Blockade

[Uxbridge]

Just a Quick question regarding blockading the French fleet. I have lots of British ships in the areas adjacent to some French ports. Yet enemy squadrons seems to slip in and out without much trouble. This might be as intended and if so -- fine. I only want to know if the blocking of harbours for the sake of bottling-up or catching enemy fleets is useless. I can then use the fleets for other things.

There's also some vagueness regarding the button Naval Interception. The graphic has a red line crossing it, suggesting that if it is unchecked (no red border) interception is ON. As far as the text goes, it seems to acknowledge this. Or could it be the other way round?? If so the apparently very friendly Royal Navy behavior could be explanied.

[Uxbridge]

Anyone?

[Ebbingford]

When intercept is set to "on" the box has a red outline to it.
There is a slight bug where it will not remain on in some cases though.......
You need to check each turn that it is still on.

[Khanti]

(...) Yet enemy squadrons seems to slip in and out without much trouble. This might be as intended and if so -- fine. I only want to know if the blocking of harbours for the sake of bottling-up or catching enemy fleets is useless.(...)

Depends on what ships you use for blockade. Ships of the line are good for fighting, but will not intercept anything because of low patrol values. Brigs / sloops are perfect. So blockade fleet should have some brigs to make the job done.

[Uxbridge]

Ebbingford. Okay, then I have done it wrong. When the red frame flickers the tool-tip says: "Click to have your fleet intercept enemy fleets passing by", which means the opposite. If the frame is non-red the text goes: "Your fleet will engage enemy fleets ...". Should the tool-tip texts be reversed? Anyway, I will try keeping it red now.

Khanti. Is it sufficient to have some sloops in the force, or should the interception force be all-sloop to be effective?

[Khanti]

When the red frame flickers the texts says "Naval Interception (in [color="#FF0000"]red[/color]). Click to have your fleet intercept enemy fleets passing nearby".
When you click, the frame disappears and the text says "Naval Interception (in [color="#006400"]green[/color]). Your fleet will try to intercept enemy fleets passing nearby".
My fleets intercept, when the text is in [color="#006400"]green[/color].

Composition of blockade fleet should be set accordingly to enemy fleets in port. First: more firepower (means SOLs). Second: something that intercepts and actually starts a fight (all in one stack). Brigs are perfect. Sloops have those strange glitch, that when on sea, their patrol value is 0. But when in building window, sloops have good patrol value. I consider it as bug, so better rely on brigs.

[Khanti]

When intercept is set to "on" the box has a red outline to it.
There is a slight bug where it will not remain on in some cases though.......
You need to check each turn that it is still on.

I don't think so. The default behavior of land units is fight/intercept. The same should be with the fleet. You can set it to evade, but that should be intentionally. Default behavior of fleet is: fight, so intercept.

[Uxbridge]

Regarding red/green. For me it's the opposite, which I think feels wrong. I've played to april 1806 without a single fight that wasn't initiated by the opposing side. Making the frame flicker, with text in red, suddenly makes my fleet come alive. I haven't applied the latest patch, however. In any case, I'm happy to be able to use RN now, regardless of the text issue.