Naval warfare

Naval warfare is the competition of sea-going power between nations at war. While a majority of warfare is land-based, the naval aspect of conflict can be incredibly influential in the spheres of trade and conquest.

Naval units

In Imperator there are six different types of naval unit.

	Unit type			Monthly	Requirements	Naval movement speed
	Liburnian	5	120	0.08	Free	13		-15%	-25%	-35%	-40%	-50%
	Trireme	8	180	0.13	Free	12	+15%		-10%	-10%	-20%	-20%
	Tetrere	10	180	0.16	Free	12	+25%	+10%			-10%	-10%
	Hexere	15	180	0.24	Free	11	+35%	+10%	+5%		-10%	-10%
	Octere	25	180	0.41	Military tradition	9	+40%	+20%	+10%	+10%		-10%
	Mega-Polyreme	32	365	0.53	Military tradition	7	+50%	+30%	+20%	+20%	+10%

The Fleet

The main purpose of a fleet in Imperator is to ferry troops from one destination to another, and to stop others from doing the same in your territorial waters. 1 ship can transport 1 unit of cohorts (with fully regained cohorts 1000 men) Fleets can also blockade ports in wartime, decreasing commerce and potentially contributing to the warscore for their side of the conflict. Futhermore fleets in a sea zone with a strait will block enemy units from crossing that strait.

Building a Fleet

Ships can only be built in ports, and ports only exist in predefined locations around the map. Building ships also requires access to Wood in the Province that the City belongs to. Each trireme costs 20 gold.

Combat

When a battle is started every ship will attempt to target an enemy ship to deal damage to. What determines their success is their positioning value, which is derived from their leading admiral with a random element. Positioning is re-rolled every day of battle.

In an ongoing battle bad positioning will result in picking a new target, which if you are unlucky could mean finding no target, or even targeting one of your own ships. If a friendly ship is targeted the ship will always try to pick a new target next day.

Damage is dealt in a similar way to in land battles. Offensive modifiers and dice roll is reduced by the enemy defensive modifiers and dice roll. This is then further increased or decreased by the specific modifiers on either side for Strength Damage or Morale Damage.

Ships that have no morale left will retreat from battle, ships that have no strength left will be sunk.

Unit Abilities

There are unit abilities for ships at sea:

• Ramming Tactics: Navy Offensive Damage +10% Navy Defense Damage -10%
• Boarding Tactics: Navy Offense Damage -10% Navy Defense Damage +10%
• Raid Port: Steals a number of pops from an adjacent port and turns them into Slaves in your capital (at a cost of 1 Aggressive Expansion).

Mechanics