The Navy | The Army EU IV Guide

Sat war, battleships will be mainly busy with blocking ports and protecting narrow exits into the sea

In EU IV there are four types of ships. These are:

• Heavy ships. Heavy, formidable galleons. The strongest and, at the same time the most expensive in the game.
• Light ships. Almost useless in military terms. If you are planning on a naval fight, you can ignore these straight away. Still, they are very fast and should make up the fleet of an explorer setting out to Terra Incognita. Furthermore, they can support trade when you dispatch them to patrol trade routes, which is incredibly effective.
• Galleys. Galleys in themselves are quite weak but there is one unique characteristic to them. The damage they inflict rises by 100% if they fight on inland waters like the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea or the Red Sea. Anywhere else, they are not going to be as effective as heavy ships, but they turn out to be a better investment after being converted to money. They are capable of defeating a heavy ship at the ration of, more or less, 4:1 and, they will cost only 60-70% of that price. So, if you fight main land battles on such a sea, it will be more economical to invest in galleys, although you need to make sure that you do not exceed the permissible naval limit.
• Transport. These are used solely for transportation and are completely useless in the battlefield. They should never sail alone.

You can use ships to set blockades on enemy harbors to decrease income of the enemy and speed up his exhaustion with war, as well as to lay fire on the besieged forts from the sea. Still, they are not as crucial and victory in the sea will not provide you with any real profits if you lose on land. Still, it always pays off to have a strong fleet, if only for breaking blockades, elimination of pirates and protecting trade. Of course, you can also use transport ships to surprise the enemy with surprise-landing from behind. Remember also to control the key entrances to basins and passages between strips of land. Like, e.g. between Sicily and the Apennines, or between Europe and Asia near Constantinople. You will not only lock the way for the enemy ships this way, but also for his infantry which, in some cases, can make it across such straits.