even if i get boarded ive almost always got 1 or 2 other ships nearby set up to ram the enemy ship thats boarding me. the bigger the ship, the more ramming power so dont discount using arty ships as rams if they enemy gets close. everything else i hold back and only use to ram ships that get close to the arty ships and keep em pinned down. damage wise the light arty kills in same about of hits as heavy arty but has more accuracy and range. for a naval engagement i prefer a dozen light arty ships backed up by some melee and archer ships. makes a good well rounded fleet that has enough infantry to land and capture towns.

archer ships are now just good for ramming or supporting ships that are in melee.i mostly now build 6 light arty ships and screen them with melee ships and a half dozen archer ships. used to be able to just keep sailing away from the enemy leading them around and firing at the pursuing ships but now they pretty much only fire to targets to the side of them when fighing ships which is odd as they will fire ahead or back when fighting at units on shore. archer ships are more difficult to use now with the last few patches. i could understand if they survived the ram attack then being able to board before that ship can pull back but its crazy to just halt a ram with its momentum. there are some issues for sure like enemy ships being able to stop a ram last second and board instead which is infuriating. it took some getting used to as that style of combat was just so far different from any other games ive played. i was pretty bad at rome 2 naval combat for quite a while.

it was like the old age of sail 2 game i played a long time ago or pirates of the burning sea mmorg.

its just a totaly different style of combat vs empire total war due to the significantly different time periods and technology.

Rome total war 2 battle