Blockade: What does it do, exactly?

[dconner]

Let's assume, for simplicity, that I'm blockading an enemy city that's on an island by itself. What am I doing, precisely?

1. Eliminating the city's trade routes (i.e., extra gold for trading with other cities.)
2. Cutting the city off from resources (e.g., coal, corn, spices, all that stuff) from "the mainland."
3. Both?

I suspect it's #1 only, but it'd be cool if it did both. If I'm right, and it's just #1, is there any other way to cut off a city's supply of resources?

[anhalibut]

Both.
plus you're cutting them off from the fish, crab, clam resources they need for food. You can starve a city down to a pop of one or two very quickly.

[Jaybe]

Go ahead and blockade a city where you have sufficient espionage points to investigate their cities.

You should find that all their trade routes are gone, and that they cannot work the tiles that are blockaded.
I haven't blockaded an island yet, so I don't KNOW about the resources (but I have my suspicions).

[Jvstin]

You are also getting a couple of gold pieces from each blockader, too. I presume this is from the diverted trade.

[Proteus_MST]

Regardless of the ship type of the blockader?

Or only for blockading privateers?

[onodera]

Only when using Privateers.

[dconner]

Originally posted by anhalibut
Both.
plus you're cutting them off from the fish, crab, clam resources they need for food. You can starve a city down to a pop of one or two very quickly.

Ah, very good! Sounds like blockading could be a very useful tool in the right places!

[Kekkonen]

It definitely is. A group of Privateers can play havoc on the economy of a civ that has neglected naval tech research; having Caravels for lunch is also a good way to build up XP. (I don't know if this is trivial, but I found it very useful to let them operate as pairs; give one combat promotions only and to the other Medic I ASAP and then maybe Drills or further Combat promotions, and it'll take a huge group of Caravels to sink those babies.)

[Will9]

blockading also prevents you from working blockaded tiles. USE THIS! When the Ottomans declared war on me, my navy was nothing compared to his (and they unloaded his army before declaring war so all his troops got bumped to one square island and then the fleet left so I didn't have to worry about their army), but then I got combusion. Then I sent some destroyers over while I was preparing for my invasion. I forced the Ottomans onto land and this happened: (this is from before my invasion came)

[MoonWolf]

Blockading can be very powerful, yes. It's nice they have including this feature as it's really changing the aspect of naval warfare.

[Shrapnel12]

Originally posted by Kekkonen
It definitely is. A group of Privateers can play havoc on the economy of a civ that has neglected naval tech research; having Caravels for lunch is also a good way to build up XP. (I don't know if this is trivial, but I found it very useful to let them operate as pairs; give one combat promotions only and to the other Medic I ASAP and then maybe Drills or further Combat promotions, and it'll take a huge group of Caravels to sink those babies.)

Just FYI, a Privateer by itself without promotions can be typically sunk by two caravels. You don't want to just let a Privateer sit and blockade without checking on it or without support.

[Jvstin]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12


Just FYI, a Privateer by itself without promotions can be typically sunk by two caravels. You don't want to just let a Privateer sit and blockade without checking on it or without support.

Indeed, I have seen the AI "Swarm" caravels of their own to take out my pesky privateers.

[Kekkonen]

I've found that if the AI doesn't have Astronomy, a pair of Privateers is a real pain in the neck for it. A group of three will last a *long* time.

[dconner]

Oh yeah, another question I had about blockading. When you give the blockade order, your unit basically does the "sleep/sentry" sort of thing, where it won't come up for new orders unless you actually click on it.

But if/when you *do* give it new orders, it appears (true?) you can do certain things without "breaking the blockade." For instance, bombarding the city you're blockading. Is this accurate, or are appearances deceiving? What else can you do? Attack an enemy ship and/or move? Pillage?

[Wiglaf]

I dunno. Test this by bombarding while blockading. Then, select another unit and then select the blockading unit again. If the hash marks appear, then a blockade is still in effect.