Medieval Warship

The medieval warship was the high-sided answer to the low-slung galleys of antiquity — a deep-keeled sailing vessel whose towering forecastle and aftercastle gave its soldiers a decisive elevation advantage in boarding actions. Norse longships had proven the value of seaborne raiders; the clinker-built cog and later the carrack raised the sides higher still, stationing mercenary crossbowmen and archers on raised platforms who rained bolts onto the exposed decks of approaching enemies. At the Battle of Sluys in 1340, English archers on high-sided vessels devastated a French fleet in exactly this manner. When ships locked together, armored men-at-arms poured across to settle matters in brutal hand-to-hand boarding. In the game she combines ranged fire from her elevated decks with strong boarding capability, outclassing oared galleys in open water but slower than lighter vessels in pursuit or evasion.