navies and gunboats

[captain curruthers]

ive been trying to figure out the rules for water combat and the more i read the more confused i get.basically it can be sorted into 3 categories;blockade boxes,coastal and riverine.my questions are;-
1.do ships in blockade boxes need bombard activated?(stance being unimportant it seems)

2.is stance and bombard important for coastal shipping and if so how?

3.is stance and bombard important for gunboats?(i think ive tried everything to get gunboats to do something usefull,so far without success)

[Cromagnonman]

I'd second some of these questions. I wonder about using shore bombardment. Is it only good for supporting amphib landings? I've tried using powerful fleets to support land offensives in adjacent coastal regions without appreciable effect.

As for riverine forces, their chief use seems to be in transporting armies, preventing enemy forces from crossing/travelling along rivers, and reducing the production by enemy regions. The latter two functions are fulfilled via blockade.*

As for stance, defensive seems to best (as it uses the least cohesion) unless you are actively hunting an enemy force. As I stated above, shore bombardment only affects adjacent land battles, and maybe only amphib landings.

[enf91]

1. Blockaders do not need bombard activated. It's only for amphibious assaults.
2. Yes: defensive loses almost no cohesion; offensive loses .6/day.
3. Gunboats don't have long enough range to bombard. It matters in naval combat because gunboats have (marginally) better defensive fire than offensive fire, and they lose less cohesion.

[Jim-NC]

Stance matters for attempting to engage an enemy force. Unlike land, there is no "control" in the water/rivers, therefore no automatic switching to attack mode. So 2 fleets will sit there never doing much of anything to each other unless 1 is on attack. As En91 says there is a cohesion penalty for being in attack mode however.

As for bombardment, a word of caution, you can ruin a perfectly good fleet bombarding a fort (especially in 1.15). Also, if you have land units riding with a fleet that is bombarded by land forces, you can suffer hits to your land forces (I know, it happened what a perfectly shamefully waste of an artillery unit :bonk . Attempting to bombard greatly increases your chances of being hit by the land forces.

Riverine gunboats aren't useful for much, you do better with ironclads/monitors. The gunboats cannons are too short range to bombard, and they are too easily sunk during combat.

[enf91]

Gunboats are mostly useful for river blockades. They're cheap and they come 2 to a unit.

[captain curruthers]

so stance is important for riverine and coastal forces but not blockade and bombard is useless full stop?

[Cromagnonman]

I think that blockading a sea zone forces any enemy entering that zone to assume attack stance, so that the blockading fleet can be defensive and still deny access to the enemy.

[gchristie]

Gunboats are useful for interdicting your opponent's supply lines and they can usually prevent opposing forces from crossing the section of the river they are stationed in. If memory serves, you need at least four elements, and they need to have an offensive ROE to have a chance at preventing a river crossing. Even then it is not 100% certain, but the percentage to prevent the crossing is quite high.

Watch out for sailing past opposing forces that are entrenched adjacent to the river. With sufficient artillery and entrenchment level they can blow your boats out of the water if set to bombard.

[fusileer2002]

I thought they removed the need to be in offensive posture to block land forces crossing rivers? Did it go back in? The last I read, naval forces have a 25% chance per element to block land forces crossing their river section, up to a max of 90%. I must admit this is going back a little while and i dont know if its still valid.

[enf91]

If you blockade a CSA harbor, the CSA is denied supplies from that port.

[captain curruthers]

tanks for all the info.its certainly clarified things for me