Corollary Two:
Naval War Against a Competent Opponent Isn't Necessarily a Bad Idea
![[Image: uss_constitution_vs_guerriere.jpg]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__dCb5tmxOb0/S7FlRLU0-YI/AAAAAAAAB90/_I2knuWo-2U/s1600/uss_constitution_vs_guerriere.jpg)
I know it's not technically a corollary, but my thread, my rules.
Okay, so here's the thing; you're a dude who is competent, you are out of land, and everyone around you is competent. What do you do? Well, in a big pitboss, historically, the answer is "sorry, you are S.O.L. my friend, because veteran(s) X (Y, Z) was near a newbie, ate 'em, and you're left high and dry". But that's not always going to be the case, and going quietly into that great night isn't in the blood of some here. Well, fortunately, there is another way; water.
![[Image: 539107-santiagocolor.jpg]](http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_small/0/1277/539107-santiagocolor.jpg)
To paraphrase the sexy Miss Corazon, sea power rests at the apex of the first triad of victory, as it combines mobility, flexibility, and initiative.
-Mobility should be obvious; the minimum strike range of seaborne troops is 3 tiles (2 for galley + 1 moving off). It only gets more extreme as naval tech advances; galleons start at 4, with drydocks can be consistently 5, and transports get ridiculous. Road and eventually rail networks are designed to roughly be able to match sea speeds, but we're talking about attacking...so barring Morale or Commando promotions, the best speed a land attacker can ever make is 2.
-Flexibility follows, particularly once Astronomy opens ocean tiles. The ability to take any path to a target or targets is very powerful, and the crazy mobility of sea units means forks are the norm; it is almost impossible to cover all vectors an attacker can use to strike. The lack of any collateral threat until bombers or battleships means the naval attacker can stack without consequence as well.
-Initiative at first seems kind of counter-intuitive, given the built-in terrain advantage that coasts provide. It's a mere 10% bonus, but that basically gives an attacker ~33% odds to win; so typically a rule of thumb is that you need 2:1 odds to hit a hostile fleet at tech parity. However, the mobility advantage of the attacker means that practically he can pick his place and generally advance without much worry, and the defender has none of the traditional advantages; each equals the other in mobility assuming tech parity, etc. Now this obviously breaks a bit with circumnavigation or other movement boosts; to the victor then go all the spoils.
Okay, theory is all well and good, but when the rubber hits the road, how has this shaken out?
1. Eras Matter:
One thing I had mentioned in the first post is how in land war you can be an era ahead and still attacking is just a bad idea. But the break points for naval warfare are far more extreme. Competent players have single-era mismatches all the time, deep beelines are what make or break the game...but it is horrific to be at the wrong end at sea. Galleys < caravels < galleons < frigates < metal ships are all heavy break points and the lack of collateral means the lower-tech side has little recourse besides "build more". Combine that with how easy it is to upgrade along the ship line before modern metal, and it is easy to see how Astronomy often sparks an arms race.
The examples are manifold; for a more recent example look at PB8 (ouch). Slowcheetah's strike on the Zulus of India. Now of course they successfully beat him back (I'm not saying naval war against a competent opponent is always a good idea), but look at how much effort it took. The numbers of caravels they had to field to fight off Slow's galleons were staggering; and they still needed good tactics and some decent luck. In PBEM 23, Mackoti's final eeking of a draw call wasn't because of the overland attack where he was buffed by a hundred Pinuddite knights, but rather his ships of the line winning in the seas against the frigates of NoSpace. Plus, you know, novice having a life.
This is the single biggest reason warring on a fellow competent might be a good idea; the rest of this is situational at best.
2. Tricks and Tactics Matter:
It seems like naval warfare is all pretty simple; there are just coasts and oceans for terrain, and ships have pretty simple arithmetic of combat. But that's why it does matter so much where players move, how players plan out their tactics. I am a tremendous fan of how the mobility of ships makes the attacker's reach incredible and flexible. A great general can turn combat on its head with Nav 1/2 unlocks and Morale. The premier course on all this is naturally PBEM 17, where Oledavy combined very very poor metagame decision making with careful and smart tactics to pick apart Regoarrarr at rough tech parity, and then at tech disparity held off the ravening hordes of NoDarrell for far longer than he should have. Scooter's PB5 campaigns against Nakor are simpler examples, although obviously the mobility advantages he enjoyed cannot be underrated. A brilliant/clever/unexpected plan can upend traditional parity.
3. Geography Matters:
This damned horn...
The coastal defensive bonus means a lot in combat at sea, but what matters even more is land itself; for all practical purposes unless it is a city the land is all "peaks" to ships. This can, as in the imagine above, severely constrain an attacker, but it can also hamper a defender, particularly given the traditional attacker's advantage of picking where conflict will take place.
On a broader strategic level, competency fighting competency will at times lead to fairly even fleets, at even tech levels. Best to avoid this if possible. But sometimes, with good island bases or well-placed capes, one side will have a definite advantage over the other in terms of access. Geography can break MAD stack stalemates...sometimes.
4. Promotions and Units Matter:
Okay, harken back to the example of PBEM 17; Oledavy versus Regoarrarr. Rego had Chemistry over Oledavy in the initial conflict, and so fielded frigates; however, Oledavy as the Dutch had East Indiamen as his galleons, which stacked up much more equitably. Additionally, he had deep bulbed for Physics, so airship support was essential not just for scouting but for weakening the initial stacks. EIs make a major difference over galleons; likewise, trading posts buff Viking Ships almost to their own unique unit status, and berzerkers can be thought of as an upgrade to galley/galleon land strikes. Portugal's carracks impress me less, although they aren't worthless. Basically, Aggressive Naval UUs Don't Suck (assuming water on map). Charismatic is also a huge deal in naval warfare; 4xp as the break point for Nav1 is great...not only does vassalage + theocracy unlock it, but winning a ~33% nets exactly 4xp...so winners on coast get two promotions instead of one. Given the much more rigid break points of naval warfare, the little promotions and unique unit buffs make a much greater difference there.
![[Image: 350px-Blacktyde_longship_by_MarcSimonetti.jpg]](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/images/thumb/5/5e/Blacktyde_longship_by_MarcSimonetti.jpg/350px-Blacktyde_longship_by_MarcSimonetti.jpg)
Naval War Against a Competent Opponent Isn't Necessarily a Bad Idea
I know it's not technically a corollary, but my thread, my rules.
Okay, so here's the thing; you're a dude who is competent, you are out of land, and everyone around you is competent. What do you do? Well, in a big pitboss, historically, the answer is "sorry, you are S.O.L. my friend, because veteran(s) X (Y, Z) was near a newbie, ate 'em, and you're left high and dry". But that's not always going to be the case, and going quietly into that great night isn't in the blood of some here. Well, fortunately, there is another way; water.
To paraphrase the sexy Miss Corazon, sea power rests at the apex of the first triad of victory, as it combines mobility, flexibility, and initiative.
-Mobility should be obvious; the minimum strike range of seaborne troops is 3 tiles (2 for galley + 1 moving off). It only gets more extreme as naval tech advances; galleons start at 4, with drydocks can be consistently 5, and transports get ridiculous. Road and eventually rail networks are designed to roughly be able to match sea speeds, but we're talking about attacking...so barring Morale or Commando promotions, the best speed a land attacker can ever make is 2.
-Flexibility follows, particularly once Astronomy opens ocean tiles. The ability to take any path to a target or targets is very powerful, and the crazy mobility of sea units means forks are the norm; it is almost impossible to cover all vectors an attacker can use to strike. The lack of any collateral threat until bombers or battleships means the naval attacker can stack without consequence as well.
-Initiative at first seems kind of counter-intuitive, given the built-in terrain advantage that coasts provide. It's a mere 10% bonus, but that basically gives an attacker ~33% odds to win; so typically a rule of thumb is that you need 2:1 odds to hit a hostile fleet at tech parity. However, the mobility advantage of the attacker means that practically he can pick his place and generally advance without much worry, and the defender has none of the traditional advantages; each equals the other in mobility assuming tech parity, etc. Now this obviously breaks a bit with circumnavigation or other movement boosts; to the victor then go all the spoils.
Okay, theory is all well and good, but when the rubber hits the road, how has this shaken out?
1. Eras Matter:
One thing I had mentioned in the first post is how in land war you can be an era ahead and still attacking is just a bad idea. But the break points for naval warfare are far more extreme. Competent players have single-era mismatches all the time, deep beelines are what make or break the game...but it is horrific to be at the wrong end at sea. Galleys < caravels < galleons < frigates < metal ships are all heavy break points and the lack of collateral means the lower-tech side has little recourse besides "build more". Combine that with how easy it is to upgrade along the ship line before modern metal, and it is easy to see how Astronomy often sparks an arms race.
The examples are manifold; for a more recent example look at PB8 (ouch). Slowcheetah's strike on the Zulus of India. Now of course they successfully beat him back (I'm not saying naval war against a competent opponent is always a good idea), but look at how much effort it took. The numbers of caravels they had to field to fight off Slow's galleons were staggering; and they still needed good tactics and some decent luck. In PBEM 23, Mackoti's final eeking of a draw call wasn't because of the overland attack where he was buffed by a hundred Pinuddite knights, but rather his ships of the line winning in the seas against the frigates of NoSpace. Plus, you know, novice having a life.
This is the single biggest reason warring on a fellow competent might be a good idea; the rest of this is situational at best.
2. Tricks and Tactics Matter:
It seems like naval warfare is all pretty simple; there are just coasts and oceans for terrain, and ships have pretty simple arithmetic of combat. But that's why it does matter so much where players move, how players plan out their tactics. I am a tremendous fan of how the mobility of ships makes the attacker's reach incredible and flexible. A great general can turn combat on its head with Nav 1/2 unlocks and Morale. The premier course on all this is naturally PBEM 17, where Oledavy combined very very poor metagame decision making with careful and smart tactics to pick apart Regoarrarr at rough tech parity, and then at tech disparity held off the ravening hordes of NoDarrell for far longer than he should have. Scooter's PB5 campaigns against Nakor are simpler examples, although obviously the mobility advantages he enjoyed cannot be underrated. A brilliant/clever/unexpected plan can upend traditional parity.
3. Geography Matters:
This damned horn...
The coastal defensive bonus means a lot in combat at sea, but what matters even more is land itself; for all practical purposes unless it is a city the land is all "peaks" to ships. This can, as in the imagine above, severely constrain an attacker, but it can also hamper a defender, particularly given the traditional attacker's advantage of picking where conflict will take place.
On a broader strategic level, competency fighting competency will at times lead to fairly even fleets, at even tech levels. Best to avoid this if possible. But sometimes, with good island bases or well-placed capes, one side will have a definite advantage over the other in terms of access. Geography can break MAD stack stalemates...sometimes.
4. Promotions and Units Matter:
Okay, harken back to the example of PBEM 17; Oledavy versus Regoarrarr. Rego had Chemistry over Oledavy in the initial conflict, and so fielded frigates; however, Oledavy as the Dutch had East Indiamen as his galleons, which stacked up much more equitably. Additionally, he had deep bulbed for Physics, so airship support was essential not just for scouting but for weakening the initial stacks. EIs make a major difference over galleons; likewise, trading posts buff Viking Ships almost to their own unique unit status, and berzerkers can be thought of as an upgrade to galley/galleon land strikes. Portugal's carracks impress me less, although they aren't worthless. Basically, Aggressive Naval UUs Don't Suck (assuming water on map). Charismatic is also a huge deal in naval warfare; 4xp as the break point for Nav1 is great...not only does vassalage + theocracy unlock it, but winning a ~33% nets exactly 4xp...so winners on coast get two promotions instead of one. Given the much more rigid break points of naval warfare, the little promotions and unique unit buffs make a much greater difference there.
If only you and me and dead people know hex, then only deaf people know hex.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
I write RPG adventures, and blog about it, check it out.
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0091.JPG]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28594063/PB13T120/Civ4ScreenShot0091.JPG)
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![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0097.JPG]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28594063/PB13T120/Civ4ScreenShot0097.JPG)
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![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0095.JPG]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28594063/PB13T120/Civ4ScreenShot0095.JPG)
![[Image: Civ4ScreenShot0098.JPG]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28594063/PB13T120/Civ4ScreenShot0098.JPG)
