How did ship-to-ship combat work before gunpowder? Was it all battering rams or complicated Roman-esque boarding maneuvers?

Why not start a thread with some knowledge or a discussion point rather than some fact searching you could just type into google

>>64105451 (OP)
Depends.

ramming, boarding, fire weapons

>>64105451 (OP)
>Was it all battering rams or complicated Roman-esque boarding maneuvers?
Pretty much. Also bows and crossbows. In some areas and periods you might mount siege weapons on your ships, use grappling hooks to capsize enemy ships or spray them with Greek fire.

There's a good wiki page on the topic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oared_vessel_tactics

>>64105451 (OP)
Arrows, fire, ramming, boarding.

A basic google search wouldve told you this and then you couldve asked a more indepth question than this basic bitch shit

Most of it came down to archery and boarding. Rams were big in antiquity, but they were long by the medieval era. Some ships might have engines that could shoot bolts or fire or jars full of snakes, but those were expensive and weren't always reliable and even the famous Eastern Roman flamethrowers weren't the game changer we imagine them to be today.

You dumb motherfuckers, bows have existed for ten thousand years and the ancients had mechanized ballistas and shit.

>>64105451 (OP)
Why would naval battles even take place pre-gunpowder? Wouldn't it be just as easy to attack them on land if they're invading instead of making your own ships and sailing out to them?

>>64106000
What if they don't want to land, but instead they capture/sink your merchant shipping and fishing fleets?

>>64105451 (OP)
Roman's did that corvus shit once. And the csthaginians look at it said they would all die in a storm and guess what the Roman's did, and never did it again. That was shortly of course after they won the largest naval battle, and the largest battle to take place on earth until the red Cliffs which still may be the largest naval battle and largest battle on earth. Also don't @ about ancient troop numbers.

>>64106000
Well you anon, people need this thing called food, and a lot of it came from the sea. Also like are you going to let them rapidly deploy troops along your coast completely uncontested? Abandon all maritime trade?

>>64106340
>Well you anon
Fucked it

>>64106340
>Well you anon
Nailed it.

>>64105451 (OP)
>How did ship-to-ship combat work before gunpowder? Was it all battering rams or complicated Roman-esque boarding maneuvers?
here fag