We invented the caravels and for a long while we were the only ones to have them... and we also were the first ones to put cannons in ocean going vessels ( in the time of João II ).
In fact , most of the first Portuguese actions in the Indian Ocean were made with basis in caravels ( only later the
Naus ( the thing that firaxis called carracks
Carracks were a general half cargo half war ship that was common in all europe during the XVI... a
Nau was the portuguese refined model ) and the Galleons ( that were warships in genesis... only later the spaniards decided to make high cargo galleons for their silver routes ) entered in play ). The high point of the use of caravels in sea fight was in 1503-04 in Cochim were Duarte Pacheco, with a force of roughly 150 portuguese ( the fattened crew of 4 caravels... normally every caravel had 20-30 crew elements ) and a number between 300 and 1000 Cochim inhabitants defended victouriously against a force of Calicut ( a state that had bad relations with the Portuguese since they arrived there ) that had a 1 per 50 superiority in number of soldiers and 1 per 80 on ships
....
I think that Firaxis wanted a class of scout ships to make the Intercontinental contact possible ,but without possibility of warfare. They decided to it caravel... a bad choice IMHO. And about the Portuguese UU... or they put it earlier in the tech tree ( Compass? ) or give them bombarding ability ( as caravels, Carracks and
Naus certainly had in RL ... I remember a story were 2 Portuguese caravels with cannons ( some of the first ever made ) captured 40 + spanish caravels without cannons ( that were trying to expel the portuguese from their African
Feitorias ) just by bombarding them) ... The game carracks are both useless in warfare and a complete (bad) Fiction in RL terms....
P.S. Sorry for the long rant, but I have a naval historian friend , and he loves the Portuguese naval history of that time ( I do too but he is far worse than me... ). As he offered me a brief history of the Portuguese Naval warfare ( with 6 volumes so far and only covers 500 years
) I decided to give it some use
Just make sure you have two for every enemy gunship, that's all.
too!. Or just regular missiles.
.
? It's probably the single easiest thing in the game to fix. It's not accurate, and it's not good for balance reasons to make walls obsolete. There aren't too many rifles TODAY that can fire through a foot of stone. Colonial redcoats doing it is comical, in a bad way. (keep in mind, I say all this as the person typically on the offensive)
