Naval Strategy Tips Anyone?

[barbarossa2]

Okay. I have been playing for a few days now and I am interested in some advice on how people who have played for more than 7 days use their navies STRATEGIALLY (not in battles).

Do you let them sit in ports waiting for a war and then sally them out to sea?

Do you send them out to sea to sit in a sea zone to protect your shipping?

How do you use supply chains with them?

Explain

(10 points/Extra Credit: 5 points for telling me how you like to use Privateers and Merchants too) [;)]

[terje439]

I'll keep all my fleets together. Then when I go to war with a nation I'll sail my ships to the sea area outside the port containing the enemy fleet. I then follow up by sending in my land army to capture that port. This means that the enemy fleet will be captured the moment I capture the port.

Privateers I'll only use to secure my depots at sea,
Merchants I'll only care about the first few turns when my economy is not built.

[moose1999]

I play smaller nations a lot, and I would never be able to do without my merchant(s).
Privateers I usually build mostly for the fun of it - but granted, sometimes they can come in handy, for example when I can't get my traderoutes to work properly for some more or less unknown reason.
And I find them well suited for hunting enemy merchants, too. And it feels very historic to attack and enemy merchant fleet or other privateers with my state-sponsored pirates.
And of course, I use a handful of independent frigates for pirate-hunting.

I am usually quite aggressive with my fleets. I use them for blockading, which can mean a big difference when playing smaller nations with a small army, as a well-fortified city can be hard to siege otherwise.

If I have a small fleet I often go on hit-and-run raids against enemy fleets, often larger than mine, to try to get some free timber or, even better, a free ship of the line.
That can be very exciting and always a lot of fun - especially if I try to tackle the English fleet. It takes a lot of nerve (and skill and luck) to catch one of the smaller English fleets isolated and then inflict some damage and get out of Dodge before one of her big sisters arrives.
But it's a boat-load of fun!

If there's nothing going on and I'm not threatened I sometimes declare war on some minor sea-faring nation, like Venice or Naples, and then go hunting for their fleets and merchants.
Always great fun.

[barbarossa2]

Cool guys.  Thanks   I will keep these
 
Any others?  Does it make sense to keep some small fleets in the trade lanes?

[moose1999]

I would say yes - if you can spare the ships.
I've often had merchants and privateers get into trouble sitting a long way away from home when some war is declared by/on me.
So a small fleet would be able to screen the money-makers as they run for safety...

And during war one single enemy ship can cut a bunch of trade routes just by sitting in the right place, really hurting your economy.
So protecting sealanes, also from privateers, is always good.
Personally I'm still not sure the frigate><privateer thing is working correctly, as my frigates never seem to hurt any privateers, but in theory they should work.

[dude]

It all really depends on which nation you play as to what you do with your fleets and also a big difference with simple vs advanced econ.
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If you are dependent on your merchants you may want to leave a couple of ships to defend them.&nbsp; I've made the mistake that even though the enemy's main fleets are wiped out they've hit my merchants with those pesky, hard to get rid of privateers.
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If you are worried about war with a nation that has a large navy, keep your fleet consolidated.&nbsp; Also be prepared to run your merchants into a safe port when war breaks out with an enemy with a decent navy.
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Try and corner an enemy fleet in a port that can be easily raided.&nbsp; As both GB and Turkey I've doubled the size of my fleets courtesy of the French and Spanish.&nbsp; Even if it means potentially losing a corps... all those ships can be worth it.&nbsp; I will usually keep a fleet and corps within stricking distance of an enemy port with ships.&nbsp; In my current game as Turkey it was well worth luring GB into a defense pact whereby he was forced to DOW Spain... I had a fleet and corps sitting in Morocco and as soon as GB DOW'd Spain he blockaded the remnants of the Spanish fleet in Cadiz (the Spanish tried to run a gauntlet of British ships and got mauled.)&nbsp; Once the Spanish ships were forced into port... I landed my corps and captured Cadiz the next turn along with the Spanish fleets there.&nbsp; I then used those ships to withdraw the corps the very next turn.
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I've done the same thing with the French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Russian fleets in three different games now.&nbsp; The AI generally does not leave a force to protect its ships in port and in most cases is too far away to react in time.&nbsp; Spain can be the tricky one but if you can catch his forces away from Spain while the fleets are sitting in port ... [:D]&nbsp; Keep an eye out for any fleet (or individual ships) in port within striking range of your own fleet/corps.&nbsp; If you are afraid the fleet may run before you can capture the city... blockade it... or do what I did and have the nice fellows in the British navy&nbsp;do it for you.&nbsp; The AI British player likes to blockade enemy ports with ships, but then it doesn't do anything else.&nbsp; So take advantage of the situation and land your own corps there to quickly take the port and ships.&nbsp; So it pays to keep on the good side of the British.&nbsp; Though you might be able to do the same working with France and possibly to a lesser extent the Spanish... it's just that the Brits have so many ships it's easier to work with them and let them do the hard work of blockading while you do the raiding.
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Oh and I've found that if you are willing to respect the neutrallity of a number of minors you can generally get the AI agree to an alliance or Defense Pact for a couple of years.&nbsp; So I kept doing this with GB for years until there were only two navies left... mine and his.&nbsp; As Turkey I didn't care about Portugal, Denmark, or the Netherlands while the British did... so I would respect their neutrality in trade for either a defense pact or an alliance (just depending on what I needed for the next year or two.)&nbsp; Offer a few more minors and I could have&nbsp;both.
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In any case if you want to work with the British their navy can really aid yours by taking the brunt of the attacks... once they've whittled the enemy fleets down you can use yours to more advantage.
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