Fire At Passing Ships?

[Southerner]

Could someone please explain this one?..and maybe the idea behind this option in general?


My costal batteries fire at passing doodler ships, whether or not I have activated this button...and too, a lot of the time, this button is "grayed out" for many batteries even when the batteres are at 100% strength.

[Jabberwock]

Batteries in forts should always fire. Batteries outside of forts do not have the option to fire, unless they are in level 5+ entrenchments. Locked (or fixed) batteries do not get the option in some recent versions. Depending on the version you are using, those batteries may or may not fire if they are in forts. There has also been some confusion with recent versions as to whether it is a "bombard" button, or a "don't bombard" button. It is a work in progress.

Early versions of the game had an imbalance towards naval artillery. It became critical to introduce this option. Ships can't always shoot at everything in a coastal or river bank region, because the region can strech up to 30 miles inland. This option allows artillery (and other field units) to either be emplaced where the ships can interact with it or not.

[Timothy Kroll]

When my forts fire on ships I see the firing during the turn and then there is a note in the turn recap that says hits for each side, but there is no battle summary. Am I missing something? I think I have sunk enemy ships in the river but only see hits given; or have I not sunk anything?

[eleven_west]

I think the fort vs ship battle is abstracted. However it does take place, sometimes visible on the green then yellow then red markers of the unit that's been shot at, and then afterwards if you hover the cursor over the enemy unit or by looking at your own defending units. The effects can be pretty devastating on ships, especially expect riverboats to always get it from coastal batteries.

[Jabberwock]

When my forts fire on ships I see the firing during the turn and then there is a note in the turn recap that says hits for each side, but there is no battle summary. Am I missing something? I think I have sunk enemy ships in the river but only see hits given; or have I not sunk anything?

There is no summary for this. You may very well have sunk something.

[Inside686]

But do batteries on land only bombard "passing" ships?

Exemple: if a ship manage to get into a enemy fort area, will it be bombarded the next turn since it doesn't move?

[Pocus]

No, this was really tricky to implement. It will be bombarded though if it bombards, but otherwise there is no mean to know if it is close to the fort or 10km away in the sea region.

[Inside686]

So a ship is susceptible to be bombarded only if:

-He is in movement in a region where there is a fort or entrenched+5 troops.
-If he is supporting landing troops bombarding the fort

Am I right?

[Pocus]

For (1) yes, more precisely if he move from a region which is adjacent to an artillery battery to another region which is also adjacent to the battery.
(2) is ok.

[Inside686]

Oh thanks Pocus, maybe I've just learned something important here,
You mean that when a ship moves from a region not adjacent to the battery to an adjacent one it will not be bombarded?

[Pocus]

exactly