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I'm playing my first USA grand campaign and I'm finding the Naval aspect a little overwhelming. Right now I'm just putting warships and transports in the shipping box and the small warships in the blockade boxes.. But I feel like there's something I'm missing.

What kind of ships should I be putting in the shipping box?

Does this mean they are shipping/receiving from overseas?

Should I be actively blockading ports etc., or just leave it alone and concentrate on land forces?

Hi Jennison!

Send to the shipping box all transports that you can and protect them with warships, frigates especially, because they have a high value of detection and evasion.

Frigates (light, steam, and armored) can be used to pursue raider ships in the shipping box; however, they can also be used to intercept blockade runners in the blockade boxes.

Light Frigates have the highest Blockade rating, and are most effective at raising the blockade %.

The USA also has the option to transport supply by sea to coastal areas and ports. The transport capacity depends on the number of transport ships allocated to the “world shipping” box and is displayed on the transport assets panel at the top of the map.

Example: Union shipping allows long distance supply transport, for example from New York to New Orleans. The process is automated and will strive to augment the supply of needy ports and coastal depots by transporting any excess supply in the Northern harbors to where it is needed.

In addition, transports will report you money each turn.

Add some ships in the blockade boxes first, then to blockade the biggest confederate ports. This will add up.

Light (not Steam or Armored) Frigates and blockade ships are the most effective ship types.

Good luck and enjoy playing!

Thank you Ethan. I read about some of the things you covered in the manual and I was confused on the "World Shipping Box".. I notice that this box is not on the map and that it is automated... Does this mean you don't have to do anything with these ships? World shipping is already taking place without my interaction?

Thanks again.

That's right. You only have to send the transports to the shipping box and the process is automatic. By the way, the "World shipping box" means the shipping box.

PS: Don't forget to protect transports (with frigates) from raiders.

Ethan wrote:That's right. You only have to send the transports to the shipping box and the process is automatic. By the way, the "World shipping box" means the shipping box.

PS: Don't forget to protect transports (with frigates) from raiders.

Great, thanks. The manual is great but it's always helpful to get the veterans to offer their advice.

Handling the naval boxes:

You have three boxes for your naval forces. The two blockade boxes. One for the Atlantic and one for the Gulf of Mexico.

Below the Atlantic Blockade box is the Shipping box. I am sure you have seen them on the edge of the map.

The ships all need to be supplied and if you fail to keep an eye on them they will disappear, due to lack of supply.

All ships use more supply on offence than on defensive settings. They also lose cohesion more quickly.

Placing one or two frigates in the same group with your transports in the shipping box is usually enough to protect them from raiding AI ships. If you add more warships to this box you will use up supply and need to send ships to port to resupply at some point.

With your other two blockade boxes you will need to rotate transport ships ( the seagoing equivalent of supply wagons) to and from the fleets or send all the ships to port to resupply them.

Transports keep those ships at sea longer and keep their cohesion higher than rotating the whole fleet. It is also cheaper and quicker to build transports than masses of warships.

It usually takes two turns to travel to and from the shipping and blockade boxes from, say, Boston.

To supply your blockade boxes you want to send transports there and return the empty transports in a continuous manner. This means two groups of transports go in a rotation that takes 6 turns. Two turns to go, one turn with the battle group and two turns to come home and one turn to repair and refit. One group arrives as the other departs.

Most of the southern blockade runners will be in the Gulf box. This is where you want a force of three or so frigates to combat them, in an offensive posture. You may need to rotate these ships often so you will need two groups.

1 to 3 commerce raiders may be in the shipping box. The best way to handle these is to send a force of frigates with transports to the shipping box and rotate the transport the same as you would in the blockade box. Otherwise your whole shipping fleet will lose supplies and cohesion and have to be sent home for a turn or two, and that is a costly prospect.

I hope some of this helps you.

Good remark, Ol' Choctaw. I agree with you that it is important to rotate the fleets so they can recover cohesion and to repair damages in ports (in the case that there have been battles).

By the way, Jennison to repair damaged ships you need the presence of a naval engineer in the city of the harbor where ships are docked.

Have fun!

Excellent, thanks for the replies gentlemen. I really hate to destroy my Confederate brothers, but I'm still going to have fun doing it.

So interesting.
I thought it much more complicated and easier; both.

So interesting.
I thought it much more complicated and easier; both.

Ethan wrote:Good remark, Ol' Choctaw. I agree with you that it is important to rotate the fleets so they can recover cohesion and to repair damages in ports (in the case that there have been battles).

By the way, Jennison to repair damaged ships you need the presence of a naval engineer in the city of the harbor where ships are docked.

Have fun!

You don't NEED naval engineers. It just makes it quicker.

It's true. Sorry. What was I thinking?

Naval engineers help speed up the following activities in the region they are located in:

* Building of naval units
* Repairing naval units

What works for me is putting brigs n the blocade box and Frigates in the shipping (plus one transport)