Ships are useless

[Poutineman]

I don't get it...

Is it me or ships are completely useless in CIV 5?

I don't understand how a frigate, which is of the same era then the canon, can be so lame compared to it. (by the way, frigates usually had more then 28 canons on board...)

I just had 6 frigate fire on a canon to get rid of it, and now they are all vulnerable to the counter-attack of the other canons around it since I can't move after firing. A canon on the other hand, usually gets rid of a frigate in 2 shots. If in a city, you can get rid of a frigate in one turn.

What's the idea? Boats are long to build, expensive in maintenance and use strategic resources. Not mentioning the crazy expensive cost to upgrade... why are they so vulnerable? Even a few crossbowman can sink them! Hey, go figure, I guess the 1/2 inch bolt brakes the wooden armour of the Frigate. I mean, truly, even a 1000 crossbowman shooting at a ship wont sink it... maybe rupture the sails, but not sink it!

And for those who tell me they can blockade... well, big deal, if they don't get killed by the city's defences, the mere cost of maintenance of these suckers beats the negative effect of a blockade. And unless your game is focused around building tons of ships, sailing next to your enemy and sitting there for the whole game to look at their coastal cities struggle while the inland ones flourish, expecting to win on them by supplanting them economically... well they are still pretty much useless.

Oh and by the way, you can't just sit there, you have to retreat to your city constantly for repairs if you don't want to lose them... because they DON'T repair themselves out of your territory.

What is the point?

P.S.: While not changing the power of attack of these guys, I would suggest at least making them more resistant, make them harder to sink. If they can take a major beating, you would still have to retreat to your territory constantly for repair, so you could expect keeping them alive a bit longer.

 

[Esoteric Arcane]

I usually use that techinique to get them promoted, attack, get hit, pull back to heal, send another in, they have anti ship or anti land promotions, so i divide them up between my ships, most have anti land as the ai except for barbs usually arnt a threat. I had a fleet of about 20 frigates in one game, upgraded them to destroyer and they pretty much nocked down any civ for my army to arrive and gather up the cities one my one. But the navy has always been left behind in civ, glad a lot has improved in civ 5 for them, albeit the 1upt, hopefully the reworking of them in the expansion may prove better (havent tried it myself)

Edit: Vanilla, I also got them the +1 range, which keeps them out of most harms way.

 

[binhthuy71]

I don't think that ships are useless. I do think that Frigates are useless. They were useless before G&K and, despite a buff to Ranged Strength (RS15 to RS30) they're useless after it.

In the current game ships are good for sinking other ships until you get to battleships and carriers. The naval AI has been much improved and my experience is that it often makes effective and appropriate use of its vessels. If your invasion force has to cross ocean tiles you'd best have escorts.

 

[drivebyposter]

Start by having them attack things that can't hit back like workers.

Get unit attacking 1 and 2.

Then get range. This gets you out of city and cannon range.

Next, unit attacking 3.

Finally, double firing. Double firing allows you to move in, fire and get out of range of even artillery.

P.S. Frigates have the exact same ranged attack amount as crossbows.

 

[JWAT44]

In the current game ships are good for sinking other ships until you get to battleships and carriers. The naval AI has been much improved and my experience is that it often makes effective and appropriate use of its vessels. If your invasion force has to cross ocean tiles you'd best have escorts.

bombers can destroy pretty much anything unless there are anti-aircraft guns (that's what sacrificial fighters are for ) so most ships are kinda pointless. there are only 2 types of ships that i ever build and i only ever build 1 or 2 of them, air craft carriers to rebase planes and atomic bombs between continents and nuclear submarines to destroy enemy ships and rebase nuclear missiles

 

[GenjiKhan]

I don't think that ships are useless. I do think that Frigates are useless. They were useless before G&K and, despite a buff to Ranged Strength (RS15 to RS30) they're useless after it.

I've tried a naval attack at G&K and I can said that a combination of Frigates+Privateers is more deadly than it seems . Just weaken enemy units with Frigates,capture them with Privateers,then recover your ships in a friendly civ or in a friendly city-state,then attack enemy cities .

 

[binhthuy71]

I've tried a naval attack at G&K and I can said that a combination of Frigates+Privateers is more deadly than it seems . Just weaken enemy units with Frigates,capture them with Privateers,then recover your ships in a friendly civ or in a friendly city-state,then attack enemy cities .

Privateers rock. The Prize Ship promo means that the bigger your navy gets the bigger your navy gets. I'm going to have to try a game on a Tiny Islands map as the Ottomans. Enabling Raging Barbs and taking the Honor opener might be fun.