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Hello,

Anubis & Opulon here,

Our team has been hard at work to bring you new regular content for this update. Many of you have noticed that we’ve implemented several patches to expand the content surrounding Naval Warfare:

• New events with revamped levels focused on naval domination
• Sea Mines
• The return of the Helicarrier end-game reward
• The Elite Amphibious Combat Vehicle
• Various buffs and nerfs to related content (ballistic missiles targeting ships, drones targeting ships, Corvette buff, etc.)
• River terrain type

We’ve always felt that naval warfare was the most underdeveloped part of our gameplay. It was a bit too simplistic: cruisers sink everything that floats, submarines sink cruisers, frigates shoot down planes, corvettes and destroyers have a hard time existing, that’s it, have a good day. Most of the subtleties only become apparent at a higher skill level, for example in attrition versus aircraft, missile tactics, and hit-and-run maneuvers.

One recurring observation is how easily players cross the sea with undefended naval transports to launch surprise attacks on intercontinental lands/players. At the same time, players who build just one or two corvettes early on can deal significant damage with minimal investment, while many others struggle to understand how to counter them effectively.

We can’t really be behind players' backs yelling, “Noooo, don’t do that” (though I’d love to), but maybe we can improve the tools available so that players feel they have more room to react or anticipate.

The addition of rivers allowed us to experiment with protecting certain cities from heavier ships, creating limited havens of safety. We want to expand on that concept.

And so comes the Patrol Boat. It’s a bit ironic that a military ship type accounting for more than 75% of the naval vessels in the world (there are over 2,500 patrol boats in service globally, compared to just over 50 cruisers) is only now making its appearance in our game.

When we designed it, the recurring theme was "the national guard of the sea." It’s as cheap as a ship can reasonably be. It is by no means a powerful war vessel, but it fills a niche, serves it well, and comes with a few quirks that might make a veteran player say, “Aaaaah, interesting.”

How to use them (TL;DR)

• Scout your surroundings and intercept unescorted transport ships attempting surprise attacks
• Monitor your coasts and rivers at a low cost
• Harass and skirmish heavier ships near the coast, leveraging strong radar evasion
• Deter enemy frigates and corvettes from advancing too far into your rivers
• When leveled up, use them as anti-drone support and shoreline aggressors
• Avoid venturing into the high seas

How to not use them (TL;DR)

• Seriously, do not go into the high seas (you have 10 health points, -50% attack, and move at 0.44 speed)
• Avoid straightforward ranged combat with heavy ships : you will sink first, due to low health points.
• It’s not a good idea to pair them with other ship types, except at Tier 3 when they gain solid anti-drone capabilities.
• They perform best in groups of their own kind. Stack 5 together and you’ve got a unit comparable to a strong river or coastal warship
• Did I mention not going into the high seas?

Let’s drill down into what the Patrol Boat actually is, how you can use it and how you can’t.

Pros&Cons

Strategic advantages

• The Patrol Boat has the shortest and cheapest tech line of all naval units
• Level 1 research takes 30 minutes, same as the Corvette, allowing for quick deployment
• It’s easy to tech up and fits well into mixed tech builds
• Requires only an Arms Industry Level 1 and no Naval Base (just a coastal city, naturally)
• Your first Patrol Boat can be patrolling the coast in roughly 20 in-game hours
• By the time a Corvette becomes available (~41 hours), you can already have two Patrol Boats in the water
• It is the cheapest ship in the game and the only one that doesn’t require electronics
• Its cost is similar to Motorized Infantry, making it easy to deploy in numbers or alongside other unit types
• Ideal as a cheap scouting option to monitor coasts, spy on neighbors, or intercept exposed naval transports (yummy)

We all know this happens a lot, out of nowhere, and without any explanation.

Tactical advantages

• Fastest ship in rivers, which are inaccessible to heavier ships

At equal resource investment versus corvettes or frigates:

• They may shoot first (better range)
• You may shoot last, at significantly better cost efficiency trading kills.

Classified as a “low radar signature” ship:

• Technically invisible to most radar systems
• Only detectable by submarines (which can’t enter rivers), ASW helicopters, and Naval Patrol Aircraft
• At Level 3, gains its own radar to spot large ships. You see them on radar, they don't.
• At Level 6, becomes a “no signature” unit, effectively radar-stealth to all units except reconnaissance.

Despite limited range, its speed and discretion allow for hit-and-run tactics:

• Can strike heavier ships in coastal waters and escape before being seen. (Don’t stay static shooting at them)
• From Tier 2 onward, can fire from outside enemy sight range
• Won’t do massive damage, but can gradually wear down enemies : death by a thousand cuts

Speed advantage increases as the game progresses:

• Heavy ships move at 1.75–2.25 speed in coastal areas

• Patrol Boat speeds:

  • Tier 1: 2.63
  • Tier 2: 3.0
  • Tier 3: 3.75

• By Tier 3, you're moving at nearly twice the speed of heavy ships

Gains progressive anti-drone capabilities with each level

• A situational but valuable counter (as likely more drones to come)

Strategic Disadvantages

• The Patrol Boat has no value outside of rivers and coastal waters

• In high seas, it suffers from:

  • Severely reduced damage
  • Low speed
  • Very low Health Points, making it easy to eliminate

• While ideal for intercepting unescorted naval transports, it lacks the firepower to sink them quickly

• If those transports are escorted and the escort is nearby, your patrol boats in melee will likely be destroyed before finishing the job. Sometimes, it is better to let them escape.

• Taken individually, and without using its tactical strengths, the Patrol Boat is a poor front-line combatant

• In terms of combat performance, it's similar to a National Guard:

  • In a straight 1v1, it performs like a National Guard facing:

    • Motorized Infantry (imagine Corvette)
    • Combat Recon Vehicle (imagine Frigate)
    • Armored Fighting Vehicle (imagine Destroyer)
    • Main Battle Tank (imagine Cruiser)

• The Patrol Boat is not a brute force unit

• If you ordered one to charge a Missile Cruiser head-on, the crew would probably reply:

  • "Thank you, but no thank you."

Tactical disadvantages

• Patrol Boats have no anti-submarine damage and no sonar

  • This makes them helpless against sea mines
  • Same goes for submarines, except in rivers where subs can't operate

• Their defense relies heavily on staying undetected

  • If spotted, run away immediately : everything becomes a predator
  • With very low Health Points, many heavy ships can sink a Patrol Boat in just 2–3 combat rounds

• The range disadvantage worsens over time:

  • Tier 1: 35 range vs. enemies with 50 range
  • Tier 2: 50 range vs. enemies with 75 range
  • Tier 3: 65 range vs. enemies with 100 range
  • Late game often includes enemy air support, increasing the chances of being spotted before engaging

The vision going forward

A glaring limitation of the patrol boat in his role is the need to already be at war with your enemy to actually passively block his transports, and the issue of transport going through defenders when disembarking. We will work to fix those issues.

When we were in beta testing, players gave us the feedback that this new unit might make the Corvette less desirable (in the context that it already needed a big buff to become even somewhat usable). After playtesting, we tend to agree, and it’s likely we’ll buff the Corvette again, so that if the Patrol Boat becomes the master of rivers, the Corvette can more clearly stand out as the master of the coast.

Giving the Corvette a low radar signature, while a niche “veteran-only” buff, would significantly increase its power. And something as simple as a small HP boost, or slightly lowering its electronics cost, could already help raise its pick rate.

Ultimately, because navies tend to be very dominant when the opposing side doesn’t have one, we’re hoping to create, in the long run, dynamics that more closely reflect real-world naval strategies : the kind that emerge between underdogs and stronger powers. We want to develop plausible counterparts to real naval doctrines like “green navy” (focused on rivers), “brown navy” (focused on coastal areas) and “blue navy” (focused on high seas). We feel that players should have tools to deter large navies, just like in reality, where some countries rely on asymmetric tactics to counter much larger naval forces.

As always, we welcome long and deep discussions about those topics in the Discord, which we do read and engage with regularly.

This format of designer blog, if players like it, can become regular or systematic : we are yet experimenting with the format, the categories, and the tone. Don’t hesitate to tell us if you find it relevant (or what lacks relevance).

Enjoy the battles to come !