Point of Making Ships?

[Alec]

Hey, I've been playing for a while now, and somewhat have a handle of the basics of the game, but one of the few things I still don't understand are the purpose of the ships. I've tried using them early in the game at one point but seems like they cannot shoot infintry, vehicles, etc (except if they are close to the coast). Also the maps I use are mainly terrestrial, so the fact that water is not as important in this map might be a factor. Any help will be appreciated and thank-you guys in advance.

[[AS]_Pimp-Masterflex]

Hey Justin,

So you have one point I agree with, but a generalization that I dont.....

So you're right in that ships don't kill infantry, and vice versa. The damage dealt is very minimal and really only useful if you need to focus on some particular unit (and even then... that's stretchin' it). The only land unit that can kill ships is artillery (artillery after age IV is super effective on ships).

However, let me state this given fact ... the point of ships is to kill other ships

That's not 100% true, but for the simplicity of this post, let's assume that it's a given...


Ok, so ships are designed to kill ships, great. But that doesn't explain an answer to your original question... why make ships?


Well.... say it's a water map.... well you will need to cross by water to invade, right? Well.... when you cross over to your opponent's island, your units get converted to transport ships.....transport SHIPS (keyword there). And what can ships kill? SHIPS!!! So if you have no navy to protect your transports.... the other guys navy can send some light ships (or even worse, subs) and kill about 2-5k resources worth of army.....

And honestly it only takes about 3 light ships to take down or decimate an invading sea army. Especially if they target the one with the shiny halo (the Patriot). Thats because a lot of people won't bother to bring in a supporting general, and generals will make or break a field battle any time past age III

The point is, on a water map, you cannot wage a successful offensive war without a navy


On a land map though, they aren't important for an offensive. A land map is defined as one where you can directly attack your opponent by land . So like Great Lakes for example. It has water, but you can walk to your opponent and kill him, without needing a transport.


But!... what is in that water? FISH! WHALES!! That's good income for cheap cost, and that's great to have....

And it would be great if the other player didn't have such great income, right? I mean why should they get this super cheap income? Maybe you could kill those ships.... um.... but what kills ships again? Oh right.... SHIPS!!!

So on a land map, ships can be built to kill enemy fisherman.... which means they would make ships to kill your ships killing their fisherman (in retaliation).

Crazy, right?

But if you let the opponent kill your fisherman, then you will have a HUGE disadvantage in wealth and food, which could cost you the game. Food = Citizens = Economy. And Wealth = Scholars = Knowledge = Technology. So No Fish Income = No Economy or Technology. It's a very indirect causation but one that can be felt even a few minutes into this loss.

So my last point, on a land map, ships are used to raid enemy fisherman and defend from enemy ships doing the same


.... and then there's bombardment and exploration and all that, but I think you get the gist of it.

[Shota]

A dock is 70 timber and 1 fishing boat is 40(+5) timber for the best resource in the game per cost.

110/155/200 total cost for 1, 2, 3 fishing boats. That's an enormous amount of food and wealth gathered for far less resources you would spend on farms, granaries, caravans, and merchants to get the same amount of resources.

What about if you attack the enemy without making any ships at all? Shouldn't you have a resource advantage because you didn't spend it on ships? Well, without wealth, your army won't match their army.

[Spirit of Mesabi]

From what I've seen in older versions, the AI will refuse to make ships unless it has to, giving you an advantage when it comes to costal cities. Generally, I use ships as a water based artillary, starting about the gunpowder age. Aircraft carriers make ships even more important, with their cheap planes and high mobility. The rest of the navy for me ends up being support for these two groups, or as scouts.

[zappa]

I've found the East vs. West map can generate major naval battles. If the end age is Enlightenment the game can sometimes become one long naval battle. That said the naval aspect of RoN is fairly weak and boring.

And in the Great Lakes map avoid building cities right on the water. In fact just avoid having buildings within range of bomb vessels (and their upgrades) on any map. After all why make your buildings vulnerable to another potential avenue of attack (by water).

My favourite water maps are Mediterranean and East vs. West. African Watering Hole, while not a water map can definitely generate some battles over the fish resource. As for the worst map in RoN, IMO, is East Indies. Lousy map.