"Galleys in DBM" Topic

Hello! So I had my battle where the EIR faced off against Indians. Be looking for a nettle report later today/tomorrow! I learned a lot, but my opponent mentioned he might put out a river (he ended up not) and it got me thinking, how do galleys/boats work? I looked in the rules but they were a little confusing and I wasn't able to find a whole lot, so I have some questions.

1. How many units can a galley/ship carry?
2. Can the galleys move in formation?
3. Do I have to use a pip to move every individual galley?
4. Why can't galleys shoot from the side? It seems like that would be the most intuitive instead of the front.
5. When shooting, does a galley count as artillery or bow?

Lastly, what are your alls general opinions of taking galleys? Are they good? What's the best way to use them? We scheduled another game for 2-3 weeks from now, I will be ii casing the wonderfully forested land of Dacia this time. I have a pretty good idea on how to handle his warband (f), but I was wondering if throwing out a river would be any benefit to me.

The problems I see is that if every galley takes a PIP, that's a lot of pips to devote especially when I will have other units I will still be needing to move. Thanks guys!

Each naval element carries only one land element, the lists will say what the navel can carry, some can only carr one type others different types.
Galleys or naval element can move as a group for one pip or individually.
You can move the galleys as a group or individually for one pip, no penalty for changing direction.
Galleys or naval can count any edge to shoot from just like war wagons.
Galleys shoot as a 3, page 21 at the top-distance shooting- in the first line says which naval elements can shoot.
Naval can not kill anything it shoots at unless the element being shot at has no recoil, even a 6-1.
Placing a rv or ww as the invader will put one it along the short side, if you place one as the defender the river goes across the table from one short edge to the other, page 12 part 1 under preparing for battle.
If you are the invader and you have at least 2 naval elements you can dice for a ww or rriver.
knights into the front of his Wb(f) would be good as well as they get quick killed by Knights.
Also under some circumstances weather or river flow direction can effect naval , ie. if you don't move or hold them the wind or whatever moves them or if a rv is paltry the naval dosent get placed.
They are interesting to use in order to try and narrow a board down against Lh armies for example.
If a defender places a rv down it sometimes becomes a none game as you then have to cross it, page 12 part 2 second to last paragraph will explain how it's done. Also the defender can defend his rv bank and gets a +1 , so invites a flank march which may or may not arrive.
Let us know how you handled the Classical Indians.

The naval side is one of the best things about DBM(M). If you have something like a Viking or Western Isles army, being able to use waterways and rivers adds an interesting dimension to the army, and a worry for the enemy.