Naval meta in multiplayer (?)

[EmpireOfCyprus]

Hi

Playing Madyas in multiplayer and aiming to rule them waves!

However it's my first time doing naval warfare and multiplayer. Do guys have tips on naval composition, strategies and things like that?

 

[KaiserJohan]

Grab as many island provinces as you can and move your capital there. Few mainland possessions so they cannot force a peace on you. Focus on trade and income and attain the largest navy in the game.
Bonus points if you can team up with the other top naval power and split the world between you. Then you don't have to worry about anyone, ever.

 

[Jarvin]

^
Indonesia is easily hte best region in the gamefor naval countries, it's very difficult to compete with it.

As for compo: you always do stacks of 8 to 14 heavies(depending on maneuver, and engagement width bonuses) nothing else.

 

[BlazeKnight_]

Naval Morale is king, followed by engagement width. If there are actual players in Indonesia then I recommend going Quantity first, since you will need an army to conquer them and the 10% dev cost is mandatory. Next Economic, obviously, since Eco is always 2nd. After that you can go either Quality or Naval, then 4th exploration/maritime, 5th the other quality/naval, 6th exploration/maritime. Exploration is always better than Expansion because Explo has the overpowered 20% Naval Engagement Width policy, Maritime is also required because of the 20% Morale policy.

 

[Zephyrum]

As briefly as possible: A nation with no Naval nor Maritime cannot ever hope to fight a nation that has either or both, unless their country's own ideas shortens the gap or the difference in naval force limit is simply absurd.

This basically means that by the point player wars start popping out frequently, make sure you already have at least one of the two and everything else should just do itself. Don't forget to always have an admiral (due to how naval maneuver works, they're even more impactful than land generals, and that's quite the high bar), fill your width with heavies (don't let lights and transports fight - galleys only early on) and maximize naval tradition (send fleets on missions and upgrade CoTs).

 

[enKage]

The only thing I remember from my Madyas game, is that pre 1750 I lost total SIX ships. And I ws fighting Spain, Portugal and similar

The final stage I lost 50 more because I was fighting great britain at their shore and my admiral died before battle.

The key with Madyas are crazy admirals, though I don't know how it would work in multiplayer

 

[BlazeKnight_]

The only thing I remember from my Madyas game, is that pre 1750 I lost total SIX ships. And I ws fighting Spain, Portugal and similar

The final stage I lost 50 more because I was fighting great britain at their shore and my admiral died before battle.

The key with Madyas are crazy admirals, though I don't know how it would work in multiplayer

Madyas cannot hope to combat G.B. ever. Naval pips, while useful, are nowhere near as good as morale and G.B. has 5% more, not to mention that they have +1 Yearly Naval Tradition AND the same +1 Manuever pip as Madyas, and 15% Heavy Ship C.A. You can clap the Iberians easily though, none of them have morale.

 

[Jarvin]

Madyas cannot hope to combat G.B. ever. Naval pips, while useful, are nowhere near as good as morale and G.B. has 5% more, not to mention that they have +1 Yearly Naval Tradition AND the same +1 Manuever pip as Madyas, and 15% Heavy Ship C.A. You can clap the Iberians easily though, none of them have morale.

xcept Madyas also happens to be in Indonesia where nearly every single province is a costal/island province. It's nowhere near as simple as you try to make it out to be.
is GB superior quality wise? yeah, probably. Is it better overall? that's really not easy to answer

 

[BlazeKnight_]

xcept Madyas also happens to be in Indonesia where nearly every single province is a costal/island province. It's nowhere near as simple as you try to make it out to be.
is GB superior quality wise? yeah, probably. Is it better overall? that's really not easy to answer

Quality is better in navy because of how naval engagements work. Not to mention, Europe in general is more developed than rotw and Indonesia has garbage tropical modifier, hampering development spam.

 

[Lord Romanus II]

Go theocracy for Lords of the Sea and similar naval reforms. They break the naval game in terms of benefits.

 

[Jarvin]

Not to mention, Europe in general is more developed than rotw and Indonesia has garbage tropical modifier, hampering development spam.

That's not exactly right. Initial average dev of Indonesia is higher than in the British Isles. And even then the development is sorta irrelevant here.
The biggest factor contributing to naval FL is always going to be the number of coastal/island provinces, because that's where you will be able to drop naval FL buildings.
A single grand shipyard is equivalent to 40 flat development in terms of how much it contributes to naval FL.

Quality is better in navy because of how naval engagements work.

Oke now I'm interested. Please do explain me "how naval engagements work".

 

[k4sp3r00]

Oke now I'm interested. Please do explain me "how naval engagements work".

Not him but quality is better in naval combat because naval engagements snowball VERY easily. The main reason for this is that ships will stay in combat after they're out of morale becoming unable to actually fight after the fact and the fact that ships sinking makes all other ships lose morale.

The result is a morale cascade where the lower quality fleet's ships near instantly drop to 0 morale after entering combat post snowballing and thus stop doing any damage for the duration of that combat while wasting combat width until they get sunk, making it barely matter whether engagements are 60v30 or 300v30. You can beat fleets twice your size with say 15% fleet morale and 15% combat ability thanks to this effect and if you actually went bonkers stacking all the naval bonuses you could easily beat any amount of ships with 40 galleys, if not through this bullshit alone then due to the ship capturing mechanic causing your fleet to only grow with every engagement.

The last patch tried to fix this effect but what I described is supported by experience in the current patch and tbh if you invest into fleet quality you deserve a guaranteed win in the seas because of how little naval superiority usually matters. Sucks to be the guy trying to conquer the british isles with no fleet bonuses but that's only historical so whatever.

 

[EmpireOfCyprus]

Go theocracy for Lords of the Sea and similar naval reforms. They break the naval game in terms of benefits.

I actually went pirate for the naval force limit and the early economy (also because I have nearby allies keeping me from expanding too much, so the usual downside of being a pirate is somewhat mitigated). Do you think lord of the sea is even better than that?

Edit: wow. 15% naval morale is a lot of F-ing morale.