The goal of this guide is to explain how ships and sea regions work on the campaign map. By extension, this will lead to guidance on both naval trade and the ability to move troops via ships.

At no point are these game mechanics adequately explained (relegated to less than a page in the manual), so this guide should help you shed some light on these crucial abilities. Primarily, this guide is aimed at newer players, but it may also clear up some issues for experienced players. The discussion will focus on the Medieval campaign as opposed to the Viking one, though the principles are exactly the same. The Viking campaign is discussed in the relevant section.

This is quite a lengthy guide for the subject matter. Don't be put off by the masses of detail here. I felt that it was necessary to be explicit, rather than try to cover these matters in a couple of paragraphs, since there are quite a few subtleties.

I recommend that you read this guide thoroughly to get an idea of what navies are all about, then try out some of the tricks in the campaign. It is, after all, best to learn by playing. You can then keep this guide as a reference if you are having trouble or forget something important.


28/02/16 - First draft completed

03/03/16 - Public version posted to Steam

10/04/16 - Fixed some typos and grammar issues + rearranged a couple of bits

22/01/17 - Belatedly added a section for the Vikings and fixed a couple of minor mistakes

09/02/17 - Discovered that some of the information which I used for the tech tree listings was erroneous and fixed it.

20/07/18 - Made some minor edits

The campaign map features not just provinces of land, but also sea regions (it is canonical to refer to them as sea 'regions' rather than sea 'provinces'). These may only be occupied by ships. They cannot be captured in the traditional sense, merely inhabited.


Ships may be recruited in any coastal province. Once the requisite buildings are built, ships may be trained in a fashion identical to standard troops (though ships take multiple turns which is rare for troops). Once built, the ship will appear in the corresponding sea region adjacent to the province in which the ship was built (if the province borders multiple sea regions, it will spawn in the region containing the port).

The buildings required to construct basic ships are always the same. You will need to build a keep and a port. Once you have done so, the shipwright will be available for construction, which will allow access to the most basic ships. More advanced/powerful ships may be built with additional buildings/technology (see the section on tech trees).


The markers on the campaign map represent your fleets, which are collections of ships, just like an army is a collection of units. A fleet may be composed of up to 16 ships (of any sort - there are no restrictions on mixing types). Just like armies, fleets can be divided up or merged together. In charge of each fleet is an admiral (just like a general) with a command rating, which you can view by right-clicking on the fleet. However, other stats and traits are not included for admirals.

A fleet is located in the region in which it sits on the campaign map, just as an army is located in the province in which it sits. Similarly, each turn, a fleet may move to an adjacent region exactly like an army. If a fleet is moved, its icon will change to show its sail billowing as an indicator to the player that it has moved.

To move a fleet, hold your mouse over it, then click and hold the left mouse button. This 'picks' up the fleet. Drag and drop it on the new location.

Fleets belonging to the AI, in regions that you occupy, or adjacent regions, are visible on the campaign map. Also, the owner of a fleet gains line of sight into any province adjacent to a sea region in which the fleet resides. This can allow a player to keep tabs on the vast majority of provinces in the game world; with a large number of ships, a player can thus gain a reasonable insight into the military-political situation of the entire game world.


Instead of moving, a fleet may be used to engage the fleets of other players. You may only engage fleets within the same region that you inhabit. Hence, if you want to engage a fleet in an adjacent region, you must first expend a turn moving to that region, then engage on the following turn.

To engage an enemy fleet, pick up your own fleet, then drag and drop it onto the fleet you want to engage (the fleet will highlight as you hold your own over the top so you can see which one you are selecting to engage). Once you drop your fleet on top, a dialogue box will ask to confirm your actions. You will also notice that your fleet's icon will change to show guns firing and smoke to indicate to the player that it is intending to engage an enemy.

If you change your mind about an engagement, simply pick up and then drop the fleet in the same region. You will see that its icon changes back to the default.

The actual conflict happens once the turn is ended. Sometimes, you may notice that no conflict takes place; this happens if the opponent in question moves their fleet out of the region during their turn. In this case, your fleet will do nothing.

The specifics of the combat system are covered in the relevant section.


Sea regions come in two distinct types. Coastal regions, as their name implies, border provinces. Deep sea regions do not border any provinces. Ship types have an associated range - early ships are limited to coastal regions, whilst later ships can traverse deep sea regions. This is a result of the technology available at the time (presumably to reflect difficulties in navigation and the lack of sophistication in ship design). Note also that deep sea ships may move (up to) two regions per turn instead of one.


If a region has no ships within it, it is described as neutral. When a fleet is moved into a region, it does not capture that region, merely inhabit it. Any number of factions may place any number of fleets within a sea region. If the factions are not at war with each other, all may use the region independently. In this case, the region is still described as neutral.


Multiple fleets inhabiing the same region. The level of color within the flag indicates how many ships make up the fleet.

However, if you go to war with other factions who also possess ships, sea regions can become blockaded or hostile. A blockaded region occurs when an enemy faction owns a ship in that region. This means that you may not transport troops or tradeable goods through this region until that faction's ships are destroyed or move away. The region is blockaded regardless of whether your own ships are present. If two players at war both have fleets in a region, then it is mutually blockaded.

Note that factions who are neutral in the conflict do not experience the blockade and vice-versa. These factions continue to describe the region as neutral and use it as before. Hence, a region is blockaded only to enemy fleets.

You can view the status of a sea region by holding your mouse over it and waiting a few seconds (assuming that the 'show tooltips' box is checked in the campaign options - click the arrow next to the minimap on the campaign screen).





You can also view this status by pressing 'v'. Regions without any ships are unchanged; neutral regions which you occupy are green; neutral regions in which you have no ships, but other neutral/allied factions do, are yellow; blockaded regions (enemy fleets present) are red. This is an excellent way to appraise the situation 'at-a-glance'.

• There are no rebel ships/pirates. If a faction is destroyed, their ships disappear from the map.
  
• Ships cannot be bribed or interacted with using agents of any sort.
  
• Ships provide LoS into adjacent provinces. They can also be used to spy on the composition of armies therein. However, this is only possible if the army's owner does not have any ships in the region.
  
• Support costs are calculated in multiples of the value listed when recruiting the ship. For every region the ship is away from a friendly port, a multiple of the support cost is added. So for ships in a region with a port, you pay 1 x support cost. For a region adjacent to this, without a port, you pay 2 x support cost and so on. Note that although support costs are listed as integers, they may be non-integer e.g. for the Caravel, the listed support cost is 12, but is actually 12.5 (always rounded down for some reason). Also, support costs may not exceed 4 x the base amount, regardless of distance.

I will try to follow a consistent nomenclature in this guide. I will reserve the term region for the sea and province for the land. I will also refer to a ship as the single unit and fleet as the object on the campaign map, exactly as I would refer to army and unit as distinct entities on land. Similarly, I will use the term admiral instead of general.

There are three distinct naval rosters available to the game's various factions, each containing several ships. This is to reflect the different styles of ship building and technical knowledge available to them. The Almohads, Egyptians, Golden Horde and Turkish receive one set; the Italians, Sicilians and Byzantines receive another, and the remaining (mostly Catholic) factions receive yet another. The Danes also have the ability to build a unique ship (the Longboat). As you advance through the ages, new ship types will become available if you have the correct buildings.

Note: There are several non-playable (or rather playable only with mods) factions that also follow these trees. The People of Novgorod/Russians, Papacy, Swiss and Burgundians all follow the 'Catholic' tree, although PoN can build the Longboat like the Danes.


Building any ship requires at least a shipwright. This, in turn, requires a keep and a port. The next tier of ships requires a dockyard, which requires a shipwright. The dockyard may be built in the Early Period, but is not of any use to most factions until the High Period.

You would be forgiven for thinking that the shipbuilder's guild requires only a citadel. In fact, it is not possible to build the shipbuilder's guild until you have built a cannon foundry, which in turn requires gunpowder (1260). Hence, although many ships are listed as available in the High Period, you'll struggle to get to them before 1300 or so. Although the compass is listed as a prerequisite, this event happens in 1170, so is automatically fulfilled by the time gunpowder is available.

The cannon foundry requires a citadel and a bell foundry. The shipbuilder's guild requires the cannon foundry. The master shipbuilder requires a shipbuilder's guild. The master foundry requires a fortress and a cannon foundry.

I do wonder if mistakes were made in the tech trees. I get the impression that the intention was for the shipbuilder's guild to be available after the compass (1170), even if no ships could be built. On the other hand, high level ships have armaments that require gunpowder, so it's largely a moot issue, if a little confusing. The following table should summarise the situation:


*Strictly, the port has no prequisites; it may be built even before a fort.


In the Early Period, there is not much choice. Most factions are unable to build deep sea ships, though the Islamic factions can build them in the Early Period with a dockyard. The Islamic tree has the upper hand in the Early Period entirely for this reason, even if the baggala is expensive.

The central Mediterranean tree has the weakest ships, but they are also the cheapest. The costs of building ships can be prohibitive, so the galley at 375 florins is welcome. The Catholic tree is limited to the barque, which is a good ship, but expensive.


Once into the High Period, factions can build deep sea ships. In exactly the same way, they must construct a dockyard. These new ships are generally a significant improvement over their predecessors. With the caravel, the Catholic tree has the best ship.

After 1260, gunpowder arrives. This expands the potential scope for navies. As I have mentioned, the tech tree is somewhat misleading, since it neglects to mention that there are foundry requisites for the shipbuilder's guild and master shipbuilder's guild. Hence, you cannot start to build the highest tiers of ships until after gunpowder.

The cog, boom and gungalley are all reasonably well matched at this point, but the ability for the Catholic tree to go further and build the carrack ultimately makes it the best (if you can stomach the cost).


The Late Period adds nothing new technologically, though many of the prequisites for the highest levels of ships take so long that you may reach the Late Period before being able to build them.


Factions: Almohads, Egyptians, Golden Horde, Turkish.


This tree is exclusive to the Islamic factions (and the Golden Horde), hence the name. You may well ask why the Golden Horde has access to it - it was probably the closest fit without designing a completely new roster for a single faction.

The starting regions of these factions (ignoring GH) are some of the best for trading (and farming). Plus, the vast majority of provinces are coastal. Islamic factions should exploit these advantages in order to succeed. If necessary, you should consider acquiring the provinces belonging to the others in order to form a very economically powerful empire.

The overwhelming advantage of this tree is the availability of the baggala from the start (with a dockyard). This is a deep sea ship (and quite powerful in its own right). It is, in fact, the only deep sea ship available in the Early Period and thus offers a significant advantage to Islamic factions.

On the other hand, the tree does not extend much beyond this. The boom is solid, but inferior to the carrack.

Factions: Byzantines, Italians, Sicilians.


*It should be noted that gunpowder is not actually essential for the construction of the wargalley. Although, the shipbuilder's guild cannot be built until after gunpowder and the construction of a cannon foundry, it is still possible to build wargalleys before gunpowder. To do this, start a campaign in the High Period with the Italians - you will notice that Venice comes with a shipbuilder's guild already built. Note that Constantinople, while rebel, also has a shipbuilder's guild.

This tree is exclusive to the central Mediterraean factions. It has a focus on slightly weaker, but cheaper ships. Each of these factions has a single outstanding province (Constantinople, Venice and Sicily respectively) with multiple tradeable goods. These provinces alone can generate thousands of florins. Plus, the high proportion of coastal provinces that these factions enjoy makes navies vital.

The low cost of the galley is significant in the early game. The dromon's speed is also notable for its ability to keep ships locked in place, but the galley is much more well-rounded.

In the High Period, the second half of the tree is mediocre at best. Although the ships are relatively cheap, they are also weaker than those of other factions. The firegalley is poor in comparison to the caravel, and the wargalley not much better. The gungalley is similar to the boom, but is inferior to a carrack. Nonetheless, it's still a strong option.

The Late Period offers no new ships.


Factions: Everyone else (including Papacy, PoN/Russians, Swiss, Burgundians).


**The cost is 450 for the Danes, but 600 for PoN. I don't know why.

This is the most common tree and the one that almost all the Catholic factions follow. It's not very exciting early on, but picks up later. Some factions in this group have lots of coastal provinces and decent trading potential. Others are predominantly landlocked. Thus, naval power may be seen more as a military objective than an economic one.

That is not to say that trade is non-existent for these factions. Certain provinces e.g. Flanders, Sweden can be incredibly lucrative. The idea is more that tradable goods are sparser in these parts (and generally less valuable), so trade takes longer to become profitable.

Early on, your only option is the barque. Whilst it's nothing to get excited about (and quite expensive at 700 florins), it is reasonably strong and more than a match for other types of ships. The longboat is exclusive to the Danes and PoN - it is a cheap, if weak, option for early trade. Note that the PoN are counted as a different faction to the Russians; the Russians cannot build the Longboat. Also, for unclear reasons, the longboat costs more for the PoN, who also cannot build the barque.

Once you enter the High Period, you can access the caravel with a dockyard. Until the next tier of ships is available, the caravel is unparalleled. After gunpowder (1260), you can access the cog. The cog offers little that the caravel doesn't. Although it's cheaper and has better attack, a great deal of investment is required. If you go no further, you'll be outmatched by the gungalley and boom.

The carrack is the undisputed king of the tech trees and more than a match for any other ship. If you decide to tech beyond the caravel, make your way up to the carrack. Despite its build cost, it's cheap to run and will justify its pricetag in combat.

The Late Period offers nothing new in terms of ships, but by the time you have actually hit the requisite buildings for the top tier ships, you'll probably be there anyway.

So you've built some ships, what now? Well, ships can be used to rapidly move troops around the map, much in the same fashion that agents do. In order to move units, several things are necessary:

• The units have not already moved on the current turn.
  
  
  Obviously ...
  
  
• The province in which the units are located must have a port.
  
  
  This condition should be obvious, but be aware that if you invade an island (e.g Ireland) and there is no port or the port is destroyed in the invasion, then you'll have to (re)build one in order to move your army back. Therefore, don't strand your best troops!
  
  
• An unbroken chain of your own ships must exist to your destination. That is, at least one ship must be present in each sea region between the provinces.
  
  
  As long as the chain is unbroken, your units may move as far as you want. The chain does not have to be direct and can be as convoluted as you wish, but it must be contiguous. In this way, random storms that wreck ships can be disastrous for your transport network.
  
  Note also that the chain starts in the sea region with the port - units have to depart from a port. However, the ending destination does not have to be at a port - troops can land amphibiously anywhere.
  
  
• There may be no blockades along the route
  
  
  A single enemy ship, judiciously placed, can foil your entire invasion strategy. No matter how small the blockade is, it must be removed before you can continue to move troops. Bear in mind that enemy ships may emerge to curtail your mobility - don't rely on a permanent supply of troops from your homeland.
  
  
• The owner of the destination province (if not the player's) must not have any fleets in any of these regions
  
  
  If the owner of the desination province has a fleet at any point along the route, you cannot complete the move. This is true even if the province owner is currently neutral. This allows fleets to 'defend' provinces from attack.

If these conditions are met, the units may travel to the destination province in a single turn. This means that troops can be transported across the other side of the map in a single turn. More pertinently, it means that any coastal province of an enemy (or unsuspecting neutral!) is a potential target for amphibious assault.

Some of the above points are best demonstrated through examples.


In this image, I am trying to move my Danish army into French lands. Since I have a chain of ships from my province to France, I have plenty of eligible destinations (highlighted purple by the game). The French ship (circled) is preventing access to Aquitaine and must be destroyed in order to invade by sea.

Even if the French did not have a ship in the Costa Verde, Navarre would also not be available as a destination - the single French ship prevents me from invading not only Aquitaine, but any French province further along my chain of ships.

However, the French ship does not prevent me from attacking the Spanish, since I am not (yet) at war with the French (and thus there is currently no blockade)

Note that Brittany is an available target since there is no French ship in the English Channel - part of its coastline is exposed, which is all that is necessary.


In this image, I demonstrate the value of certain sea regions. The presence of Italian and Byzantine ships in the Straits of Gibraltar means that I would not be able to move an army from my provinces (Scandinavia) to attack any Italian or Byzantine province, regardless of what ships they had elsewhere, even though we are neutral and there is no blockade.


Crusades/Jihads may use the shipping network in exactly the same fashion as a standard army. This also means that when you allow another faction's crusade to pass through your lands, they may take advantage of your ships and rapidly advance their crusade.

The AI can and does take advantage of naval movement, though typically without any degree of consistency. Certain factions with a naval focus and shipbuilding facilities (e.g. Italians, Byzantines) may surprise you with amphibious landings. Assuming that navies become a core part of your strategy, the presence of your own fleets ensures that your provinces are consistently defended - another advantage of ships.

Certain regions are more valuable than others. Chokepoints, such as the Straits of Gibraltar, are incredibly valuable. If they are blockaded or the ship is lost to a storm, you lose a massive amount of mobility. Keep these regions well-garrisoned and beware of enemy incursions.

Similarly, deep sea regions are immensely valuable since they border multiple coastal regions, allowing you to easily form chains. This can make your shipping network much less brittle.


Well-planned, synchronised, amphibious assaults on multiple enemy provinces have the power to destabilise an entire faction in a single turn. Factions with a high proportion of coastal provinces (English, Spanish, Almohads, Egyptians, Byzantines, Italians etc.) are particularly susceptible to these blitzkriegs.

• Standard
  
  
  In the simplest case, you amass an army (or armies) in a staging area, then commit them in a single turn to a coastal province of your choice. This may be to open up a new front on an enemy or surprise a neutral. Given that the target is away from the frontline, the province is likely to be sparsely defended.
  
  If your invasion force is limited, choose targets carefully - economic or production centres should be the priority.
  
  
• The Nuclear Option
  
  
  In the event that you want to eliminate/destabilise an entire faction in a single turn, this may be more up your street. Amass a large force of several armies and strike at as many enemy provinces as you can in a single turn. In this fashion, you can destroy a coastal faction completely in two turns (one for invasion, one for castle assaults). This also has the nice advantage of happening so fast that the Pope cannot intervene.
  
  
• Rolling Thunder
  
  
  The above tactic has a single drawback - provinces have to be pacified. This unfortunate reality can take the momentum out of an invasion completely. As you cobble together peasants and whatever else to garrison these new acquisitions, the Pope is chastising you for your aggression and your enemy is regrouping. Plus, you have expensive troops garrisoning provinces instead of invading.
  
  Hence, a more sophisticated strategy is necessary. In this case, construct both garrison forces (i.e. peasants) and assault troops. As soon as the assault troops capture the province, the garrison can be moved in and the assault force can be moved to the next objective. This allows you to rapidly reach provinces in the 'second line'; that is, provinces bordering coastal ones that are not coastal themselves.
  
  As an example, the French have some coastal provinces and some in the second line. The coastal provinces can be assaulted first, then these troops can be used to invade interior provinces. Moreover, this tactic can be extended by repeatedly supplying the coast with garrison troops and repeatedly shuffling garrisons forward.

Aside from the implications for mobility, ships have an even more powerful ability: naval trade. Naval trade is the answer to most of your economic worries. It will allow you to add another order of magnitude to your income and pave the way for world domination. It functions similarly to moving troops, but with some important differences.


In order to trade, the following conditions must be met:

• Your province must have tradeable goods, a port and a trading post building.
  
  
  To view a province's tradeable goods, simply right-click on it. Also, the higher the level of the trading post building (trading post, merchant, merchant's guild, master merchant), the more income you will generate.
  
  
• An unbroken chain of ships must exist between you and the province of a trade partner (with no blockades along the route).
  
  
  Exactly like moving troops, you must have an unbroken chain. Hence, storms or hostile fleets can seriously dent your economy if you do not take adequate precautions.
  
  
• You must not be at war with the trade partner.
  
  
  This should be fairly self-explanatory. It is worth pointing out that you trade individually with every eligible province, so going to war with a faction that has a large number of coastal provinces (e.g. Byzantines) can severely impact your trading income. Bear this in mind when considering your foreign policy.
  
  
• You must possess at least one tradeable good that the trade partner's province does not.
  
  
  If you share a tradeable good with the province you are trying to trade with, you cannot trade that good with them. They don't want it, because they already have it. However, you can trade the same good from different provinces of your own with the same province multiple times e.g. both Norway and Sweden can trade fish with Flanders.
  
  
• The trade partner's province must have a port (but not necessarily a trading post).
  
  
  This is mostly out of your hands, though the AI is usually quite quick to construct ports in its provinces. Ports are also always visible on the campaign map. A trading post in the AI province is not necessary for trade.

In much the same way that you can trade, the AI can too (assuming that they meet all of the above criteria). This is the income listed under 'imports' (as opposed to 'exports'). You can also view the total income from imports by right clicking on a province's port.

Imports are far less lucrative than exports, mostly because the AI rarely possess the wherewithal to accomplish trading and because the money gained per import is far less than the export cost of that particular item.

It is worth pointing out that trading with the AI allows them to collect imports, though this is probably negligible in the scheme of their economy. Plus, the income that you generate on the exports outweighs the potential assistance to the AI.


You may not trade with yourself (by sea). Hence, every time that you acquire new provinces, you are losing potential trading partners. Since every province that you own (with tradeable goods) trades with every eligible province, taking new provinces can put a surprising dent in your income.

As an example, if you have ten provinces trading with a specific target province, generating 50 florins, each, per turn, then invading that province will cause all trade with it to cease, losing you 500 florins per turn. On the other hand, if the province that you acquire has tradeable goods itself, or particularly good farming, it may be economically justified. Besides, you're here for world domination, so you have to take provinces eventually.

The point is that naval trade is most easily accomplished when you are not at war with everyone and when there are plenty of available provinces. There's nothing wrong with playing a conservative game where you build an outrageous warchest by staying out of world affairs, then use your superior economic clout and naval superiority to overwhelm opponents in the late game.

Indeed, this strategy works well with many of the invasion tactics discussed in the previous section. As an example, consider the Danes. With only one initial province and limited farming, naval trade is practically mandatory to build an economy. Several nearby provinces have tradeable goods (most are rebel held, but Novgorod may have to be eliminated) - these can form the nexus of a small, but immensely profitable international trade empire. Once your economy is booming, you can invest in the best troops and crush your enemies.

Be aware that an economy based on trade can be brittle. It relies on the continual goodwill of other factions, something that is far from guaranteed. The AI's penchant for random engagements can seriously frustrate your economic plans. As soon as a faction goes to war with you, they are lost as a trading partner. In this way, you could actually see those occasions when an AI faction randomly attacks you as a way for the AI to collapse your economy, since yours is far more reliant on trade than theirs.

As such, you should still take the time to diversify your economy, since farming and mining are not affected by wars.

Unlike later incarnations of the franchise, naval combat is comparably simplistic. However, there are plenty of elements that are never explained to players.

Before we go any further, it should be noted that there is a certain inherent randomness to naval combat. Furthermore, this randomness generally favours the AI, something that many players will attest to. Although this section covers some strategies to make the combat work in your favour, don't be surprised if you encounter the occasional surprising or downright mystifying loss.


Ships have three main attributes: attack, defence and speed. All of these are important in different situations.

Attack and defence correspond to the abilities of the ship on attack and defence (as you might have guessed). I assume that this corresponds to how they fare either engaging enemy ships or being engaged. Since you'll want to be aggressive whenever naval conflict arises (don't wait for the enemy to engage you - destroy their blockades), attack is preferred over defence. I don't know how much more there is to say.

Speed is important for engaging enemy fleets. As mentioned earlier, when engaging an enemy fleet, you must make your attack and wait for the turn to end. In this time, it is possible for enemy units to slip away. This is related to the speed of the vessels in question.

Firstly, a combined fleet always functions at the speed of the slowest ship within it. If the speed of the fleet is less than or equal to the speed of the enemy fleet, the enemy fleet can escape (provided the Ai happens to move it on that turn). In this way, a fast enemy ship can dance through your regions and your lumbering warships will not be able to engage it, allowing the enemy player to maintain a permanent blockade. Of course, the AI is generally not this smart.

As such, it is important to have fast ships available. Simply split up your fleet by speed. Engage with the fast ships to pin the enemy fleet in place i.e. if you engage with fast ships, the enemy fleet is prevented from fleeing. If you also engage with slower, heavier ships, then you can use these to actually carry the battle.

This also applies in defence. If you expect the enemy to attack and you are going to be overwhelmed, then you can divide up your fleet and move your fastest ships out of the province.

It is unclear to me what 'strength' does. As far as I can tell, it is set to 0 for all ships. I would love some citation on this.


As mentioned above, using fast ships to pin enemies in place is key if you are worried about them fleeing. It also seems to be more effective to split up fleets and have them attack the target individually. On the flip side, if you have a strong admiral, then he will influence only the ships within his fleet, so you may wish to keep your fleet together to benefit from his command.


Keep your ships stacked together whenever you are not attacking. Stacks of ships tend to do better on defence. Of course, if you are desperately concerned about an enemy attack, you can always divide up your fleets and try to allow your fastest ships to flee. A stack of three decent ships generally has little to fear from AI attacks.


Strategies for holistic naval dominance depend on your starting period. Make no mistake that naval dominance is the key to a successful campaign. It allows you to abuse the obscene mobility and fill your coffers on trade.

There will typically be one or two other factions that develop a serious navy as well as a handful of miscellaneous fleets. Factions that are serious about naval development are a significant threat - if you go to war, your entire trade network comes under threat and isolated provinces can become rebellious in a single turn.

The period in which you start and the campaign difficulty can also have an effect on whether the AI chooses to build fleets. Generally, the later you start, the more infrastructure is built and the more likely it is that the AI will build ships. If you start in the Early Period, it is rare for the AI to invest heavily in the required buildings until later on, giving you a headstart.

Despite the commentary on the minutiae of ship combat, the true deciding factor is often numerical advantage (and the occasional exceptional admiral). Assuming your ships are of a comparable quality to those of the enemy, overwhelming them with huge fleets is generally the answer. Certainly, it is rare for the AI to go truly large-scale, particularly in the Early Period. If you can churn out ships and stack two or three to a region, then you shouldn't have any issues apart from the occasional stroke of bad luck.

In the Early Period, there is little choice of ships and battles are mostly won or lost by weight of numbers. However, Islamic factions do have access to the baggala. Not only is this a deep sea ship, it's superior to anything other factions have to offer.

In the High Period, gunpowder makes an appearance midway through, paving the way for ship developments. The constructions are long-wnded, so you'll have to commit specific provinces to ship building.

In the Late Period, the situation is much the same, since all ships are now available. Unfortunately, it is still a struggle to get all the requisite buildings out of the way, so don't expect your Carracks to be dominating the sea until the last hundred turns or so.

This is another overlooked aspect of naval dominance. Without getting lost in every possible scenario, simply appreciate that connecting a province navally to your wider network is beneficial for the loyalty of that province.

In fact, this entire notion is best considered in reverse. Isolated provinces, a long way from home, suffer loyalty penalties. If your naval network becomes blockaded, provinces can take a massive hit to their loyalty because they become isolated.

Crusade provinces are an excellent example. Their loyalty is usually pretty tenuous because of their recent invasion and religious differences. Assuming that you have transported your crusade by sea, your province is connected. Functionally, it is as if it adjoins your home territories.

As soon as naval action/storms block that route back home, the province is suddenly isolated. Expect its loyalty to drop precipitously.

Indeed, this discussion is not limited merely to isolated provinces, but applies to any large empire. Connecting your provinces via sea is beneficial for loyalty, but can also lure you into a false sense of security. As soon as enemies start to form blockades, you can become beset with loyalty problems.

Moreover, the problem is compounded by the fact that you cannot simply allocate more troops to pacify the population, because the rebelling provinces are precisely the ones that cannot be reached quickly!

This is more something to be aware of rather than something that you can actively prevent. If you do become embroiled in new wars, keep an eye on the loyalty of provinces. Likewise, if you suddenly encounter loyalty issues, then check for blockades.

Ships in the Viking campaign work in more or less the same fashion as the medieval campaigns. The number of sea regions (and provinces) is smaller, but naval power is particularly important due to the existence of the Vikings.

The Vikings are the most interesting part of the campaign. Separated by an uncrossable deep sea region (no other faction gets deep sea ships), they are relatively safe from harm. However, their economy is weak, so they must earn florins by raiding (taking over provinces, destroying the buildings).

For other factions, they are a constant threat. Their ships are measurably superior, so strong fleets are necessary to protect one's lands from raids. The only way to deal with them is to use agents (either bribe armies in their homelands, or incite rebellions with spies/religious agents).

Thus, ships prove to be a valuable defensive safeguard as much as an offensive weapon or economic facilitator.

Trade is as lucrative as ever, particularly given how slow farming upgrades are. Since the number of sea regions is small, one can establish a trading network quite quickly.

As far as the tech trees go, the Viking one is superior to the others. They are the only faction to get deep sea ships, and their ships are superior in every way to other factions. There are two non-Viking trees, but both culminate in the Longboat anyway.


Factions: Vikings



Factions: Mercians, Northumbrians, Saxons



Factions: Irish, Picts, Scots, Welsh

Make sure that you have met all of the conditions for movement. In particular, beware a single AI fleet that belongs either to an enemy faction or the owner of your destination province; they can interrupt your entire network.


A single hostile fleet can blockade regions and interrupt trade. Remember also that you cannot trade with enemies (including rebels), so civil wars among large AI factions can infringe on your income.

Also, check your economic summary to see how your provinces are earning vs their expenses. If you click on each one, you can see a trade summary. This information should help you to evaluate your economic position.

Obviously, expensive building/recruitment projects will also cut into your profits too!


Short answer: probably not. The long answer is that a handful of regions serve little, if any, strategic purpose. Remember, a region with a port in it handles the trade for the corresponding province. If a region has no ports in it, then it is only valuable for moving troops.

However, if a province has other sea regions bordering it, then these also suffice for troop movement. Thus, certain sea regions are relegated to some very niche cases. As an example, Morocco borders a sea region called Atlantic Coast. Now, Morocco's port is in the Straits of Gibraltar, so trade happens there. Your trading network will also run through here. On the face of it, this sea region is useless.

But, in a very contrived situation, with the Straits of Gibraltar blockaded, it would still be possible to move to/invade Morocco. In this case, a deep sea ship in the Atlantic Ocean could form a chain with the North Atlantic and so on. Hence, it could prove useful. Similar arguments could be made for other relevant regions.

On the other hand, fleets have upkeep costs and might be more strategically useful elsewhere. In fact, it may be not even be economically worthwhile to trade with a specific province since the fleet upkeep outweighs the total trade profit!

Finally, you can also use these supposedly useless regions as reinforcement areas. You keep fleets in reserve and then deploy them nearby regions if problems arise.


Welcome to the frustrations of naval combat. Remember to engage with your ships singly, but defend in numbers. Also check the command rating of the opponent's commander and their ship type.

The bottom line is that the naval combat system is skewed for the AI's benefit (or at least it feels that way) and incredibly temperamental.


Short answer: no. The long answer is that a storm will only ever sink a single ship (chosen randomly from the fleets present). If your fleet(s) number 2+ ships, then you can survive a storm, though you'll still lose something.

On the other hand, if the ship sunk by the storm is chosen randomly from the ships present, then the more ships you have, the more likely it is that you'll lose one of your own instead of an AI faction (e.g. if you have 10 ships and the AI has 1, then there's a 10/11 chance of losing one of your own; if you have one ship each then it's 50-50).


Sort of, but it's quite tricky. Firstly, non-Viking factions have no deep sea ships, so a direct assault is impossible. However, agents can travel. Thus, it is possible to say, bribe armies or introduce spies/religious agents to incite rebellions. If you can get troops on one of the lands, you can travel between them with ships as usual.

In summary, correct and efficient use of navies on the campaign map can reap huge dividends. Their construction should always be considered a priority in campaigns, since the economic potential in the early game makes a huge difference.

In addition, the ability to move troops quickly between regions is valuable for both attack and defence. You are free to use every coastal province that you own as a relentless supply of troops for the frontline. If attacked, you can rapidly deploy reinforcements wherever they are needed.

Be wary of factions with a large naval presence. The AI's love of surprise attacks coupled with your own economic reliance on trading can disrupt campaigns very efficiently - navies are useful, but also brittle.

I hope that this guide has been of some use to all players. There's plenty here, but don't be overwhelmed by the volume of this guide. If you have any questions please ask in the comments and I'll do my best to answer. Likewise comments, positive or negative, are appreciated.

Don't forget to rate this guide either!