There are many people who think that the naval aspect of Shogun 2 is deeply flawed. Not so long ago I used to think the same, until I did a LOT of testing recently for one of my mods and came to the conclusion that naval battles are not as bad as I used to think.
In this guide I will go over basic misconceptions, actual problems, as well as explaining some of the more intricate details of the ships themselves and finally go over some basic fleet tactics. This guide only covers the base campaign, not ROTS (which is a mess) and FOTS (which works completely different).

There are quite a few myths regarding naval battles. Whether it is the Bow Kobaya of death or certain ranged weapons not working, I will go over these here.


Apparently, these ships are considered by many to be the Yari Ashigaru of naval battles, primarily because of the "Fire Arrow" ability. I will cover that ability in the next, don't you worry.
Bow Kobayas, in all of my testing, proved incredibly fragile. There was only one matchup I could get them to win consistently: against Matchlock Kobayas. Against all other ships they struggled immensly, even with fire arrows. When supported by other ship types they typically also failed to add much value in the fight.
DISCLAIMER: I consider a matchup "winning" when a ship comes out of the battle in a state where it could, theoretically, take another battle right away. The reason being that you need to move a heavily damaged fleet into a port and repair, which means for at least one turn it will not be able to do anything, not even prevent naval invasions over the endturn - and thus is basically "dead".
Mind you, I am not saying that Bow Kobayas are bad - they are just not as strong as they are often made out to be. To further add to my point: if you have ever seen naval battle gameplay online (or played them yourself), then seeing the "victorous" fleet of Bow Kobayas be almost destroyed is a very common sight.


To put it simple, you need two Bow Kobayas firing fire arrows onto a single ship to set it reliably ablaze. And even then, only the smaller ships (e.g. Kobayas and Medium Bunes) are really bothered by this. All larger ships can just ignore the fire and continue as if nothing happened. On top of that, it is very rare to ever encounter isolated ships on the campaign map, making this tactic quite unreliable.
Once again, do not misunterstand. Fire arrows can be extremely powerfull - in the right situation, against certain ships. But they are nowhere near as almighty as people make them out to be.


The reason why you sometimes see a ship with matchlock crew refuse to shoot is because the matchlock gunners do not have line of sight on the enemy crew. The real problem here is that there is no indication of what is going on. It also does not help that certain ships (the Nanban Trade Ship in particular being an offender) have a million different tiny dead angles they can't shoot through. Over time, I managed to develop a feeling for this and got better at avoiding it, but the lack of an indicator still makes it hard to tell what is going on. I would advise you to go into custom battle and get a feel for it yourself, just because this is so finicky.


I played a few campaigns on legendary heavily relying on navies. On average I ended up spending around 8000 on Land upkeep and 3500 on Naval upkeep. This was with experimental, not optimised fleet builds. So the realistic upkeep cost of an optimised fleet should be much lower. On top of that, I used those navies to protect my sea trade and take out invasion fleets before they even got close to my shores. All in all, it did not feel like I wasted money on my ships. Of course they do not come for free, but it is not like they would provide no value at all when you have them. They can, for example, free you of garrisoning coastal provinces, as the threat through naval invasions is non existent if you guard your coasts properly.

This is just going to be a small list of problems that you will run into when playing naval battles.


If you have ever been the attacker in a naval battle, you might have seen the AI just sit there in a line and not do anything until one of your ships gets into firing range. I have no idea what causes this, but it is quite a bummer, considering that the attacking AI actually knows what it is doing. To add the icing to the cake, sometimes the AI seemingly attempts to withdraw ships, only for them to get stuck at the edge of the map.


But wait - did I not just tell you that matchlocks are not bugged? How come you list the cannons as bugged? Well, truth be told, I have no clue as to why the Cannon Crew occasionaly refuses to shoot. I have been able to rule out line of sight through some testing, but that's it. No idea why they refuse to do their job. To add insult to injury, this bug seems to be restricted to the base game, but not FOTS.


Well they actually DO sink in vanilla, there are just two bugs at the same time happening which make it incredibly hard to tell what is actually going on. If that bothers you, I made a mod which sorts this out. That mod is not required by any means, and I will not take it into further consideration for the purposes of this guide.

Within the following Subsections, I will go over the individual ships in detail and talk about there strengths, weakness and best usage. The ships will be classed after:

• Cost - divided into Recruitment/Upkeep cost, as well as Time to recruit and other prerequisites
  
• Weight Class - heavier ships have an easier time "bodyblocking" enemy ships and are generally harder to take out
  
• Profile (Hull Height) - ships with a low profile (e.g. Kobayas) are extremely vulnerable to ranged attacks. The reverse is true for ships with a high profile (e.g. the Nihon Maru), as many incoming arrows will either miss or get blocked by their hull
  
• Crew - what types of crew and how many of them. Also some additional notes if there are any to be made
  
• Handling Characteristics - how easy it is to get the ship where you want it to
  
• Strengths
  
• Weaknesses
  
• Comment (if there is any)

It should be noted that ship crews in Shogun 2 (just like in Empire Total War) consist of three types of crew members: Marines (Ranged), Seamen (Melee) and Gunners (Cannons). The melee stats on the unit cards only show the stats of Seamen, being a standard 12MA / 2MD, as well as the ranged stats of Marines which tend to vary between ranged weapon type. The actual melee stats of Marines however is MUCH lower, at around 4MA / 1MD, making them extremely vulnerable in melee.
Other stats like the "Hull Strength" are just abitrary numbers without any connection to the underlying mechanics. For that reason, I will not talk about the stats on these unit cards and instead apply my own criteria.

I will ignore the Wako variants, because their are across the board inferior versions to the original.

The ships will be covered in no particular order.

I have already talked a bit about the Bow Kobaya, so I will just get right into the criteria:

• Cost: 150/50 (100/50 for Mori), 1 Turn recruitment from Harbours and better
  
• Weight Class: Light
  
• Profile: Very Low
  
• Crew: 30 Archer Marines (40 on the Mori variant) and 5 Spear Seamen. Outside of the spear, they are functionally no different from their sword wielding counterparts
  
• Handling Characteristics: Technically the best in the game, but the pathfinding glitches out 90% of the time so you need to babysit this ship a lot if you want it to do precise maneuvers
  
• Strengths: Very Mobile, so it can easily get into good positions and away from danger. Fire Arrows, if researched, can annihilate small ships. Only 1 turn recruitment time and extremely cheap. Because of this, it specialices as an expendable skirmishing ship with some early to mid game potential against weaker ships.
  
• Weaknesses: Pointless against anything that is not a Kobaya or a Medium Bune. Seriously, do not take other ships than those two head on, as it will go very badly. Extremely squishy, only beaten by the Fire Bomb Kobaya in that department
  
• Comment: The 10 Marines more on the Mori variant do add quite some firepower and staying potential

The Medium Bune is probably the most common ships in campaign, right next to Bow Kobayas and Trade Ships, and for good reason. Medium Bunes are versatile ships usable in any fleet, but with a few key drawbacks to consider.

• Cost: 350/85 (300/75 for Mori), 2 Turn recruitment from Harbours (Trading Ports for Mori) and better
  
• Weight Class: Medium (but on the heavier end)
  
• Profile: Medium
  
• Crew: 55 Archer Marines, 35 Katana Seamen (45 for Mori)
  
• Handling Characteristics: Decent. You should not have a lot of problems to get this ship where you want it to
  
• Strengths: Lots of archers, decent number of Seamen (especially for Mori). Good for taking fire fights against many ships and can also efficiently board weakened ships. The Warcry ability further solidifies the latter point. Can also block enemy movement, although it is not the best ship for this purpose
  
• Weaknesses: Quite vulnerable to Fire Arrows and concetrated fire from enemy ships, as most of the crew spends their time on deck rather than below. Can do a lot of things, but for all of those there are other ships who do it better. Also Mori cannot reccruit this ship from Harbours, they need Trading Ports or better instead
  
• Comment: Just an all around solid ship, as already mentioned. If you feel like your fleet could use some additional ships and you don't know which, pick this one. Chances are good it will provide value. Just do not make fleets exclusivly consisting out of this ship.
  The Mori variant is much stronger at boarding because of the 10 more Seaman, so feel free to use it more aggresively

The Sengoku Bune is the first specialised ship you will be able to recruit. Its sole purpose is to actively chase down small ships (e.g. Kobayas), or finish of ships that have taken larger casualties. All of its potential lies in offensive boarding actions.

• Cost: 400/125 (350/75 for Mori), 2 Turn Recruitment from Military Ports and better
  
• Weight Class: Medium
  
• Profile: Low
  
• Crew: 10 Archer Marines, 80 Katana Seamen
  
• Handling Characteristics: The fastest ship in the game. Can chase down even Kobayas very easily. The poor turn rate makes it a bit rough to control though
  
• Strengths: As already mentioned, this ship annihilates small ships in boarding battles and can even give Medium Bunes (or damaged heavier ships) a run for their money in a boarding battle. There are a few things as scary as watching an enemy Sengoku Bune speed towards an isolated ship of yours and realizing that there is nothing you can do. Also for some reason this ship is basically immune to fire, so it serves as a dedicated hard counter to Fire Arrows
  
• Weaknesses: Only 10 very exposed Marines means no ranged combat potential. Which is fine, because that is not what the Sengoku Bune is supposed to do anyways
  
• Comment: The best "chase" type ship in the whole game. Which is also the only thing it does, but so well that it does not need much else. Be wary of boarding from a ships broadside (it will look like a "T"), as the low turn rate of the Sengoku Bune means it can get stuck circling around its target

The Fire Bomb Kobaya is the second specialised ship available, requiring the Way of the Sea technology. Its main purpose is to get up close and personal to an engaged enemy ship and absolutely destroy it. It's a high risk, high reward unit.

• Cost: 250/100 (200/50 for Mori), 1 Turn recruitment from Military Ports and higher. Requires the Way of the Sea technology. Limited to 4
  
• Weight Class: Very Light
  
• Profile: Low
  
• Crew: 25 Fire Bomb Marines, 5 Spear Seaman. The Fire Bomb Marines are incredibly weird - they have 0 Accuracy (i'm not kidding) and the bombs themselves deal 0 damage. However, the explosions still inflicts damage and typically flings crew over board, on top of being able to set ships ablaze. The also have a longer reload time than Matchlocks for reasons
  
• Handling Characteristics: Same as the Bow Kobaya. Technically speaking superior, but the pathfinding bugs out every once in a while.
  
• Strengths: Incredible damage output close up. There is not a single ship which can withstand a prolonged attack from a single Fire Bomb Kobaya. The mines and kisho deployment also add some welcome tactical potential
  
• Weaknesses: The Crew is a sitting duck and will get killed very fast when engaged in a fire fight. Never ever take a direct engagement with this ship
  
• Comment: As already mentioned, do not, under any circumstances, take a direct fight with this ship. Always wait unti the enemy ship you want to target is engaged, then move the Fire Bomb Kobaya close to it

The Heavy Bune is a strong ship, which can add a lot of value to a fleet. Despite being on the slower end, it can through its size and mass add tactical value to a fleet.

• Cost: 600/175 (500/100 for Mori), 3 Turn recruitment from Military Ports and better. Requires the Naval Expertise technology.
  
• Weight Class: Heavy. Can bodyblock well and thus force enemy ships to blob up, turning them into sitting ducks
  
• Profile: High - the Marines on this ship are very hard to hit and thus quite safe
  
• Crew: 40 Arrow Marines, 90 Katana Seamen
  
• Handling Characteristics: Slow, with a poor turn rate. Still, getting this ship to go where you want it to is quite easy.
  
• Strengths: Do not let the 15 Marines less than the Medium Bune confuse you, this ship is a force to be reckoned with in a fire fight. This is because the Marines on the Heavy Bune have a very good angle for shooting other ships, allowing them to pick of enemy crew quite safely. The Seaman are typically below deck, rendering them virtually immune to all ranged attacks except cannons. Because this ship has so many Seaman and the Warcry ability, it can also board very aggressively. Can almost ignore fires through its sheer size
  
• Weaknesses: Quite slow in battle, which forces you to play around it. Also has a higher opportunity cost in campaign because of the 3 Turn recruitment and the tech requirement
  
• Comment: If you have access to this ship and the finances to afford it, go get it. It's just that good. Only drawback from my point of view is the recruitment time. As always, do not rely exclusively on this ship, and support it with other ship types.

Not quite as tall as the Heavy Bune, but with other things to make up for it. Has the largest crew of any japanese style ship (except the Nihon Maru) and is hard to get rid of. Its main downsides are the heavy technological investment required to recruit it and the high prices for recruitment and upkeep.

• Cost: 800/275 (700/200 for Mori), 3 Turn recruitment from Drydocks
  
• Weight Class: Super Heavy. You are not pushing this ship out of the way.
  
• Profile: Medium to High - the O-Ataka Bune is a bit curved, so the profile and with it the angle for the archers varies a bit.
  
• Crew: 60 Arrow Marines, 100 Katana Seamen - outside of the Nihon Maru the largest crew of any ship.
  
• Handling Characteristics: Extremely slow in any way. Also the sheer size can make it hard to move this ship when there are other ones around
  
• Strengths: Incredibly large crew that can take most other ships head on. Also has the OP Encourage Fleet ability, which gives 6 MA, 6 MD, 50 Accuracy and 50 Reload. Absolutely bonkers. This ability mght as well the sole reason for this ship being good. Shrugs fires simply off until large parts of the ship are ablaze, which takes forever unless you get target by 6+ Fire Arrow volleys at once
  
• Weaknesses: Hard to maneuver and the Marines sometimes have line of sight issues.
  
• Comment: Use this ship in any fleet and click the Encourage Fleet ability as soon as the fighting starts. Or, alternatively, actually use the large crew and engage in this ship in both fire fights and boarding battles.

The matchlock armed cousin of the Bow Kobaya. Has a bad reputation, which stems mostly from people that don't know how to play around the line of sight issues. Otherwise a very potent ship, only held back by the absurd technology requirement.

• Cost: 200/100 (150/50 for Mori and 150/100 for Otomo), 1 Turn Recruitment from Drydock. Requires Gunpowder Mastery technology and indirectly Mastery of the Waves for the Drydock.
  
• Weight Class: Very Light
  
• Profile: Low
  
• Crew: 30 Matchlock Marines and 5 Spear Seamen. The Otomo variant as unique Marines with 10 more Accuracy
  
• Handling Characteristics: Same as the Bow Kobaya. I won't repeat it another time.
  
• Strengths: Very good at picking of enemy crew. Can inflict horrific damage within a very short timespan, much faster than Archer Marines could hope to. Is also incredibly mobile, making it very easy to get good angles
  
• Weaknesses: Guns need line of sight, which is very important. Basically you need to position Matchlock Kobayas in such a way that they are on the same side of an enemy ship as the Crew of that enemy ship is. For that reason, they need other ships to start the fire fight, so they can safely get a good angle. Also the crew is extremely exposed and will die if targeted for longer than 1 second
  
• Comment: Idk what the devs were smoking when they decided that this tech requirement was okay. It just needlessly holds an otherwise great ship back.

For some reason the image depicts archers despite the ship having a matchlock armed crew. No idea why. Other than that, this ship would be strong contender for best ship in the game if it were not for the tech requirement.

• Cost: 200/100 (150/50 for Mori), 1 Turn Recruitment from Trading Ports (Harbours for Mori) and better. Requires the Gunpowder Mastery technology
  
• Weight Class: Medium, but on the heavier end
  
• Profile: Medium to High. High of course being on the tower
  
• Crew: 40 Matchlock Marines and 5 Spear Seamen
  
• Handling Characteristics: Same as the Medium Bune
  
• Strengths: Unlike all other matchlock ships, the Siege Tower Bune has no line if sight problems because of the tower. Said tower also gives the gunners and incredibly good angle on any ship, meaning that taking a prolonged fire fight against this ship is a bad idea
  
• Weaknesses: The technology requirement, Fire Arrows and boarding battles. Thats it.
  
• Comment: Once again, idk what they were smoking when they decided to make this ship one turn recruitment and easier to get than the matchlock kobaya, while also outclassing said ship in every single way.

I won't even go into detail on this ship. Just don't use it in battle. Never. It gets beaten by anything. It gets easily chased down by a lot of common ships. The purpose of this ship is to generate a fortune from Trade Nodes. Not more, not less.

It's a trade ship, but can actually fight. Still not great at combat, but actually worth going over.

• Cost: 300/50, 2 Turn recruitment from Drydocks with the Red Seal Company specialty building present
  
• Weight Class: Medium
  
• Profile: Medium
  
• Crew: 40 Archer Marines, 40 Seamen
  
• Handling Characteristics: Just like the Medium Bune
  
• Strengths: It's a trade ship that can actually fight back. Not particularly well, but much better than nothing
  
• Weaknesses: The recruitment requirements are a joke. The Red Seal Company building is straight up outclassed by the alternative Pirate Fortress. It's a cool ship if you can get it, but why would you even bother? Just pay the extra money for a small fleet guarding your Trade Nodes

"The Jewel of Japan" is the strongest japanese style ship in the game. It is only available to the current shogunate. And you only get one of it.

• Cost: 900/350 (800/250 for Mori, if they manually recruit it), given for free to the current shogun. 4 Turn recruitment from Drydocks. Limited to 1.
  
• Weight Class: Super Heavy
  
• Profile: Highest - the highest profile in the game. Archers on this ship have a surpreme angle.
  
• Crew: 80 Archer Marines and 200 Katana Seamen
  
• Handling Characteristics: Very slow and unwieldy
  
• Strengths: An absolute monster in any situation. Can solo entire fleets and gets even better when supported. Also has the OP Encourage Fleet ability
  
• Weaknesses: The limitation to the current shogun as well as the slow speed
  
• Comment: A great ship in just about any way. Excellent in any situation. You cannot go wrong with this.

Infamously buggy, but suprisingly easy to get all things considerd. Nowhere near as good as Nanban Trade Ships, but also not without uses.

• Cost: 800/200 (700/150 for Mori), 2 Turn recruitment from Drydocks. Limited to 2
  
• Weight Class: Lightish
  
• Profile: Low, but covered in bamboo "armour", making it quite durable against arrow fire
  
• Crew: 30 Katana Seamen, 16 Gunners. The Mori variant gives the Gunners 10 more Accuracy and Reload. 4 Cannons per side
  
• Handling Characteristics: Very good. Has the Faster Rowing ability, which is the Battle Speed ability on crack
  
• Strengths: Highest range of any japanese style ship. Can easily get good angles on enemy fleets without taking much risk itself. Can damage ship hulls. Through its hull design, this ship cannot be boarded
  
• Weaknesses: Being limited to 2 is a joke given that Nanban Trade ships are unlimited. Also, the bugginess of the Gunners can cause this ship to become useless halfway into a battle. Also this ship is weirdly bad at sinking other ships
  
• Comment: Provided this ships works, it is actually quite useful for getting good angles on enemy fleets and shooting them with cannons, which inflicts nasty morale debuffs. If it were more consistent and not limited to 2, I would consider it one of the top 3 ships in the game. Make a wild guess which the other ones are

I won't wast much time with things you already know. This ship is simply OP.

• Cost: 1500/250 (1200/200 for Mori). 3 Turn recruitment from Nanban Quarter. Requires Christianity
  
• Weight Class: Medium (weirdly enough)
  
• Profile: Medium to High, depending on what part of the hull we are talking about
  
• Crew: 100 Matchlock Marines, 200 Katana Seamen, 20 Gunners. 5 cannons per side
  
• Handling Characteristics: Very Slow and hard to turn - which does not matter for this ship
  
• Strengths: The cannons and matchlock crew combined make this ship capable of soloing fleets of even late game ships. As already mentioned, this ship is simply OP
  
• Weaknesses: Requires Christianity, if you want to consider that a "weakness"
  
• Comment: The Mori variant has only 40 movement points where as the regular one has 65. WHY

It's just the Nanban Trade ship but even more ludicrous.

• Cost: 1200 upkeep. The only way to get this ship is through capturing it, which means no direct recruitment cost needs to be paid
  
• Weight Class: idk
  
• Profile: High
  
• Crew: 100 Matchlock Marines, 185 Katana Seamen, 48 Gunners. 12 cannons on each side
  
• Strengths: As already mentioned, it's just the Nanban Trade Ship but even more powerful
  
• Weaknesses (lmfao): Might not even show up so you can capture it, on top of being hard to capture. That's it.

Surely you do know one way of controlling ships - by right clicking onto the position you want them to row to and even dragging rotating said target position by holdng the right mouse button, just like you would do with land units. However, as you might have noticed, when controlling ships that way, they have a tendency to go anywhere but were you ordered them. Fortunately, there is a way around this: manual ship controls, as depicted in the following screenshot.



This manual control panel is located in the bottom left corner of the screen, and contains multible buttons to control one or many ships. As you can see, there is an forward arrow, as well as two sidewards turned arrows. With these, you control the direction the ship will go. By pressing forward, you order any selected ship to stard moving - you guessed it - forward. The sidewards arrows can be used to turn the ship to either side, without ending a manual forward motion initiated by clicking the forward button. The latter part is important, because with this you can get ships to go very precisely where you want them to go - all without relying on the broken pathfinding in any way.
Additionally this panel contains a "-" and a "+", which are used to control the speed of the ship. The speed is shown through the white arrows between the - and +. 3 arrows means top speed, 1 arrow means minumum speed. The "+" increases speed by one level, the "-" reduces it. Fairly simple. Manually controlling those speed levels is crucial for keeping a coherent fleet and preventing especially faster ships from going too far ahead.

Play a few custom naval battles to get a feeling for the manual controls, they are quite intuitive once you figure them out. A last tip: rebind the "turn" buttons. Btw, the increase/decrease sails keybinds there do nothing, which is why I have them empty. The option for this is shown here:



So, should you never rely on the automatic pathfinding? Well, obviously no. For things like boarding actions you are at its mercy anyways. But you can use the manual controls to very easily get yourself into an advantageous position.

After having talked about basic controls, lets go over how to handle whole fleets. It's actually very simple. There are a few basic dos and donts

Do:

• Keep ships close to each other, but with a bit of distance. Half a ships width is typically a good margin, unless you plan to move ships through the gaps
  
• Speeking of gaps, those can be usefull to give vulnerable ships like Fire Bomb Kobayas a safe lane to attack your enemy through, but they can also very quickly backfire against you. You are not the only one who can fit ships through gaps. Use them with care
  
• Keep vulnerable ships behind until the enemy is engaged, then move them forward. That way, they can do their thing without much risk
  
• Think how you want might want to move your fleet in the future and position the ships accordingly. There is nothing worse than one of your own ships getting stuck on one of its allies. Ships can't move through each other, unlike units in land battles
  
• You can also reverse the last point and position your heaviest ships right in the enemies path, which can cause them to get stuck and turn into easy targets for enfilading fire
  
• If you plan to use ships like Bow Kobayas for skirmishing, keep your own fleet nearby. Ships mobile enough to skirmish tend to be very squishy, so they might need support fast
  
• Manually pick targets whenever it makes sense. Unlike land archers, your ships are fairly competent when given targeting orders and will obey - especially if the target is already in range. In my experience, switching targets on the fly is very easy und usually worth it
  
• Finally, have your ships work together. There is just no reason to leave ships isolated

Don't

• Let your ships get isolated. An isolated ship is a dead ship, simply put
  
• Give massed "right-click" movement orders - unless you love watching a mess unfold
  
• Board ships with more (experienced) crew - it won't end well
  
• Block you own movement
  
• Get in the way of your own cannons/matchlocks

This section will contain some simple examples for working fleet compositions. I won't go into too much detail here, as most of it is quite self explanatory if you have read the guide so far. Obviously, the upkeep listed is much less if you play the Mori.

2 Sengoku Bunes
4 Medium Bunes
2 Bow Kobayas (Fire Arrows not researched)

Easy to assemble, clocking in at around 690 upkeep, this is a basic coastal defence fleet. The Medium Bunes will be the ones doing most of the fighting here, with the Bow Kobayas either drawing hostiles in through skirmishes or waiting behind the line to join the fight when it is save. The Purpose of the Sengoku Bune is to take out enemy Bow Kobayas, as they hardcounter them. Luckily enough, the AI loves sending Bow Kobayas ahead of its fleet, making them easy targets for the Sengoku Bunes. Be sure though to keep your main fleet close by when intercepting them. Not much else to be said here, this fleet is easy to use and can pack quite a punch. It can't do miracles tho

1 Sengoku Bune (Optional)
4 Medium Bunes (maybe less depending on how confident you are)
1 Fire Bomb Kobaya (Needs Way of the Sea tech; Also bring more if you want an overkill)

For just 565 upkeep you get a fleet which can take down enemy fleets quite aggressively. Once again, the Medium Bunes are the main workhorse, with the Fire Bomb Kobaya taking out the enemy fleet once it is save for it to approach. The Sengoku Bune is optional, but helps immensly against Bow Kobayas. Depending on the map you get, this build can absolutely wreck entire stacks of even late game ships. Well used Fire Bomb Kobayas are just that good.

2 Heavy Bunes
2 Bow Kobayas (Optional)

Costing only 350, this fleet can hold its own incredibly well against just about anything. I am not kidding, I have used this very composition to take out an entire stack multiple times and always came out in fighting shape. The Bow Kobayas are not really needed, but more ships are always nice and Kobayas can help the Heavy Bunes with their mobility out. If that composition is too risky for you, add in some Medium Bunes.

1 O-Ataka Bune
2 Medium Bunes
2 Matchlock Kobayas

Clocking in at 645 upkeep this is a more expensive, but utterly devestating build. The O-Ataka Bune takes all the fights head on, the Medium Bunes, with some distance to the side, support. In the gaps go the Matchlock Kobayas and you get a fleet capable of dealing with even multiple stacks at once.

1 Nanban Trade Ship

For 250 upkeep, you get a free victory in every naval battle. Make it 500 upkeep if you use two Nanban Trade Ships at once and become unstoppable. Congratulations, you just won the naval game.

This will cover things you will be doing in almost any naval battle, inluding boarding, focus firing, burning ships etc..

Boarding can be quite risky, and lead to you unnecessarily losing ships if you do not use it with caution. Never attempt to board ships which have more men than your ship, and, even more importantly, do not untersetimate the impact of experience. High expecerinece ships have inflated stats and will easily beat back otherwise equal opponents.
That being said, boarding can still be incredibly useful. A ship taken out by boarding will always surrender, making this tactic a good way to permanently remove ships from a fight.
It should be noted that whoever initiates the boarding action (a.k.a. the boarder) receives a massive boost of 10 MA and 10 MD after 60 seconds have passed. Because of this, it is in your best interest to repel boarders quickly before this buff kicks in. You can easily recognize boarding ships by the line they will attach to their target from afar.

Focus Firing is the act of targeting one ship with multiple ones at the same time. This is especially usefull to quickly take down isolated ships. If you notice that an enemy ship is without notable support, divert all fire onto this ship rather than targeting the weakened (and probably ignorable) targets.
It also pays itself to target the most dangerous ship with as many of your ships as possible, as you can take out this threat very quickly.

One of your Ships has caught fire - oh no! The big mistake most people make here is to instantly hit the repair button, removing the ship from the fight. If you do that, your enemy has won. Most of the time, you can straight up ignore the flames and keep going. The damage the fire does is pathetic and will only matter on the weaker ships.
One mechanic of burning ships, that not many people seem to be aware of, is that fire can spread between ships. Between ALL ships. Including your enemies. You might have already guessed it - if one of your ships catches fire and is relatively close to the enemy fleet, banzai charge into a boarding action to try and take as many of them with you as you can.

Many naval maps in the base game have small obstructions and sometimes even whole ilands on them. Making good use of them is often times worth it, as they can at the very least block enemy movement and in extreme cases straight up block projectiles. When you see an obstruction, think about how you can utilise it to prevent the enemy fleet from attacking you efficiently while allowing you to counterattack in full strength.
Needless to say you can also block yourself with poor terrain usage. Be careful.

Ships spend a whopping 7200 seconds base time routing - that means 120 minutes. They are not coming back, unless you have an admiral with high command. Even then, it takes ages. Because of this, you should just treat routing ships as dead ships - including your enemies. Only chase them down if you have to - for example, if the goal of the battle is to take out a fleet carrying an invasion army. Otherwise, just don't bother, it's not worth it. You just remove one of your own ships to do something that a lot of the time provides no value whatsoever.

As already mentioned, sinking ships is a bit wonky and not very intuitive. The gist is that you need roughly 5-6 full volleys from a Nanban Trade Ship to start sinking enemy ships. Needless to say, those ships will have surrendered way before they start sinking, making this generally a waste of your time. The larger the hull, the longer it takes to sink a ship. So go figure how likely it its that you will ever sink the Nihon Maru.


That's it for basic tactics. I have already talked about a lot on the battle side of things so far and barely even scratched the surface of what can, in theory, be done. Given time and practice, I wonder what stunts people might be able to pull based of the information in this guide.
But for now, I will try to quickly cover the campaign side of things.

I will try to make this as quick as possible.
Many of the sentiments against navies stem from the fact that people never research naval technologies, claiming that they were useless. Let's examine that.

The first of the Bunch is Way of the Sea. It unlocks the Fire Bomb Kobaya and allows all fleets to engange in night battles. It also only takes around 4 Turns to research and the prerequisite technologies are commonly researched in any campaign. All in all, I consider this technology to be quite valuable, as naval night battles are big deal and render clusters of enemy fleets useless.


Naval Expertise is the second naval technology. It takes quite a bit to research and "only" unlocks Heavy Bunes. Personally, I consider Heavy Bunes to be very strong. Overall, this technology is by no means a must have but will give you access to a powerfull unit.


The last of the bunch is Mastery of the Waves, which unlocks the Drydock and makes all ships 10% cheaper to recruit. Remarkebly, it is also the fastest "Mastery" technology to research. It still can take quite a while and is deep down the tech tree, so it does require some investment. But what you get out of it is a big deal imo. Drydocks allow you to construct 3 ships simultaneosly, while also giving you access to the likes of O-Ataka Bunes and Cannon Bunes, both strong ships. Compare that to the mostly pathetic Hero Units from other "Mastery" techs and you get an excellent technology which can provide a lot of value for its opportunity cost.


Another commonly critized aspect is the "inability" to stop the AIs naval spam. Well, you can't stop the spam, but you can absolutely keep your water clear of AI fleets. The trick is to abuse the very narrow corridors in which ships suffer no attrition. In many, many points on the campaign map these can be blocked by your own fleet, either forcing fleets to stop right in striking range of your fleet, attacking it or taking a huge arc through the attrition zone.
Talking naval attrition - it's absolutely brutal. Spending just one turn in such a zone can take out almost a third from the fleet and any units it is carrying. After two turns, the fleet is basically dead. Instead of always chasing down fleets on the campaign map, try chasing them off into these attrition zones instead. They will be forced to take a huge way back, making it very easy for you to intercept the damaged fleet. And with how much the AI loves to withdraw its fleets, doing this should not be a problem. Also, fleets always withdraw into the direction opposite to the one the attack came from - so if you attacked from north and they withdraw, they will go very far south.

Controlling parts of the japanese sea means that you can safely use smaller fleets in the controlled area to move troops around - much faster than you ever could on land. Also, establishing trade routes over sea becomes a lot safer since you won't have to fear blockades anymore. And how much money trade nodes can make is no secret.

Finally, the financial aspect. Just give my basic fleet composition section a read, try them out, and judge yourself. In my humble opinion, fleets are more than worth their money, provided you know how to use them, even on legendary. Well, especially on legendary, since naval invasions are quite common on that difficulty and probably the number one reason for people struggling with the late game.

I know that this is a lot of information to go through, but I hope it will help you in becoming better at naval battles and discovering that they can actually be fun. Personally, I started to have more and more fun the more I bothered with trying to unterstand naval battles in this game. Hopefully, more people will come to realise that they are not as bad as their reputation.
If you have any questions, suggestions etc. feel free to post them, I will respond to the best of my abilities. Have fun!