I've noticed a fair number of people on this forum saying that they suck at naval battles so I thought I might offer a couple of tips that have helped me so far in both the empire and Napoleon campaigns.
The main thing to remember about naval battles is that they are constantly in motion, this means that it is extremely difficult to gain and hold an advantage as you would in a land battle (also the AI tends to have pretty good sea legs compared to it's land legs). Because of this, I have found that the most determining factor is ship strength and numbers.
With this in mind, I would recommend that you not go into a mismatched naval battle with the expectation of winning. And that's on normal, if you are playing on very hard try sticking only to battles where you have a clear advantage.
Anyways, what creates difficulty for most players in naval battles is the micromanagement involved with keeping all of your ships in motion. Here are some ways to deal with that.
1. Pretty basic, If you are not using the line astern formation, start using it. Be sure to lead your ships in a circle around the enemy fleet within cannon range and usually things will not go too wrong. Be careful that the enemy does not manage to break your line however.
2. Another basic one, I would recommend starting out with only round shot during large scale engagements. Avoid using chain and grape until the very end to round up weakened and routing ships.
3. Quality over quantity, Fortunately most of the large AI fleets tend to comprise mostly of weak light or medium ships or even trade ships. With this in mind, you can go pretty far with a few heavy ships (that are easier to manage) as opposed to a large number of smaller ones. Usually the fact that your ships have thicker hulls also results in a lower proportion of ships lost.
4. Use point and click ships, bomb ketches and rocket ships are fairly easy to make and pack a big punch. If you comprise a fleet of a few ships of the line with the rest being bomb ketches and fire ships you can order your artillery ships to attack an enemy leaving you free to micromanage the others. Do not put them in any formations however. When you do come across the occasional AI full stack of heavies, this is the tactic you should use.
5. Leave some of your fleet in reserve, if you are using a large number of ships of the line. The final thing you can do is deploy half of your fleet near the edge of the map and leave them there so that you may only focus on half of your ships at a time. Once the fist wave has been beaten, they can then move in to wipe up the damaged and disorganized enemy fleet.
The main thing to remember about naval battles is that they are constantly in motion, this means that it is extremely difficult to gain and hold an advantage as you would in a land battle (also the AI tends to have pretty good sea legs compared to it's land legs). Because of this, I have found that the most determining factor is ship strength and numbers.
With this in mind, I would recommend that you not go into a mismatched naval battle with the expectation of winning. And that's on normal, if you are playing on very hard try sticking only to battles where you have a clear advantage.
Anyways, what creates difficulty for most players in naval battles is the micromanagement involved with keeping all of your ships in motion. Here are some ways to deal with that.
1. Pretty basic, If you are not using the line astern formation, start using it. Be sure to lead your ships in a circle around the enemy fleet within cannon range and usually things will not go too wrong. Be careful that the enemy does not manage to break your line however.
2. Another basic one, I would recommend starting out with only round shot during large scale engagements. Avoid using chain and grape until the very end to round up weakened and routing ships.
3. Quality over quantity, Fortunately most of the large AI fleets tend to comprise mostly of weak light or medium ships or even trade ships. With this in mind, you can go pretty far with a few heavy ships (that are easier to manage) as opposed to a large number of smaller ones. Usually the fact that your ships have thicker hulls also results in a lower proportion of ships lost.
4. Use point and click ships, bomb ketches and rocket ships are fairly easy to make and pack a big punch. If you comprise a fleet of a few ships of the line with the rest being bomb ketches and fire ships you can order your artillery ships to attack an enemy leaving you free to micromanage the others. Do not put them in any formations however. When you do come across the occasional AI full stack of heavies, this is the tactic you should use.
5. Leave some of your fleet in reserve, if you are using a large number of ships of the line. The final thing you can do is deploy half of your fleet near the edge of the map and leave them there so that you may only focus on half of your ships at a time. Once the fist wave has been beaten, they can then move in to wipe up the damaged and disorganized enemy fleet.
[This message has been edited by halberd (edited 03-19-2010 @ 07:16 PM).]