| Trireme | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Race | All except Lizardmen | |
| Req. Town Buildings | Shipwrights' Guild | |
| Construction Cost |
 60 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
 2 1 | |
| ||
| # of figures |
 1 | |
| Moves |
 2 | |
| Melee Attack per figure |
 6 | |
| Defense per figure |
 4 | |
| Resistance |
 4 | |
| Hit Points per figure |
 10 | |
| ||
| Transport 2 | ||
The Trireme is a type of Normal Unit that can be created in any Town containing at least a Shipwrights' Guild. Triremes are small sea-faring ships that can be used to ferry up to 2 
ground units across Oceans, and are themselves incapable of moving on land. While Triremes do have some combat capability, they are not truly designed for battle.
Triremes have a Construction Cost of 60, and require an Upkeep Cost of 2 and 1 to maintain. Failure to pay these costs will result in the unit being disbanded automatically. This can potentially be dangerous, since any units being transported by the Trireme at the time may end up drowning!
Unit Properties[]
Physical Description[]
A Trireme is a small ship powered by oars. Though it has a mast with a large triangular sail on it, this can only be used when the wind is strong. At other times, the ship's rowers must propel it through the water. The rowers also provide this ship with some offensive capabilities, though they are not trained for combat and carry nothing but simple weapons with which to defend themselves. The belly of a Trireme is large enough to fit two combat units for transport.
The Trireme is a Single-Figure Unit.
Attack Properties[]
The Trireme has a relatively high Melee Attack strength of 6. In combat, the ship can deliver an average of 
1.8 points of "raw" damage per attack. Though this is impressive for a Normal Unit, it must be remembered that the Trireme is a Single-Figure unit. Therefore, while it stands some chance of piercing enemy armor, it will typically cause very little damage overall – if any.
Defensive Properties[]
Triremes are somewhat sturdy, possessing 10 Hit Points and a Defense score of 4. They can block about 1.2 points from Conventional Damage attacks, on average. While this might be decent enough to fend off the lowest tier Normal Units, these will almost never be encountered on the high seas. So although Triremes can survive some combat, they should not be expected to take on any serious enemy force. Their crews are also quite susceptible to Unit Curses and other combat maledictions, due to a very low Resistance score of 4. The unit will only occasionally be able to avoid such effects.
Other Properties[]
Triremes can traverse Shore and Ocean tiles at a speed of 2, but are unable to move on land. They can also Transport up to 2 ground units over water, in addition to any number of Heroes. However, should a Trireme be destroyed while carrying such units, its passengers will drown and be lost along with it.
The speed of any army containing a Trireme will generally be determined by that of the Trireme. This is because transport ships, in general, override the Movement Allowance of the stack they are in, and Triremes are the slowest ones of these. This applies not only to the ground units being carried by them though, but also to any 
swimming or 
flying ones moving along with the ships. For example, a single Trireme can enable an entire stack of Lizardmen infantry to trail alongside it at a rate of 2, or can speed up Draconian Settlers trying to cross an ocean – even if the Trireme itself is already ferrying two ground units.
On the other hand, due to a bug in the latest official version of the game, grouping multiple ships together does not result in the expected transport capacity. Unfortunately, every ship after the first counts as a land unit here, meaning that all but one of them will have their capacity reduced by one when moving as a stack. For instance, three Triremes can only carry 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 units, as opposed to 6. Although this can be avoided by moving the ships as separate stacks, this is not only tedious, but also reduces the overall combat strength of the group. The unofficial patches, starting with Insecticide, circumvent this problem by removing transport capacity altogether, allowing any ship to carry a full stack of units instead.
Basic Strategy[]
The Trireme is the most basic seafaring transport in every Race's arsenal – with the exception of Lizardmen, whose amphibian nature makes such constructs unnecessary. Because they require a Shipwrights' Guild to produce, Triremes can only be built in Towns that are immediately adjacent to a Shore tile on the overland map. Having one in the catchment area is not enough to enable this Town Building. This is ultimately also why Lizardmen can't create Triremes: they can't build Shipwrights' Guilds in their settlements. There are also five Races for whom the Trireme is the only ship available, since they can't construct the more advanced Ship Yard: Halflings, Klackons, Beastmen, Dwarves, and Trolls.
While not very good in combat, Triremes are fairly cheap, and relatively fast compared to most ground troops. As such, in addition to ferrying units between continents or islands, they can also be used to speed up movement across bays, or along shorelines, where rough terrain might slow down land units. Although Triremes are able to scout the high seas in lieu of flying units, 
Magic Spirits are still better suited for that, as their Upkeep Cost is lower, and they can explore inland as well. Ships are typically only worth assigning this task to if they would otherwise be idle.
Triremes can cross land which is narrow diagonally.
Building Triremes can be the easiest and earliest available method of sending Settlers or invasion forces to other continents. However, their carrying capacity leaves something to be desired. It takes five round trips for a single Trireme to move an entire stack from one landmass to another, which is not only time consuming, but possibly also risky – an enemy could attack both the Trireme itself, or either half of the split army. Conversely, getting a full stack through in one go requires at least five Triremes, although this still involves the tedium of having to load and move them individually. Ideally, a total of seven ships are needed to accomplish the task in a relatively safe and convenient manner, splitting both the ships and the army into just two stacks.
While it is important to remember that ships destroyed while carrying ground units will also cause those units to drown, this is actually not that big of an issue in the latest official version of the game. One of the major shortcomings of the original AI is its inability to coordinate naval warfare, or even target water-borne enemy armies with its own. As a result, unless the player attacks with a loaded transport, their ships will generally only come under assault by accident, if they happen to be on the pre-set path of an AI force. However, this is no longer the case starting with the Unofficial Patch 1.50, from which computer players can actively engage in sea combat, and will attack under-defended transports if given the chance.
Unlike it is with 
Floating Islands, ground units carried by a Trireme do not get to participate in battles fought over water. They may be possible to bring into the fight by exploiting bugs in the targeting mechanics of the 
Raise Dead and 
Animate Dead spells, but they will not be able to move in this scenario, although they can still attack and use spells or abilities, should they have any. Similarly, a Trireme left in dry dock in a Town will not show up in combat if that Town comes under siege, even though its crew can still take part in policing the City to reduce Unrest. On the other hand, should a ship be empowered by magic to move over land, but then lose this ability while doing so outside of a settlement, it actually can fight on the map tile it is on, although it will be unable to move during the battle.
Experience Table[]
The following table illustrates how a Trireme improves with Experience. Any properties that are not listed here are not affected by 
Experience in any way.
| Level Icon | Level Name | EP | Melee | To Hit | Defense | Resist | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Recruit | 0 - 19
|
6
|
 30%
|
4
|
4
|
10
|
|
Regular | 20 - 59
|
7
|
30%
|
4
|
5
|
10
|
|
Veteran | 60 - 119
|
7
|
30%
|
5
|
6
|
10
|
|
Elite | 120
|
8
|
40%
|
5
|
7
|
11
|
|
Ultra-Elite | 120 *
|
8
|
50%
|
6
|
8
|
11
|
|
Champion | 120 **
|
9
|
60%
|
6
|
9
|
12
|
* To achieve this level, either the Warlord Retort or the Crusade spell must be in play.
** To achieve this level, both Warlord and Crusade must be in play simultaneously.
Average Damage Output[]
The table below details the average amount of "raw" damage that a Trireme will deliver based on 
Experience Level. It can be used in comparison to the target's Defense rating to approximate the chance of hurting that target.
| Select weapons: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
">
">
">
">
Acquisition[]
Triremes may be created for 60 in any Town that has a Shipwrights' Guild already built. Because this Town Building requires the City to be adjacent to a Shore tile, it is not always possible to build, which means that this unit can not necessarily become available in every Town. Triremes may not be created in Lizardmen settlements regardless, as they are unable to construct Shipwrights' Guilds.
Triremes can not appear as Mercenaries.