How does blockading work?

[Solaristics]

I couldn't see this in the manual or patch notes or after a search on the forum. Playing CP and under blockade. How has it been created and how do I lift it?

[mpetri]

I'd assume if you sink enough enemy warships it breaks the blockade.....there's also an event which lessens the effects of the blockade I'm pretty sure.

[Robotron]

Blockade against the CP is automatically established if a CP convoy gets sunk. It will be lifted if the sum of all hitpoints of all CP (non-convoy) vessels in the North Sea divided by the sum of all Entente vessels' hitpoints in the North Sea is greater than 1.5

[nehi]

i think convoys are overrated, so i never cared much about them, but why pop ups blockade event after first attack when it needs to sink whole convoy?

then just attacking its not enough to blockade?

[Robotron]

My bad: it's enough to attack a convoy to establish the blockade.

[operating]

Blockade against the CP is automatically established if a CP convoy gets sunk. It will be lifted if the sum of all hitpoints of all CP (non-convoy) vessels in the North Sea divided by the sum of all Entente vessels' hitpoints in the North Sea is greater than 1.5

Have not been here in awhile..

I have no doubt what Robotron says is true, however to achieve the above goal of breaking the blockade, CP has to put a lot of fleets on the map and constantly attack Entente navies, but be cautious about exceeding Entente "convoy kills", for it would cause the USA to enter the war. CP wolfpacks against vulnerable Entente warfleets that result in complete destruction of said fleet can go a long way towards breaking the blockade, even better if you can sink Entente dreadnaught battle-fleets. Go at it with expecting to be doing a lot of damage repairs post action. If you can suck the Russian battlefleets into open water with a feint/ploy then trap them out there with combined fleet actions, even with air-supported naval attacks can well put you on the path to breaking the blockade. Repeat said action against the Brits for it would be unlikely the Russians would have the time to build another dreadnaught fleet.... To me, it seemed if my combined CP fleet total got one and a half times bigger than the Entente fleets it would break the blockade....

[nehi]

its all nice, but now im trying to improve my game in 1917 and there is easy to do total blockade of baltic

entente have first move and many subs, mixed with subs of cp it happens to me very often that it doesnt even spawn convoy

(so i guess it can spawn just in 5 hexes, original one, 3 neighbour and the one top right there)

[operating]

I'm not sure what you are talking about? For once the blockade is broken CP convoys spawn in the south Atlantic (2 locations), also from Norway and in the north Baltic. If you are playing the game in SP as the Entente: It is highly unlikely that CP ever breaks the blockade and that's only when the Entente player is inept or a complete newbie to the game who is learning the ropes... The real challenge here "is to break the blockade", not make it tougher for CP, that's easy enough to do as it is...

Ya, it's been done before, that placing Entente subs along the entire north Baltic sea hexes prevents CP convoys from spawning, but usually the AI has no comprehension as to how to overcome this problem, however a MP opponent could figure out what is happening and come up with a plan to defeat it, if they have the resources...

[nehi]

thats it, wasting resources for something whats like never coming it doesnt sound wise to me...

baltic convoy is only one, which can cp protect and its easy to block it totally, thats what im talking about

cp atlantic convoy is just a bad joke, norway one i saw just in late game, when its pointless anyway

[operating]

The point is: Once the blockade is broken, it usually means that CP has the dominating navy on the map, putting CP in the position to blockade Entente, thus turn the tables on supply. I always felt the terms to implement the blockade in this game as rather simplistic: Being that any "one" attack on a CP convoy (be it successful or not) anywhere on the map triggers a "North Sea Blockade", it always seemed ludicrous to me. If it were an attack on a CP convoy in the North Sea with Entente naval units in close proximity to German ports, OK I could buy the fact that a blockade is on, but when there is no presence of any Entente near those ports makes the "Blockade" a lot of HOOEY, bad scheme design....

[nehi]

similar feelings here about its too easy for entente to trigger it

especially when they can do real blockade

but cp blocking entente? in 1917 or 1918 maybe, in other scenarios its one step closer to hell build up such a navy (i usually talk about mp, ai is just as good as meassurement of quickness )

[operating]

Personally I like playing the naval portion of the game despite the challenges offered. Yes, the cost of a naval war in MP is almost prohibitive depending on the opponent, along with the gains or losses of home and other cities. Playing against an opponent such as yourself, I have to be completely mindful of the ground game and it's expense (reserves being a factor). Many of my MP matches do extend into the later years, however the opponent climate has changed from the more traditional play to blitzkrieg, to also include exploiting obvious defects in the game that have never been resolved by the developers..... Personally, I get a lot of satisfaction when breaking the blockade, I actually feel like I have accomplished something positive, plus I would know that the Entente would be using up a ton of PP to counter this so called Victory.

[nehi]

naval is just about spam subs, cheap and ghostlike assassins, but why to do that when it has to be decided on the ground

when my mp game lasts longer than 1 year i feel it like a loss

when i count with leavings/inactivity, then full length war 120+ turns wont be ever finished

(average activity is 1 turn per day, dont say 2/3 games like never start, even more ridiculous, when im hosting 1917 scenario as cp, they accept the challenge, but theirs first turn never come)