Empire Total War Ship
To begin with there are several different types of ship and as you develop more technology you’ll be able to build increasingly impressive and destructive units. All ships have a number of cannons, a crew, a firepower rating, a hull strength rating, a manoeuvrability rating and a top speed. For the most part it is a trade off with a choice between speed and manoeuvrability or firepower and hull strength.The icons above each ship indicate various important pieces of information. The strength of the hull is separated into left and right curved segments which start green. When one side or the other gets damaged it will turn orange and then red which means you are going to sink. The white bar above indicates your sail health which will determine your speed and ability to turn. Your crew size will affect your chances of winning in a boarding (the more crew the better your chances) and your reload rate on cannons.
In Empire Total War, it is not unreasonable for a faction to completely neglect naval technology in favour of army advances, based on their strategic position. As a result, technological differences can have a significant impact on battles. This section covers those technologies that impact naval combat but are poorly explained in the game.
The wind direction is also something you must pay close attention to and you should aim whenever possible to keep the wind behind you. If you must sail into the wind try to zig zag. Turning with the wind will spin the ship round fast, turning against it will slow you down dramatically. Controls and Ammunition TypesThe basic interface on the naval warfare screen is relatively simple and the control options allow you to rotate ships, put up full sails to increase speed, drop anchor to stop and charge up left or right side broadsides (which is basically firing all of the cannons on one side of your ship). You can also select from various ammunition types and tell the ships to fire at will.
In order to manage your fleet effectively you have to use group formations. Select all of your ships and press the group button to reveal the formation panel. You can make up your own formations or use the preset ones provided such as Line Astern which is basically just a straight line and easily the most popular formation to go with.Ammunition comes in three varieties and the first is plain old cannonballs which are ideal for smashing the hull to bits and sinking enemy ships. Then there is chain shot which is designed to damage sails and break masts thereby preventing your enemy from escaping.
Finally there is grape shot which is best at killing crew members, you will only want to use this if you need to whittle down the enemy crew before attempting a boarding or if you are about to be boarded yourself. Naval Combat. Naval combat is very different from and if you try to fight by right clicking to target an enemy you will meet with disaster.
You can use ALT and right click to target a ship but hold your direction and formation which makes it a very useful command. The positioning of your ships is absolutely vital and you want to keep them moving with the wind behind you as much as possible.
If you have the advantage in terms of numbers or firepower then you can afford to sail at the enemy in a line and trade broadsides, circling until they are defeated. There are tactics which put you at less risk but they are often tricky to realise in the heat of battle. Crossing the T.
One of the most effective tactics to use is the “crossing the T' manoeuvre. Line up your ships, as the enemy ships approach also in a line, when they get into range you turn 90 degrees and fire into the enemy line front to back.
This means a much higher proportion of your shots will do damage and it makes it almost impossible for the enemy to return fire. Then try to loop your ships, ideally in a figure of eight, and continue to fire up the enemy line.
This way you stay out of the enemy’s broadside line of fire. The thing is your enemy will likely try to do this as well and probably the fleet with the wind on their side will win out. The ideal situation is to break the enemy line with a “crossing the T' manoeuvre in between each individual ship that way you can hit them all in the rear and front with broadsides on both sides and they have no real way to counter.
Hitting a ship in the rear will cause the most damage to their morale. Splitting the FleetIt can be useful to split your fleet into two groups and use the smaller, faster ships to break up your opponent’s fleet and block movement. If you can guide them where you want them you can open up with the larger ships and blast them out of the water. You can also order the smaller ships to use chain shot and try to break the enemy masts and wreck their sails making them slow and cumbersome.
That way your larger ships can pick them off at leisure. Alternately by having two lines you can see which the enemy engages and then use the other to perform a crossing manoeuvre and try to broadside them in the rear. Boarding Ships. Enemy ships can be captured and they are often worth a great deal of money. If you want to board an enemy ship then try to make sure you have the numbers advantage in terms of crew. If you don’t then use your fleet to pepper the target with grape shot and take out more men. You will need to get in close for the grape shot to be effective.
Sometimes it is best to just bombard them into surrender and you never need to bother actually boarding. Admiral and Ship PositionsOne area where naval battles are the same as land battles is the importance of the leader, your Admiral. He will impact heavily on morale so you must keep him alive and close to your other ships.
When you line up you’ll generally want your toughest ships at the front of the line. You may also consider using rocket ships, they are like floating artillery and although they are grossly inaccurate they can do some serious damage when they land a blow. Unfortunately they are also slow and very vulnerable so keep them at a safe distance if you can. Once your other ships are in close and engaging the enemy it is best not use rocket ships because they are so inaccurate they could easily hit a friendly unit. Rule the WavesTo recap the wind is your friend.
Pay attention to the wind direction at all times and try to make it difficult for your enemy to turn and broadside your rear while simultaneously turning to broadside his. Once you have mastered the basics you can start to try out some of your own formations and you’ll be dominating the waves in no time. This post is part of the series: Empire: Total War.
The Basics:Ship stats:Guns: This tells you how many guns you have on your ship. Usually it's a good indication of the power of your ship. There are a variety of different artillery types used in ships, larger ships typically have powerful cannons on the lower deck, medium ones in the middle, and lighter cannons at the top of the ship.Crew Size: How many sailors you have aboard your ship. The more you have, the better you can man and reload your cannons. So if your crew gets killed, you will notice a decrease in reload speed for your cannons, and you can even see your crew running from one end to the other to fire the cannons because you lack the manpower.
Your crew are also valuable for boarding enemy ships. Typically the bigger crew wins a boarding, but not always.Firepower: This is the total offensive power of your ship. The higher the number, the more damage it can do. Some ships have less cannons but more firepower.
Since each ship typically has more than one different kind of cannon, it is difficult to calculate the firepower per cannon.Hull: The stronger your hull, the more damage it can withstand without sinking. The weakest parts of all ships is the front and rear. The side of the ships is the strongest.Maneuverability: How able the ship is to turn, very helpful when you want to fire, turn and fire again.Speed: Self explanatory. A quick ship can generally go into the wind better than larger ships, better able to escape. Or catch routing ships.Unit Experience: This is shown as chevrons and stars on the unit icon. The more experienced the crew, the more accurate their shots, the higher morale they possess (and thus less likely to rout) and the better they fight while boarding.
Experience may have some other variables such as reload time, but I haven't seen concrete proof of this.Interface basics:Wind Direction. This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the game, and you should always keep an eye on wind direction as it can change from time to time.
Generally you want the wind at your back, and your enemy to be facing into the wind. If you are forced to go into the wind, go either left or right and zigzag your way up the screen, much faster.
Turning with the wind is a VERY quick turn, so keep this in mind when you want to fire one side, then turn and fire the other. You don't want to turn into the wind, because it will slow your turn down dramatically, especially if you have a larger ship.Sail health.
The white bar at the top indicates the status of your sails and masts. As your sails and mast takes damage, this white bar will decrease and slow down your ship's speed and turning capability.Hull health. Separated into the left and right. So sometimes your ship is green on one side and orange on the other.
The orange side is hit badly, the green side is in relatively good condition. You will generally sink once it goes dark orange-red, it's just matter of time.Cannonballs: Used to damage the hull of your enemy's ship. It will take out a fair amount of cannons and people, but is mostly for hull destruction.Chain shot: This fires a cannonball split in half with a chain linking the two.
It destroys sails and masts, very effective way of disabling your enemies.Grapeshot: This shot is used to kill the enemy's crew and weapons. Best used in close range before boarding.Fire At Will: You can toggle this on and off by clicking the button or pressing T. Generally fire at will gives you the best accuracy in medium to long range.Broadside: This is the manual broadside, only to be used at VERY close range.
Point blank really. Don't use this often.
Only if you are side to side with an enemy ship. A lot of people use it for long range fire, it is not effective in this manner.Anchor: This is pretty useful if you have a superior position, for instance, if you have de-masted an enemy ship, park your ship behind it, so you can fire upon it without getting harmed. Just drop anchor and blast away.Sail speed: This will adjust your sails, with all of them unfurled, you go the fastest. However, chain shot is more effective with unfurled sails. If you are under chain shot attack, I recommend furling your sails to protect them.
Double right clicking an area will automatically unfurl the sails to full speed.Group formation: Quite useful to make your fleet more manageable. You can use the standard Ctrl + 1-9 to set up a group. You can make your own formation and group them, or you can use a preset formation. In large naval battles where the numbers are equal, I recommend using Line Astern formation.Focus fire: To focus your fire on a target hold ALT and right click on the target.
This will make this ship a priority when firing upon, but won't change the direction of your ships. So they will attack someone else if it's more convenient, but will fire upon the target when possible.
This is really handy, especially when you are in larger battles, you can take out their capital ship first and the rest is easy to deal with.Combat tips:Ideally, you want to pass by the enemy's front and rear, as they do the most damage and keep you safe from harm. Never present your rear or front of your ship to the enemy.Right click to attack a ship is perhaps the worst thing you can do. It is hands down the worst naval option possible.
If you right click on a unit to attack it, your ships will just go right up to them and get blasted to pieces. Worst possible option.A wise strategy when facing a larger navy than yours is to go with the wind in front of them (or behind them) fire chain shots to slow them down, run away, then turn around and fire more chain shots from afar (chain shots are most effective when facing their front or rear, it tears through more sails)Also, I suggest splitting their navy in half using your line astern formation.
Empire At War Ship List
Fire at them, then turn into them and force the other half of their fleet to turn around and go upwind while you concentrate fire on their split up navy. When using this tactic, I recommend having a large broadside force of your biggest ships, and a smaller force of ships (quicker and more maneuverable ones) used to round them up and block them.I'll post some pictures and videos a bit later to help. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me or leave a comment.Here's a where I split the enemy fleet and wrapped around them with broadsides.