We don't trade bulk goods, we trade luxuries, which depend more on speed to make profit.
That being said, having bigger boats is a necessary step on the way to changing that fact.
larger boats tend to be slower and therefore easier to catch and raid. They are probably r more resistant to storms they're caught in, though fast ones are more able to outrun storms.
While yes, faster boats are better at starting fights they want to have and fleeing fights they don't, once a fight has started the bigger boat has a strong advantage. A bigger boat has a bigger fighting component, for one, and secondly, height is a huge advantage. Having the boat's decks higher above the water than one's opponent allows for longer range bowshots at first, and then once boats close it allows directly aimed plunging shots down into the other boat. For melee fighters, again the taller boat has a strong advantage. If you've familiar with old ship pictures, the raised portions at the front and back of ships was done in an attempt to enhance these effects.
An additional bonus, one can sail longer distances with a bigger boat. For one, all navigation in this time is done by following coasts. As such, boats always stayed within sight distance of shore. A bigger boat allows for a higher vantage point (such as the late sailing era's crow's nests) which allows the boat to get further away from shore while still being able to see it. Plus, a bigger hold allows for longer journeys due to being able to carry more supplies, like food, water, and spare boat parts.
Wonder what happened. Maybe a Pompei situation? Volcano wipes out an area, everyone else is fucked by proximity?
One possibility is that environmental problems caused a cascading raiding problem. It reminds me of the bronze age collapse articles someone linked to a few dozen pages back. One speculation I saw was that once one polity collapsed, they began to raid their neighbors in large quantities, pushing them out as a wave of refugees and raiders hitting their neighbors, which collapsed the next ring of nations, and so on.
Speed + Portable = Viking Longboats for raiding
Speed + Size = Classic ocean dominance.
We want them all, it's just comparing which is more valuable right now or later.
All that argueing above aside, I agree here. We do need all of these, eventually. Overall, I think the best long term goal is to aim towards is 8 size, 4 speed, and 2 portability. We can turn the NotBlackSea into Our Lake, and the highway of our civilization.
1. China had multiple large rivers, we don't
2. We have an inland sea not an open ocean
3. By having big ships we can (hopefully) cause our subjects to build docks to help increase our overall naval influence.
Our inland sea is still massively enormous compared to our ability to navigate it. you can reach dozens of times as much land as our local river networks control.
As an additional note, I'd like to push Size first because that will further incentivize additional dock construction, speeding up boat technology development.
Also, re-voting to add a law decision:
[X] [CA] Attempt to take control of adjacent villages (-2 Stability, chance of further loss, -2 Diplomacy, unknowable chance of war with the Hathatyn, +8-10 Econ, +4 Econ Expansion)
[X] [Law] Attempt to close off both practices
[X] [Boats] Size
[X] [Infra] Main Saltern Construction
People have convinced me to risk the hard choice with our hero to try to navigate us through it.
