Welcome to my Crusader Kings 2 tutorial for
ships.
This video explains the mechanics, uses, and
user interface of ships, also known as "galleys"
or "fleets."
This tutorial is aimed at beginners.
Ships are used for transporting troops over
water.
Each ship can fit up to 100 troops.
There are no naval battles or blockades in
Crusader Kings 2.
Galleys come mainly from shipyard buildings.
You can also get some by hiring mercenaries.
To do so, you would click the "Military" tab
and go to "Mercenaries."
Then you would pick a band that consists of
galleys, such as the North Sea Cogs, and click
"Hire."
Ships are useful for sending troops to distant
lands, even when they don't need to cross
the sea.
Ships move very quickly, so over long distances,
transporting troops over water is often faster
than traveling by land.
Furthermore, when your forces travel a long
distance over land that is not in your realm,
they tend to die by attrition.
A skull icon next to an army indicates death
by attrition.
Let's look at how to transport troops.
The user interface for transporting an army
is a little tricky at first.
I am playing as the King of France.
Let's say I want to send my army to Ireland.
First, I will bring up my soldiers by clicking
the "Military" tab and clicking "Raise Personal
Levies" and "Raise Vassal Levies."
I'll get my vassals to contribute ships by
clicking "Fleet Levies," then "Raise Vassal
Fleets."
My demesne doesn't have any ships, but if
it did, I could call them in by clicking "Raise
Personal Fleet."
It's often better not to use your personal
fleet levies, but rather to use only your
vassals' fleet levies.
This is because fleet levies are fairly expensive
- they require a lot of gold per month in
upkeep.
If you use only your vassals' ships, then
you won't pay any upkeep for ships; only your
vassals will pay.
It's true that in certain types of wars - typically,
aggressive wars - when you use a vassal's
levies, his opinion of you will gradually
decrease.
However, if you're already using a vassal's
ground forces, then you will take the same
opinion hit, regardless of whether you use
his ships as well.
Now I will select all of my ships.
Notice that if I try to click and drag to
select them, the game selects my troops instead.
The game doesn't allow me to select troops
and galleys at the same time.
So what I'll do is hold the Alt key while
I click and drag.
Holding the Alt key tells the game to select
my ships rather than my troops.
Now that I've selected all of my ships, I
right-click on a water space adjacent to land
to order them to move there.
I'll select my troops and send them to a county
adjacent to the water space.
Then I'll wait for all of them to arrive.
I'll merge my troops into one unit by clicking
"Merge the selected units."
There are two requirements for the unit to
fit on board the galleys.
First, there must be at least one ship per
hundred troops.
My 128 ships can fit up to 12,800 troops,
so I have enough room.
Second, these ships must be in a single unit.
I'll select them and merge them into one unit
by clicking the merge button.
There are two ways to board.
The first way is to select the soldiers and
right-click on the adjacent water space, to
order them to move onto the ships.
The second way is to select the ships and
move them to the county's port by right-clicking
the county.
Then I select the troops and click the "Embark
Army" button.
Note that you can't move ships to the ports
of counties that are not in your realm; you
can only move them to friendly ports.
If possible, boarding at a port is a little
faster than boarding at a water space.
If you made a mistake, then you won't be able
to board.
Either the embark button will be grayed out,
or a movement arrow will not appear when you
right-click to move your army to the water.
If this happens, then you most likely made
one of three mistakes.
First, you may have too few ships.
If you don't have at least one ship per hundred
troops, you might want to break up your army
and make multiple trips to transport all of
the troops.
You can break up a unit by selecting it and
clicking the either the "New Unit" button
or the "Split in Half" button, which is next
to the embark button.
Second, the ships might not be in one unit.
Be sure to merge them into a single unit.
Third, they might be in a water space when
they need to be in a port or vice versa.
Ports are considered to be different locations
from water spaces.
Now that the troops have boarded, it's time
to transport them to Ireland.
I select the ships, right-click on a water
space adjacent to Ireland, and wait for them
to arrive.
Like with boarding, there are two ways to
disembark.
I can select the army by selecting the galleys
and clicking on the unit button.
I can then right-click on an adjacent county
to order my army to move there.
Alternatively, I could have simply moved my
ships to a port.
Soldiers will automatically disembark in a
county when they are transported to the county's
port.
My realm does not include any Irish counties,
so in this case, I can't land in Ireland by
sailing to a port.
But like with boarding, when you can land
at a port, it's a bit faster than disembarking
from a water space.
When your troops disembark, they have low
morale.
You should avoid disembarking directly onto
a county with enemy forces, unless you greatly
outnumber them, because you're liable to lose
the resulting battle.
Better to land in a nearby county and allow
time for morale to increase before engaging
the enemy.
When you're done using your ships, you can
dismiss them by going to the "Military" tab
and clicking the dismiss buttons.
Alternatively, you can select the ships you
wish to dismiss and click "Disband Unit."
Note that if you dismiss fleet levies when
they're not in a friendly port, only half
of the ships will make it back home.
It will take a while for the lost galleys
to regenerate.
So normally, you should move your fleet levies
to a port first.
Once they arrive, it's safe to disband them.
Naturally, whenever you dismiss your ships,
any troops that are still on board the ships
are dismissed as well.
That's all there is to it.
Now get out there and conquer the world without
fear of the sea.
