Naval Composition questions

[TinMann]

Hello,

I've looked around a bit but haven't found any suggestions yet on naval composition. Basically i am looking for opinions on what percentage of light ships vs ships of the line people prefer. Any suggestions are welcome.

Also, do we need to maintain an certain minimum percentage of escorts to capitol ships to avoid a malus?

Is there a penalty for very large fleets?

Also, is anyone using galleys successfully?

Thanks in advance.

 

[unmerged(346511)]

I _really_ tried playing with frigates, just to see if that makes a difference.

The manual says so, that mixing up light/heavy ships gives a bonus and apparenlty naval combat has 2 phases: bombard and combat. Again the manual says "certain ships excel in certain phases".

Truth is, a fleet of 10 ships of the line always beats a fleet of 6 SOTL + 6 frigates in my experience.
Frigates are said to have a chance to avoid a hit.

Also, if you have frigates in your fleet, your Admiral can get the Promotion "Galley I" which gives -5% heavy ship attack or something and +5% galley attack. Not sure about the numbers but its god-awful.

Never tried galleys, but just looking at the attack/defense values, I imagine naval massacre.

 

[unmerged(346511)]

Oh well i wanted to know for myself and I made this for everyone who is interested:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApJJUODaB-1BdFFxdzIwOVNVNXlSX1pza1BXSUEyeFE&usp=sharing



So in short: a Frigate has 1/5th of the attack of a 2nd rate SOTL but does take 66% of the time to build. Morale is lower but it is allowed to do its puny damage before the big ships.

Unless its hard-coded I also can't see any evade-hit chances in the unit files.

 

[Ri0Rdian]

Seems like 2nd rate Ship of the Line is the way to go if you aren't navy heavy country and want some respectable fleet quickly and cheap.

 

[oilers41]

From the numbers above you can see that 4 galleys have the same frontage as 1 2nd rate and 6 galleys have the same as 1 1st rate. This gives an attack value of 140 vs 2nd rates and 210 vs 1st rates. Also, galleys get a +2 to their dice rolls in inland seas (everything east of Gibraltar and Denmark) which I think is equivalent to a +10% bonus. It seems that galleys win based on the use of numbers that can be used in a battle. Granted, they have no attack in the bombard phase but this generally only lasts for a few hours mitigating the damage. I have tried doing some naval testing with galleys and they seem to do quite well when used en masse. I have only tried this playing as the Ottomans and thus I never moved them into the atlantic so I cant say if they are as usefull in the open seas.

 

[Secret Master]

Galleys tend to die much easier than the other ships, but they are also easier to build, too. Even Prussia can build a fleet of 90 using galleys and second-rate SOL.

 

[historybuff22]

I have two questions. One, how much in maintenance do you pay for the ships? Where could I find that? Second, as I was playing as Austria, I wanted Cyprus. So I built a fleet. I only built 1st rates and transports. I figured I could sneak along the Turkish coast and surprise them. To my frustration, they would get caught by the Turkish fleet, and not only that, but my transports(with my men loaded aboard) would be sunk(first before the 1st rates if I am correct). My question, does fleet composition affect the safety of your transports?

 

[Ri0Rdian]

I have two questions. One, how much in maintenance do you pay for the ships? Where could I find that?...

One way I know that you can see that is by hovering over ship cost for a moment in the Ship Building menu.

 

[unmerged(346511)]

My question, does fleet composition affect the safety of your transports?

Sadly transports aren't defended. But if you build way more transport than your army needs to be transported, some can be sunk without your guys drowning.