There have been a number of people who have wanted to see naval warfare implemented as a feature in CK2. This is not a bad idea, but it shouldn't be as simple as doomstacks at sea blockading provinces. A handful of other features would be needed to be implemented to make this a workable feature.
Independent technology branch representing naval technology. All naval technology could fall under this. Not all regions of Europe used naval warfare, and not all used naval warfare in the same ways. Ships colliding at sea is different than a hasty plundering of coastal provinces is different than merchant ships with no use for warfare. I wouldn't even mind seeing some unique naval power buildings (including some cultural buildings).
Manpower should be needed for naval warfare, actual soldiers. European medieval naval warfare involved ships and a lot of men dying. Not sailors drowning because they were the weaker navy, actual soldiers doing battle. Maybe boarding another ship, maybe encountering a local militia as the plundered the coastline, maybe facing actual attrition at sea. Bottom line is that without soldiers fighting the other soldiers on the other ship a navy's combat power would be effectively zero.
About that last point, attrition needs to be seriously overhauled for navies. Both men and ships should face attrition, and it should get worse the farther the ships is from friendly territory. A Jihad for Iceland (or even Galicia) is going to be getting seriously fewer supplies from the homeland and this might cut down on such silliness.
And anyone should be able to fight religious enemies at sea even if they're not formally at war. A ship full of murderous pirate heathens is a ship that will kill you, steal your cargo, then probably kill your friends and families; you'd be better off killing them and stealing their cargo (or, you know, just avoiding them). And let's face it killing heathen ships for their loot is probably the only way a holy war thousands of miles into heathen waters could work (well that and plundering coastlines, but again that's what the naval tech branch is for). Bottom line is that a dead heathen ship is a good heathen ship. The same would probably be true of a dead heathen army, but non-warring religious enemies simply share water provinces more often than they do land provinces.
Independent technology branch representing naval technology. All naval technology could fall under this. Not all regions of Europe used naval warfare, and not all used naval warfare in the same ways. Ships colliding at sea is different than a hasty plundering of coastal provinces is different than merchant ships with no use for warfare. I wouldn't even mind seeing some unique naval power buildings (including some cultural buildings).
Manpower should be needed for naval warfare, actual soldiers. European medieval naval warfare involved ships and a lot of men dying. Not sailors drowning because they were the weaker navy, actual soldiers doing battle. Maybe boarding another ship, maybe encountering a local militia as the plundered the coastline, maybe facing actual attrition at sea. Bottom line is that without soldiers fighting the other soldiers on the other ship a navy's combat power would be effectively zero.
About that last point, attrition needs to be seriously overhauled for navies. Both men and ships should face attrition, and it should get worse the farther the ships is from friendly territory. A Jihad for Iceland (or even Galicia) is going to be getting seriously fewer supplies from the homeland and this might cut down on such silliness.
And anyone should be able to fight religious enemies at sea even if they're not formally at war. A ship full of murderous pirate heathens is a ship that will kill you, steal your cargo, then probably kill your friends and families; you'd be better off killing them and stealing their cargo (or, you know, just avoiding them). And let's face it killing heathen ships for their loot is probably the only way a holy war thousands of miles into heathen waters could work (well that and plundering coastlines, but again that's what the naval tech branch is for). Bottom line is that a dead heathen ship is a good heathen ship. The same would probably be true of a dead heathen army, but non-warring religious enemies simply share water provinces more often than they do land provinces.
