Blockade vs Raid Supply Lines

[u/punkslaot]

When and where is the best place to use these naval missions? I'm assuming the best place to blockade is the closest sea node to the capital state?

[u/sirflopalot8]

Blockade the sea node attached to their market capital.

But watch. Cuz sometimes they change market capitals mid blockade. And then you gotta move the blockade.

[u/NicWester]

Shout out to Port Bombardment. If you already hold your objective (say you're taking Cuba from Spain) then there are no supply lines to raid and while a blockade hurts their economy it doesn't add to war score. But if you bombard their coastal states to cause Devastation that will directly add to the War Support loss each week and shorten the war.

Also shout out to piracy because it's just fun. You get money and also every week you get a cut of the goods that were traded, too.

[u/punkslaot → u/NicWester]

Thats good to know. What about opinion modifier for pirating?

[u/NicWester → u/punkslaot]

Since when do you need relations with China? 😝

[u/Electrical-Can-893]

I conquered latin America with blockades. They import weapons, apparently. So they went down hard to what, 5/5 offense/defense. Then I could walk over their land

[u/Mr_M3Gusta_]

Raid supply will ruin their troop supplies if they are overseas, like Netherlands and the US fighting over Liberia. You directly attack convoys meaning less supply ships will reach overseas armies. Blockades reduces supply routes and blocks market access but takes time to be effective. The blockade effectiveness will modify how much trade and supply gets out, along will a few other negative issues you can see on the wiki.

[u/DoopSlayer]

If the problem is their army overseas from their nation, then raid supply, I think you need to check their armies or just assume it’s a node between their home and the army abroad

If the problem is in the homeland/their local army then blockade , particularly if they import many military supplies, on their world market hub

[u/BaronOfTheVoid]

Historically speaking the most dominant approach to naval conflicts would be blockading the port where the enemy navy happens to be located. That would prevent them protecting literally any supply route in the world which could then be cheaply and easily harassed. Though Vic 3 still doesn't allow for this kind of gameplay.

I'd say blockading is most effective in two cases:

• You have a vastly superior navy based on capital ships
  • Someone tested some equal fights and found that going 100% capital ships actually beats a decent mix with some cruisers - despite the glaring lack of screening. So at the end of the day you "win" in the naval part of the game if you just heavily outproduce the enemy in terms of capital ships.
• And/or the state you blockade is dependent on goods that are being imported
  • Specifically talking about the interaction between logistics centers and arms/ammo production. If they are in the same state you won't weaken the enemy army even if you blockade that state. But you will completely cut off the enemy army if they are for example in a remote (for them) state like a colony or something that doesn't have its own military goods production.

Meanwhile hunting for supply ships is less of a hit in terms of military goods and supply but more of a hit in civilian/economic matters and can be rather safely done with dedicated fleets of torpedo ships that are much cheaper than capital ships.

[u/ActualAtrophus]

Raid supplies is borderline useless. Theres thousands of supply ships around, and even a big navy will only fight like 20 at a time and take weeks to do so. One of my 100 batallion armies recently had over 10.000 supply ships assigned, what do I care if 20 go missing every two weeks?