Captain of a Cannon Canoe
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2023
- Messages
- 14
Hello! If I may jump in as my first civfanatics post, I was recently getting back into Civ 5 and was looking through this thread hoping to keep EE in my modlist. But seeing how we can improve the Ship of the Line's relevancy got me brainstorming last night on how it can be done. CAYM is definitely onto something, there is a hole in the ship tech. What I think needs to happen however is instead of slapping in the Steam Frigate for a clean upgrade line, perhaps we can instead make the Ship of the Line the beginning of a whole new class of ship types, working with the (now neglected) Enhanced Naval Warfare mod to round out the late-game navy.
After a ton of research, I have come up with a new proposal. BEHOLD, my proposed graph of shiptypes:
As done in most other games, I think it's necessary to divide the naval units up five ways. The smallships consist of the cheap, medium speed, lesser-armed ships used for exploration and overseas plundering that doesn't require a lot of firepower. The medium ships form the backbone of a navy, moderately priced and with high speed, designed to concentrate fire together in naval wars or can spread out and hold their own to defend foreign interests and trade routes. Heavyships saw their genesis with the massive Ship of the Line which (as CAYM pointed out) were saved for decisive naval engagements between the largest European powers closer to the homelands; same for later iterations, these ships were built to take fire from enemy ships, sink fleets in rare, decisive battles, and support amphibious landings.
Carriers may have become the heart of modern navies, but their role in combat is entirely different than those big, beefy ships we know and love. I think they should take on their own line separate from the "battleships" as heavyships were called in the past two centuries. A fun end-game unit akin to the Giant Death Robot and XCOM could be the "Battlecarrier," a proposed conversion of the Iowa battleships which would have served shore bombardment, ship hunting, aircraft carrying, carrying marines, and missile launches all in one package. Far-fetched I know, but hilarious and actually considered historically.
I love the idea of filling out the Industrial Era shiplines with the steam powered ships. In fact, the century after the napoelonic wars saw one gigantic naval arms race as metal armor, steam engines, paddle/screw propulsion, explosive ammo, and turreted designs became necessary to incorporate into ship designs lest a navy becomes totally outclassed.
It was as if a ship laid on drydock would become obsolete by the time it was completed because innovation was that fast as well as decisive at the time. Don't forget about the infamous "gunboat diplomacy" that dominated Victorian era colonialism, and that special era of naval warfare between the age of sail and the age of the dreadnought design. Let me know what you think! I'd love to get this idea off the ground, though I'm new to modding and just getting back into civ5. Let's really update EE and ENW to make naval development clean and less-janky (and make the Ship of the Line relevant).
After a ton of research, I have come up with a new proposal. BEHOLD, my proposed graph of shiptypes:
| Ancient | Classical | Medieval | Renaissance | Enlightenment | Industrial | Modern | Atomic | Information | |
| Smallship | Galley | Trireme | Caravel | Carrack | Corvette | Gunboat | Destroyer | Modern Destroyer | Stealth Destroyer |
| Mediumship | Liburna | Galleass | Galleon | Frigate | Steam Frigate | Cruiser | Battlecruiser | Misslecruiser | |
| Heavyship | Ship of the Line | Ironclad | Dreadnought | Battleship | Nuclear Battlecarrier (Battlestation) | ||||
| Carrier | Early Carrier | Carrier | Supercarrier | ||||||
| Submersible | Submarine | Attack Sub | Nuclear Sub |
As done in most other games, I think it's necessary to divide the naval units up five ways. The smallships consist of the cheap, medium speed, lesser-armed ships used for exploration and overseas plundering that doesn't require a lot of firepower. The medium ships form the backbone of a navy, moderately priced and with high speed, designed to concentrate fire together in naval wars or can spread out and hold their own to defend foreign interests and trade routes. Heavyships saw their genesis with the massive Ship of the Line which (as CAYM pointed out) were saved for decisive naval engagements between the largest European powers closer to the homelands; same for later iterations, these ships were built to take fire from enemy ships, sink fleets in rare, decisive battles, and support amphibious landings.
Carriers may have become the heart of modern navies, but their role in combat is entirely different than those big, beefy ships we know and love. I think they should take on their own line separate from the "battleships" as heavyships were called in the past two centuries. A fun end-game unit akin to the Giant Death Robot and XCOM could be the "Battlecarrier," a proposed conversion of the Iowa battleships which would have served shore bombardment, ship hunting, aircraft carrying, carrying marines, and missile launches all in one package. Far-fetched I know, but hilarious and actually considered historically.
I love the idea of filling out the Industrial Era shiplines with the steam powered ships. In fact, the century after the napoelonic wars saw one gigantic naval arms race as metal armor, steam engines, paddle/screw propulsion, explosive ammo, and turreted designs became necessary to incorporate into ship designs lest a navy becomes totally outclassed.
It was as if a ship laid on drydock would become obsolete by the time it was completed because innovation was that fast as well as decisive at the time. Don't forget about the infamous "gunboat diplomacy" that dominated Victorian era colonialism, and that special era of naval warfare between the age of sail and the age of the dreadnought design. Let me know what you think! I'd love to get this idea off the ground, though I'm new to modding and just getting back into civ5. Let's really update EE and ENW to make naval development clean and less-janky (and make the Ship of the Line relevant).
