Naval ideas

[Incompetent]

Does anyone take this group? Unlike on land, you don't need quality in your military or leadership to rule the waves, as you can get the same result just with raw numbers and the money to keep building them up. It's almost always the richest naval power that dominates, not the most 'seaworthy' one. Even if you do want to improve your navy directly, it looks like you're much better off taking Maritime ideas.

Also, what does 'Ship Durability' actually do? It's the finisher on the Naval group and also granted by certain national ideas, but it's always a small number, like 5% or 10%. Is this really going to make a difference in naval warfare?

 

[Schmoekoeksklok]

Does anyone take this group? Unlike on land, you don't need quality in your military or leadership to rule the waves, as you can get the same result just with raw numbers and the money to keep building them up. It's almost always the richest naval power that dominates, not the most 'seaworthy' one. Even if you do want to improve your navy directly, it looks like you're much better off taking Maritime ideas.

Also, what does 'Ship Durability' actually do? It's the finisher on the Naval group and also granted by certain national ideas, but it's always a small number, like 5% or 10%. Is this really going to make a difference in naval warfare?

Durability is basically reverse combat ability, it increases the hull size of your ships, allowing more damage to be taken before they get sunk. It is slightly better then CA since it works on every type of ship, and it stacks better with CA then CA does with itself.

You're right when it comes to naval combat, it's extremely binary, and usually you either don't stand a chance, or will destroy the enemy without many losses anyway. There are very few naval battles in which the modifiers really get a chance to kick in.

I never take naval ideas, but it's nice to know that there is something there that improves your naval strength at the cost of military power. Theoretically, it could be good for nations that really don't care about land combat, but as far as I'm concerned, there are no nations that really don't care about land combat.

 

[Ranjid]

Well, imho the force limits are way more important than any improvements to your ships. As mentioned before by Schmoekoeksklok, it's pretty much a binary matter, where quantity beats quality. So Quantity, Maritime and Exploration are better suited for a grand navy than Naval itself.

 

[Denkt]

They should make it so that only a limited number of ships of the bigger navy can use at one time, to balance it multiple gallies can use the same spot as a single heavy ship.
Naval bonuses and high tech ship would then be extreamly good, naval ideas give more quality then either offensive and quality do.

10% durability is worth about the same as 5% discipline for a army.