Fast Transport Ships, regular Transport Boats and Bunks

Many of us often wonders whats better - Fast Transport Ships or regular Transport Boats. I think that after researching Bunks, which is a must tech anyway, Fast Transport Ships become much more attractive. Bunks - "Your transport ships can carry 6 additional units". This technology is definitely worth investing in as it will save some population which you would put in transport ships. That population can be invested in more troops and make your army stronger. The most important thing is that it also makes Fast Transport Ships a better choice when deciding about your navy transport in the advanced stage of the game (when your enemies are far away).

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Speed

Fast Transport Ships = 15

Transport Boats = 8

(Light Ships= 13)

Fast Transport Ships are almost two times faster than regular Transport Ships - TS speed is 8 and FTS is 15, so FTS are 1,875 faster than TS.

That makes a huge difference when sending your army far away. For example to sail through an ocean you need approx ~23 hrs with regular Transport Ships and only ~12,5 hrs with fast ones. However since we always need an escort made of Light Ships that difference shrinks - we have to count the speed of the slowest ship in the wave, which in this case will be Light Ship. LS speed is equal 13 and it gives ~14,5 hrs of trip.

Still much better than regular Transport Ships speed. These 8,5 hrs can be used by our enemy to call in more Biremes and land support.

Capacity

 Transport Boats have bigger capacity than Fast Transport Ships. However this will change once we discover Bunks.

Fast Transport Ships = 10 population
Transport Boats = 20

To transport 1500 population we will need 75 Transport Boats and 150 Fast Transport Ships.

Bunks

 
Things change in favour to Fast Transport Ships when we discover Bunks. Its because bunks add a specified amount of extra units which can be taken on board.. If for example this extra amount was expressed in percentage then the difference would stay the same, but its not which shifts the balance quite a lot.

When you discover Bunks, the difference between cargo capacity of FTS and TS gets smaller, making FTS more attractive option. Before you discover Bunks the difference is 2:1 for TS, however with Bunks it decreases to 1,625:1.

Also notice that TS consumes 7 FS (Farm Spaces / Free population) while FTS only 5, so the more ships you build the smaller difference in cargo capacity gets. For example consider 2 scenarios when you use 35 population (FS) to build transport ships:

a) With 35 FS you can build 5 Transport Ships, which have total cargo capacity of 130 (5x26)
b) Or you can invest 35 FS to build 7 Fast Transport Ships, which have total cargo capacity of 112 (7x16)

So the difference in capacity is only 18 FS (cargo ratio is only 1,16:1) ...BUT the speed difference is still 1,9 in favor for FTS!!!

The more ships you have to build the smaller difference in cargo capacity gets. Lets examine 2 scenarios where you spend 2000 population on your army:
a) 61 Transport Ships & 1586 Slingers; Total Attack value of attacking forces = 36478
b) 96 Fast Transport Ships & 1533 Slingers; Total Attack value of attacking forces = 35259

50 more Slingers you can send with regular Transport Ships (out of 1500 sent).
The difference in Attack values is 1219. Do you know how many Swordsmen you need to cover that difference? 41 or 20 with high walls... You see, those Attack values are very similar. A defender needs only 41 Swordsmen (41 FS) more to defend your attack sent with regular Transport Ships.

Now ask yourself if it's worth it? Is it not better to load your units on FTS which are 1.9 times faster than regular boats and hit your enemy before he receives more support?


The sooner we hit our target the less risk we take. We give less time to our target for sending in defensive units. The less units our target manage to gather the better kills/loses ratio we will get (we will kill more, while losing less units). Of course it depends on how how far your enemy is. Bunks are much more useful in the advanced part of the game than in the beginning.  Hitting a few hours sooner might save hundreds of our units and therefore using Fast Transport Ships is much better strategy (its more profitable) when your enemy is far away.

As always I encourage you to ask questions if you have any :)