Understanding the Navy

[marecone]

Seems to me, for a close-in brown water blockade, Brigs all the way. Simply because blockade thresholds per sea area are in terms of "units," and a Brig being the cheapest combat unit available.

Once you satisfy the unit requirement to shut down all sea areas around a port, it gets hit with the desired economic penalties.

I'm not even sure what the "Blockade" rating does. Number of units seem to be key here.

Very good question. Pocus?

[rasnell]

rasnell,
Do you have ships in both blockade boxes?
If you leave one empty, they will both be 0%.
The percentage is your entire blockade efficiency for both boxes. It is the same number for both, displayed in two areas.

Yes. In both boxes.

[Queeg]

Do the blockade numbers relate to the degree of economic effect - i.e., blockade ships producing a higher economic impact than brigs? Just a guess.

[Pocus]

the % should definitively go up (after one turn) if you have that many ships in the blockade boxes (but I advise that you spread somehow the ships between the 2 boxes).

The parameter used here to calculate the blockade % is the ... Blockade Value of a given element.

The % is a reduction to the output of all the CSA cities. This is in addition to the cut done to a given port by a brown blockade strategy. The two are complementary.

The % are halved when you compute output, ie a 40% blue water blockade gives a 20 % reduction in money, WSU, ammo, supply in all the CSA.

A blockaded harbor gives systematically a 50% cut on all the above. Then this is further adjusted by your national morale and region loyalty.

[Rafiki]

Does anyone have any statistics on approximately how large forces you need to attain the various "blocking levels"?

(Yeah, I'm a numbers guy )

[Le Ricain]

Does anyone have any statistics on approximately how large forces you need to attain the various "blocking levels"?

(Yeah, I'm a numbers guy )

I do not have any hard numbers per % level, but I am currently on 25% with

ATL: 3 x Blockaders & 4 x Atlantic Sqdn

GOM: 6 x Blockaders & 1 x Gulf Sqdn

[rasnell]

Something has got to be broken in my campaign. I have kept adding and adding shipping to the point where I have a mix of about 20 units each in the boxes including frigates, blockade and transport and I still show 0 percent.

[Pocus]

strange yes, send me the save I will check that: support@ageod.com

thanks.

[Wilhammer]

How does the cohesion, strength, and supply level of Naval units interact with blockade effectiveness?

[Wilhammer]

Is their any reason to keep the Pacific Fleet in the Pacific?

[Rafiki]

Not that I've seen. The CSA might send ships there (or get by event), but those instances should be possible to handle by dispatching a force from the Gulf. A really ambitious CSA might send an invasion force, but that's what your CA garrison is there to handle

[PhilThib]

Is their any reason to keep the Pacific Fleet in the Pacific?

No reason indeed, although there is an event (planned but not implemented) that makes the USA lose VP if the fleet leaves (political and national prestige loss).

Also, after some tweaks (to be made leure: ), the fleet will impact on the Union favorable outsome in the 'Chapman Plot' and 'CSS Shenandoah in the Pacific' events...

[Pocus]

How does the cohesion, strength, and supply level of Naval units interact with blockade effectiveness?

it does not for now.

[Alan_Bernardo]

Since naval warfare is such a big part of the game, especially for the Union, it would really help to have a tutorial on this aspect of the game. I'd like to see a routine process for rotating ships and creating both kinds of blockades. Learning how to do an amphibious invasion would also help (since there are times when my troops won't offload onto a hostile shore). The naval part of this game has been the most frustrating for me primarily because there isn't a tutorial for this part of the game.

Not only is there no tutorial for naval operations in this game, there is hardly anything in the manual about it. There's a section on zones and admirals and something very brief on naval combat, but nothing on the way the navy operates.

I never even knew there were these so-called "boxes" at sea until I started a campaign game and started wondering about how, as the Union, to use my navy.

BTW, I think there was mention of creating a better tutorial for understanding the command structure in ACW. I wouldn't need it myself, but for folks just starting out it would be very helpful to have such a thing. Is this still being worked on?

Also-- are there any plans for a naval tutorial?


Alan

[rasnell]

PhilThib looked at my save file and e-mailed me that I have 0 percent in the crowded Atlantic blockade box because I've put no ships in the Gulf of Mexico blockade box.

In addition to having a mix of ships in the shipping and blockade box of the Atlantic, you also must have blockade in the Gulf.

That's where my mistake was.

The Navy part of the manual is seriously lacking in these kind of details. I hope that, with more time, you can really revise and offer a new manual in later patches.

It's desperately needed: Especially details of the distinctions between each type of river and sea unit, how to blockade in brown vs blue water, how to increase the blockade percentages, importance of postures with ships, finding and evading, and on and on.