Confed Ironclads--to build or not?

[enalut]

So it is now August of 1861 (april scenario) and my confeds have been doing well--I hold Harpers Ferry and Annapolis as well as the rail road conectign them, and have DC under seige (an inefecctive seige though).

The Army of NVA is hanging out soemwhere around Gettysburg (north of Harpers Ferry, but Fortress Monroe and the fedels command of the potomac are giving me fits trying to rpotect Richmond/Norfolk.

I have bought every brig as soon as it si available/i can afford it and they are now bringing me in some 40-50 WS per turn. I haven't built very many new Brigades, but the ones i have are almost entirely at full strength with extra traiend replacements in reserve.

I am thinking about buildign an Iron clad fleet to reduce fortress monroe and gain controlof the potomac. probably soemwhere between 7-9 more units (plus CSS Virginia).

Will this be effective advisable? or should I build more brigades to deal with the oncoming federal assault that must be coming (I wiped out a good chunk of the Army of NVA and decimated Paterson's units in a WV/Harpers ferry campaign where I destroyed the RRs and Supply Depos and had the feds starving.

If buildign Iron clads is effective--how many do I need to build and how long do they take? I need 9 more ironclads to ahve enough units to blockade Fortress Monroe or DC (the Virginia and the startign frigates are still around to hit the 12 number)

let me reiterate I ahve anoly built 3 new brigades since the game started and have relied almost exclusively on starting and event units fro my armies (but I have supports--signals hopsitals and enginners)

thanks for the advice.

[Jim-NC]

The ironclads will only be effective if you plan to take Ft. Monroe/Washington. They will allow you to keep supplies from reaching the target, so your besieging force can wipe out the defenders. So if you can not storm the city/fort, the ironclads are not too useful. They take a "long" time to build , several game turns.

Personnally, I would build river gunships (they count as 2 ships for blockade purposes). So you would need only 4 "units" to get 8 ships. The only problem is they are a bit weak on the bombardment defense.

[enf91]

Ironclads are useful for river/shore combat, i.e. gaining "water superiority". Otherwise, they're worthless.