Naval Warmongering?

[MrMitra]

So I'm loving Gods & Kings so far after a break from Vanilla. I like the wonder rushing and city building of the classical/medieval ages, and enjoy the wars of renaissance and industrial eras. I also enjoy naval wars and I am happy to see the naval combat AI has been improved (always felt like cheating when I could lure the AI to embark their great generals and tanks to be instantly one shotted by my destroyers).

What would be the ideal map where later era naval war would shine? Archipelago? Since I heard melee ships can capture cities, is it possible to win a domination game using primarily a navy with a small ground force used to capture inland cities?

At a Prince level, what would be a good set up? Obviously England comes to mind, but would the Netherlands and others be effective as well? Assuming I'd likely go tall for the early game, would a Tradition start be best? I'm dreaming of battles of Frigates and such turning the sea red, help make this a reality for me!

 

[Loucypher]

I would go with Small Continents. They allow for a good mix of naval and land warfare, and usually all the civs have their main cities at the coast.
It is indeed quite possible to use a naval force to pick the majority of the cities that way. In particular once you get the Ironclad, you're on your way to awesometown. Pick off coastal cities, use a land force to land there and go from there.
The Dutch Sea Beggar is insane. Once you get them, build a flotilla of them. Make sure you do so in a city with Armory, Barracks and all that good stuff. Then, make sure as many as you can survive (Play cautious with them, just to pick off ships for that point) before upgrading them into Destroyers. The seas will be yours at that point.

England IS possibly the better naval civ due to that higher speed and the Ship of the Line being awesome, but Holland comes dangerously close.

 

[Harv72b]

Actually, I prefer Large Islands for mid-late naval battles. While in Small Continents you often end up sharing yours with at least one other civ, I've found that Large Islands is more likely to give each civ a body of land to itself, usually with room for 3-4 cities (although you might be sharing with a city state or two). That way, LI gives everyone space for the early game expansion and forces the AIs to build large navies for their mid-game conquests.

Also, to expand on Loucypher's good advice (especially concerning ironclads, which are not just a waste of coal anymore), give Carthage a try as well. Your UU ship comes way early, but it will dominate everything except the Byzantine ship at that stage and the free harbors in every new city are huge, both during your initial expansion and for the cities you'll later capture. Combine that UA with the Messenger of the Gods (+2 science per city w/trade route) or God of the Seas (+1 hammer per fishing boats) pantheon and watch how easy the game gets.

I've found that in most starting scenarios, Tradition does make the most sense on Prince. The sub-policies will help kick-start your culture, keep happiness and gold under control, and amp up your capital for wonder building. Especially on a primarily water map, Liberty doesn't make much sense (you can expand at a more leisurely pace), nor does Honor as you'll easily be able to patrol your starting island with a couple units until you've filled it up.

/My first G&K game was as Carthage on a Large Islands map, and I wound up fighting not one, not two, but three separate major naval wars with Attila before finally beating him down during the age of Frigates. Still probably the most enjoyable expansion game I've played to date.