I think a way to make it more reasonable would be either getting a defense bonus while it's in coastal water or attack bonus against ships in coastal water or requiring both ships to be on the coast. Having 4 range while getting the buff for being in coastal water is just too easy.

Think you for bringing this out. A very good article

+11 is fine, but it should be vs. land units only. The reason they give it such an insane bonus is naval units suffer in coastal waters from being rolled by groups of Tau-ceti archers and other such improbables. It feels ok when the ship is a tiny little thing that could never get across the ocean but feels bad when you have a Galleas or Ironclad -- ships that should be basically impervious.

I will also agree with others elsewhere who point out that -25 damage is way too high for a 1 strength unit to ever deal to a 99 strength unit. Although I disagree with people who then say the entire combat strength system is "flawed" just because it gives empires that are behind a chance. I like playing on difficulties where I'm behind in science sometimes and if weaker units just did 1 damage like they do in Civ games then one of the best things about HK relative to Civ is gone.

My point? An alternate fix is to take the +11 away entirely, and give units that are supposed to be "trash sweeper" units like the elephants and inner sea mastodontes a different minimum range on the defensive, like 5-10 instead of 5-25. So when they are getting mobbed they handle it a lot better, so that if you know you're facing an enemy that never advanced in science but has dozens of Hunnic Horde units or something you have build options to clear them out.

teatimeG wrote:
I will also agree with others elsewhere who point out that -25 damage is way too high for a 1 strength unit to ever deal to a 99 strength unit.

It was changed in the latest update. Here's some examples:

teatimeG wrote:

+11 is fine, but it should be vs. land units only. The reason they give it such an insane bonus is naval units suffer in coastal waters from being rolled by groups of Tau-ceti archers and other such improbables. It feels ok when the ship is a tiny little thing that could never get across the ocean but feels bad when you have a Galleas or Ironclad -- ships that should be basically impervious.

I will also agree with others elsewhere who point out that -25 damage is way too high for a 1 strength unit to ever deal to a 99 strength unit. Although I disagree with people who then say the entire combat strength system is "flawed" just because it gives empires that are behind a chance. I like playing on difficulties where I'm behind in science sometimes and if weaker units just did 1 damage like they do in Civ games then one of the best things about HK relative to Civ is gone.

My point? An alternate fix is to take the +11 away entirely, and give units that are supposed to be "trash sweeper" units like the elephants and inner sea mastodontes a different minimum range on the defensive, like 5-10 instead of 5-25. So when they are getting mobbed they handle it a lot better, so that if you know you're facing an enemy that never advanced in science but has dozens of Hunnic Horde units or something you have build options to clear them out.

Right now the meta in MP games is both sides are in medieval walking around with ~100 ancient era archers fighting massive battles with maybe a couple of units for meathshield due to how minimum damage works because that is the most efficient way to fight until you get mortars.

I believe this bonus is the only reason to build them. So you get better strength but near coast, or lower strength but everywhere.

VDmitry wrote:

I believe this bonus is the only reason to build them. So you get better strength but near coast, or lower strength but everywhere.

Except neither unit I have mentioned have that low strength to begin with. The Galleass is as strong as a Carrack and the Ironclad is the strongest industrial era naval unit.

Inner Sea mastodon is a monster on maps with a lot of coastal waters (light blue tiles) and flat Terrain (maximum Tile height of around 1 or 2).

So in open ocean regions, that ship will not have the ability to use the trait, same problem in regions where it's providing naval artillery support to land units battling on anything higher than a 2 tile height tile. Line of sight is also a significant issue to that Ironclad, though it's lessened in importance when there's a lot of coastal space on water tiles.

With Inner Sea Mastodon being highly situational as it is, I recommend simply increasing the missile range to the Cartwheel ship with Naval Battery as their trait to the point that they can out-bomb Ironclads AND PROVIDE SUPPORT to land battles without line of sight issues... outside of the -4 archer penalty. 

That way, Ironclad's role is a coast guard type of ship, while the other Steam Powered ship becomes the priority unit to build if you want to support your ground forces... because in my suggestion, Ironclads still remain... not good for land support and range for their naval batteries, but they're still amazing at keeping the immanent coast cleared.