Even losses can be hysterical, nail-biting action here. Particularly the rather unpredictable naval battles can be edge-of-the-seat experiences.
Last night, I had my Spearhead fleet engage a line of twelve hostile ships flying the Black Jack. My Spearhead, at the time, consisted of my Admiral Holborn’s First Rate Ship of the Line, two escort Second Raters, six third-raters and a tail of two sixth-raters and a sloop.
I prefer the inverted wedge formation, which looks like this:
(Where the enemy ships are the red Es)
**
3 2 1 2 3
3 3
3 3
6
6
S
**
Where 1 is a First Rate, 2 is a 2nd Rate, etc - and S is my Sloop of Doom.
It’s a very decent formation, all around, particularly against superior forces. Their force was five second rates, four third rates and a mix of about 12 sloops and brigs. Now, the deal with sloops is that they’re formidable in their own right as they can pack a punch, and these ones were freshly repaired and rank three experience, with a six-star admiral backing them up. Back in the start, I’d often use three-or-so sloops sailing in a circle against a second-rater to pound their sailes into submission. Divine which one the enemy is focusing on and keep it moving, while the second two get moved to be out of the line of fire and preferrably be placed ahead of bow or stern or one at each. If the enemy refocuses, just rinse and repeat. The only important thing is to not let the enemy use both sides - the tactic is to get it still in the water as quickly as possible and then pick away their guns, leaving them dead in the water and harmless on one flank.
So, you might say, I know what danger sloops can be to my own.
My “flying fist” (inverted wedge) formation works in that the entire fleet sails forward in formation. When the enemy’s column of ships breaks in one direction, that “leg” of my own formation break in the same - and since they’re already further out to the sides, they’re already in a better position. (Usually the enemy’s column gets centred in the middle, pointing straight at your own fleet.)
The other leg, as well as the “face”, sail straight on and ideally pass by in a staggered formation, giving the banking enemy formation the once-over in the flank or the rear before banking to come around or, if the enemy fleet stops up, anchor to become a battery or to intercept fleeing ships.
So, basically, the formation ideally looks something like this:
E
E
E 3
1 E 2
2 E 3
3 E 6
3 E 6
3 S
As you can see, it’s a good position, for me. If they stop and make a slugging match out of it, I’m able to hit both sides of the hull and wheel to present an undamaged gunnery side, if any of my ships start firing less. Their advantage of being able to shoot at both sides at the same time gets nixed rather rapidly - it takes it’s toll early, but since I’ve got bigger ships with better and more guns, I can outlast them.
If they choose to keep swinging to the right (relative to the second illustration), they’ll hit the wall of broadsides while their fronts are exposed, with no cover. Grape and chain-shot broadsides usually kill either their morale or their sails, taking care of 40-60% of their ships. And my left flank of ships pursue while my right battery swings about to prime their guns again. (Or, if they just pass through between my ships, they’ll face the right-facing broadsides into their rears before they get room to manuevre.)
It’s a bit tricky to start with, but it becomes useful in no-time.
This time, however, the enemy not only held back - they deployed in a broad reverse-crescent formation. Meaning that the start of the battle looked something like this:
**
EEEE EEEE EEEE
EE EE
EE EE
3 2 1 2 3
3 3
3 3
6
6
S
**
It was jaw-dropping to see - I literally went OW SHITE, out loud.
They had the rearwind and set sails straight ahead, keeping in formation. Since I had the wind in my face and couldn’t wheel without losing the little cohesion my formation offered me, I set up anchor and resolved to slug it. Their ships sailed straight through the holes in my formation, pounded the two flank Third Raters on the “face” of my Wedge into submission on the first pass, then went through my entire formation on one run. My sixth rates and sloop, as well as three third rates were out of commission when they came out on the other end - I was left with my flagship, my two Second-Raters and three Third-Raters.
They hadn’t lost a single ship.
And when they came through on the other end, my ships still wheeling to pass, the bastards split into groups, staggered their ships and presented their broadsides. My ships were out of range, luckily, but it was all I could do to keep the drool out of my carpet.
THE COMPUTER USED MY OWN FORMATION AGAINST ME.
If I wanted to get back into the fight, I’d had to sail my battered six ships downwind into the teeth of their broadside or swing an entire 180 degrees around their axis to isolate even one of the two groups. (Which, in itself, would have been a 1:1 battle, if I was lucky. And I certainly wouldn’t have been able to handle the other group.
I swear, my computer was wheezing laughter at me through it’s DVD drive.
So I set my teeth and made a staggered diamond formation of my ships, determined to set sail into the teeth of the smaller group. I wheel to give them a battery broadside to soften them up.
What happens?
The first shot of an enemy sloop, their first gun that came in range - A GODDAMN SLOOP! - hits the ammunition storage chamber of my Admiral Holborn’s First Rate Flagship.
It explodes.
The other ships, bewildered and demoralized by the loss, pass through the teeth of the broadsides of chain-shot and grape. Most sails are down and ships are surrendering. Then the other group swings around and takes them in the rear while they’re immobile.
I didn’t even sink a single, goddamn sloop.
Man, it was awesome.
)…
). Once you’ve got the key war techs (Fire by Ranks, Exploding Shells, Square Formation and either ring or socket bayonets), your forces are about as unstoppable as they’ll ever be. The further techs don’t seem to add much, and Line Infantry is essentially what you’ll be using for all eternity anyway so the super elite versions aren’t a great need. Better guns and better horse are all right, but ultimately not that necessary either - horses get slaughtered very fast by bayonets anyway, meaning even cuirassiers are relegated to back charges and anti-cannon duty, something even militia cav does very adequately.