I have played two naval games with this mod, so far, and I wanted to say how impressed I am at the improvement in AI performance. I particularly like how you have simplified the early naval units and their promotions.
My first game was an emperor one as Hannah on an archipelgo map and as others have reported the AI is now settling offshore islands using galleys and using privateers to pillage seafood and blockade. I had a nice little battle between 4 of my privateers including The Black Wind and 4 other privateers (not sure whose they were but they were stacked together). Now there are plenty of AI ships sailing about the Lanun boarding party unit makes sense and mine captured 2 privateers
I ended that game at about turn 350 when I was 3 times the score of any AI, ahead of everyone in technology and obviously going to win a domination victory if I could be bothered. The AIs were weakened by fighting among themselves and the Sheem had taken a city from the Elohim by an amphibious invasion with Curly (the hill giant) and a stack of adepts casting skeletons and some pyre zombies. The AI were good at claiming wonders and early religions but the power of the maturing pirate ports was soon too much for them. Their economies seemed to be dragged down by overbuilding low level troops but I didn't check carefully what they were doing.
My second game was an immortal one also with Hannah on an archipleago as I wanted to compare the two game levels. I had a good starting city with 4 hills and room for 3 pirate ports but still missed with my attempt at the Heron Throne and Great Lighthouse. The two early religions (OO and RoK) that are good for the Lanun went before I could think about trying to get them. I tried to settle my third city on a nearby island before Decius of the Calabrim. He settled the island soon after and few turns later after I adopted Runes of Kilomorph declared war on me.
What followed was some of the most exciting naval warfare I have ever had in civ
even if it was small scale it was a battle of manouvre with feints and thrusts and retreats. He was using galleys, lots of them with the Buccaneer promotion. He pillaged my seafood and pirate ports and attacked any of my galleys that were damaged. Initially all I had were my 2 galleys to face his 4 and as fast as I killed his and replaced my losses he built more. I was intending get Warfare and so I needed Bronze Working anyway and that gave me triremes (even though I had no metal). That turned the tide but he still inflicted a lot of economic damage to my cities with blockades and pillages and sank 2 of the triremes at the cost of maybe 10 galleys. We were fighting for about 50 turns.
Eventually I resolved the Decius problem and took his 3 cities with a stack of 4 catapults and 10 swordsmen and fortunately a single well promoted archer (who killed a lunatic and later Saverous). I consider myself fortunate that he did not build a training yard and upgrade his bloodpets to moroi and that he didn't have metal or the story could have had a different ending
One comment on game balance; I did find that the Tsunami spell seemed too powerful and overwhelming for both naval and coastal battles. I found that a fleet carrying 2 cultists could reduce the defenders of any city to such an extent that I could attack directly from the ships with ordinary troops without the amphibious promotion and kill the defenders. So basically the way of taking coastal cities is to use the Sirian Doctrine of attacking directly from your ships supported by cultist firepower. I'm not sure quite what to suggest but it did mean that cultists are a one stop solution to naval and coastal warfare and carrying them around on ships makes them fast and flexible in a way the AI can't cope with. The max damage they do to troops sheltering in cities could perhaps be reduced and damage per Tsunami might be toned down so more of them are needed to produce the effect. Perhaps the number of units damaged per cast should be limited (like collateral damage) or like Blinding Light there is a high chance of no effect / spell save. Does anyone else agree that this spell is a bit too strong?
