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Are the Straits of Gibraltar passable for Central Powers naval units? I tried to send my subs past the straits in my recent game and found they were blocked from entering either hex on the Spanish or British sides. Why would the Straits of Gibraltar be impassable to enemy naval units but the Straits of Dover are passable?

Michael

Hi Michael

The Strait of Gibraltar isn't passable for Central Powers' naval units in this game. Instead Germany can opt to send some U-Boats via rail to Austro-Hungarian ports, as they did, and operate them from there.

The Strait of Dover is wider and was a major cause of concern for the British in WWI due to the huge volume of traffic passing back and forth between Britain and France, and it is therefore open so that the danger has to be considered here too.

Understood. This means though that the Mediterranean is closed sea for Central Powers naval forces only. So, if the Entente is losing they have the option of pulling all of their naval units out of the Med to combat German submarines in the Atlantic without the risk that any of the Central Powers submarines (or other naval units) will follow them into the Atlantic.

Of course, if the Central Powers player was really determined to get his navies into the Atlantic, he would always have the option of trying to capture one side of the Strait of Gibraltar or the other with ground forces and converting those hexes into friendly territory. It would require declaring war on Spain and/or an amphibious assault on Gibraltar but in theory in would be possible.

Michael

Hey Michael, I've actually found that all you need to do is blockade / bombard the southern most english port in Gibraltar, get it down to 0 supply, and then your ships will be able to pass freely through that hex. Doing a land invasion of Gibraltar would work but wasn't necessary (and is quite difficult unless you declare war on spain) in a recent play-through of mine.

That's really interesting. If you decide you don't want to take naval casualties by bombarding Gibraltar, how exactly do you go about reducing it through blockade?

Michael