Questions about strategic naval warfare

[mdsmall]

Here are some more questions I have about strategic warfare by naval forces. Grateful for your insights.

Unrestricted naval warfare

1. What are the precise effects on British MPP production of Germany declaring unrestricted naval warfare?

2. How does the effect each turn vary with the number German naval units occupying the NM objective hexes west of Great Britain?

3. Do only submarines have this effect or can any surface vessel have this effect if they occupy these hexes?

4. How can the Entente player or the Central Powers player see the effects of unrestricted naval warfare? There do not seem to be the same notifications at the end of each turn as there is about convoy disruption.

5. I have read the previous thread in this forum about convoys which mentions that subs placed in these non-adjacent ocean hexes reduce British ports. Where in the manual are the rules governing how this works?

Blockading Germany

5. What is the precise effect per turn on German MPPs of placing Entente naval units on the NM hexes?

6. What is the difference in the effect in placing naval units on the NM hexes in the North Sea versus placing them on the hexes between Scotland and Iceland?

7. How much does the blockading effect against Germany increase with the number of hexes occupied by Entente naval units?

8. Do all types of Entente naval units including subs have an equal effect per hex in blockading Germany?

9. How can the Entente player or the Central Powers player see the effects each turn of Entente blockades against Germany?

10. Is there any effect of the Entente blockade also against Austria-Hungary?

[The Land]

ORIGINAL: mdsmall

Here are some more questions I have about strategic warfare by naval forces. Grateful for your insights.

Unrestricted naval warfare

1. What are the precise effects on British MPP production of Germany declaring unrestricted naval warfare?

2. How does the effect each turn vary with the number German naval units occupying the NM objective hexes west of Great Britain?

3. Do only submarines have this effect or can any surface vessel have this effect if they occupy these hexes?

4. How can the Entente player or the Central Powers player see the effects of unrestricted naval warfare? There do not seem to be the same notifications at the end of each turn as there is about convoy disruption.

5. I have read the previous thread in this forum about convoys which mentions that subs placed in these non-adjacent ocean hexes reduce British ports. Where in the manual are the rules governing how this works?

Blockading Germany

5. What is the precise effect per turn on German MPPs of placing Entente naval units on the NM hexes?

6. What is the difference in the effect in placing naval units on the NM hexes in the North Sea versus placing them on the hexes between Scotland and Iceland?

7. How much does the blockading effect against Germany increase with the number of hexes occupied by Entente naval units?

8. Do all types of Entente naval units including subs have an equal effect per hex in blockading Germany?

9. How can the Entente player or the Central Powers player see the effects each turn of Entente blockades against Germany?

10. Is there any effect of the Entente blockade also against Austria-Hungary?

So both of these use the same mechanic.

Each blockade hex is checked individually. If there is a naval unit in it of any kind (including mines, I think) then the blockaded power loses a set number of National Morale points). If it's a blockade of the British then the Germans get a Decision Event asking whether they want to declare unrestricted warfare which they need to tick for this to occur. For those hexes, German NM also goes *up*.

The number of NM points varies based on the type of hex (the German Unrestricted hexes most are -75 UK and +75 for Germany, then the UK-Norway hexes which I think are -50 for Germany, then the UK-Iceland hexes at -30 at something). These effects are invisible unless you closely watch the NM meters.

The event coding is the same as if you capture one of the land hexes marked National Morale Objective, except the blockade hexes are continuous not one-off and the effect sizes are smaller.

There is usually no effect on MPPs but it can be the case that either a) an event triggers that reduces the supply value in a port city (temporary MPP hit from that) or b) the unit in the hex is also eligible to raid a convoy.

[Xsillione]

The port reduction also coded with events, so you find them in the events parts of the guide. But that is still not 100% clear on the effect (probably some random parts too), in the long run, it will lover the related ports, which is also reduce the UK mpp by a tiny bit. The main reason is to reduce it below 5, when the convoys going to that port will be cut of temporally, causing huge mpp loss for the UK

[mdsmall]

Hi - I very much appreciate both these replies to my questions. I had not fully understood that naval strategic warfare operates on two levels: against MPPs through disrupting convoys or reducing British ports and against National Morale levels, either in German via blockades or in Britain via unrestricted naval warfare.

Two suggestions to the game designers. First, in a future update, could more specific, quantitative notifications be added to the game when National Morale is affected by either British blockades or German unrestricted warfare? Players receive immediate quantitative notifications when NM objectives on land are captured or lost and when units are destroyed. So why keep these important NM effects of naval warfare so hidden from players? The very generic notifications that now appear at the end of each turn without any quantification are pretty much meaningless. With so many other things affecting NM levels, it difficult to impossible for players to discern the effects of these enemy attacks on their National Morale levels just by tracking their NM levels at the end of each turn. Given that many hexes can be involved, just a notification of total NM impact per turn of British blockades or German unrestricted warfare would be sufficient.

Second, could this be more fully explained in an update to the Game Manual? Almost all of the information in The Land's reply to me above is nowhere to be found in the Game Manual or the Strategy Guide. Nor is the ability of German submarines to reduce British ports at a distance described anywhere. These are really important strategic aspects of the game that players on both sides need to understand and take into account in planning the naval dimensions of their game strategies.

[BillRunacre]

I'm afraid that it isn't technically possible for all the National Morale boosts/penalties incurred each turn by unrestricted attacks or the blockade of Germany to be added up and made into one Pop Up announcement each turn, as they are controlled by a huge number of scripts, generally one per location, and we currently have no way to implement it in another format.

The actual economic impact to the UK of unrestricted attacks will also vary from game to game and turn to turn, as it depends on the size of the convoys coming to the UK, and if the unrestricted attacks literally shut down British ports then the whole of the convoy income going to the affected port(s) will cease.

Really neither side had full information on the impact that their activities were having, but I can say that the UK loses 75 National Morale points per turn for each unrestricted naval warfare hex that is occupied by a German naval unit.

Germany gains 75 NM points per turn for each naval zone in which it is carrying out unrestricted attacks in, e.g. 75 for doing so in the Bristol Channel, 75 for the Irish Sea etc, and as there are 4 zones it can gain a maximum of 300 NM points per turn from doing so.

In terms of the blockade of Germany, occupying each Northern Blockade hex reduces German NM per turn by 20 points, while each Distant Blockade hex does so by 10 points.

[BillRunacre]

I will add some of these figures to the Strategy Guides in a future update, good suggestion. [:)]

[John B.]

Oh thanks for the claification on NM effects. I was wondering about that!