This chapter is dedicated to naval warfare. If you want to be victorious in sea battles, you should read carefully! A lot of experience has been put into this article.

Sea Battle Basics

There are different oceans you can to sail: The Britannian seas, the seas of the Lost Lands, and the Tokuno Ocean. Britannia and Lost Lands are available as the two faces Trammel and Felucca. Tokuno is Trammel only. You should note that in the Feluccan Lost Lands, recalling is not possible at all. This is important to know, since you cannot enter a boat by recalling onto a boat key there. You also cannot recall out in the Lost Lands (Felucca).

First off, you have to determine if you want to stay in Trammel or go to the more challenging Felucca facet. If you decide to go to Felucca, don't forget to insure your boat key! You should also think about whether you want to lock your planks (then enemies can use ranged attacks only) or leave a plank unlocked to allow people to board your ship. This will make a big difference in what skills your crew should have.

Another important topic is highlighting (guild wars). There is one basic rule: Area attacks (like explosion potions, field spells, area attack spells, etc.) will not damage people who are in your own guild or alliance, i.e. people who highlight green to you. They only will damage people from an enemy guild, i.e. people who highlight orange to you.
In Felucca, magic area attacks will also damage blue persons. However, potions will damage those who are flagged as agressors (grey), orange or red, but will NOT damage blue persons.

Navigation & Maneuvers

If you plan organized sea battles, it is recommended to limit the area of the battle. Otherwise, it would be pretty easy to outsail the agressor. The best choice would be a bay of the appropriate size, where the entrance is blocked off with anchored boats. In such limited space, naval maneuvers and navigation will be an important factor in sea battles.

The primary goal should be to block the enemy's ship movement. This can be done either by casting a Wall of Stone in front of their ship, or by blocking the vessel with your own boat.

If you organize a boat chase in open water, you should constitute that the victim's vessel may only move with slow speed. This way, you actually have a chance to follow the victim and try boat maneuvers to catch him. You wouldn't be able to catch a boat moving with normal speed in open water, if her captain is a deft navigator.

Types of Ranged Attacks

Obviously, melee skills are mostly useless in ship-to-ship combat. Unless you plan to allow people boarding your ship, you should focus on ranged attacks. A wide variety of those are available:

Spells
Spells offer the wides variety of ship-to-ship attacks. You can use direct spells, area effect spells like Meteor Swarm, or field spells like Fire Field very effectively. You can cast a Wall of Stone between you and your enemy to protect yourself. Poison Fields are especially devastating, that's why they often are forbidden in organized sea battle events. Casting summons (like Energy Vortex or Blade Spirit) on the deck of the enemy ship is not possible. But not only Magery is a useful skill. Also Spellweaving or Necromancy can help a lot in sea combat. Spellweavers can even cast Nature's Fury on the deck of the enemy boat, when they target a person on that deck.

Archery and Throwing
Archery has been the only non-magic ranged combat spell for a long time. Especially weapons with hit area effects are interesting, as they can damage multiple enemies at the same time. Throwing is also available for people of the Gargoyle race. The advantage of this weapon is that it does not consume ammunition, as they return to the fighter after use.

Potions
Explosion Potions and Conflagration Potions work very well against enemy guilds, and in Felucca also against red and grey people. The efficiency of potions is increased significantly if you have the Alchemy skill (GM Alchemy is recommended), and if you use Enhance Potions jewelry (capped at 50%). Throwing a couple of Greater Explosions on an enemy ship can be pretty devastating.

Ninjitsu
While Ninjitsu does not directly have ranged attacks, it may be quite useful to throw deadly poisoned Shuriken or shoot some deadly poisoned Fukija darts to your target. This is the only way to use a ranged deadly poison attack. A high Ninjitsu skill will increase your chance to hit.

Bushido
Bushido has no ranged attacks. However, the Counter Attack spell allows the Samurai to strike the enemy over a distance with his melee weapon and even a special move, if he is hit by a ranged weapon.

Boarding

In organized scenarios, you can determine that each boat has to leave one plank unlocked to allow boarding. This will add an interesting challenge to the sea battle. You'd have to find the unlocked plank, double-click it to open it, and then double-click it to hop onto it. It will not be too easy to board a ship, if the enemy tries to keep the plank closed. Still, area attacks will play a more important role. After all, this is supposed to be a sea battle, and no melee tournament.