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I am playing as the Union, July 1861, advanced settings. I assign the beginning fleets to blockade ports (three ship fleets, one on Norfolk, one on New Orleans). I also assigned the six ship home fleet to blockade a city (I don't remember which one, I'm at work). I have done this in several games. I am new and have started a few games to get a hang of the system, but I haven't gone more than a year before starting over and trying to use what new things I have learned.

My problem is that I have never seen any effect from the blockades. I never see anything in the report at the end of each turn saying I did some damage to the enemy, or I intercepted some goods. I see blockade runners on the map, but never any indication that I have affected him in any way.

Am I doing something wrong? Is the effect of blockades more subtle in that the report at the end of each turn that says the CSA received this or that resource from Europe would have been even more without my blockades? Do I need to go more than a year before I see some effect? Is it just the fact that I haven't blockaded enough ports to show any effect? I would think that even blockading three ports would show some minimal effect at some point that I could see, so that I can monitor some increasing effect as I throw more resources at blockades.

I am leery of spending the considerable resources to build the fleets required to blockade every port without knowing what effect this has on the CSA. I can do it on faith that the Anaconda Plan VP's could be worth it, but I think I may be missing something here. I recall one of the AAR's having a screenshot where the end of turn report listed a naval battle with some casualties, but I've never seen that once.

Thanks

Fear not, blockading ports do have an effect, an important one - provided you use at least 30 strength point fleets, as you have been doing. Each port blockaded proportionately reduces the amount of goods available for blockade runners and the resources occasionally provided to the CSA by the foreign powers. There isn't a blockade effects report - instead as in real life the impact shows up in the weaker Confederacy that you otherwise face. The stats reports such as the weapons one will of course reflect that too. The VPs are an added bonus.

Each union vessel, whether in a blockading fleet or not, has a kill possibility against runners in the same sea province and any damages incurred are included in the Events report.

Btw if you want to test this out, you could always play both sides in a hot seat game for a few turns just using the naval/runner units.

Blockades are an excellent strategy for the Union and well worth the costs involved.  The four VP's are good but stopping the flow of material and technology to the Confederacy is even better.  As in RL, blockades are a long term proposition, do not expect instant gratification but you might note the typical resources, wealth and upgrades sent to the South from Europe from the events report before and after your blockade becomes effective.

Thanks, I'll proceed building with building the required fleets.

HiHi
 
Herman, only just noticed this myself, but if you look on the Nation page in the 'Victory' box at the bottom of the list is Elect/Block which shows when your vp's for successful blockade kicks in.
 
All the Best
Peter