What naval combat needs is a high value, low volume ship. In other words, it needs catapult ships. Balanced by a slow creation speed, slow movement speed and high cost, but solving the issue of naval battles turning into fights over who has the bigger blob.
Introducing a trash ship line was cute, but really it's just a variation on 'remes, and that's not what made Chronicles better. What made it feel better was the ability to pop out some catapult ships and punish blobs, reintroducing some order and visual clarity to 100 ships humping each other.
'imple as