Search the Community

This one is for the new upcoming port battle mechanics. As I noted I would give more details on war supplies". So here is my suggestion: (Original: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14816-update-on-the-port-battle-set-up/?p=276694 ) First of all, for this to work, Marines have to become a resource as opposed to a module. (Or maybe a new resource "Troops"?) Capital generates a new resource "Marine Recruitment Order". (Haven't looked at the price yet, but it should be really high to form a good money sink.) Crafting Marines always costs you 25 Recruitment Orders, 1500 labor, 26 ? Gold Coins. (I must be misreading the BP. ) Crafting Marines gives you 375 XP. Where you craft the Marines defines how many you will get: Capital - 150 Marines Regional - 100 Marines Deep - 50 Marines Tossing Marines into the hold of your ship reduces your amount of maximum crew with the same amount. (It's silly to sail to war with a Trader Lynx. ) (We still need whaleboats. ) Instead of flag planting, you launch an assault: Each whaleboat can drop 20 troops in 2 minutes (similar to a flag drop right now). Multiple whaleboats increase the number of troops dropped. If the dropping ship moves or is engaged within 1 minute, the troops and whaleboat(s) are lost. If the dropping ship moves or is engaged within 2 minutes, the troops are delivered, but the whaleboat(s) are lost. Delivered troops give an hefty increase in hostilities. (I'm not happy yet with the "or is engaged" part.) The idea is that you can take out orders and sail them to the destination of choice. If the front line is far away, then you would use a Trader Lynx. Or you move the orders from port to port. Alternatively you use them at your capital and use a big ship to move troops to the frontline. Effectively it means that big ship movements become of strategical importance. Plus we can still have all the fun around intercepting an assault fleet.

Sorry if I missed it but loading up the hold to feed the men and arm the cannons seems a good idea. In sandbox one may race to a port also for protection if they know of you and you have traded? Particularly, a heavily armed port, that no one will attempt to attack. Perhaps the players should build them too? Your article on what one could discovery in sandbox version as an explorer, sparked off the idea of logistics and a book I have of the reason why the Royal Navy became powerful. Most of it explains the ahead of its time bureaucratic logistics were so good at Greenwich for instance that the Navy was not only building better boats each time but building the chains of supplies that kept things rolling on the sea. From an individual sailor's point of view right through to Admirals who sat behind desks and kept things ticking over. I never knew that press gangs, were actually searching for guys who had jumped ship 90% of the time, runaways, deserters or drunks who did not get back to the ship. But then there was a lot of pain and sweat to run away from. Book = THE WOODEN WORLD An anatomy of the Georgian Navy by N.A.M. Rodger 1st published by Collins in 1986 & The US Naval Institute Press in 1986 The Folio Society, republished with corrections and upgraded images in 2009 The plates & illustrations are excellent. www.foliosociety.com