Why are you making such a big deal out of 5 ships? That's nothing. 15 ships is still a paltry amount, and hardly any better than 10 ships.
We are also taking two ships filled with mariners. From the City of Shipwrights.
It's simply not logical to use one of our two companion slots to get a naval leader when nothing else we're doing represents a significant investment in a navy at all. It's a waste. It would make a lot more sense to get a skilled commander for our armies, like the Knight, the Last Lord, or even the Twins, as we actually have plenty of men for an army.
In terms of the importance of a "paltry" extra five ships, I believe that starting with a larger population will have enormous dividends and is definitely worth the cost. 15 Ships is 50% more than 10. It may be "paltry", but it represents an overwhelming improvement nonetheless. If you got a payrise of 50%, would you dismiss it as "paltry" just because you were low paid? Its importance simply can't be ignored.
Yeah, under that plan we might have two ships filled with colonists who are skilled sailors. But the fact they are from the "City of Shipwrights" does not mean that they themselves are "Shipwrights". They don't know how to design, build, and engineer Numenorean ships. They might be good at building them, but that's only when there's an actual Shipwright to tell them what to do. Are you going to say that someone who works as a scaffolder or a bricklayer on a building site has the skills of an architect or construction engineer? At the end of the day, they can't build us good ships.
Because us refusing to go on seas does not mean our enemies won't.
We aint defeating a hugeass armada, but with 10 and Captain, we can defeat ourselves from a raid. Or protect a small merchant convoy.
My point is that if we aren't investing in a strong Navy, it doesn't make sense to get a naval commander. If we're going to be focused on landward expansion and development, it would make much more sense to get us a better military commander. Wasting a companion slot on someone who could make a brilliant Admiral is pretty pointless if we aren't actually going to give them ships.
Without a proper Shipwright we have no way to construct Numenorean ships, or to fully repair the ones we currently have, which apparently are four centuries old and at risk of sinking. With more ships that might be ameliorated slightly by the strength of numbers. However, without it we essentially have a rump of a navy, and only a single ship under the Captain that's actually ready for combat or long and precarious voyages. Given time, we'll even lose that, as if the Captain's ship is ever badly damaged we won't be able to properly repair it either.
This is an inevitable recipe for catastrophic attrition that will make the investment in the Captain pointless. Yeah, we can't ignore the sea, but this half-hearted attitude to investing in a navy is a really bad idea. We'd be better off with a companion we could actually use to the full and properly leverage the advantages of
