Blockade Box

[steelwarrior77]

I put like 30 ships in it and the blockade never increased...? What is happening?

[Gray Fox]

You need to put ships in both the Atlantic and Gulf blockade boxes. I typically get 5 squadrons in each. The percentage blockade this provides maxes out at a number depending on your difficulty setting. To get a higher percentage, you must use "Brown Water" blockade by posting squadrons to block individual ports or seize them. It is possible to get to 100% blockade only then. Bear in mind, that total blockade only removes half of the CSA's cash income per turn. I have not seen it affect the number of conscript companies or WSU production. Since the CSA player can still sell bonds and raise taxes to compensate for any lost revenue, a total blockade is not a very wise choice for the Union to pursue IMHO.

[steelwarrior77]

Thanks ;-D

[Rod Smart]

Blockade percentage is affected by which ports you have blockaded, either because of brownwater blockade, controlling the fort at the mouth of the harbor, or capturing the port.


So its possible to add 30 ships to the box, lose Fort Pickens, and see the blockade percentage actually drop.

If I remember correctly, the highest percentage you can get it from ships in the blockade box alone (ie, no brownwater blockade, you don't capture any ports, you lose Ft Sumter, Ft Pickens and Fortress Monroe) is 35%.

[Captain_Orso]

GF is right, you need to have a balance between the boxes, because I think only the lower box counts really.

You said "I put like 30 ships..". For the Blue-Water-Blockade the number of ships, doesn't count; it's the blockade value of the ships involved. Each combat ship has a blockade value. Those 6 blockade ships in the Blockade Flotillas have the highest blockade rating at 10, where as brigs, frigates and steam frigates have between 2 and 4 each.

So, filling your blockade boxes with "ships" will not help you out much, unless they are the right ships.

[Captain_Orso]

Blockade percentage is affected by which ports you have blockaded, either because of brownwater blockade, controlling the fort at the mouth of the harbor, or capturing the port.


So its possible to add 30 ships to the box, lose Fort Pickens, and see the blockade percentage actually drop.

If I remember correctly, the highest percentage you can get it from ships in the blockade box alone (ie, no brownwater blockade, you don't capture any ports, you lose Ft Sumter, Ft Pickens and Fortress Monroe) is 35%.

If you maintain Pickens, and Monroe, but not Sumter, but also take New Orleans and have 5 blockade flotillas in each blockade box, you should get about 50%.

[steelwarrior77]

Thanks - worth it the effort or rather ignore it due to the other money making options?

[Gray Fox]

You start with about 11 blockade squadrons. I use these and don't build any more blockaders. Why would you spend money, men and materiel and all the CSA loses for your effort is some money, which they can easily replace?

[steelwarrior77]

Ok thanks - how can I see which is a blockade squadron? I have a hard time distinguishing ships...

[Gray Fox]

It is the single naval unit that has 8 ships (IIRC, a steam frigate, a sail frigate, maybe a brig and the rest blockade ships). If you left click the unit icon on the map, then you get a menu at the bottom of the screen. If you left click on the unit in this menu, then you get a list of these ships to the right of the menu. You can left click each ship to get further info on their individual stats. Blockade ships have the best stat for, you guessed it, blockading. Some of these units are missing some ships at the beginning of the game. If you put the unit in a port on Green/Green, then the unit will be locked until the rest of the ships are built. You start with enough ship replacements to fill out these units, so it doesn't cost anything to fill out the blockade squadrons. Then you have 11, 5 for each blockade box and one to rotate units out that need to resupply. If you put all five in one stack on Green/Green, then the ships can stay on station for more than a year. At Colonel difficulty, this causes 35-40% blockade. Good luck!

[steelwarrior77]

Ah great, I was irritated by the names showing, when I left click one time - I am not good enogh at naval history to identify ships by names ;-D

[Gray Fox]

FYI, you can blockade with any ship. The actual blockade squadrons just have greater effect.

[Slick Wilhelm]

Very enlightening thread, gents!

I still have some questions, though:

1. Playing as the Union, should I be putting any additional ships into the "Shipping Lane" box? Right now, there are a bunch of my transport ships in there. I believe they have been there since the beginning of the campaign(July 1861).

2. Which stance is appropriate for the ships in the blockade boxes? Passive, Defensive or Attack?

[Captain_Orso]

Very enlightening thread, gents!

I still have some questions, though:

1. Playing as the Union, should I be putting any additional ships into the "Shipping Lane" box? Right now, there are a bunch of my transport ships in there. I believe they have been there since the beginning of the campaign(July 1861).

As the Union you start out with a hand full of Merchantmen in the shipping lanes. Merchantmen are practically the same as transports, except that they have no guns at all, and you can only get more through options (which is too expensive for my taste).

You have a pretty large pool of transports you can build and put into the Shipping Lanes. I usually do this pretty much constantly, purchasing a squadron or two per turn, during the first two years of the grand campaigns, sometimes putting them all in. The amount you earn per turn does lessen with the number of transports (law of diminishing returns) that by at the latest the second half of '64 there is probably no point in buying any more, because they won't earn their own cost by the end of the war if it goes to the end of '65.

2. Which stance is appropriate for the ships in the blockade boxes? Passive, Defensive or Attack?

Ships in the Blockade and Shipping Boxes do not use the normal naval combat rules, so posture I believe actually plays no role there, even Passive Posture (PP). However outside the Boxes while traveling between the Boxes and harbor naval combat is normal. So it depends on what your intentions are.

If you're the CS and talking about Blockade Runners, you'll want to run them out of and into harbor in PP (Passive Posture)/Retreat if Engaged (Green/Green) to give them the greatest chance of escaping Union naval patrols outside the Boxes, if they encounter any. While in the Boxes it doesn't matter, so you can basically leave them in PP.

Leave the Blockade Runners in one of/and or both of the Blockade Boxes until their supply is so low they can just manage to return to harbor when it runs out. It's a lot of work to check their supply status each turn, especially when you have 20 - 30 Runners to check, but there's no getting around this, unless you want the game to manage the Blockade.

If your are running Raiders as the CS you probably don't want to run into any patrols with your expensive Raiders. You don't want to do combat with Union naval vessels, because you'll generally run into far more ships than you have, and your Raider(s) will come out on the bad end of the deal, so you'll want to use PP with them too.

Raiders diminish Union income from shipping while they are in the Shipping Box. To do that, just leave them in the Shipping Box and keep an eye out on their supply. You can always add a transport squadron to increase their patrol times greatly. You can even shuttle transports in and out of the Shipping Box to keep your Raiders in the Box as long as possible. This is what I do with Blockade Flotillas too. It's lots of work, but I think it's worth the effort.

The greatest chance of encountering enemy ships is when entering and exiting one of the Boxes. I believe the idea was that the Blockade Boxes actually represent Union ships patrolling outside Southern harbors. In reality they would encounter Blockade Runners entering and leaving harbor. To represent that, entering and leaving the Boxes is when there is the greatest chance of encountering enemy ships. While in the Boxes, there is a chance of encountering enemy ships too, but it is much smaller.

So, if you don't shy away from the work, you can run your Raider(s) in and out of the Shipping Box until it starts to lose cohesion, when you should send it back to port to recover. Union Patrols will want to do the same.

I've never tried to do the same with Blockade Flotillas, but generally you wouldn't want to do that, because when they are not in the Blockade Boxes, they are not blockading and the South will earn more resources during those turns.

[steelwarrior77]

So transports work like merchants? Is the same true for TEAW?

[Captain_Orso]

I believe as far as the Shipping Box is concerned, and earning income through trade, any ship with transport capacity will work. Only some ships with a better capacity/cost ratio will be better to use.

[Gray Fox]

I build all of the Union Transports in 1861 and send them to the Shippiong Lanes. You get the most for your investment that way.

I put all of my Union Shipping Lanes units in one stack with a few Steam Frigates and a sail Frigate for detection. I keep them on Green/Green because they lose cohesion more slowly that way. I have a second stack of Frigates that I rotate in when these escorts are low on cohesion/ammo. Then sooner or later you hook up with any raiders and the raiders get shredded.

If you are the CSA player and you put blockade runners in both the Atlantic and Gulf boxes, then the Union Blockade ships get two checks to find and engage your ships every turn. If you put them all in one box or all in one stack in one box, then the Union player only gets one check per turn.

Your blockade runners earn you income in the form of money and WSU's. You could spend those resources on your land strategy. Or you can spend them repairing your runners and raiders. You can spend them buying transports to supply your ships. You can even buy more blockade runners and hope that they survive long enough to pay for themselves. These are all costs. If costs exceed income, then your naval strategy has dropped anchor.

[Rod Smart]

I believe as far as the Shipping Box is concerned, and earning income through trade, any ship with transport capacity will work. Only some ships with a better capacity/cost ratio will be better to use.

I don't believe that's true.


I once put 80 brigs in the shipping lane, to see what would happen. Revenue ($+WS) increased from 161 to 163.

[Captain_Orso]

I don't believe that's true.


I once put 80 brigs in the shipping lane, to see what would happen. Revenue ($+WS) increased from 161 to 163.

Things that influence income through sea trade are NM and the CS Raiders in the Shipping Box.

1 Brig has a transport capacity of 1. 1 Transport ship has a transport capacity of 10. So 80 Brigs in the Shipping Box is equivalent to 4 two ship, or 2 four ship, Transport Squadrons.

I've just tested sending 50 Brigs--25 Brig Squadrons--into the Shipping Box, and they earn normal income as per their transport capacity.

It's not a great strategy, but they work as expected.

[steelwarrior77]

Great infos - thanks - Playing the Union Sam Houston did join me with two cavalry units - should I keep them there or rather evacuate to the North?

[Captain_Orso]

You should start another thread

[steelwarrior77]

Yep - even though I may have more than 10 topics soon with my many questions ;-D