Combat is an integral part of Kaiserpunk and what would combat on a large (world) scale be without the navy? Let's take a dive (pun unintended) into how fleets are assembled, controlled and what you can do with them in Kaiserpunk.
[h2]Assembling fleets[/h2]
Obviously, as is the case with all other military units, you have to provide weapons or combat vehicles, in this case ships. You could purchase them from other factions or produce them yourself. Don't expect smugglers or passing traders to sell you military grade vessels. That simply won't happen.
If you purchase ships, it's only a matter of waiting for
the goodies to arrive, but let's have a look at the more fun part of the equation: producing your own vessels.
You'll need a shipyard. Kind of figures... You'll also need a whole bunch of resources. Military vehicles like ships, tanks, artillery or airplanes aren't produced constantly, like other resources. You have to
order them, or to be more precise, you
have to give the order for them to go into production. That means you must have the resources upfront and ready. That also makes sense if you think about it, since your military shipyard can't start building anything without the needed resources. It's a significant undertaking... So, as noted, you dish out the order from your governor's mansion to produce a certain number of a certain type of vessel and the diligent workers will get to it. Producing ships takes time, so don't expect your ships to start magically appearing within a single in-game day.
Once a ship is done, it's ready to be included in a fleet. For that to happen, you have to have a fleet first 😊. Much like battalions that use military bases, a single navy fleet requires a single Navy base as its homebase. As soon as a Navy base is built, a new fleet (without ships though) is created. It will automatically be assigned a navy admiral to oversee. All of this works exactly as it does for Military bases and Battalions (land armies). Your next step is to gather enough recruits and train them to operate the vessel (the one you produced earlier). And once all that training is done, you'll have a Fleet ready for deployment. A fleet can have up to 8 vessels. That's where things diverge from regular land armies, which brings us to...
[h2]Deploying fleets[/h2]
Every army, once created, exists in its own homebase. They are waiting for your orders. And the first order you can, well actually must do, is to deploy it. Deploying an army is a simple affair: pick an appropriate region in the world that you control and that isn't already occupied by another army (of the same type) and give the deploy order. The farther away the region is from your capital, the longer it takes for the army to deploy.
Navy fleets follow this same procedure but use a different set of
points for deployment. Battalions are deployed into regions. Fleets are deployed onto naval points, with an additional caveat: not all navy (movement) points are used in deployment. Only points that
interact with a nearby land region are eligible. These are called
landing points. They represent a direct link between the land and the sea. When transporting battalions via the sea, you can only make landfall from these points. Same thing for getting battalions onto fleets for transport. Additionally, a navy fleet can only be involved in a land battle if it is currently occupying one of these landing points. A single land region can have multiple landing points. This also leans into some regions being more difficult to defend from the sea. Multiple landing points means multiple points of entry…
The whole
shtick described above can seem confusing, but trust me, it really isn’t, and you can bet that everything is clearly displayed on the map for ease of use.
[h2]Moving fleets[/h2]
Navy fleets use their own movement grid to move across the globe. The grid
snuggles the shoreline of all continents, but naturally also connects different land regions across large bodies of water.
Moving fleets works in the same way as battalions. Select the army and click on the point to move the fleet. After the fleet conducts an action, movement included, you have to wait a bit (cooldown period) before you can move it again, but for fleets, this
pause is shorter. Fleets simply move faster.
[h2]What about combat?[/h2]
Of course navy fleets have a role in battles. If two (or more) fleets engage on the high seas, you’ll simply have a maritime battle on your hands. Fleets can also be involved in land battles. Remember those
landing points? Yup. They’re back again. If a fleet is positioned on one of these, the fleet can attack the land region that the landing point is linked to. Similarly, the fleet can get involved as support army and do some nice bombardment.
Battles involving navy fleets (even exclusively navy fleets), are handled much in the same way as any other battle. They are simply another army represented on the
war table with its very own figurine. Giving out orders is still just a matter of selecting the fleet and then their target, be it another fleet, a battalion, garrison or region upgrade.
[h2]Anything else? Something special perhaps?[/h2]
An essential function of navy fleets is transporting battalions and squadrons across the seas and oceans. Instead of creating a special type of ship to include in the fleet (and taking one or more army unit slots), we’ve opted to give armies a specialization, a special upgrade of sorts. This is designated/ordered on the Naval base info panel. You have two options:
- Add transport ships to the fleet – Fleet gains the ability to transport battalions
- Add a carrier to the fleet – Fleet gains the ability to transport squadrons
This is a simple and efficient way to specialize your fleets into roles. Now mind you, that doesn’t mean that an army that a fleet is carrying cannot be harmed. Of course it can. Engaging a fleet on the seas and sinking some of its ships will inevitably cause losses on the battalion the fleet is transporting. In fact, if you see a fleet like that approaching, it’s in your best interest to prevent them from making landfall…
The same goes for carried squadrons, even worse, one might say, since air squadrons mounted on fleets can go on the attack, making the fleet a nice moving airbase from which to launch air raids and attacks… as one would…
[h2]Naval blockades and trade route pillaging[/h2]
What kind of master strategist would you be if you couldn’t implement naval blockades? It would suck and would be a completely wasted opportunity. Well, thankfully, in Kaiserpunk you’re more than allowed to do that. In fact, we’d encourage it. It’s a great stress relief (for the blocker though, not the blocked...) and gives you a nice tactical advantage. So how do you do it? Simple enough; just position your navy fleets to cut off viable naval routes. If
they want to pass, they’re either going to have to go around (the globe) or fight you for the right of passage.
A nice little touch is that when you arrange a shipment of some kind with one of your diplomatic partners, the convoy transporting the goods is also moving across the world map. If needed, the convoy will go across the sea, which is the perfect opportunity to smack them around and
privatize the shipment. It is highly unlikely that you’ll get everything they’re transporting, but a percentage of the loot is still good. Naturally, you can bet that the AI will do the same to you.
[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
Navy fleets, while they cannot single-handedly take over a region, are a perfect addition to your mighty war machine. With them you can harass, pillage and provide invaluable combat support to your battalions. Fleets are expensive to build and maintain, but if you really plan to dominate the globe, you won’t be able to do it without naval might.
