How do you feel about Naval mechanics in strategy games?

[NJClaw]

I like the ships in Cossacks. You have special siege ships but otherwise the bigger the ship, the stronger it is (and more expensive), so it's very basic. They are costly to make and costly to maintain (Cossacks has upkeep cost for all units) but if you have control over the sea you can shell the ever living shit out of the opponent's town. Most of all, I like them because they're beautiful - you can tell someone on the dev team took special care to model them.

Everything in Cossacks is too beautiful for this world. If I close my eyes, I can still see those little peasants working in the fields all day and hear the mines exploding.

 

[Desman]

I think AOE2 probably has the best naval combat. You had Galleys/Galleons, Fireships, Demolition Ships and Cannon Galleons. Knowing how to manage them properly was the key to winning naval combat.

*Laughs in Rule the Waves-ish*

Might be a good game and the most accurate simulation ever but when i see a game that look like some excel spreadsheet immersion is really hard.

It's real time or turn based ?

 

[Camel]

If they got more ships, they win unless you get more ships, but if they already beat you back you won't out-produce them.

Not RTS but Pirates of the Caribbean/Corsairs hit the sweet spot of realism/arcade in naval combat. You can maneuver, use different types of ammunition, I.e. if you have a bigger crew but few guns you use grapeshot and board enemy ship, otherwise you use knippels against sails and evade enemy ship trying to board you. You use broadsides and enfilade fire by using crossing the T strategy. Amazing games.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Naval battles in Pacific General were decent

 

[mondblut]

Might be a good game and the most accurate simulation ever but when i see a game that look like some excel spreadsheet immersion is really hard.

Staring into excel spreadsheets is exactly what clerks at the Admiralcy do. In terms of immersion this definitely gets closer to the real job than any other hopelessly gamified, popamole pretend strategy game.

It's real time or turn based ?

Strategy layer is turn-based, engagements are RTWP.

 

[Raghar]

If they got more ships, they win unless you get more ships, but if they already beat you back you won't out-produce them.

Not RTS but Pirates of the Caribbean/Corsairs hit the sweet spot of realism/arcade in naval combat. You can maneuver, use different types of ammunition, I.e. if you have a bigger crew but few guns you use grapeshot and board enemy ship, otherwise you use knippels against sails and evade enemy ship trying to board you. You use broadsides and enfilade fire by using crossing the T strategy. Amazing games.

East India Company had normal shots, grape shots, and chain shots. Also It simulated well the nasty consequences of winning a combat against pirates and then you want to replenish ammo... It's really expensive for a commercial company to restock nearly spend ammo for 3+ small warships. It also simulated light guns, medium guns, and heavy guns. And real warships could have marines that shot muskets at short ranges.

Also it had invasions of ports, building garison and forts and economic abuse.
Also when you oversold stuff in home port, prices dropped sharply.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Love naval mechanics in 4X and grand strategy games, even if there's much room for improvement. There's something extremely cozy about transforming your lands into an impenetrable fortress as an insular nation by building a strong navy. It's a quite satisfying gameplay style in EUIV in particular, where you can completely ignore having a strong standing army (+/- raise mainly mercs when you're warring abroad or quelling rebellions at home if you're wealthy enough) while also being able to punch above your weight in offensive wars by isolating and taking over the insular possessions of greater powers fully uncontested once you sink their weaker navies. And if nothing else, maritime borders are aesthetic borders. Meanwhile with other types of natural borders, often the provinces cut through them in Paradox games hence no achievable aesthetic borders for you.

most of the time you see people playing Civilization with a Pangea world type

Guess I'm the odd one out since I tend to pick archipelago maps in 4X titles.