Naval Warfare

Sea battles

Sub-rationale

Feature overview

Sea battles involve only sea tiles (except for ice-shelf tiles) and can only be instigated and reinforced by seafaring- or embarked-units (including those in nearby fortresses). Deployment areas and reinforcements points use these tiles instead of land tiles. Land armies in the nearby area are blocked as usual however, to prevent multiple battles from being fought on top of one another.

Sea battles will function by and large the same way as land battles: players have spent a lot of time and energy mastering this system so we don’t want to flip it completely. The weather effects and embarked units detailed below should add some novelty however, as should the new set of warship units.

Seafaring unit classes

Sub-rationale

Feature overview

As cavalry don’t make much sense on the ocean we’ll be adding new unit classes for the Fomorian and Morgawr warships (seafaring units).

There are 4 new classes in total. The speed and cost-effectiveness of “Interceptors” mean they are great at closing with and dragging down the larger “Juggernaut” class artillery ships, but “Frigates” will make match-wood of them thanks to crow control abilities. Meanwhile the aforementioned artillery are particularly good at sinking frigates:

There is also a final “Submersible” class, able to ambush enemy fleets and to hide beneath the sea during battle until the opportune moment. In practice Submersibles are invisible on the map and can traverse enemy units in battle. They also dive at the beginning of their turn, gaining a substantial defence bonus which lasts until their next attack:

Seafaring unit equipment

Sub-rationale

Feature overview

Ships have a weapon slot, up to two armour slots depending on their body (“hull” and “prow”) and 1 to 2 accessory (“officer”) slots, again depending on their body (an extra slot can be unlocked via the “Meritocratic Promotion” technology):

The hull slot will offer a choice between speed ("foil" type hull) and durability ("plating" type hull) while each body's weapon slot will provide a choice between two possible weapons. As a rule one of these weapons will focus on direct damage while the other deals less damage but applies some form of status effect or provides some sort of bonus:

Fomorian "Boarding Vessel" (Interceptor class)	"Satchel Charges" Direct damage.	"Boarding Spikes" Reduces initiative , captures ships instead of destroying them.
Fomorian "Fireship" (Frigate class)	"Endless Flames" Cone, deals damage over time to affected units.	"Dust Focal" Beam, reduces the attack of affected units
Fomorian "Artillery Ship" (Juggernaut class)	"Broadside" Direct damage.	"Trebuchet" Damages units adjacent to the target.

A small set of equipment is available from the beginning. More advanced versions of all the equipment will be available as part of the three tier 1 strategic equipment technologies - other equipment will be unlocked through Fomorian and sunken-ruins quests.

Iron tier

These items are available from the start and cost industry .

Advanced tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 1 via "Advanced Alloys" and "Advanced Weapons" technologies and cost both Titanium  and Glassteel .

Uncommon tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 3 via "Uncommon Alloys" and "Uncommon Weapons" cost both Adamantian  and Palladian  .

Rare tier

These items can be unlocked in Era 4 via "Rare Alloys" and "Rare Weapons" cost both Mithrite and Hyperium  .

Sea weather

Sub-rationale

Feature overview

The expansion will add a new layer to the world called the “weather layer”. The weather layer is the size of the world map and laps around. Each hexagon tile in the weather layer has a weather type defined (“no weather” is a type of weather). The weather type defines a world effect to the terrain tile beneath it, but only if the tile is an ocean tile:

Unlike forests and mountains storms don't stay put. All the weather moves at the beginning of each turn 1 tile to the East (2 in winter). In addition the entire weather layer is completely regenerated at the beginning of each season. Below are the tile effects we're planning on including:

Lightning

On the map: Fleets take damage at the beginning of their turn, after the weather layer has been updated, if their tiles is affected by this weather type. In battle: Units take damage at the beginning of the round, before any orders are resolved, if their tiles is affected by this weather type.

Fog

On the map: Fleet vision is blocked by tiles affected by this weather type. Note that fleets can see out of fog tiles, just not into them. This means that a fleet in the fog is effectively invisible. In battle: Units in an affected tile gain a defense bonus against ranged attacks.

Seaweed

On the map: The movement cost of affected tiles is increased from 1 to 2. In battle: The movement cost of affected tiles is increased from 1 to 2.

Rain

On the map: +50% Army Upkeep when starting the turn on an affected tile. In battle: -3 morale to units on an affected tile.

Turbulence

On the map: The movement cost of affected tiles is decreased from 1 to 0.5. In battle: The movement cost of affected tiles is decreased from 1 to 0.5. Units in an affected tile have an attack penalty imposed on them.

Embarked units

Sub-rationale

Feature overview

Land units and seafaring units can be combined freely, but the attributes of all land units are set to a fixed value whenever they are embarked, and their capacities no longer apply. They are effectively replaced with a weak “transport ship” unit when travelling by sea:

The attributes of this transport ship are defined by the empire, not by the unit, but the unit’s level will influence the amount of life the transport ship has. Players we still need to pay special attention to protecting their veterans though, as they will only be marginally less vulnerable when at sea than their rookies.

The transport ship placeholder replaces embarked units during sea battles: it will have a weak ranged attack so that it can at least defend itself against opportunists. Embarked land units gain experience from sea battles as usual.

Embarked General-assigned heroes will have considerably stronger “flagship” transports and their skills, notably army attributes boosts, will continue to apply on the sea.

VIP Comments & answers

Seafaring unit classes

KnightofPhoenix wrote: 
I am a bit unclear as to what role the submarine will play in battle. Its use as a scout and ambusher on the map is obvious, but how will the submarine fit into the rock-paper-scissor dynamic? 

It should be good against Juggernaut class units, so in a sense it has a similar role to the Interceptor in battle. It is more of a utility unit though, and Interceptor units will get more of a bang for