Sea Battles

[Michael T]

How do I get my Ocean going fleets to attack the enemy raiders and blockade runners?

I often get reports that my fleets have spotted an enemy ship or 2 but they never initiate a fight. I place my ships in the Atlantic Blockade box and the Shipping Lanes. AV of 100 to 200, I rotate them to keep Cohesion up. I have tried different Postures but nothing makes any difference. Am I missing something?

My opponent has confirmed he has yet to loose a ship but he is having some success at disrupting my trade.

Help.

[The Red Baron]

From what I read on a previous AACW post, posture makes no difference with respect to interception chance; however, assault posture does lower your cohesion, so leave your intercepting naval stack set on Defensive Posture and rotate your ships as they exhaust their supply.

IIRC, your ships have a certain % chance to intercept. You can improve this chance by changing the composition of the stack, such as including a steam frigate amongst the unit types, which helps cornering and running down enemy vessels, or adding a capable admiral who imparts a movement bonus, spotting bonus, etc.

While playing the full campaign as the Union in AACW, I also had trouble intercepting CSA vessels. In AACW the msg text typically stated the % chance my naval stack had at intercepting an enemy stack; it was usually low. I remember one case where it was only 6%.

[Geohff]

Red Baron is correct it is all about the type of ships, fast ships are better at catching but big ships do more damage so you need a good mix and the Adm with bonus traits is a huge help. Also he says stay defensive this is also correct offensive just burns thru supply quickly but does not help one bit finding the enemy I guess the thought is stay put and hope the enemy come close then chase rather than search all over the place!

[Q-Ball]

I can confirm Michael T's observations. I have had multiple brigs in the Blockade boxes, I've yet to have any intercepted. Maybe he needs faster ships, but would like some experienced folks to comment.

I have them all set to "evade combat"; so far, they haven't been attacked at all

My raiders under Rafael Semmes are having success interdicting Union supplies (though they have not had a sea battle in the box)

[Jim-NC]

In the boxes, the battles are abstracted. You can't control when or if they happen.

The advise given so far is the correct advise. The chance each turn of catching any ship in the box is low.