User Guide

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At the top of the display you will see the fleet’s
name, the name of the admiral that commands
it, and its current location. The total number
of ships in the fleet is shown beside the admi-
ral’s name, and the chance of each ship suffer-
ing any attrition per month is shown beside its
location. Attrition is handled a little differently
at sea than it is on land. We’ll discuss this dif-
ference in the next section.
On the left side of the top area is an indica-
tion of the fleet’s overall morale. If you wish
to disband the fleet and scrap all of its ships,
you can click on the skull and cross bones but-
ton located to the right of the fleet’s name. You
can also split the fleet into two smaller fleets by
clicking the “reorganise fleet” button. Splitting,
reorganising, and combining fleets is accom-
plished using exactly the same techniques used
for managing armies.
In the lower portion of the display is a scrol-
lable list of each ship in the fleet. Each ship’s
name and current operational strength is
shown on the banner, and its type is identified
immediately below its name. You can hover
your mouse anywhere over the banner to see
its detailed combat characteristics. A ship’s op-
erational strength determines its seaworthiness
and the percentage of its guns that are manned
and operational. If this value ever drops to zero,
the ship will be sunk and lost.
Admirals
A fleet will be far more dangerous to its foes
when commanded by an admiral. An admiral’s
effect on the course of a naval combat is often
considerably greater than a general’s effect in
land combat, so you should avoid engaging any
enemy fleet that is commanded by an admiral
unless your fleet enjoys similar leadership. You
cannot convert your ruler into an admiral so
you must recruit one, preferably when your na-
val tradition level is high.
Using Naval Forces
The general methods for controlling naval
forces are the same ones you use for controlling
land forces. You will select it and then right-
click on the province to which you would like
it to move. This can be any water province that
you have charted, or any coastal province with
a port that either belongs to your country or to
a country to which you have military access.