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Just curious why I am not allowed to blockade Seville in this screenshot. I am the British and have the fleet I would like to have carry out the blockade highlighted. I have often managed to get fleets to blockade specific ports. But can't get it to happen here. I tried on other turns too, and thought I would wait to see what would happen and finally gave up and have to ask in the forum.

Actually, I am also curious why a British fleet has to exit Gibraltar into the Mediterranean and isn't allowed directly into the Atlantic. However, that is really just a secondary, minor issue and could simply be "designer's license".

Wait.  I think I know now.  Britain is not at war with Spain.  I guess you can only blockade nations you are at war with.  Which makes sense.

Brilliant!  [:D]
 
(Actually, to be honest, I've made that mistake, too.  Please don't tell HardSarge.)  [8|]
 

To be honest, it threw me off because I am currently reading "The War for All the Oceans" by Adkins.  A GREAT book.  It covers the naval war between 1798 and 1815.  I wouldn't have put it past the British to blockade nations they weren't at war with.  And indeed, some of their measures were so belligerent, they were worse than that.  For instance, stopping US vessels (warships too!) to see if there were any British deserters on board.  By the end of the war, it is estimated that they had seized up to 10,000 AMERICANS and pressed them into service!  At one point, the British passed a law ordering all British sailors around the world to return home.  Some British naval officers were upset about this, because they felt it might have given the Russians a right to do the same thing--and there were many, many Russians serving aboard British ships.

Anyway, an excellent read.  I highly recommend it.  It fills in huge gaps in my understanding of the naval war at the time.

P.S. After reading about how ships on blockade duty were pounded by the weather mercilessly and were constantly lost because they could not seek shelter (I hit another graphic example last night while reading), I am still convinced that there should be either 1) ship damage to blockading fleets in a storm and to those in an open sea region, OR in order to prevent the game from becoming a massive War in the Pacific, 2) simply occassionally sink a ship which is on blockade duty and is caught in a storm.

P.S. Reading about the forcing of the Dardanelles and Bosporus by the British in February of 1807 was simply amazing. The British task force forced their way into a gap less than a mile wide with two castles on either side. There were huge Ottoman batteries and mortars which fired 500 and 800 pound granite shot. One of which scored a direct hit. The operation to intimidate the Turks into submission after signing an alliance with the French, was a failure. But it is spectacular reading.

I don't mind the idea of damage or ships being sunk on blockade duty but only if the Mobilization limits for ships is calculated separately from land units.  I annoys me when I’m GB and I hit my ML and I can’t replace any lost ships.  This becomes more and more a problem as my provinces start building unwanted units and I’m now over my ML limit.