Excellent aaglo.
It looks just perfect (and I love the death flc.
)
Originally posted by denyd
No transport ability (need galleys for that)
Just a quick note about these vessels:-
They were
NOT made for sea battles, but for assulting coastal and 'one-tile' island cities.
I hope aaglo doesn't mind if I repeat something that I posted while this lovely unit was being created.....
Siege Galleys first became available in the 4th century BC, when larger warships such as quinqueremes became common. Used to great effect by Alexander the Great at the siege of Tyre in 332 BC, by the Macedonian successor Demetrius Poliorcetes (besieger of cities), and by the Romans during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, these ships were not intended for sea battles. Indeed, they were utterly unsuitable for such a role, being so slow due to weighing twice that of a normal galley but only having the same number of oarsmen as a single ship, being top heavy and unstable in any sort of sea swell, and lastly the huge tower making them almost unsteerable in any sort of wind
.but sea battles was not their function.
Instead, these hastily improvised vessels, consisting of two hulls lashed together with a light wooden tower covered with damp animal hides on top, were quickly adapted in only four or five days usually within sight of their intended target coastal city. When all was ready, and the weather was right, these lumbering giants would be filled with soldiers and propelled against the seawalls of the enemy. Archers, catapults and ballistas would sweep the walls, drawbridges high in the tower would be lowered onto the battlements, and the soldiers would then storm into the city.
Once Rome had absorbed all the nations around the Mediterranean the need for such devices was unnecessary, and the later Byzantine Dromons and Arab vessels were unsuitable for such a function, so Siege Galleys fell out of use by the 1st century AD.
May I also offer some suggestions for stats:-
Attack zero, defence 1, move of 2, bombard and range the same as a catapult, can carry
4 foot units (they are only on board for a few hours, so being cramped is not a problem), requires no resources, sinks in anything other than coastal waters, costs about 40, and becomes available with say Monarchy, or as denyd suggested, with both Mathamatics & Map Making.
Oh, and the idea of Marines, who have some sort of special amphibious ability, is really a modern concept.
In ancient times, ALL foot soldiers, be they Phoenician, Greek, Macedonian, Carthaginian or Roman, were expected to fight on both land AND sea (oh, they may have taken their armour off, but you don't need much training to jump into knee deep water and wade ashore
).