How big to make your Navy?

[Paul_1868]

I was wondering how other players use their Navy and how important to you think the Navy is in CTP 2.
Here is my typical navy (large size map) early on:
(I tend to stay on my initial continent, and keep my borders connected)
1 to 2 Coracles (for discovery and embassy establishment)
Mid to end game:
1 to 2 Transports
2 to 3 battle ships
1 to 2 aircraft carriers
1 to 2 subs
It appears that the AI concentrates allot of production on Naval units. I have been successful winning (conquest victory) the game on the Hard to Impossible levels with a small Navy I don't know why it is necessary to build such a big navy. Am I missing something?

[Prince_Vegeta]

It depends. Mostly on land:sea ratio, and whether my empire is on a single continent, or whether it's multi-continental. I personally like to play with a large navy. A large battle-group or two for each large expanse of ocean (from the renaissaince on), and interdiction vessels at the major choke points in the seas. A few lurking subs off enemy coasts help too. This allows me to limit the other civs expansion greatly, and in the event of a war, I fight it on there turf because they can't get any units out of their own territorial waters. But this is later in the game, until the ren. I only build a couple of transports for the same reasons you do.

[Dominous Nemo]

I think a large naval force is crucial. I beleive one of the major reason why the british were so powerful was because of their large and mighty navy.

[MrFun]

I am late in my medium difficulty level game right now with one large continent covering most of the map.

I have:
20 Battleships
6 Transports

[wheathin]

Depends on whether how far ahead I am in technology, and if I am at war. Bigger tech lead means I need fewer ships to sweep clean the seas. If I have a small lead, I find I frequently have many ships in port for repair and I need to stack my ships together.

[Sabre2th]

i am ususally pretty far ahead in tech, so i keep a couple of subs and maybe 5-6 battleships around. i don't really build ships early in the game, except for exploration

[CC_Fully_Completely]

The three main factors I use when deciding the size of my navy are:

1) Where I rank in the standings (if i'm far ahead I wouldn't worry too much about a really big navy)
2) Water:Land Ratio (if its just even 40% sea, I usually build a big navy). Also map sizes, On larger maps with say 40% water or so, a large navy is crucial, IMVHO.
3) How many coastal cities I have.

Right now i'm playing a game where about 20 of my 30 cities (10 of which were conquered, all were along the coast) are coastal. I find in situations like this it's a good idea to have several subs along the coast to guard against incoming troop ships, etc. In the early game a massive navy isn't all that importent, I really wouldn't build any navy early on (unless there's a ridiculas amount of water).


[This message has been edited by CC_Fully_Completely (edited December 14, 2000).]

[Apollon]

My "constant" navy depends on the terrain, and the "global threat" to me

But, when I go to war, or prepare for war.. The navy grows BIG...
For example, in my last game (around... 1975AD), I had 3 main battle groups with 12 units in each. Group 1:
9 Nuclear subs with 18 cruise missiles, 1 scout sub, 2 moraystrikers.
group 2: 6 aircraft carriers with 30 stealth fighters, 2 battleships, 1 scoutsub, 1 destroyer, 2 moraystrikers.
group 3: 5 aircraft carriers with 25 stealth bombers, and then the same setup as in group 2.

In addition to that I had 10 helos with 42 paratroopers, 5 troopships with 24 tanks (I know you can load them onto a helo but I refuse to do it )

The game was played on very hard lvl, and as you can amagine... there wasnt much left of the AI I attacked when I was done

[Didymus]

IMHO, the AI spends a lot on military units, period.

That said, if possible I do as Paul_1868 does: expand on my continent, leaving no gaps for enemy (er, rival) cities.

However, in one respect we differ: I build PT boats and Destroyers mostly. Partly this is because battle ships take so long to build, but mostly it's because I am beelining to Conservation. Also, these units move slightly faster, and PT boats see subs.

I try to have 2-4 ships in each theatre of operations, and build more when the AI attacks. I can afford to do this because I emphasize income over minerals and food once I hit the beginning of the modern age.

Of course, this is defensive. I go on the offensive (if at all) once I get advanced composites. My Stealth units are TOO powerful, and the AI always gets them later than I do. Too late. But if I use a carrier, I will want a strong escort of battleships.

my navy is usually pretty tiny
the AIs very very bad at sinking my troop transports
but I had to buid some battleships to take out an island city...

[Foux]

I'm almost never using naval units, but only to move troops from one island to another. The reason is that usually I'm leading far ahead in technology research and I barely have time to build a navy unit, that a better one has been discovered.

Another reason is that I usually don't build cities on the coasts. Costal cities are exposed to naval attacks, and usually naval unit are strong and can easily destroy units in cities. I prefer see land units on the coast and then attack them from behind my city walls.

Even in cities build in seas, I usually don't have naval units, I prefer have strong land units.

cheers
Foux