Blockade Stratigy
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:36 pm
I am coming back to CWII after a bit of a break, and decided to sit down and think about blockading a bit. I've always had a bit of a haphazard approach to the blockade (stuff the blockade box) so I decided to take a look again at the wonderful blockade post http://ageod-forum.com/. I have come to the conclusion that getting to a blockade % of 100 could be a lot simpler and resource efficient than most people think.
Blockade points come from two sources, naval units in the blockade box (which has diminishing returns) and brown water blockades of key ports which add fixed values to the blockade (plus ports that take away blockade points if unblocked) . The surprising thing is that there are 101 blockade% up for grabs in the brown water blockade, and 9 of them account for 63%. Of the 9, 8 of the also contain all of the -16% blockade points that comes from unblocked ports. So a brown water blockade of these select ports gives a net 79% to the blockade.
So here is my port rundown (X ports are already blockaded thanks to Forts held by the union in 61):
Iberville, LA (New Orleans) : 16 (-5) (net 21)
Charleston, SC (Charleston) : 8 (-3) (net 11)
New Hanover, NC (Wilmington) : 8 (-2) (net 10)
Matagorda, TX (Matagorda) : 7 (-1) (net 8)
Chatham, GA (Savannah) : 6 (-1) (net 7)
Norfolk, VA (Norfolk) : 5 (-2) (net 7) X
Mobile, AL (Mobile) : 5 (-1) (net 6)
Galveston, TX (Galveston) : 5
Escambia, FL (Pensacola) : 3 (-1) (net 4) X
Now its players choice on how to eliminate these ports, but I wouldn't imagine you need more than 1 or 2 blockade flotillas plus 2-3 amphibious divisions to capture key forts.
My approach would be the following: keep all blockade flotillas that spawned in the blockade boxes there and don't add any more (that should give you a base 25-35% blockade score). Send the first new blockading squadron to Matagorda, which has no protecting fort, and blockade it. Create two divisions and take forts Jackson and St-P to cover NO, which should bring you to the end of 61 (and a blockade score of 55% to 65%). In the new year take your gulf divisions and take the forts around Mobile, and Galveston (raising your blockade score to 66-76%), and create a new division to take the fort outside of Savannah (bringing up your score to the 73-84% range). This would leave you, in early 62 with Wilmington and Charleston as the only big 2 left. Fort busting would be effective against both, or alternately you could refer to the list in the blockade system explained post and blockade the various 2-3 point ports. You could also stuff the blockade box to get the final 15-25% needed to get to 100.
Of course this is all just theory at the moment (although I am sort of play testing at the moment), so I would appreciate any feedback and thoughts. If I understand correctly, the blockade impacts all the production (except for conscripts) from all of the production structures in a CSA port city (not just the harbor), though it would be nice to have some verification of that. In addition I wonder if there is a stacking effect if the global blockade % is 100 and a port is directly blockaded (as in -50% production from the global value + a 50% penalty from being brown water blockaded). I'm not a frequent CSA player, but any testimonials from CSA players who have suffered a strong union blockade would be appreciated.
Blockade points come from two sources, naval units in the blockade box (which has diminishing returns) and brown water blockades of key ports which add fixed values to the blockade (plus ports that take away blockade points if unblocked) . The surprising thing is that there are 101 blockade% up for grabs in the brown water blockade, and 9 of them account for 63%. Of the 9, 8 of the also contain all of the -16% blockade points that comes from unblocked ports. So a brown water blockade of these select ports gives a net 79% to the blockade.
So here is my port rundown (X ports are already blockaded thanks to Forts held by the union in 61):
Iberville, LA (New Orleans) : 16 (-5) (net 21)
Charleston, SC (Charleston) : 8 (-3) (net 11)
New Hanover, NC (Wilmington) : 8 (-2) (net 10)
Matagorda, TX (Matagorda) : 7 (-1) (net 8)
Chatham, GA (Savannah) : 6 (-1) (net 7)
Norfolk, VA (Norfolk) : 5 (-2) (net 7) X
Mobile, AL (Mobile) : 5 (-1) (net 6)
Galveston, TX (Galveston) : 5
Escambia, FL (Pensacola) : 3 (-1) (net 4) X
Now its players choice on how to eliminate these ports, but I wouldn't imagine you need more than 1 or 2 blockade flotillas plus 2-3 amphibious divisions to capture key forts.
My approach would be the following: keep all blockade flotillas that spawned in the blockade boxes there and don't add any more (that should give you a base 25-35% blockade score). Send the first new blockading squadron to Matagorda, which has no protecting fort, and blockade it. Create two divisions and take forts Jackson and St-P to cover NO, which should bring you to the end of 61 (and a blockade score of 55% to 65%). In the new year take your gulf divisions and take the forts around Mobile, and Galveston (raising your blockade score to 66-76%), and create a new division to take the fort outside of Savannah (bringing up your score to the 73-84% range). This would leave you, in early 62 with Wilmington and Charleston as the only big 2 left. Fort busting would be effective against both, or alternately you could refer to the list in the blockade system explained post and blockade the various 2-3 point ports. You could also stuff the blockade box to get the final 15-25% needed to get to 100.
Of course this is all just theory at the moment (although I am sort of play testing at the moment), so I would appreciate any feedback and thoughts. If I understand correctly, the blockade impacts all the production (except for conscripts) from all of the production structures in a CSA port city (not just the harbor), though it would be nice to have some verification of that. In addition I wonder if there is a stacking effect if the global blockade % is 100 and a port is directly blockaded (as in -50% production from the global value + a 50% penalty from being brown water blockaded). I'm not a frequent CSA player, but any testimonials from CSA players who have suffered a strong union blockade would be appreciated.