Naval Sieges and Big Ships
Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2020 6:10 pm
Been reading Age of Titans: Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies, and it's got me to wondering if maybe Warship and Large Ship classes should have more interaction with siege mechanics. For those who haven't read the book, one of the key dynamics in warship development from the Peloponnesian War til the Battle of Actium was siege warfare.
In game, the way this seem to works is that ships are used to cut off contact with the wider world, and presumably food shipments. This removes the siege resist bonuses found on many harbor buildings, making it easier for the besieger to passively win the siege. Based on everything I've seen, this can be accomplished by any number or kind of ships. All that matters is the existence of an enemy fleet in the adjacent sea region(s). Fairly simple.
Age of Titans, however, makes an argument that ships could play a more active role in taking a city than just blockading, and that ship development mirrored the increase use of ships in this manner. The book argues that the origin of the change can be seen in the efforts of Corinth and Syracuse to combat the superior Athenian navy. Athenian triremes were faster and more mobile than other Greek triremes due to the particular skill of Athenian rowers, sailors, and naval officers. This speed allowed them to be really good a maneuvering their ships into position to ram enemy's in the side. Unable to replicate Athenian speed, Corinthian and Syracusan ships instead focused on reinforcing the prows of their ships and engaging in frontal ramming tactics. Tactics that worked best in constricted spaces. Like harbors. The weaker prows of the Athenian ships made them vulnerable to this tactic, and contributed to the Syracusan victory during that famous siege. After that war, Carthage and Syracuse developed larger ships like the Tetrareme and the Quniquireme in part because those ships would be even better at frontal ramming due to their size, weight, and marine/archer complement. The Diadochi would continue that trend, culminating in the massive polyremes of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. This dynamic we also do somewhat see in game, where larger ships have superior melee and HP stats to lighter ships. The siege aspect is the only part missing.
Large ships were useful during Hellenistic sieges because they could support catapults of various sorts, something that we can now kind of see in the Naval Bombardment regional policy thing. But they were also useful because they could - physically - attack the harbor of a walled city, something that was often a weak point in the defenses. One of the ways the defenders would prevent ships from entering would be with chained obstacles. Large warships with well made rams could be used to breach that barrier. And in any ensuing fight with defending ships within the harbor, they would again have their frontal ramming superiority.
Suggestion:
1) Maybe it would be possible to give large warships (those bigger than normal warships) the Besieger trait, to passively represent this?
2) Maybe have the blockade effectiveness require a number of ships equal to the harbor cumulative siege resist?
3) Maybe have a special naval battle sub-type (much like the city assault where the frontage is small and heavy ships are prioritized) where large ships attack the harbor (and some generic defensive vessels) to quickly weaken the besieged? If successful, the defenders take some effectiveness/HP losses, making it easier for the land force to passively or actively capture the city?
Some/all of those might spice up naval strategy a bit and make sieges a little bit more interactive. Obviously, this would increase the cost of the large ships and make them slightly more specialized towards siege warfare rather than just basic naval supremacy.
In game, the way this seem to works is that ships are used to cut off contact with the wider world, and presumably food shipments. This removes the siege resist bonuses found on many harbor buildings, making it easier for the besieger to passively win the siege. Based on everything I've seen, this can be accomplished by any number or kind of ships. All that matters is the existence of an enemy fleet in the adjacent sea region(s). Fairly simple.
Age of Titans, however, makes an argument that ships could play a more active role in taking a city than just blockading, and that ship development mirrored the increase use of ships in this manner. The book argues that the origin of the change can be seen in the efforts of Corinth and Syracuse to combat the superior Athenian navy. Athenian triremes were faster and more mobile than other Greek triremes due to the particular skill of Athenian rowers, sailors, and naval officers. This speed allowed them to be really good a maneuvering their ships into position to ram enemy's in the side. Unable to replicate Athenian speed, Corinthian and Syracusan ships instead focused on reinforcing the prows of their ships and engaging in frontal ramming tactics. Tactics that worked best in constricted spaces. Like harbors. The weaker prows of the Athenian ships made them vulnerable to this tactic, and contributed to the Syracusan victory during that famous siege. After that war, Carthage and Syracuse developed larger ships like the Tetrareme and the Quniquireme in part because those ships would be even better at frontal ramming due to their size, weight, and marine/archer complement. The Diadochi would continue that trend, culminating in the massive polyremes of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. This dynamic we also do somewhat see in game, where larger ships have superior melee and HP stats to lighter ships. The siege aspect is the only part missing.
Large ships were useful during Hellenistic sieges because they could support catapults of various sorts, something that we can now kind of see in the Naval Bombardment regional policy thing. But they were also useful because they could - physically - attack the harbor of a walled city, something that was often a weak point in the defenses. One of the ways the defenders would prevent ships from entering would be with chained obstacles. Large warships with well made rams could be used to breach that barrier. And in any ensuing fight with defending ships within the harbor, they would again have their frontal ramming superiority.
Suggestion:
1) Maybe it would be possible to give large warships (those bigger than normal warships) the Besieger trait, to passively represent this?
2) Maybe have the blockade effectiveness require a number of ships equal to the harbor cumulative siege resist?
3) Maybe have a special naval battle sub-type (much like the city assault where the frontage is small and heavy ships are prioritized) where large ships attack the harbor (and some generic defensive vessels) to quickly weaken the besieged? If successful, the defenders take some effectiveness/HP losses, making it easier for the land force to passively or actively capture the city?
Some/all of those might spice up naval strategy a bit and make sieges a little bit more interactive. Obviously, this would increase the cost of the large ships and make them slightly more specialized towards siege warfare rather than just basic naval supremacy.