Brown Water blockade

[greycat]

Having read the helpful sticky, I'm still not convinced that this is working as intended. It's early 1864 and I (the Union) have just captured Forts Fisher and Caswell. The game turn has been advanced but there is still no blockade icon for Wilmington; if fact no CSA port has the icon, except for Matagorda which I am blockading from the sea. So I moved some blockade ships to the exit zone (Cape Fear River) for Wilmington and did the same for Savannah and Pensacola, where I also control the forts. I advanced the game turn again and bingo! Not only did the blockade icons appear but the blockade effectiveness went up from 55% to 70%.

Despite my best efforts the Confederates just keep getting stronger - now I know why!

Is this intentional? If so, it seems to be rather unrealistic. Or am I still missing something?

(I thought it was worth starting a new thread, as this is an important issue and the sticky has been dormant for a while.)

[Gray Fox]

Things to check:

-A fort needs to have an artillery element inside its structure. IIRC, when you capture a fort, the fort's guns end up in the region, but not inside the fort itself.

-If you left a General stacked with the fort, he must be active for the fort to exert a blockade.

-The Wiki mentions that a friendly fort can negate an enemy fort, so if a Confederate fort is present in the city, it may not be blockaded for this reason.

"bloAdjFriendlyFort = -4 // brown water blockade, bonus given by adjacent fort
bloAdjEnemyFort = 4 // same, for an enemy fort (malus) "

[greycat]

Thanks for this information. I have eliminated the first two points, so it must have something to do with the construction of enemy forts; this seems to be confirmed by comparing my game to a new campaign. However, there does seem to be more to it than this - I will continue to investigate! I'm not sure I understand the rationale of this rule though.

Do you know were the script you mentioned is located?

[Gray Fox]

It's from the AGEWIKI:

http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Bombard_and_Blockade

[greycat]

The blockade adjustment for an enemy fort seems to interact with the "USADistantBlockades" event in an unpredictable way (unpredictable by me, that is). So I have disabled it, as it does not seem very realistic, and distant blockades now seem to work properly. Occupying Fort Fisher now causes Wilmington to be blockaded without the need for ships; likewise, Fort Pickens/Pensacola, Fort Pulaski/Savannah, and so on.

I will monitor for any 'side effects', but for now many thanks for helping me resolve this annoying problem!

[Gray Fox]

Glad to be of assistance.

You might want to open a thread in the "Help improve CW2" sub-forum about your reasoning on the realism of the fort cancellation effect. This could lead to a useful discussion and perhaps a tweak. I've noticed a few changes as a result of my persistance, so AGEOD gets high marks for listening to feedback.