Best seafaring civs?

[WideCoast]

Hey!

I like a lot seafaring civs for somereason and since I'm a noob compared to a pretty much all of youI was just wondering which are the best in your opinion? for MP aswell since I was planning on getting my ass kicked in MP aswell

and then a bit OT

Is there other civs like aztechs and sweden that benefit from warring? aztechs gets culture from killing and sweden gets generals to gift CS for ~an alliance and half.

Cheers!

WideCoast

 

[Doctor Doom]

Do you want a more peaceful or a more warlike sea civ?

 

[WideCoast]

Well, I'd rather avoid CV, but wars are always more fun than just clicking end turn

 

[JeSuisNapoleon]

the ottomans are a coastal civ that "benefit" from war. Their benefit is that they can capture enemy ships instead of destroying them. They also pay less naval unit maintenance allowing for larger navies. This leads to an obvious strategy of moving your navy from Capitol to capitol, capturing each in turn with a massive navy that only gets bigger as the game goes on.

I don't think they are considered that great, but early free units means you dont have to build as many as your opponents and could focus a little more on science / infrastructure so long as you keep capturing ships.

Personally I would pick Carthage or someone else, because then you don't have to work so hard to leverage your civ's UA.

 

[Loucypher]

The Ottomans tend to have the biggest navy. With every one of their ships able to steal those of others and the lower maintainance, things can go out of hand very, VERY fast.
The English have strictly speaking the STRONGEST navy. The +2 movement combined with the very powerful Ship of the Line enable the English to dominate the seas, and gives them an edge over the numbers the Ottomans put out.
The Dutch are somewhere in between those two. The Sea Beggar means they have the strongest stealing ship, but since they lack any other naval bonuses, their navy might not be AS strong. They however have the bonus of amazing infrastructure + income, though.
Then there's Venice, who has a naval power boon around the medieval era. During that time, they rule the seas, until Frigates enter the picture that is.
Byzanthium and Carthage have that early game naval punch. Their advantages however fade come mid-game. Also, unlike other civs Byzanthium cannot capture coastal cities by boat until the Rennesaince, they can however provide much better support fire for your land units.
Denmark is a bit of an oddball - their naval power doesn't come from the ships, but the embarked units entering the opponent's beaches at breakneck speed. Sail in a Trebuchet and immediately fire at a city? Yes please.
Finally there's Portugal...well, they're fully trade based, the Nau isn't really a ship for combat. So you can safely ignore them.

So yeah. Ottomans, English and Dutch are probably your best bets.

 

[Resipsa]

Underrated Naval Civs

Songhai's war canoe promotion on all units is pretty cool
Russia gets to build twice as many frigates as everyone else
Japan can pillage sea resources and then repair with Samurai one the city has been taken

 

[JeSuisNapoleon]

Underrated Naval Civs

Songhai's war canoe promotion on all units is pretty cool
Russia gets to build twice as many frigates as everyone else
Japan can pillage sea resources and then repair with Samurai one the city has been taken

I forgot about Songhai ! they are great!

 

[budweiser]

Did everyone forget about Polynesia?

 

[Rooftrellen]

I guess no one likes lots of exp on their naval units. Assyria can pump out naval units with a small exge in exp over everyone else. The sooner your ranged naval units get to fire twice, the sooner they stop taking damage from cities and become an unstoppable force.

Their ability to steal techs also promotes more extreme beelining, making them faster to get the ball rolling in two ways, being able to reasonably get powerful naval units faster as well as starting them (at least) 5 turns closer to logistics.

 

[anthropophage]

Polynesia are very powerful because they can start their warmaking so early, ocean going galleasses make for a powerful headstart. Use them agressively to stack up the promotions.

 

[WideCoast]

Thanks for the answers!

 

[cain3456]

I played a seafarers game recently, winning as England on archipelago. My opponents were Carthage, Denmark, Polynesia, Indonesia, Japan, Ottomans, Netherlands, Portugal and Songhay. Good times.

 

[WideCoast]

I forgot about Songhai ! they are great!

What that canoe does btw? I'v never really understood it.

 

[Plumfairy]

What that canoe does btw? I'v never really understood it.

When normal troops are embarked, they take a lot more damage... at least double damage, although I've seen instances where my troops seemed to take triple or even quadruple damage. In other words, embarked land units are sitting ducks to cities, enemy ranged troops, or enemy ships unless they're closely escorted by ships of your own.

The Songhai's War Canoe promotion makes embarked land units much tougher. They seem to take the same amount of damage. So Songhai troops can swarm a coastal town from all angles w/out fear of losing two or three embarked units every turn. And since Songhai troops also start with the amphibious promotion, your embarked units can immediately enter the fray w/out you needing a spot to land them first.

 

[WideCoast]

Thats great! They'r starting to aound pretty decebt atleast

 

[Plumfairy]

They're a pretty good civ. But the two promotions they start with don't really make them a naval civ. Instead, those promotions mean that your marauding hordes aren't slowed down by the occasional body of water.

If you're dealing with lots of water (i.e. a true naval situation) then the Songhai need to build ships just like any other civ. Although your embarked land units are tougher, they're still unable to attack enemy ships, so you'll quickly run into Zone of Control issues when facing an enemy navy. And the only bonus that the Songhai get in a true naval situation is that they can get by with slightly fewer ships since their land forces don't need to be directly escorted.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Depends on how much water there is. If it's tiny islands or archipelago, Polynesia is very strong. If it's small continents, England and Ottomans are strong. Carthage is pretty good at all of them, especially in between like a large islands map. There are others, but for my money, these are the strongest for the given map types.

 

[WideCoast]

Yeah well I'm usually playing something which has balanced land&water so I guess that just made me even more eager to try them!

 

[householder]

Yeah well I'm usually playing something which has balanced land&water so I guess that just made me even more eager to try them!

Does China's increased rate of Great General generation (generally good) also apply to Great Admirals?

Granted, China doesn't have a unique ship or other advantage at sea.

 

[Væringjar]

Ottomans far best sea nation. you pay 1/3 for naval units.

England also good but you can't build naval force as huge as Ottomans do.