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  1. #1

    Change my mind - Ship of the Line is not worth it compared to Frigates

    So about my games I play: single player with only hardest AIs and evereything turned to the max difficulty (so yes no moving of buildings, demolish cost money etc) with NPC traders still present.

    So lets do some stats on these:
    Info: SOTL = Ship of the Line
    2 Frigates vs 1 SOTL:
    • have more DPS by ~4
    • can be more flexible because you control 2 units so you can divide them if needed
    • cost the same influence
    • are faster so can be more effectively used in escort
    • have the same hitpoints
    • have less upkeep cost by 50 credits
    • due to their higher rate of fire Frigates generally dont overkill compared to SOTLs
    • have lower range by 13 which is not a big deal considering they are faster
    • can build them earlier
    • cost 20 more tons of wood and 10 tons of sails, which I think are negligable

    I know you can play with the broadside mechanics for SOTL which can cause it to deal at most twice the DPS if microed perfectly but I dont consider that good gameplay as Anno 1800 for me is not a micro game. So lets not take that into account.

    What am I missing in the SOTL? What do I dont see? Why do I see them quite useless?
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  2. #2
    It's easier to lose a frigate. In a scenario when SOTL loses 50% hp you would lose one frigate.
    For this reason alone, in a fight of 2 frigates vs 1 SOTL the latter one would probably win.
    Also, higher unit counts are not always better - it's harder to move around a blob of several units.
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  3. #3
    You are right, those are two good points for SOTL. Tho similar could be said about SOTL. If you lose 1 SOTL from 2, your DPS drops massively while from 4 frigates you feel a loss of 1 less. Additionally Frigates can run away from fights while SOTL due to being quite slow cant.
    Hmmm Im not quite convinced yet but thank you for making those good points.
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  4. #4
    If you have 4 frigates and 2 SOTL, then:
    - one frigate dies around the time a SOTL reaches 50% hp.
    - second frigate dies before a SOTL dies, because SOTLs had higher dps than 3 frigates
    - shortly after that a SOTL dies, but at this point you have an undamaged SOTL against 2 frigates, one of which is damaged

    Also https://anno1800.fandom.com/wiki/Frigate
    "Despite the higher maneuverability compared to the Ship-of-the-line.pngShip of the Line, the lower reloading times of the broadsides doesn't allow firing both broadsides at a single target at maximum theoretical rate."
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  5. #5
    It depends on what you want them for. Frigates are far superior for quests or escorting, because they're faster. But speed doesn't matter when you're sieging islands, HP and damage are more important in such scenario.
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  6. #6
    Originally Posted by mcetnar Go to original post
    It depends on what you want them for. Frigates are far superior for quests or escorting, because they're faster. But speed doesn't matter when you're sieging islands, HP and damage are more important in such scenario.
    Yup, Frigates and Monitor is designed for quest, hunter and escorting.
    While Ship of the Lines is for defender of the island more than just doing sieging, but for sieging, I believe Battle Cruiser with iten buff range is better job at sieging, but Ship of the Lines do wonderful job when you don't had item buff range or not had battle cruiser.

    Now for gunboat, it's very good early, very cheap for massive powerful firepower, it's do wonderful job for defender and sieging island, but expect mass lost of ship and lives, however, and it's not good for quest, hunter and escorting due gun is foward, but can't shoot on rear or side to side while escorting, speed don't help, as gunship is kind of slow but as I said, it's great firepower with cheap stuff for island battle.
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  7. #7
    The right tool for the job. That's what frigates and SOTLs are. For most quests you need speed more than you need firepower. But when the time comes to besiege an island you need brute strength. Strength which greatly benefits from that third item slot that frigates do not have.

    If you put in a ranged item, a self-repair captain and a mortar you have a powerhouse that can dish it out and take it with no problems at all. Build a small fleet of these units and everything dies. This is something that the flimsier frigates just cannot do.

    Also remember that game items are multiplicative in nature. A 1.15 range multiplier on a frigate is okay. On a SOTL it's awesome. On a battle cruiser and the horizon is the limit. Having a large base value is key to getting the most out of an item.
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