Battles at sea

Sea battles (L&L Version 4.0)

Fleets can be moved similarly to armies on the map or in the field view. In addition, each fleet can receive orders that define its tactic during battle: approaching behaviour and target of attack (confirmation with the GO!-button).

A newly build ship has the standard setting "flee".

Tactic

The following settings are available:

Approaching behaviour:

• Flee: Only the slowest ships of a fleet are involved in a battle, should the enemy attempt an attack and his fleet reaches at least the speed of the slowest ships. Because of the flight only a part of the loaded units participiates in the boarding fights. Depending on the fraction of the total cargo size of the escaped ships, the generals and heroes of the transported armies aer on the escaped or on the remeining ships! After the battle the escaping fleet moves onto a neighbouring field. If that fleet has an order to reach a target field, the fleet continues its course to this field after the flight.

• Distance: The fleet does not attack enemy fleets. However, if an enemy attacks, all ships of the fleet participate in the battle.
• Ramming: The fleet attempts to ram the enemy fleet, but avoids a boarding battle if possible.
• Boarding: The fleet attempts to board, but not to ram, the enemy fleet.
• Ramming & Boarding: The fleet attempts to first ram the enemy fleet, then board it.

Attack target:

This setting defines, which ships of the enemy fleet should be rammed preferably.

• nearest ship: dromones ram the nearest ship
• sailors: ships with large crews are preferably rammed
• cargo space: ships with large cargo space are preferably rammed
• boarding bonus: ships with the highest boarding bonus are preferably rammed
• speed: ships with the highest battle speed are preferably rammed
• Dromone: enemy dromones are preferably rammed

When does a sea battle commence?

If two fleets of players, that are at war with each other, meet on a fild and is at least one fleet set to battle, a sea combat place. If two enemy fleets meet and both fleets are set to "flee" or "distance", no combat takes place and the ships simply sale on. Fleets of neutral or friendly players can move on the same fields. Fleets, that at the moment [[Disembarking army and spies||drop off troups, do not attack actively but can be attacked. Should fleets of multiple enemy players are on one field, the following rules apply:

• The fleet of the active player attacks the enemy player those fleet has the most movement points. If there are multiple options, the player is selected by random.
• Each fleet has as many movement points per tick as it is her travel speed (so 0-6). Every move on the main map costs 1 point and every battle costs 1 point. Fleets can therefore more than once per tick. Example: a fleet with ships of speed 3 moves from one field distance onto an enemy fleet. In the same round the enemy fleet is attacked 2 times.
• Allied fleets attack jointly, even if they move onto the enemy field coming from different fields. It only matters that they arrive at the same time (= with the same movement point).
• When the own movement points are used up, the fleet can't attack in this tick any longer. Then the attack takes place at the beginning of the next tick.
  However, the ships can still be attacked by a third enemy player on the same field in the same tick.

Course of the battle

Sea battles follow in principle 2 phases: a ramming phase and a boarding phase. Whether one or both phases take place depends on the tactics of the involved fleets:

• If at least one fleet has selected the tactic "ramming & boarding", both the ramming and the boarding phase take place.
• If at least one fleet has selected the tactic "boarding" and no other fleet has selected the ramming tactic, only the boarding phase takes place.
• If at least one fleet has selected the tactic "ramming" and no other fleet has selected the boarding tactic, only the ramming phase takes place.

Ramming phase

During the ramming phase the dromones attempt to ram and sink the enemy ships. Based on the tactics, the battle speed of the ships, the reachability of the targeted ships in the fleet, the experience of the fleets, the levels of the admirals and the number of the dromones participate in the result of the ramming phase.

Relative to the number of sunk ships, the transported armies and sailors are lost. These losses are displayed in the combat report.

Boarding phase

The remaining ships now enter the boarding pahse. The boarding phase is identical to combat on land with the following exceptions:

• Sailors have the same basis value as archers.
• Besides the sailors, transported swordsmen, spearmen and archers fight in the battle.
• Horsemen fight as swordsmen in the boarding phase.
• Ballistas, trebuchets and siege towers are not used during the boarding battle, but may be destroyed during the fights.
• Ship catapults provide supporting fire for the sailors. One catapult corresponds to 30 archers with rspect to the bonus.
• Decisive for the course of the combat is the boarding factor that is determined by tthe various ship types.

Losses

As during land battles, the ratio of the combat values of attackers and defenders determines the losses:

Losses = MIN(1,1-(ratio-ratio_enemies/4)/ratio)

These losses not only apply to the loaded units, but also the fleets has the same percentage of losses. If a fleet for example consists of 10 koggs and has 30% losses, 3 koggs are sunk. As these losses will not always equal complete ships, left-over losses of the fleet are shown as a reduction in the fitness for action. If for example a fleet of one kogg has a loss of 30%, the kogg is not destroyed but its fitness for action sinks to 70%.

• the fitness for action reduced the cargo size and the number of available sailors during the boarding phase
• the fitness for action can increased by repairs in own and allied harbours

Honor loss for sunk ships

If a war is conducted with honor loss, the aggressor will also loose honor when sinking ships. For each opposing ship sunk, the same amount of honor as when conquering enemy fields will be lost.