Naval part of the game

[peterb1201]

If you successfully conquer London, then Britain is in a state of permanent friendly neutral with you, and (as near as I can tell) stops spending political points and stops convincing other major powers to go to war with you. This gives France a pretty significant advantage for the rest of the game, basically allowing Napoleon to dictate the strategic terms of engagement on a per-power basis. I won the 1805 game (I think?) by mid-1807 by doing this.

[amtrick]

peterb12 is correct. I have successfully invaded England a number of times and each time it is "game over" and "victory screen" within 1 turn. So you can play a boring whack a mole game with Austria and Prussia or take the challenge of killing the snake by cutting off its head. I like the challenge.

[Uncle_Joe]

I honestly think the the naval war is just completely off.

It should be extremely hard to gain 'naval dominance' (ie, defeat the Royal Navy sufficiently to invade England) but on the other hand, it should be a lot easier to conduct limit naval operations. In the game, it seems that it's too easy to do the former (if you mass up and then play all of your 'screw you' cards at once) and on the flip side, it's too hard to do the latter (although with the current territory mechanics, here is little reason to even want to conduct naval operations).

[James Ward]

I have invaded England before, by playing god with storm cards.

[sbowyer]

The naval system does seem to be the weak point of the game, though one has to expect the French fleet to get the worst of it. They can only set up with superior numbers and attrition their way down. That doesn't really bother me.

The real problem for me is the extreme British mobility. Any port to any port in Europe? Sounds more like teleport. Fortunately, presence of a unit seems to deter the computer British, but wouldn't deter me as a British player. Smash ashore at each port, drive ships to sea, sink them, pull out and go to another. When Napoleon is away on one of many campaigns, come ashore and attack Paris. What is to stop the British from doing this? It seems a case of "you live because the computer is stupid". I wish coastal defense was more practical.

Actually defeating the British fleet and invading England should rightfully be very difficult, as various people have pointed out. I would like to see more strategy in naval combat. Main one I have worked out as French is to focus on only dismasting ships and then capturing them when they retreat.

I did defeat the British fleet once, but just stayed in occupation of the channel, just to try out French teleporting (err, I mean port to port movement). Revolutionized movement for Napoleon. Land in Spain, go back to port, put out the Austrians, go to the north coast of Warsaw. Sail another army to invade St. Petersburg and march to Moscow. Way too powerful...

[amtrick]

I agree, the teleporting of amphibious forces is not realistic. I realize it may have really simplified the developer's task (no transports to build and load and escort and unload) but in this case the abstraction is bit too abstract. If nothing else the game puts a movement limit for warships of three sea zones, while transports can navigate the entire shoreline of Europe in one turn! Hopefully this will be addressed in the naval upgrade.

[Hellfirejet]

I think the naval game needs a new unit type TRANSPORT that is required for land unit sea moves,these transport ships,should be restricted to 3 area movement,same as any other fleet.

I would go one further, and change ships to a rating system:

3 = (3Decker) 1st/2nd rate.
2 = (2Decker) 3rd/4th rate.
1 = (1Decker) 5th/6th rate Frigates.

In combat all British ships get a +1 die roll.

[Hellfirejet]

Is there any plans to give ports a defence rating? Ports during the Napoleonic wars, were defended with FORTRESSES! Surely this strategic naval bonus, can be abstracted into the game?[;)]

[Hellfirejet]

Naval game fix, minimum requirement suggestion:

1 = Remove 1 shot wonder ship sunk from the game!

2 = Remove Port - Port any number of sea area transport ( Beam me up Scotty)

3 = New ship type ( Transport ) that can carry no more than 3 Land unit's: 3 Infantry or 3 Cavalry or 3 Artillery, or any permutations off theses, 1 Infantry, 1 Cavalry & 1 Artillery.

4 = These new Transports move 3 sea areas as per Warships.[:D]

[Hellfirejet]

If the game designers, ever see this, I have created a Naval Combat system, that reflects naval combat during the Napoleonic wars, more accurately than is currently available to the game. I have play tested the below system, to a new board game, I made for my own use! ( Any gamer's who are interested in Naval board games, I give you a ready made set of combat rules that work enjoy )


Napoleon Victory & Glory Naval Combat

Sequence of action.

1 = Each side rolls 1 d6, to see who gets the wind gauge, the player that gets, the highest die roll attacks first!

Weather gauge optional rule:

The player can choose to disengage,instead of attacking,since he has the weather gauge,he alone is in a position to dictate,when and if battle actually occurs! If he is the weaker force, the logical course of action would be to leave the battle area, with the knowledge that your stronger opponent, is powerless to attempt any pursuit.

2 = Each ship then rolls 1 die, in turn, to see if they can damage their target, a die roll of 1,2,or 3 = miss. A die roll of 4,5 or 6 = Hit.
(If this is the first hit, the target ship has sustained, then place a Light Damage marker, on the ship, to show that it has been damaged.)

3 = If the same ship is targeted a second time, by another ship, and it receives another hit, then remove the Light Damage marker, and replace it, with a Medium damage marker!
( Damage is cumulative )

4 = At the end of each round of combat, after all ships have attacked, the player may attempt to repair any damage sustained, by rolling 1 d6 per level of ship quality, for each of the damaged ships.
A roll of 6 is required to remove 1 step of damage. ( NB: Each ship can only remove 1 step of damage, regardless of the number of 6s rolled )



SHIP QUALITY LEVELS:

British = Level 4 ships.

France = Level 3 ships.

Russia & Turkey = Level 2 ships.



Cumulative damage table.

1 hit = Light Damage ( If this is the only damage, a ship sustains during a battle, after the battle is over, the ship then returns, to the nearest friendly port for repairs.
(It takes 2 turns or Months to repair Light Damage in port.)

2 hits = Medium Damage ( After the battle is over, the ship returns, to the nearest friendly port for repairs.
(It takes 3 turns or Months to repair Medium Damage in port.)

3 hits = Heavy Damage ( After the battle is over, the ship returns, to the nearest friendly port for repairs.
(It takes 4 turns or Months to repair Heavy Damage in port.)

4 hits = Critical Hit ( If a ship receives 4 hits, during the course, of any round of battle, the player then immediately rolls 1 d6, to see what level of damage is inflicted on the ship:

CRITICAL HIT RE-ROLL

A roll of 1,2,or 3 then the ship is Disabled, and it cannot attack for the remainder of the battle.
(If a player decides to retreat at the end of the battle, all ships that are in a disabled state, are captured by the enemy.)

A roll of 4 or 5 = Ship is immediately CAPTURED! ( Strikes its colours and surrenders )

A roll of 6 = Ship is SUNK!