern Thrace from Bulgarians
Admirality skill also makes the morale penalty on ships lower, so when you meet enemy ship, your armies have bonus.

But to be honest in all my games I've fought only 1 naval battle yet :smile:

[Anguille2]

I ve never had a naval battle....didn't even know that it was possible. :scratch:

[Largefry07]

Yesterday (after my first post) I sent my marshall to the black sea to conquor Kuban. Just off the cost I meant an emeny army and had a naval battle. I was winning the battle but I could tell I was taking losses so I retreated.

[Illuminatus!]

Yesterday (after my first post) I sent my marshall to the black sea to conquor Kuban. Just off the cost I meant an emeny army and had a naval battle. I was winning the battle but I could tell I was taking losses so I retreated.

Yeah...in the demo (where you don't have the tactical view for naval battles), I always lose or take really wierd losses (i.e. 20% of ALL squads, evenly, across the board) and barely win, no matter what soldiers I have and what skills my marshal has.

[Gustavus Adolphus]

Wait, im comfused. Is this about river crossing battles, or am i missing some option where you can lead a battle at sea?

[Elvain]

you can't lead naval battle, they are only in strategic view. In naval battles you usualy suffer loses because your troops have low morale so they are more likely to retreat=you lose them

Oh, river crossing battles. I must describe one thing that really confused me.
There was rebel army near city of Cologne marching north. I had my marshal in the city, but wanted to protect a farm where rebels were marching. So I sent my marshal to north bank of river Rhine to a place where the rebel was about to cross it. Everythnig seemed fine, but when the battle started MY army was the one to cross the river! But it was the rebel army which was crossing. I gt no advantage from that. In fact I was defending the bank, but in battle I was attacker :angry:
I would accept it if he had tactics skill, but I'm not sure, he just plundered first village... :scratch:

[Languish]

Also the naval battle's are very rare.Wasnt this true of the time though? Throughout any of the periods available there were few naval battles of significance - true?

I have contemplated building a strong (skilled) naval force but it seems that the navy is really only generally used for transporting units.

[Elvain]

to be honest, I know only one big battle in period between 1000 and 1400 - battle of Sluys at the very beggining of 100years war

[Languish]

to be honest, I know only one big battle in period between 1000 and 1400 - battle of Sluys at the very beggining of 100years war

Yep... that's the only one i can think of right now as well.

[Largefry07]

Here is a list of naval battles of the time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_naval_battles#Middle_Ages) You can see that there aren't that many for the amount of time.

[Baghera]

Nice link Largefry

[OddjobXL]

This thread got me browsing through a book on medieval naval warfare that I own. It does seem that naval battles were indeed rare. Ships were mostly useful for transporting supplies and troops or launching raids. Most battles were very one-sided with someone surprising a fleet in harbor or taking out merchant shipping. Many of the battles seemed to involve sieges. The defenders would be counting on seaborne reinforcements and supplies and the besiegers would attempt to block them. In practice, the catapults and ballistae that some vessels mounted were more often used against fortifications shoreside than other ships. Most warships were impressed merchant transports with makeshift towers and defenses along with a smattering of mercenaries from seafaring nations like the Italian merchant states.

[Illuminatus!]

Then the naval combat system is appropriate for what REALLY happened in Europe, but in KoH you're supposed to be able to discover the New World (serious naval investment and innovation) as much as 500 years before Columbus (I think the Vikings can be left out because they were the exception, not the rule, and did not consist of a unified empire that would exist in the game) and you can also potentially (and easily) become a very large power straddling much or all of continental Europe - you're going to have *some* kind of navy if you're doing lots of fighting/conquering in the Med.