Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-17114085-20150216141300/@comment-17114085-20150218144840

Pacman the great wrote: (This isn't really my business, but these battleships aren't going to be very effective. For one, the ballistae are anti-personal weapons, and wood would probably absorb the impact of the bolt. For second, the metal plating would weigh down the ship a lot. It wouldn't necessarily sink it, but if you only have sail, you won't go very fast. Third, the plating would be useless against boarding (which would be very easy). As for the other ships, the transport ships, unless heavily modified, would be very vulnerable to attack. The archers wouldn't be very effective, as most battleships have defensive barriers to protect against arrows.) (It is more used as anti-personal but that depends on the type of ballista. There are many different types, the Roman ballistae were much more powerful that the Greek ones. Sure they weren't that useful against stone structures like castles but a large metal pointed round going at that speed can break through almost any wooden structure. And they could just as easily fire on the ship's crew instead of the hull. It is a pretty versatile weapon and much more accurate than a catapult. The whole hull isn't metal plated, only parts above water that would be more vulnerable. So instead of placing shields on the side of the hull it would be steel plated. As for speed that isn't what this was intended to be focused on. It is intended to be a battleship-esque ship so to act as sort of a tank that can also dish out damage.

The transport ships aren't made for combat, they are made to transport soldiers. So their only purpose to is to be large and carry plenty of soldiers onto the shore or in the case of naval battles carry soldiers to board other ships. The archer ships are the ones meant to be fast, they'd be smaller and lighter than the other ships. Their purpose to be faster than the other ships so as to outrun and maneuver them and the archers are supposed to take out another ship's crew, so the ship can either be captured or more easily sunk by another ship.

I mean this is some classic Total War ships. The archer and ballista ships can also use fire rounds, which are pretty devastating to enemy ships. A flaming arrow barrage can completely destroy a ship's sails.)