Recognising Navigable Rivers

[Adseria]

It's easy to spot the difference in the key, when they're clearly labelled, but as far as I can tell, on the actual map, one river looks pretty much the same as another.

Is there an easy way to tell the difference between navigable and non-navigable rivers? Alternatively, has someone made a list of navigable rivers somewhere?

[Ian R]

Purple vs Blue.

[Adseria]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Purple vs Blue.

Uh... what?

[Kull]

It's actually very easy to spot the difference on the as-delivered maps, as the color of the navigable rivers (red arrows) is identical to the "shallow ocean". By contrast, the non-navigable rivers (examples circled) are a much brighter blue.

You can clearly see the contrast in color where navigable transitions to non-navigable (half circles).

[Jorge_Stanbury]

for game purposes, it is the Yangtze in China
it is easier to think about which ports you can reach that are inland; Nanking, Anking, Wuchang, Hankow, Kiukiang,

[Ian R]

You need to explore the Function buttons and other hot keys.

There is one that sorts this out for you. There is a purple hexside, and a dark blue one.

I'm dreadfully sorry but I am sipping an Argentine malbec with some wagyu/angus cross fillet just at the moment, and it is my job to make the brouillée. Bit distracted old boy.

Love to help, check back in later perhaps?

[Adseria]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

You need to explore the Function buttons and other hot keys.

There is one that sorts this out for you. There is a purple hexside, and a dark blue one.

I'm dreadfully sorry but I am sipping an Argentine malbec with some wagyu/angus cross fillet just at the moment, and it is my job to make the brouillée. Bit distracted old boy.

Love to help, check back in later perhaps?

As a matter of fact, I have hexsides turned on by default, and, based on the map posted above by Kull, I can confirm that there is indeed no difference in hexside colours between navigable and non-navigable rivers.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Purple vs Blue.

Not really. Purple means the river is fordable by LCUs, not necessarily navigable.
Navigable portions of rivers have a slightly different blue than the non-navigable kind.

EDIT: There are several other navigable rivers - the one leading to Rangoon and Pegu, the one leading to Portland Oregon, and one that leads from the Arctic Ocean to Lake Baikal in Russia! That last one is dependent on the season - in winter months the sea ice blocks the river entrance. At least that is how it is supposed to work, but it is not really needed for Russia to get supplies so the entrance might be permanently blocked (i.e. another coding task that did not have enough time for completion).

[Ian R]

There is on the rather standard map I use - there a bit louder and wider, and purple.

You may need to check with a modified map user, rather than a simple sod such as I.

[Trugrit]

I sometimes use a non standard map.

On a non standard map (Like the chemkid maps) you can check the river.
It takes a little longer than looking at the map colors.

You can form up a task force almost anywhere on the map and add
a light ship to it like a PB. Set its destination to the river hex you want to check
and if you see a hex path to it up the river the PB can go there and the river is
navigable.

Don’t forget to disband the Task Force after your check.

As an example below I formed up a cargo task force at Fusan put one PB in it
and then set it’s destination to Kiukiang. You can see the hex path up the river on the map.

[geofflambert]

The size of the vessel matters. For example, many or most capital ships cannot get to Saigon or Calcutta. I'm currently playing stock with a stock map, and you can build a port at Nadzab, up from Lae, but I don't know what sort of ship if any can get to the port once you build it. Maybe landing craft can, I haven't tried them yet.

[geofflambert]

I think, for instance, in the American Civil War you could sail a lot of things up to Vicksburg, but getting turned around was a problem. Sometimes you just went backward like flotsam and got spun around when you hit something, if you were lucky.

[Trugrit]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

The size of the vessel matters. For example, many or most capital ships cannot get to Saigon or Calcutta. I'm currently playing stock with a stock map, and you can build a port at Nadzab, up from Lae, but I don't know what sort of ship if any can get to the port once you build it. Maybe landing craft can, I haven't tried them yet.

Yes, ship size does matter. The game will also tell you if the path is blocked.

I forgot to mention in my last post that you can also check if a river is navigable
by looking at the bases along the river to see if they have a port.

[geofflambert]

Here you can see I've built a size 1 port, and could build it to size 4, but there's a red hexside blocking the way. ???????

[Lokasenna]

Push F6.

[Trugrit]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Here you can see I've built a size 1 port, and could build it to size 4, but there's a red hexside blocking the way. ???????

This was a mistake. All the way back to 2011. Nadzab should not have a port.

Alfred
fb.asp?m=3814666

I think you were in the thread at the time.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

Push F6.

That doesn't work. Here is a screenshot of that river flowing into Lake Baikal (the one that comes in from the north side about half way along the lake - it traces back to the Arctic Ocean) and several other rivers in the vicinity.
1. All the rivers in the area have purple on the hex edges, but only the one I mentioned is navigable to the ocean. The purple just means a LCU can ford them on that hex side.
2. The dark blue hex sides on Lake Baikal just mean a water hex side. In this case, because the water has the blue grey color it is navigable. Similar water hexes in China past Wuchow are not navigable.
3. Forming a TF anywhere on map and trying to send it to a hex up a river remains the best way to determine if a river is navigable. You don't have to actually send the TF there - just see if the game AI will plot the route when you try it. That could also show whether the port at Nadzab can be used or not.

EDIT: Picture would not load - too large. Tried to downsize it twice with Paint 3D but although the program said it was saving the files they could not be found on my hard drive ...

[Ian R]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
.
1. All the rivers in the area have purple on the hex edges, but only the one I mentioned is navigable to the ocean. The purple just means a LCU can ford them on that hex side.

I stand corrected.

I thought the navigable ones were blue.

[fcooke]

But you had nice wine and steak.....

[Ian R]

You should have tasted the desert. Mmmm.