When boats unlock
Boats are not available from the capital if you started inland. Expand until your land touches the shoreline. The game then says: You reached the sea. Click a distant coast to send a boat invasion.
Coastal borders also make ports available. Dotted lines on the map show the boat routes while they travel.
Do this in order
- Reach any coast with your own land.
- Build a port if you plan to keep using that coast. Reported port tiers are 125,000, 250,000, 500,000, and 1,000,000 gold.
- Click a distant coast, not the water tile in the middle of the route.
- Watch the dotted line. You can be attacked at home while the boat is still traveling.
- When the landing flips land, connect it or defend it. A beachhead with no troops behind it is a new front.
What a recorded world match used boats for
From an African coast, boats were used toward the Arabian Peninsula, Senegal, South Africa, and Madagascar. Southern Africa and Madagascar were hit in the same push. Those are examples from one match, not a required route and not a claim that those tiles are always empty.
Ports, boats, and warships are different
| Thing | What it does | Reported gold |
|---|---|---|
| Port | Coastal building. Extends naval reach and is how that coast stays useful. | 125,000 / 250,000 / 500,000 / 1,000,000 |
| Transport boat | The invasion the sea prompt tells you to send at a distant coast. | No separate boat price was shown |
| Warship | Patrols coastal water. One was seen returning to a front beside a captured port. | 250,000 / 500,000 / 750,000 / 1,000,000 |
Do not buy a warship instead of a port and expect the sea prompt to change. The prompt is about clicking a coast for a boat invasion.
Inland starts
If your capital never touches water, ignore ports until it does. Spend the first 125,000 gold on a city or the first 50,000 on a defense post.