So I'm currently playing a Carthage game on an archipelago map, and I'm trying to go for a domination victory using pretty much only my navy. I'm just wondering if anyone's ever managed to win a domination victory (or even just play an aggressive, warlike game) relying on their navy? Are naval units too weak, or are there some tricks I can use? I have about 500 quinqueremes and galleasses currently, but my conquering is going rather slowly and I'm having difficulty stopping my tiles from being pillaged by land units. So basically, my question is, how can I most effectively go about warmongering using my navy?
For the record, I'm pretty new to GaK, so the whole "naval units conquering cities" thing is pretty new for me.
Absolutely.
It's the easiest way to win via domination, far easier than land maps domination.
You should still have some ranged land units to protect the homeland, but basically you want to get to Frigates. (So make sure you can secure or have lots of iron.)
Once you get the Frigates train rolling, especially once you get the +range promotion, you can bombard cities, units, everything without even getting touched.
Then you swoop in with Caravel/Privateer/Ironclad (especially Ironclads!) to take the city.
Later on, you can upgrade those Frigates to Battleships and the melee ones into Destroyers.
Not to mention submarines to clear out any enemy navy
I personally like to play tall initially on island-style maps, build up my cap and other main cities, and once decent infrastructure is in place, i start cranking out the Galleases.
Try to save gold so you can mass upgrade when you hit Navigation.
Once you get to Frigates (and even before sometimes), you'll be fine for taking out cities pretty easily.
Barracks/Armory/Heroic Epic are usually worth building in the city you are making most of your units from as it'll get you to the range and supply promotions sooner, which you want
Honor is a really nice tree i find for heavy war games too, though it slows down initial growth.