Harbour
If an unused plain is a costal region, a harbour can be build on it. Troups can be loaded and unloaded into ships in harbours. Additionally, ships are build and reparied in harbours. The more harbours of high levels exist in a realm, the more ships can be managed; the ship limit is increased. If the ship limit is overdrawn by more than 5 ships of any kind, all ships (except for landing crafts and small galleys) are damaged automatically every tick. The level of damage in each tick depends on the number of excess ships.
Although you may build any kind of ship (depending on your research success) in every harbour, it is advisable to use a harbour with a high expansion level to build big ships due to the considerable construction time. Similar to castles, harbours increase the population growth in their own and neighbouring fields, though only to a smaller degree.
In enemy harbours, all carrier ships can disembark troops, to allow an invasion from the sea. Obviously that is not possible at harbour ruins; these can only be conquered by troups disembarking from a landing craft or from small and medium galleys. Harbours provide a bonus for defending armies upon an attack from sea.
The construction of harbours requires a minimum distance to castles, cities and other harbours!
| Construction time on an empty field | Rebuilding a ruin | 
|
|
Defense bonus against attacks from sea | Starting experience of new ships | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23* | 12* | 
|
|
12 | 50 | |
| 31* | 16* | 
|
|
14 | 57 | |
| 34* | 17* | 
|
|
16 | 64 | |
| 39* | 19* | 
|
|
18 | 71 | |
| 41* | 21* | 
|
|
20 | 78 | |
| 44* | 22* | 
|
|
22 | 85 | |
| 47* | 24* | 
|
|
24 | 92 | |
| 50* | 25* | 
|
|
26 | 99 | |
| 53* | 27* | 
|
|
28 | 106 | |
| 57* | 29* | 
|
|
30 | 113 | |
| Constructing a harbour atop of another kind of ruin: 37* | ||||||
*The provided construction time does not take the research areas "Fatigue Duty" and "Industrial Cooperative" into account!
The cancellation of construction orders is possible at any time. 90 % of the paid ressources are returned.
Minimum distance requirements
- Castle-Castle: 3 fields between building and construction site
- Town-Town: 2 fields between building and construction site
- Harbour-Harbour: 2 fields between building and construction site
- Castle-Town: 1 field between building and construction site
- Castle-Harbour: 1 field between building and construction site
- Town-Harbour: 1 field between building and construction site
Harbour Demolition
When entering the order to demolish a harbour, ship construction and ship modifications are canceled. Ship repairs continue unchanged. If ship work is cancelled, 90% of the resources are returned.
Hints by experienced players
It is a good idea to explore the surrounding area before a harbour is build, so that neither time nor ressources are wasted for the construction of an harbour at a small lake. However, even unwise placed harbours are useful, because they increase the limit on the number of ships.