Light Warship

Summary
The Light Warship is a basic warship available to all factions. The Gauls and Illyrians use a separate variant from other faction groups, though, with more defensive stats.

Additionally, Gallic and Illyric light warships also use a different 3D model, depicting a sailing ship without oars rather than a trireme galley.

"Built of strong oak, with high sides, warships were built for rougher waters. With only sails, they were not as manoeuvrable as galleys, but their greater height gave them advantages in boarding action. Warships can carry one unit plus a supply of food."

- In-game Description

History
Though details are lacking, at least some Gallic tribes of Transalpine Gaul are known to have used larger ocean-worthy sailing vessels rather than the smaller galleys that were common in the Mediterranean. The developers presumably extended this idea to the Cisalpine Gauls and also the Illyrians for diversification purposes, to inject some variety among the naval rosters of various faction groups.

A battle between these large Gallic ships and lighter Roman galleys is described during Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul when the Veneti Gauls of modern Brittany (not to be confused with the in-game Veneti, who have the same name but are unrelated) gave the Romans significant trouble in the 56 BC Battle of Morbihan. The thicker Gaulish vessels were impervious to the ramming attacks of Caesar's galleys, and their greater height gave them the high ground in ranged combat, allowing them to shower the Roman marines with missiles. However, the Romans were eventually victorious by using long billhooks to slash the rigging of the Gallic ships, disabling their sails and allowing the Romans to board them.

Tactics
The Light Warships of the Gauls and Illyrians are not as fast and maneuverable as those of other faction groups, and have increased defenses at the cost of melee damage. This is remarkably different from their balance on land, where the Gauls and Illyrians tend to have more aggressive soldiers than others. Gallic and Illyric light warships are also cheaper in gold, but more expensive in wood.

Gauls and Illyrians can supplement these light warships with missile support from Raiding Ships, which aren't available to other faction groups. The more defensive stats of the Gallic/Illyric light warships therefore work well to shield the raiding ships and ensure melee combat between the ships lasts longer, so the raiding ships have more time to get additional damage in.

In the later stages of the game, Illyrian factions can replace these ships with Heavy Warships. Gauls can even get Heavy Warships early on, but it might be too big of an investment in resources for the Gauls to only use Heavy Warships in the beginning of the game.

Summary
The Light Warship is a basic warship available to all factions. The common variant depicts a trireme, which is used by all factions except the Gauls and Illyrians, and is the only warship available to them without progressing in the naval skill tree.

"Sleek, fast moving galleys equipped with both sails and multiple banks of oars. Warships were highly manoeuvrable and designed to ram enemy ships before boarding them. While this technique proved effective against other Mediterranean galleys, it was much less successful against the tall, sturdier built Gallic Warships. Warships can carry one unit plus a supply of food."

- In-game Description

History
Triremes, galleys with three rows of oars on each side of the ship, were a natural evolution of the earlier bireme (with 2 rows of oars) and penteconter (with 1 row), first appearing in the late 8th Century BC. Scholarship remains divided about whether these ships were first developed by the Greeks or Phoenicians, but they were prominently used by both peoples and had probably become the dominant type of warship in the eastern Mediterranean by 500 BC.

In the early 4th Century BC, the Greeks of Syrakousai would further develop the trireme into the larger quinquereme, which initially served as flagship command vessels among fleets largely composed of triremes, but eventually became the dominant type of warship in the Mediterranean, largely replacing the trireme altogether.

Tactics
Light Warships are the only type of combat ship available to the faction groups that use its common variant in the early game. Their greater maneuverability makes it potentially easier to get good ramming angles on enemy ships compared to the Gallic and Illyric variant, and they also have a higher melee damage, but their lower defenses make them less capable of tanking ram hits from enemy ships in turn.

This makes the common light warships more aggressive than those of the Gauls and Illyrians. This is reversed from their balance on land, where the Gauls and Illyrians usually have more aggressive combat stats than other faction groups.

Light warships can be replaced with heavy warships as the game goes on, which are better in every regard but costlier, and require progression in the naval skill tree.