MEDIEVAL REAL TIME STRATEGY Ports, fishing, and sea control

Water maps in MEDIEVAL REAL TIME STRATEGY are a second economy and a second front. A Port on the shoreline unlocks fishing boats, transports, attack ships, battleships, and siege ferries. If you treat the coast as decoration, you donate blue circles to whoever built the $65 dock first. This page is the dock, the fish, and the fight. Balloons can skip water; they cannot net it. Air raids live on balloon raids and air drops. Income still starts with farms on the windmill income breakdown.

The video on this page is a 2026 sea-control match: fishing several spots, moving boats, planting an Outpost from the water. Use it for the camera. The shop prices below are community quotes from guides, not invented patch IDs. Re-check after the 27 August 2026 stamp on the changelog.

Build the Port first

Community fleet guides quote a Port at about $65. Place it on the shore, not in the courtyard. Until the Port exists you cannot recruit fishing boats. 2026 players still complain that new boats spawn tucked under the dock and are hard to click; zoom, box-select, or tap until you have the hull, then give it a move order. A click-to-move quality-of-life pass is mentioned in recent sea videos: click a point and the boat goes there. If your client still needs a two-step order, use whatever the PC and mobile hotkey table lists for move and interact.

You need Builders on the coast the same way you need them on farms. Do not send the only two mill builders to pour a dock while mid farms are free. Open mills, then the Port, unless the entire map is islands and the first gold is in the water. Island openings still belong on the first-hour castle walkthrough.

TAKING OVER THE SEA - Medieval RTS

Fishing boats and blue circles

Fishing is extra gold, not a replacement mill. Loop:

1. Recruit a fishing boat from the Port.
2. Move it onto a blue circle in the water. Those circles are fishing spots.
3. Select the boat and press Q (hand / interact on mobile) so it starts the income tick.
4. One of your boats per circle. Another player can share a circle. A second boat in the same circle does not double the take. More boats are fine in different zones.

Community tips videos quote on the order of $20 per minute per working boat, and Port cost as the reason there is no excuse to skip fish on a water map. Treat the dollar figure as community. If Q does nothing, you are not on the circle yet or you selected a transport by mistake.

Defend the boats. You cannot plant a land Watchtower in the middle of the sea. Shore towers, attack ships, and not AFK-fishing in the enemy’s landing lane are the actual defense. A fishing boat used as a meat shield on the Port is a last resort, not a build.

Late-game land income also includes a Market placed away from the castle (Adish’s 2026 beginner pass). Market is not a boat. Do not skip fish because you plan a Market in twenty minutes.

The rest of the hulls

Fleet guides list five ship types. The first three are available early; the rest want Armory research, same building that unlocks balloons.

• Fishing boat. Income on blue circles. Q to work.
• Transport ship. Load troops at the coast with Q, same as a War Wagon. Beach it where the units can walk aboard. Capacity is limited; community comments mention on the order of eight units on some transports. Do not discover the cap mid-landing.
• Attack ship. Exists to sink other ships. Focus fire one hull at a time. Spreading shots across a fleet is how you lose the sea.
• Battleship. Heavier attack-ship: more damage and HP, a bit slower. Research gated.
• Siege ferry. Transports siege engines (Catapults, Trebuchets), not infantry. Balance chatter cut its cost (community: from about $90 toward $60) and bumped speed. Load workshop units, escort with attack ships, land them where wall-breaking siege notes would have walked a Trebuchet.

Space and speed numbers move. Attack ship space, battleship speed, and ferry cost all showed up in a public balloon-update changelog. If a hull feels worse than last month, check the live shop, not a 2023 table.

How a sea push actually looks

2026 sea videos repeat a simple plan: fish three spots, cover the Port, then either raid a shoreline keep or plant an Outpost as a mini-castle on the far beach. Outposts are limited. Do not spend the only Outpost on a decorative island.

Escort: two or three attack ships and a battleship around ferries in the middle is the community picture for a landing. The ferry dies if it travels alone. Unload siege on the sand, then treat the rest as a land siege: Trebuchets on walls, Catapults on blobs, tanks on the keep. Macro and army compositions still applies once feet are dry.

If the enemy balloons over your Port, you needed a home guard, not another fishing boat. Cross-link: balloon raids. If you are in Ranked after level 7, a skipped dock on a water map is a self-own; buckets and manners sit on ranked unlock and etiquette.

When the map is dry

Do not force a Port on a landlocked spawn. The $65 is a mill you did not build. Dry maps stay mills, Barracks, workshop. The opening planner and unit roster do not require a dock. Come back to this page when you vote a water map or spawn on an island.

Names for the hulls also sit on the building power ranking next to Port and workshop. The guides overview is the index if you opened naval before you could mill.

Fish the circles, sink the boats that contest them, land siege on purpose. The sea is a mill line that moves.