You can arguably choose rams over fireships but I like fireships. Same with Cats and Ballistas...but I like Cats.
So front line is Fire and they take 50 to fill a line. There is a 5% chance you will make it to round 6 so 250 is the max you need take into battle. Losing 50 at a time is normal. Sometimes I take 251 so just in case you have the morale to make it to the 6th and the enemy doesnt, you win. That 1 ship gives you the extra round.
Cats are second line and it takes 50 to fill a line. They usually dont die unless fighting morters. They have enough ammo to last 5 rounds. So 100 is max you should bring.
Subs... 30 fill a slot and losing half of them a round is normal so 90 will last five rounds and possibly have some for the rare 6th. 90 Is max to send.
This is what I call a Fleet. 250/100/90. I build my navy by the fleet and I dont use anything less unless waving. I'll wait until they finish building. I dont send random units. I'll usually have 3 or 4 or more fleets like this. (I only use navy in lambda) I also build extra flames and subs to add when my fleets get damaged.
Okay, so when I attack I send in a fleet. I'll let that fleet fight it all the way out unless they have an enemy join in the fight during round 2/3/4. If they do, I watch my moral and click the white flag and flee so I dont get scattered and send home. Then I'll add units to my fleet to make it whole and send it back.
The whole trick with navy is that its a morale game. Cat and mouse.There are no cooks so it almost ALWAYS ends because of morale. When an enemy wave joins in you KNOW you will scatter from morale first. So when you pull out and go back in, you took the morale-upper-hand from them.
If you see you are about to scatter..just click the white flag. Take the red CR. Hopefully you will have caused more damage. Thats what counts.
Now waving. Understand that you and a buddy can take out 10k ships with your 500 if you do it right. By take out I mean scatter, therefore clearing the port.
The only single person waving is subs. You send your fleet with 30 subs and wave in 30 for the next 2 rounds. That will give you a fresh line of subs each wave and you will kill more subs and lose less. You dont need to click the white flag unless you are clicking it for all waves to pull out of the fight all together.
Real waving is with 2 people or more. This is with 2 people...
You send in 150 Flames, 50 Cats and 60 subs. Then your buddy does the same 1 minute later. You will fight first round, he will fight second with you. After second round you click flee and send a second wave of 150/50/60. After the 3rd round your ships will flee and you will be out of the fight. Then your buddy clicks flee/sends second wave and your second wave lands before the fourth round. Fourth round comes, Your units fight with full morale and your buddys fights and leaves. Buddys fleet lands and you both fight the 5th. As of right now, your navy has the morale to battle to round 8 or 9 on your side and the enemy wont make it..they will scatter.
Sounds confusing but the bottom line is that you need to fight 3 rounds and flee, then your new wave comes in. Your buddy does the same but staggered from you so that the battle always has someone fighting and you keep replenishing your morale.
The reason behind this is because your Navy SHARES morale. You can send a wave every round but they will all scatter at round 5ish..so you need to completely pull out of the battle and then get back in. In reality multiple people can do this at the same time and scatter the enemy no matter how many ships they send or how many people join in. The most diligent wavers win.
an original by Wayfinder