Trireme

The trireme was the apex predator of ancient Mediterranean naval warfare — a sleek wooden warship powered by one hundred and seventy oarsmen across three superimposed banks, capable of seven knots in a sprint and the devastating diekplous maneuver: threading between enemy ships to shear away their oars with the bronze ram, then circling to strike the crippled hull before the crew could respond. At Salamis in 480 BC the Greek fleet of three hundred triremes destroyed a Persian armada twice its size in narrow straits where numbers counted for nothing — one of the most decisive naval victories in history. The trireme demanded extraordinary conditioning from its oarsmen, who were free citizens rather than slaves, and needed to be beached each night to prevent waterlogging. In the game it is the premier naval unit of Antiquity, devastating in ramming attacks and exceptionally fast, but fragile against archery and helpless if it loses ram momentum.