Hi hellfire,
Another problem I have with the game, I see no need for a depot to be used for supply,during the Napoleonic era Heavy & Light ships,had more than enough provision to last for long periods at sea,and if they were running low on fresh water,food etc,they just stopped of at any islands that they were near to top up.
[&:] Are you serious about this? Do you think that unguarded magic islands full of fruits and fresh water were
scattered all around north Atlantic, Baltic and Mediterranean sea? [&:] I think you have a very optimistic
view of sea voyages and foraging in general.
In EIA, warships do not need depots, it is the troops that land from them that have to chose between foraging were they land or use invasion supply. Perfectly logic.
As for Transpo`rt fleets, most transport fleets of the day were conscripted merchant ships, used by the navy to move troops and supplies,the supplies on board the merchant ships were more than enough to keep the whole force fed and watered for the duration of the voyage,so Transport fleets if used should have the same movement as the heavy and lights in game terms.
First of all, transport in EiH have been introduced to simulate a mix of barges, fishing boats and merchant ships
that napoleon was assembling to cross the channel, so pretending them -- filled with tens of thousands of men -- to have the same movement then warships is pretty absurd.
Secondly, transport aside, have you any idea of the logistic problems in shipping huge armies in early 19th century?
Forget voyages to America, large armies never did it.
Consider instead the sea invasion of Egypt:
Only 24.000 men (15 to 20 factors in EIA terms, a single corp) were transported to Egypth with Napoleon, and this
was the largest sea invasion of Napoleonic Era. The French navy didn't sailed directly from the south of France to Alexandria (which is 6-7 sea areas away in your EIA map), but instead bothered to seize Malta from the Knight of St. John on June 9th 1798. Malta lies in between, 3 sea areas away from South France and 4 from Alexandria. Then the fleet sailed to Alexandria were it landed on July 1st.
Why do you think he bothered to take Malta (which in EIA grants no revenue or manpower)? Obviously Malta was needed as an intermediate base, to forage troops and to protect communications between France and Egypt.
This example clearly show us that moving no more then a single corp across the Mediterranean was not an easy issue at all in Napoleonic era. Pretending that a fleet fully loaded with an invasion army of tens of thousands of men could have the same autonomy and sailing speed then a bunch of warships is again risible.
EIA had a few very nice optional rules to limit huge invasions: one was to reduce the movement of fleets carrying corps, the second was to reduce the movement of stacks.
As you will know, sailing before the steam was a tricky issue, depending on winds, storms, etc, and it was not unusual for fleets to get scattered. So if you want to travel in huge numbers and benefit from mutual protection, you have to wait for slower ships, lost ones, etc, thus largely reducing the overall speed.
I would frankly like to see this rules reintroduced in EIANW. They will give much more naval flavour then introducing a further almost useless distinction between first and third class ship-of-the-line.
In general lonely rocks such as Malta or Gibraltar may be important in EIA (as they were historically) only if sea invasions and/or commerce are somehow limited to make them vital naval bases.