Fleet

Fleets are a special classification of Stacks that have Ship type military units assigned to it.

Ships
Ships, like all military units have three types of movement rates and carrying capacities: land, air and sea. In almost all cases, they have no carrying capacity for either land or air. In some rare instances, they have no carrying capacity or movement rate for water.

Ships, like all military units, must be assigned to a Battle Slot.

A fleet may move so long as the total combined carrying capacity of the ships exceeds the burden weight of all characters, military units and items. If for any reason the burden outweighs the carrying capacity, the fleet cannot move.

A player may choose to throw cargo overboard in order to reduce it's burden and allow the fleet to move. Anything thrown overboard becomes flotsam and can be retrieved by any Fleet passing through the province. All flotsam becomes a provincial "cache".

Combat
Fleets in combat follow a set of rules that differ from land-based battles. The most notable difference is that during naval combat, characters and non-ship military units do not take part. Like all other items, they are purely cargo.

For all other intents and purposes, naval combat follows the same rules as ground combat.

River Movement
Some ships can travel along rivers. Ships that have this ability must follow the river to move through provinces. If the river forks, the fleet may take either fork and continue along. Some provinces have rivers that do not connect with each other, making them separate rivers. In these circumstances, the fleet may not "jump" from one river to the next. Fleets may move across a river, moving from one province to another.