Ghost-fleets of conquered nations...

[moose1999]

Playing as Sweden I just conquered Denmark.
I had obliterated their army and then sieged their capital.
I stormed the walls and next turn all Danish provinces were now mine.
I was a bit surprised untill I found the announcement of Sweden having conquered Denmark in the political report.
This is a somewhat major event, I would say, so maybe there should have been a note about it in the event report...[;)]

After conquering I couldn't see the Danish navy anywhere and assumed that it had been dismantled, which dissappointed me as capturing Danish ships was one of the reasons I had started the war in the first place.

But then a couple of turns later I read in the rumor-report (nice touch, by the way) tat the Danish fleet was located in the Atlantic and behold, there it was.
I immediately sent a fleet to engage it but couldn't, since hostilities has obviously seized as Denmark has seized to be.

My question is, are the Danish fleets condemned to wander the oceans for eternity or is there a way to bring them in/attack them?
I'd love to get my hands on the fat, Danish fleet - it's part of my strategy for challenging the English navy...!
I tried setting Denmark free through diplomatic means, so I might be able to grapple her fleet, but that only works with protectorates apparently.

So, what to do? [&:]
Can I set Denmark free, somehow?
Or is the Danish navy reduced to Flying Dutchman status for the rest of the game...?

EDIT: While I'm at it - there are no counter-assaults in naval detailed combat and I think this is an advantage to the human player.
The appendix mentions naval counter-assaults under the 'Naval repairs' upgrade, so I assume counter-assaults were in at some point.
Mostly out of curiosity - why were they taken out?

[Hard Sarge]

set Denmark to become a Protectorate, and the Fleets will become yours to control

not sure what you mean by counter assaults

if you mean Boarding actions, the active player attempts to board, when the AI becomes active, if it can or wants to board, it can, and will

(to be Honest, Boarding can be a drastic option to try)

[moose1999]

I was planning on making Denmark a protectorate, but all of a sudden I had conquered the country instead.
Guess I should have restrained myself a bit [:)].
But now I can't activate any diplomatic options vs. Denmark, as the country doesn't exist anymore, so their fleets are roaming the oceans as stateless entities.

On counter-assaults:
I guess I should have called it counter-attacks.
What I refer to is the automatic counter-attack that land units perform in detailed combat.
Ships do not get automatic counter-attacks when they are fired upon and it seems to be an advantage to the human player as I generally get a lot more shots off than the AI.
The AI seems a bit too conservative with fire-attacks in detailed naval combat.
Especially with long-range combat where I find the AI seldomly returns fire, although they can be quite deadly up close.
And though I do see a point in saving your first volley (which gets a bonus, I believe) for the right moment, I think I'm usually able to get too many 'free' shots in at long distance without the AI firing back.
Especially when the AI is defending.

And yes, I agree that boarding can be a very risky business.
Best to clear the way with a few volleys of grape-shot first...!

[Hard Sarge]

now that you have got Denmark

go to the Diplo botton on the bottom left side of the map screen

then I think it is called Veiw Nations, click that

it will bring up the 8 Major nations, to the side of that you will see, the whole list of Nations/Provinces, click there and scroll it down, it will bring the minors/Provinces into veiw

depending on the province type, it should have box with a L or a P on the top, from here you can Liberate or make a Protectorate out of a Province

click P, it will open up a small box, asking who should control the Protectorate (pick Denmark)

during your turn, you get a message saying you have formed a Protectorate with Denmark, and it's status will change



okay, I follow

yea, I agree to a bit, the player will normally fire much more often, but will also fire off a lot of poor shots, the way the system works

[moose1999]

Wonderful - it worked!
Actually it worked even better than I'd hoped.
Apart from liberating or making a protectorate out of Denmark there was also a button for declaring war on her.
So I did and immediately attacked her large fleet wandering the Atlantic and got my ass kicked...!
Gotta love a game that knows how to cut you down to size... [:)]

But thanks for the directions, Sarge.
I had completely missed that part of the diplomacy screens - opens up a whole little new side of the game to me.

On naval battles:
I think the naval battles work pretty well (I'm having a blast with them), but I do also think they would benefit from a slightly more trigger-happy AI.

[Hard Sarge]

Good, I am glad you found it, really, there is much more under the hood then most people see, and older players tend to forget about mentioning it, it is 2nd nature to them

yea, depending on the Campaign, the Danes have some Naval Power, it really can come in Handy for the French vs the English