New Naval Units: Boarding Ships and War Galleys (IV)
After playing a lot of AoM retold and the AoE2:DE DLC, Battle for Greece (Based on Rome Ad Bellum Mod), I loved the new sea system, especially since it allows for cool battles even from the 2nd age.
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In AoM:RE, there are up to 5 types of sea combat units each: Arrow Ship, RamShip, Ballista Ship, Mythical 1, Mythical 2
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In BattleforGreece, there are up to 6 units: Arrow Ship, FireShip, Explosive Ship, Ram Ship, Catapult Ship, Ballista Ship.
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In AoE IV sea battles are limited to only 3 types of ships: Arrow Ships, Horizontal Ships (Springald Ship and Warship) and Explosive Ships. That’s not good.
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Also, there are ships that don’t have a direct classification, like the Ottoman Great Galley, or the French Galleass.
To give more dynamics to the marine game, at least for those of us who like it, I suggest adding two extra types of unit in the marine countersystem, both within the subtype: “FRONTAL attack Ship”
Boarding Ships (II)
They have a boarding crew, when they attack they release yellow ghosts (like the construction ones) jumping to the enemy ship. They get some gold for destroying ships. Bonus against spingarda ships and Warships.
Strong vs: Springald Ship (+++) (Hulk, Baghlah), WarShips (Carrack, Xebec) (+), Waship Galley (++)
Weakness: Archer Ships (- - ), Explosive Ships (- - -).
Throughout the ancient and post-classical periods, all naval ship-to-ship combat focused primarily on boarding, although ramming and incendiaries were secondary tactics.
During the medieval period, when better ships make ramming obssolete, boarding continued to be the dominant form of ship-to-ship combat. The maritime use of Greek fire made Byzantium less dependent on boarding than other medieval powers, but it was still used.
To better resist boarding, medieval European ships began to be built with high wooden “castles” fore and aft, which boarders could scale only with great difficulty, while archers, crossbowmen or archebusiers could sweep the enemy decks. However, this only caused the boarding to occur using those same larger ships of the same height, or even against smaller ships with better results.
During the Battle of Lepanto, where a large number of war galleys were employed, there came a point where, due to a lack of projectiles, the combat became a total boarding battle, leading to victory for the side of the Holy League.
WarShip Galley (IV)
Or War Galley, Oared Galley with one or 3 cannons in front, that fires head on with wide range (9 or 10). Extremely good against Warships, but expensive.
Strong vs: Springald Ship (Hulk, Baghlah) (+++), WarShips (Carrack, Xebec, etc) (++), War Galleys.
Weakness: Archer Ships (- -), Explosive Ships (- -), Boarding Ship ( - - - )
History: During the late 15th century, ships with giant hulls and the use of massive sails meant that the oared galley was on the verge of extinction. Taking advantage of the rise of firearms, it is believed that the Venetians were the first to test the use of bombards at the front of an oared galley with great effectiveness. The first ships with cannons would sway quite a bit after a shot, but a long galley firing straight ahead had better stability.
With that in mind, the war galley began to be developed by several kingdoms, and was so popular that the flagship of Ferdinand II of Spain, the Leal, was a giant war galley. Over time these war galleys became standardized, and were quite effective at destroying even Carracks on the coasts of the Mediterranean. The Islamic kingdoms used a smaller version, the galiota, while in Asia, the Ming Kingdom managed to manufacture ships similar to the Portuguese war galleys, the centipede ships. Due to its simple design, it was adapted to various types of light vessels.
However, because they could only navigate in coastal and not so deep waters, in the XVII century, the number of War Galleys was decreasing, and more so as the powers began to become more interested in building larger and more powerful ships, capable of crossing international seas and multiplying several times the firepower of the galleys.
Countersystem
Would be the best for a rock paper scissors system. Boarding Ship count as a counter to Springald Ships in feudal (II), and as a lightly counter of Warships in Imperial Age (IV). Warship Galleys become the counter of Warships in Imperial Age, but onlt in great numbers, and area vulnerable to Boarding ships, fire ships and arrow Ships.
So much effort that I even looked up types of War Galleys around all civs, and here are the names:
| Region/Civ | Arrow Ship | Springald Ship | Borading Ship | War Ship | War Galley |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Europe | Galley | Hulk | Boarding Cog | Carrack | War Galley |
| French* | Galley | War Cog* | Boarding Cog | Carrack | Galleass* |
| China, Mongols | Junk | War Junk | Tower Ship | Baochuan | Wugonchuan |
| Japan | Junk | War Junk | Sekibune | Atakebune | Ozutsu Kobaya |
| Delhi & Abb/Ayy | Dhow | Baghlah | Ghanjah | Xebec | Galiot |
| West Africa | Cannoa | War Cannoa | Boarding Cannoa | — | Bombard canoa |
| Rus | Lodya Galley | Attack Lodya | Bording Lodya | — | Shaika |
| Ottoman | Dhow | Hulk | Ghanjah | Carrack | Great Galley* |
| Bizantines | Galley | Hulk | Dromon* | Carrack | War Galley |
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Yeah, Bizantine Dromon would become a unique Boarding ship replacement, so they properly have a springald ship too.
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Also some unique units, like Galleass (French) and Great Galley (Ottomans), become early War Galleys.
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Most would be “Boarding” versions of springald or galley ships, with visible crew on the ship. Of course, they would have 2 technologies for Age III and Age IV, as arrow and springalds ships has.
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About War galleys, I’ve done a lot of research, and they were used a lot during the Imperial era of the game (1500-1650), so they are ideal for Imperial age. Japanese would have a Kobaya with Osutzu in front, because their guns weren’t that strong (and so we would have the 3 Sengoku ships, all in order, perfectly balanced)
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In the future, these units would allow for space coverage for several unique historical units.
– Al-Andalus, or Moroco Dinasties, could have “Barbary Pirates” as a technology for Boarding Ships.
– Venice could have Galleazzi as a unique Warship Galley.
– Spain could have Patache as a cheap Boarding Ship, and Galleon as unique Warship.
Bibliography
- Renaissance War Galley 1470–1590, Angus Konstam, Tony Bryan (Illustrator), New Vanguard 62, Osprey.
- Byzantine Naval Forces 1261-1461, The Roman Empire’s Last – D’Amato-Raffaele, Dennis-Peter, Dzis-Igor(Illustrations) – Osprey Men-at-Arms, 502, 2016
- Byzantine Warship vs Arab Warship 7th–11th centuries, Angus Konstam_ Peter Dennis, Osprey
- Medieval naval warfare 1000-1500, Rose Susan, 1938 – 2002 – London, New York, Routledge
- Fighting Ships of the Far East (1), China and Southeast Asia – Stephen Turnbul, Wayne Reynolds (Illustrator) – Osprey, New Vanguard 61 2002_11_13
- Fighting Ships of the Far East (2), Japan and Korea AD – Stephen Turnbull_ Wayne Reynolds (Illustrator) – Osprey, New Vanguard 63 2003_01_25
- 17th Century Naval Warfare: The Age of the Galley, SandRhoman History (VIDEO)
