Sailors

[ABridgeTooFar]

Does anyone use them?

Would they be effective attached to a riverine naval force?

[Hobbes]

They would not help a naval force, they help speed up river crossing in a stack.
Cheers, Chris

[nerod]

What differences are there between sailors and marines in the gameplay?

[Hobbes]

None that I know of.

[Henry D.]

Marines have overall better stats and therefore make for better fighters (akin to US regular army rgts.), while sailors are slightly cheaper and available in slightly larger numbers.

I tend to use them both in equal numbers, just for flavor...

Regards, Henry

[McNaughton]

It comes down to affordability and space management. While Sailors surely are cheaper, and provide pontaneer ability for the stack they are a part of, they do not provide as much to the division as would a regiment of marines when you take combat statistics into account.

Given that you have 17 spaces in a division to devote to units, it is more space effective to use marines, but cost effective to use sailors.

[Henry D.]

It comes down to affordability and space management. While Sailors surely are cheaper, and provide pontaneer ability for the stack they are a part of, they do not provide as much to the division as would a regiment of marines when you take combat statistics into account.

Given that you have 17 spaces in a division to devote to units, it is more space effective to use marines, but cost effective to use sailors.

I wouldn't even call sailors more cost effective, they are only about 1.000$ cheaper per unit than marines, while the letter provide a much bigger bang for the additional bucks. As long as they are available, marines are always the better option, IMHO.

Yet still, I'm a sucker for having "a little bit of everything" recruitment-wise, I even build those crappy two-regiments-brigades with one militia in them, so a couple of sailors every now and then are a must for me...

Regards, Henry