Is navy useful in fighting REF?

[Prince Will]

Play couple of times at explorer level. To kill a MOW with its troops on broad on average I had to use 2-3 SOL. Given that SOL isn't cheap to build or buy will it be better not to build them at all and focus on land battle?

 

[dalgo]

It is certainly a lot easier to defeat the King's land forces than to sink his ships, but it can be done. A Ship of the Line has 8 strength compared with a Man-o-War at 12 so if you fight at those odds you'll lose a lot of ships, as you found out.

However it is possible to make it an even battle. Against the REF you get a combat bonus based on your rebel sentiment. If you can delay your Declaration of Independence until your rebel sentiiment is 100% (which is not easy to do) your combat bonus is 50%, bringing your SOL strength up to that of the King's ships.

You can in fact improve on that even further. If you choose Simon Bolivar as your leader your rebel sentiment combat bonus is doubled. i.e. at 100% rebel sentiment your combat bonus is 100%, and now your SOL are stronger than the Man-O-Wars.

Once your ships have won a few battles they will gain promotions and get stronger still.

 

[Robert Surcouf]

Dalgo's right,

A High rebel sentiment is important. With 100% rebel sentiment you get a +50% strength bonus, so your ship has 12 strength points too.

Another tip! I always ask a great general to join one of my ships. The best idea is to attack someone (a long time) before WOI. It doesn't matter who (Natives or Europeans). When you attack someone, you get more experience, and in time you get a great general... It is extremely difficult to win WOI, or even naval battles if you haven't fought a war before WOI !

 

[reddishrecue]

That depends whether you want to focus on land or on sea. Like dalgo and robert said the ships of the REF are 12 but winning a naval battle will be much easier than having all the REF landing because there are not a lot of ships.

 

[collynx]

For me it would be illogical to try to win the war in a sea battle. A SOL is almost useless in peace time, unlike a privateer or a dragoon/soldier. A privateer can loot their prey for good cash and a soldier can work the fields or loot Indian villages or European colonies, or found a new colony. A SOL doesn't help your economy unless you need them against the European colonies, which I think would not happen in vanilla Civ4Col, the other Europeans being so weak. It would certainly be possible to win a war with a strong navy, but that would not be helpful in developing one's colonies to their full economic strength, IMO.

 

[Blind Side]

I have played about 35-40 times and have won the WOI at least 3 times by defeating the King's navy while troops still remain in Europe. In fact the game I played early this week was one of them.

The first time I was basically forced to. The King had a huge land army and only 4 or 5 ships. Basically the situation I was in was that the King was not going to be able to transport all of his troops before the game ended.

The other two times I "suckered" the AI into letting me destroy the majority of the royal navy.

Here is one strategy:

1) Leave a small (population 3) undefended town on the coast in a position that is closest to where the King's forces will enter play. Do not leave any guns in this town.

2) Leave a large covering force of dragoons within immediate striking distance of the town.

3) The King's forces should take the town (bait) when they attack on the second turn after DoI.

4) Destroy all but one of the King's land forces in the town and all other forces adjacent to the town.

5) For some bizarre reason, part or all of the navy currently in play will often sail into the town and on the King's next turn it is also possible (only seen it once) that other ships will enter the and debark their troops.

6) If any of the MoWs do enter the town attack it and capture it. The MoWs in the town are destroyed when you capture the town.

7) Leave the town and heal your forces and repeat the above.

In this last weeks game I was playing after the King had taken the town the third time (losing 6, 4 then finally 3 MoWs) he was down to 1 MoW which I easily took out the next time it showed up with 1 Frigate and 2 SOLs. The King lost with 100 plus remaining troops left in Europe...