dunkleosteus
Roman Pleb
Boats and ships in Civ 6 have always been a bit weak. The de-emphasis on coastal cities hurt them heavily, but beyond that, they don't have the same power that they should.
Here's my idea to make naval combat more fun and interesting.
To start, boats should have two types of health: hull strength/ ship health and crew health. The ship health represents physical damage taken by the ship and when it reaches zero, the ship sinks. Crew health represents the % of the crew remaining. The distinction between them is important.
Ships should have 3 types of attack: ship melee, boarding and ranged attacks.
Ship melee is not a very common type of attack. Historically, it was epitomized by the trireme (which I'm aware does not exist in civ 6). Triremes had a metal ram attached the prow of the ship and they would actually ram into the sides of other ships at full speed to punch holes in the hull while sustaining relatively little damage themselves. In practice, this is a type of physical attack that directly damages the hulls (ship health) of other ships without taking much damage yourself.
Ship boarding is not a physical attack the way it normally is: you don't initiate it by ordering a unit to enter the tile of another ship (that would be the first type of attack). Boarding is the primary melee attack for ships but it is initiated as a 1-range attack to a ship in an adjacent tile. Boarding another ship pits your crew against theirs, and damages both sides.
If a ship's crew is defeated, the ship does not sink, instead the ship is captured and the attacking crew splits between the two ships.
The third type of attack is a ranged attack. I am of the opinion that before battleships, all ship ranged attacks should have a 1-tile range. Ranged attacks against other ships do heavy ship damage and additional low crew damage.
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Other important changes to ships: Ships should be very resilient against arrow and bolt based attacks, as well as from musket attacks: this means archers and crossbowmen do negligible damage against ships. It also means that the first ranged ships are very weak against each other. The quadrireme's ranged attack is ineffective against other boats' hulls, but quite effective against land-based units.
Canons, catapults and bombards however do massive damage to ships, and ship canons are powerful against ships as well.
The reason I think it's important to differentiate between ship health and crew health is because it forces different strategies if you are trying to capture or sink a ship: most methods of attack that allow you to capture a ship put your own crew at risk, so you can't blast a ship to pieces with canons and then swoop in to capture it. Additionally, I believe the health of the crew should affect the ship: the lower your crew health, the slower and weaker your ship is: you can't row with all the oars, sail with all your sails or fire with all your canons when your crew is under-manned.
Crew health can be restored anywhere in your territory as usual, but ship health can only be repaired in a harbour or city, where a harbour heals ships twice as quickly.
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If coastal cities are fixed to be better, this change to ship will make navies much more lucrative and powerful. One of the keys to unlocking the Industrial revolution in England was opening up Iron production. Iron production was limited because Iron requires pure carbon for smelting, and the only source for this was charcoal. The invention of coal coke allowed coal to be used as a suitable carbon for smelting. The reason charcoal was so limited as a resource is that vast swathes of forest were needed to fuel England's endless need for wood for ships. Ships were so vital that Iron production was one tenth of what it could have been, and Civ 6 just doesn't respect that.
Here's my idea to make naval combat more fun and interesting.
To start, boats should have two types of health: hull strength/ ship health and crew health. The ship health represents physical damage taken by the ship and when it reaches zero, the ship sinks. Crew health represents the % of the crew remaining. The distinction between them is important.
Ships should have 3 types of attack: ship melee, boarding and ranged attacks.
Ship melee is not a very common type of attack. Historically, it was epitomized by the trireme (which I'm aware does not exist in civ 6). Triremes had a metal ram attached the prow of the ship and they would actually ram into the sides of other ships at full speed to punch holes in the hull while sustaining relatively little damage themselves. In practice, this is a type of physical attack that directly damages the hulls (ship health) of other ships without taking much damage yourself.
Ship boarding is not a physical attack the way it normally is: you don't initiate it by ordering a unit to enter the tile of another ship (that would be the first type of attack). Boarding is the primary melee attack for ships but it is initiated as a 1-range attack to a ship in an adjacent tile. Boarding another ship pits your crew against theirs, and damages both sides.
If a ship's crew is defeated, the ship does not sink, instead the ship is captured and the attacking crew splits between the two ships.
The third type of attack is a ranged attack. I am of the opinion that before battleships, all ship ranged attacks should have a 1-tile range. Ranged attacks against other ships do heavy ship damage and additional low crew damage.
---
Other important changes to ships: Ships should be very resilient against arrow and bolt based attacks, as well as from musket attacks: this means archers and crossbowmen do negligible damage against ships. It also means that the first ranged ships are very weak against each other. The quadrireme's ranged attack is ineffective against other boats' hulls, but quite effective against land-based units.
Canons, catapults and bombards however do massive damage to ships, and ship canons are powerful against ships as well.
The reason I think it's important to differentiate between ship health and crew health is because it forces different strategies if you are trying to capture or sink a ship: most methods of attack that allow you to capture a ship put your own crew at risk, so you can't blast a ship to pieces with canons and then swoop in to capture it. Additionally, I believe the health of the crew should affect the ship: the lower your crew health, the slower and weaker your ship is: you can't row with all the oars, sail with all your sails or fire with all your canons when your crew is under-manned.
Crew health can be restored anywhere in your territory as usual, but ship health can only be repaired in a harbour or city, where a harbour heals ships twice as quickly.
---
If coastal cities are fixed to be better, this change to ship will make navies much more lucrative and powerful. One of the keys to unlocking the Industrial revolution in England was opening up Iron production. Iron production was limited because Iron requires pure carbon for smelting, and the only source for this was charcoal. The invention of coal coke allowed coal to be used as a suitable carbon for smelting. The reason charcoal was so limited as a resource is that vast swathes of forest were needed to fuel England's endless need for wood for ships. Ships were so vital that Iron production was one tenth of what it could have been, and Civ 6 just doesn't respect that.
