"Crown of Glory: Emperor's Edition" Naval Detailed Combat... Unveiled!

[Gil R.]

As with COG:EE's land battles, highlighted hexes show where a ship can move, which is determined by its facing, wind direction, sail state, speed, and other factors. In this screenshot, I've just increased this frigate's sails to "full" before pressing the button to increase the ship's speed.

Wind direction, one of the most crucial factors, is always shown by two large, parallel arrows at the center of the screen, though here they are obscured by smoke. If you look at other screenshots you will see them, and will see that the wind can shift during the course of the battle. (There can also be increases and decreases in wind speed as well as precipitation or fog.)

[Gil R.]

Battles are won by capturing or "breaking" as many enemy ships as possible. Here one of my frigates has just surrendered, the result of negative morale (shown in the lower left). If it hadn't surrendered it was soon going to sink, as the 6/50 hull integrity shows.

At the top of the screen you can see rows of green squares for the attacker and defender, below which are red squares. The green represent ships that are still capable of combat, while red represents those that are out of the fight. France now has its first red square.

[Gil R.]

A bit later in the battle I get one of the British ships. Note the increase in red squares.

[Gil R.]

In addition to making fire attacks, it's possible to attempt to grapple an adjacent enemy ship and, if that works, send a boarding party over in the hope of capturing the ship -- a tactic best tried on a ship that has already sustained damage. (Just don't trust anyone who tells you he's the ship's doctor!)

Here's a screenshot from a different battle, showing the British "Malabar" being grappled by my "Jemmapes." The thin, red line represents the grappling cables.

[Gil R.]

Now I'll post a bunch of screenshots that just show fire-attacks, to show off our smoke-and-explosions graphics.

Here a British ship has fired a broadside at one of the French ships.

[Gil R.]

Here the French 1st/2nd-rate ship "Majestueux" -- its size shows its superiority -- is firing chain shot at the rigging, causing high casualties among the crew.

[Gil R.]

Somehow, the British ship "Hibernia" (at center) has caused far greater casualties to one of my ships (indicated by the casualty total of 199).

That'll teach me not to expose my fore or aft to a vessel with superior firepower...

[Gil R.]

A nice shot of a British ship firing a broadside.

[Gil R.]

A screenshot showing a burst of explosions from the canister shot the "Jupiter" fired at a British vessel. Canister when used at a range of one hex can be quite effective at causing high casualties among the crew and marines. The results of this broadside, just 15 crew/marine casualties, are actually a bit disappointing.

[Gil R.]

And here's another British ship firing, and causing the French vessel significant rigging damage.

Note that this screenshot, taken late in the battle, shows that the French have an equal number of green and red squares, while the British still have two-thirds of their ships able to keep fighting. This is the point at which the tipping point has been reached -- if the French have more ships taken out of the fight the battle will be lost.

[Gil R.]

And as the red squares show, that's what happened just five minutes later. (Note that this screenshot was taken at 5:05, while the previous one was taken one 5-minute turn earlier.)

Once a winner has been determined, ships that are unable to flee automatically surrender.

[Gil R.]

And here's a screenshot showing the results of the pursuit phase, which are calculated once a clear winner has emerged.

[Gil R.]

And here are the casualty figures.

[Gil R.]

After the turn has ended one can see the results in the Event Report. Here is a full listing of the French ships captured by the British. Looks like nearly half of my medium-sized fleet was captured. (For the record, I wasn't seriously fighting out the battle, but rather just moving around ships and firing or doing other stuff so that I could take screenshots. I don't want my reputation to be tarnished by these results!)

[Gil R.]

I forgot to take a screenshot of the Attack Report, but had previously posted one in the other COG:EE screenshots thread, so here it is again. This gives you an idea of how damage is calculated.

[Gil R.]

And another screenshot I should have taken -- once again copied from the other thread -- is of the naval special abilties. As can be seen in this shot, naval Experience Points can be spent to give abilities to individual ships in the fleet, just as they can instead be spent to give all one's fleets certain research-based upgrades. Having the special abilities enables you to mold your fleet as you see fit, and also introduces a good deal of variety into how ships function in battle.

That just about does it for naval combat screenshots, then. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have about it.

[Hard Sarge]

nice, looks good

while reading, I was about a step ahead of you, get a exploding ship, start some fires

if I get a gap, I will try and run a battle and get up a AAR for it (need a commander who can win a battle to show off the nice art work:)

(my last run, I never got into a sea battle !!!)

funny, though, watching the screens, I was saying, opps, you lost, you going to lose this one (don' try and slug it out with the English, get in close, tie them up and hammer what you can get)

of course, to be fair, I don't think that was a battle for a game, but more of a battle to have a battle, and the English Channel belongs to the English for a reason

[terje439]

This looks so sweet, now go back to work and get the game finished, more of us wanna play [:D]

[Mike Solli]

Very nice Gil!

[thegreatwent]

Nice, what scale are the hexes?