The Naval Game

[Ol' Choctaw]

How do you get the most from your ships?

How do you keep their cohesion up and how often to you resupply them, as opposed to bringing them back to port?

Sending transports to the sea area will resupply them for a time but leaving a transport in the individual fleet seems to bring them down faster. I could be mistaken. I have not done a detailed study but maybe someone has.

No matter which side you are playing, keeping ships at sea, rather than in port should be a priority.

[Ol' Choctaw]

I know that looking at this, it is a naval supply issue but it is also about timing and optimization.

If your fleet stays fit and at sea longer than your opponent it can make a big difference.

Naval units only have their onboard supply to see them through in the sea boxes. Unlike land units they are outside the supply lines.

The union ships in the shipping lanes can distribute supplies to other areas but don’t seem to retain it for themselves.

If you put warships in the box to suppress the commerce raiders you will note that you fleet starts to be short on supply. By the same token, commerce raiders go through ammo quickly and need either to be replenished at sea or return to port frequently. Sending out a couple of transports and a light escort to replenish them keeps them earning money for you for a few turns longer.

Transports work very similar to wagons. They can build depots in ports and supply other ships with general supply and ammo. However they must return to port to replenish. The same is true of river transports. Even though they may seem to be in the supply chain they only replenish in port, preferably on that is also a depot.

River units seem to lose cohesion even faster than blue water units and seem to go through supplies quick also. I assume this is because they lack the storage capacity of the larger ships. Rotating transports in and out of your river fleets can keep them on station a little longer and deny the enemy his mobility there just a little longer too.

[Longshanks]

I'm playing on the "75% option" for ships in the blockade, which really cuts down on micromanagement. The gunboats can stay out much longer if they're not on Offensive setting, but of course you may need them to be. If they're just blocking a crossing though, they can do so on Defensive mode I think, and so stay out longer.

[John Sedgwick]

Playing as the CSA, I've never really given much thought to the blockade and shipping boxes. I don't bother with commerce raiders other than those received through events, and I don't build ocean transports - I usually have enough brigs to keep a dozen or so in the gulf blockade, even taking into account cycling them out for resupply. As for my river fleets, I pair them with one or two river transports and usually have them operate next to friendly ports covered by coastal artillery; when I need to keep them on station indefinitely, I'll divide them into two rotating patrols, or I'll have one primary fleet on station with a reserve fleet in port so I can switch out individual ships as necessary. I also invest in one or two units of naval engineers - one to speed up construction of ironclads, the other to repair any damaged fleets.

[Yellowhammer]

Playing as the USA, I try to keep a strong monitor / blockade squadron at Hampton Roads to interdict CSA ship movement (sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't) and to protect Fortress Monroe. I try to keep a reinforced fleet (with extra frigates) in the Atlantic Shipping Box. I build enough squadrons to rotate through the Atlantic and Gulf Blockade boxes (it takes me awhile, but I try to get ~40% blockade). At times I'll task a fleet with a coastal raiding mission, so extra transports are handy. When ships become available I build a couple of hunter / killer flotillas to go after CSA raiders.

The river navy depends on the opponent's forts - for example Sedgwick has forts along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers that will cripple (and have crippled) a fleet. A riverine fleet isn't very useful just yet. Usually I build fleets around ironclads with enough gunboat and transport units to blockade river areas / ports. River fleets can hinder or block movement of land units across rivers.

As the CSA I depend on the foreign navies for offense, else just use brigs in the blockade boxes. I use a small ocean fleet for raiding the Shipping Box. I try to keep ironclad fleets around key coastal cities to disrupt invasions (if the invasion fleet is weak), plus I keep an ironclad fleet up around Memphis.

[Ol' Choctaw]

Rotating fleets is fine but you can save your self building about one third of those ships by sending in transports to resupply the ships you have on station.

I know I have had to send ships home after only one or two turns in the box because of ammo. In most cases it is two to three turns to get back to port.

Transports also seem to make the trip in a slightly shorter time. They are usually only on station a turn before their supply is exhausted but it keeps the fighting ships on station, which is what matters.

Also I put my ships that are in port on passive mode. They do recoup their cohesion much quicker. Even damaged ships are usually ready to sail again in three turns and undamaged ones in two.

Experiment with it and let me know what you think.

[Yellowhammer]

Ol' Choctaw - I'll give the blockade transport resupply a try. I need to provide the fleets with additional scouting squadrons anyway to increase detection - they'll make good escorts for the transports.

I wish I used as much ammo as you...

[John Sedgwick]

Choctaw - I'm less concerned with keeping my fleets in supply and on station as I am with keeping them at maximum cohesion, but I will pay more attention to rotating individual transports from now on, probably more effective that way. And I always put them on passive mode in port - it helps a lot, as you say. I like to have about a third more ships than I need in case of losses, and unless I'm under immediate threat, I prefer to have fully rested fleets in well defended ports ready to respond to the enemy rather than risk fighting at less than full strength (sort of a fleet-in-being that the enemy will hopefully have to factor into his plans), but I do keep smaller flotillas on station to protect river routes along my supply lines.

Yellowhammer - I think I got lucky with that fleet bombardment, Fort Jones was still under construction when I scored those 90 hits on your fleet. That was a pleasant surprise to me

[Ol' Choctaw]

I have just finished a game as the Union, as their naval game is a bit more demanding.

Using 4 transports, two sets of two, and later adding two more I managed to keep the Atlantic Shipping Box fully supplied and didn’t have to rotate ships at all.

I had only two transports in the Gulf and had more blockade runners to combat with fewer ships. I had to rotate ships out about three times.

They do maintained their cohesion much better, however.

It sure beats sending half your fleets for home ever turn or two.

I ended with something more than 100% Blockade.

I also had an amphibious fleet and ships blocking sea areas where the CSA enters the Sea boxes on the Atlantic side.

The method also works for the CSA but your transports need an escort. It does keep the brigs in the box longer but not the whole game. You tend to take more damage than the Union and have to go in for repairs.

This logistical tactic cuts the need of having a third to a half of your fleet in port on any given turn and that savings can go to the army.

[Longshanks]

Were you running on "full naval", "75% option" or which?

[Ol' Choctaw]

That was with the Standard Rule. No bonuses or penalties were used.

[Stauffenberg]

I imagine some CSA players have tried out a strategy I intend to experiment with, namely a "Mississippi First" strategy that puts holding on to both ends of the river a higher priority than hanging on even to Richmond. Main items:

--start building up gunboats and ironclads on the river early on
--Buchanan and Semmes moved to command the north and southern river fleets.
-- forts in Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans (possibly Baton Rouge as well); building extra coastal batteries in Savannah and moving them to forts on the river
--capital moved from Richmond to New Orleans as needed
--a grand division with first class general stationed New Orleans asap
--army commands for North and South Miss. established.

[Ol' Choctaw]

Please keep us posted on how it works out for you.

[Mickey3D]

I imagine some CSA players have tried out a strategy I intend to experiment with, namely a "Mississippi First" strategy that puts holding on to both ends of the river a higher priority than hanging on even to Richmond. [...]

I would be happy to have a return of experience on this strategy.

I see one potential problem : resources. Richmond and more generally Virginia and the East coast is where an important part of your resources are created.

Can you afford to loose some of them without risking a resources shortage later in the game ?

[SleeStak]

I'm curious, do you take the Richmond morale hit if you've moved your capitol? The penalty is pretty severe and would be difficult to bounce back from.

[Stauffenberg]

I would be happy to have a return of experience on this strategy.

I see one potential problem : resources. Richmond and more generally Virginia and the East coast is where an important part of your resources are created.

Can you afford to loose some of them without risking a resources shortage later in the game ?

Yes that and the issue of NM for losing Richmond, I'll have to check on that.

My thought was that the US needs time to really get a serious enough edge to seriously push into Virginia (even with a somewhat smaller CSA presence) and to try and get ahead with a naval build up in the Mississippi early on as the CSA and then revert back to Virginia as needed late 62 onwards. The loss of NO I think clearly resulted from misconceptions about what fixed forts could do to passing naval units--their stopping power was over-rated. Any CSA player will be keeping that in mind.

You might end up "leading" the US down towards NO once he figures out he has a serious defense going on there with a full CSA army, fortifications and enhanced naval assets. This would take pressure of Virgina perhaps.

I'll have to round up a pbem opponent to test this out, one who preferably who hasn't read this thread.

[Mickey3D]

I'm curious, do you take the Richmond morale hit if you've moved your capitol? The penalty is pretty severe and would be difficult to bounce back from.

You won't loose 50 NM as Richmond is no more the capital but you'll loose 2 NM to move the capitol as well as some NM because it's a strategic city.

[Longshanks]

I'm curious about how it works out, but I think you might get the same result with a fort in both NO and Memphis (Memphis first). The two forts bottle up supply on the Miss, unless Little Rock falls. Even a smaller force that is entrenched to 4 does the same IIRC. Using this method, you don't have to give up Richmond so easily.