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Game Info[]
Late-Medieval exploration Unit that can enter the Ocean. Fights as a naval melee unit.
Strategy[]
The Caravel is a significant upgrade to your naval power. A Melee unit, it is stronger and faster than the ageing Trireme, and it can enter Deep Ocean hexes.Use it to explore the world, or to defend your home cities.
Historical Info[]
The caravel was a small, seagoing vessel used in the 15th century to explore the world. Originally created at the order of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, other nations were quick to spot the caravel's qualities and created their own copies of the useful craft. Usually of some 20 to 30 yards in length and sporting two or three lateen-rigged masts, caravels were light and shallow-drafted, making them perfect for exploration of unknown coasts and rivers, boldly going where bigger craft feared to sail. They were also remarkably seaworthy ships and could survive the worst that the Atlantic could throw at them. Two of Christopher Columbus's three vessels - the Pinta and the Niña - were caravels (the larger Santa María was a carrack).