Ekaton
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Port blockade

Fri Mar 16, 2018 2:07 pm

I am currently playing during the Crimean War and I'm blocking the Russian port of Sevastpol using the French and British fleets. What happens is that the cohesion is hit really hard after about a month, why is that so? IRL port blockades can last for months and in game the fleet's strength dropped from around 1400 to 200 in a month. Do I need more transport fleets there?

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Re: Port blockade

Fri Mar 16, 2018 8:44 pm

I would expect that this is working as designed since once steam engines were placed in warships, their ability to spend months at sea essentially became non-existent. One can see how many elements are necessary to blockade any port so it makes sense to keep a minimum number of elements over the minimum and to rotate squadrons from being on station to the nearest friendly port to recover cohesion.

Even in the Age of Sail there was a constant movement of individual ships and or squadrons from blockade stations to port but then the main delimiter was drinking water rather than fuel. Refuelling, victualling or watering on the high seas was a difficult and dangerous evolution, hence the requirement to visit a harbour. Having to manage a blockade in a similar manner while playing PON does not seem unreasonable.

-C

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loki100
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Re: Port blockade

Mon Mar 19, 2018 9:10 am

Ekaton wrote:I am currently playing during the Crimean War and I'm blocking the Russian port of Sevastpol using the French and British fleets. What happens is that the cohesion is hit really hard after about a month, why is that so? IRL port blockades can last for months and in game the fleet's strength dropped from around 1400 to 200 in a month. Do I need more transport fleets there?


If you want to sustain a long term blockade put your fleet onto the defensive stance. This will limit cohesion losses.

The downside is you won't intercept any enemy combat fleets but you will block the port.

Basically the attack stance is to prepare your fleet for active combat - so the ships are uncomfortable etc (basically everything is tied down or locked away). Defend stance makes life easier for your crews as the ships are not prepared for immediate combat.

Also, yes in time you will need to rotate, even using the defensive stance.

Ekaton
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Re: Port blockade

Mon Apr 09, 2018 4:28 pm

I'm not sure whether this is historically accurate - even during the Napoleonic era, British blockades lasted months with little rotation, relying on supply ships. I understand that steam-powered ships require more supply, but blockades are more static so those should not be that significant, especially considering the presence of transport ships nearby - additionally, I don't really understand why they are losing cohesion that rapidly - blockades typically last months and during this era ships were at sea for months if not years so it's really bread and butter for these crews.

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loki100
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Re: Port blockade

Tue Apr 10, 2018 8:19 am

The key is that a long term blockade is an essentially passive operation with little immediate likelihood of a major action - ie the defensive stance models this and allows you to stay at sea for a long time but you are not ready for a major fleet action.

You are basically expecting to stop merchant ships and merely by being there most unarmed enemy ships will avoid the region.

Preparing for battle means making your ships very uncomfortable places for the crews - this is as true for sail as steam - so you pay a price in fatigue and the ability to sustain that stance for a long time, ie you are using the attack stance.

I'd actually say its a neat and realistic rendering of two very different styles of naval operations.

Always worth bearing in mind that almost every navy forgets the lesson about making sure that ships going into combat have nothing out of place - individual comfort etc. Check out why so many Royal Navy ships were so badly damaged off the Falklands - carpets had been placed over the steel floors (comfort) but of course are highly inflammable.

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