Pensacola and Fort Massachusetts.

[Justaxxx]

Love this game.

Recommend Pensacola to be a blockade runner port.

I played a game as confederates. Strong navy in Gulf and Mexico. Got marines and took out Fort Pickens. Really did not help to much, other than taking the Union source of supply.

If this had really happened in the war it would have opened up the major port and Naval yards. It was consistently blockaded by Fort Pickens and some naval ships, but it didn't stop blockade runners from trying to come in.

Its gives incentive to the confederates to attempt to do this in the game.

Also, a major positional piece is missing in the Gulf of Mexico. A strategic location for the Union, which would help crack New Orleans.

Fort Massachusetts is a fort on West Ship Island along the Mississippi Gulf Coast of the United States. It was built following the War of 1812, with brick walls during 1859–1866. No bricks in 1861 though.

In January 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union, becoming the second state of the Confederacy. One of the first acts of war in the state occurred on Ship Island when an armed band of Mississippi militia took possession of the island and the unfinished fort. The militia soon abandoned the island; and it remained deserted until early June 1861, when Confederate troops returned and mounted several cannons. On July 9, the Union Navy's USS Massachusetts came within range of the Confederate guns. The 20-minute exchange of cannon fire which followed resulted in few injuries and little damage, to either side. That action was the only military engagement in which Ship Island or the fort would be directly involved.

During the remainder of the summer of 1861, the Confederate contingent on the island worked with sandbags and timber to strengthen the walls of the unfinished fort. Despite their work, they abandoned the island in mid-September.

Union military forces soon occupied the island. Ship Island was used as the staging area for the Union's successful capture of New Orleans in the spring of 1862. As many as 18,000 U.S. troops were stationed on the island.

Through the remainder of the war (1862–65), Union forces made use of Ship Island. Union ships stopped at the island for repairs and to pick up supplies. The 2nd Louisiana Native Guard, one of the first black regiments in the United States Army, were recruited in Louisiana and stationed there for almost three years.