cant seem to get on them to pass oceans.

To load troops onto ships have ship in adjacent sea province not port. There must be equal number of ships to regiments then right click onto sea province with army.

you also need to have a port on the land side so that troops can get to the ships... no they don't just jump into the water and swim out to them ;)

spartans did in the peloponessian civil war they called it cardio xD

yes but the spartans are the best of the best... pretty much the olympic athletes of their time while the rest of the world is mostly lounge lovers

The game does badly need an "Embark" button like CK 2 has, it's needlessly fiddly to have to move your ships from port to a sea tile, then move your army onto the fleet.

Ships in general are slotted to get some love... Free patch not DLC, also have a port and a sea area as possible locations and some times it can be unclear where you click on to send ships into the port