What on earth (or sea) does the navy do?

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I have built a decent navy and I have been attacked by a number of countries. I select my fleet and bring it out to sea but I don't see enemy ships anywhere. I right-click on the enemy ports and my fleet just goes and stands there impotent. If the enemy does not join the battle, surely I should be able to blockade his port, damage his merchant shipping or something. Otherwise is the only use of the navy to land troops elsewhere?

Speaking of enemies, I (Peru) was maintaining an alliance with Chile, Venezuela and Central America throughout the game. Then I get attacked by Argentina and the all the surrounding countries fall upon me and C.A. does nothing. With friends like these, who needs enemies? What is the use of alliances if you are going to be stabbed in the back like this?

 

[Orm]

I have built a decent navy and I have been attacked by a number of countries. I select my fleet and bring it out to sea but I don't see enemy ships anywhere. I right-click on the enemy ports and my fleet just goes and stands there impotent. If the enemy does not join the battle, surely I should be able to blockade his port, damage his merchant shipping or something. Otherwise is the only use of the navy to land troops elsewhere?

Speaking of enemies, I (Peru) was maintaining an alliance with Chile, Venezuela and Central America throughout the game. Then I get attacked by Argentina and the all the surrounding countries fall upon me and C.A. does nothing. With friends like these, who needs enemies? What is the use of alliances if you are going to be stabbed in the back like this?

Go to war with the UK and your navy will be toast.
You can blockade the enemy, but what you have to do is to have fleets outside their over-seas belongings. This will stop production in the blockaded provinces. Blockading their home ports will do nothing. Not very realistic, but that's the way it is. But indeed, the primary use of navies in this game is to protect your capability for moving troops about.

With regards to your alliance, do you have a high badboy-value?

 

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I am a good boy, beowulf, never declared war on anybody. The proverb you have quoted below is very good. Maybe I overlooked renewing the alliances immediately and the enemy pounced at the first opportunity. Tell me one more thing: I had my independence guaranteed by Russia once- what does that mean? And how long does the guarantee last? If you are left independent with only one province, it is not very helpful. What does one do to win more allies- just keep ticking on the "Improve relations tab?"

 

[Orm]

I am a good boy, beowulf, never declared war on anybody. The proverb you have quoted below is very good. Maybe I overlooked renewing the alliances immediately and the enemy pounced at the first opportunity. Tell me one more thing: I had my independence guaranteed by Russia once- what does that mean? And how long does the guarantee last? If you are left independent with only one province, it is not very helpful. What does one do to win more allies- just keep ticking on the "Improve relations tab?"

Guarantee independence basically gives you the option to ally with the nation you're guaranteeing if they are attacked, the alliance will only last for the duration of the war. But of course you also have the option to not help them. Guarantees last 2 or 3 years, I don't remember exactly.
Good relations is a good basis for forming alliances. It sometimes helps to make an exclusion in the alliance treaty if they are stubborn. For example, if you want to ally Prussia, it will sometimes make it more likely they'll accept if you make an exclusion for the case of war with Russia in the treaty.

 

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No one has replied to my query about whether the navy can impose a blockade, but in acquiring colonies while playing Argentina, I did stumble on to it. In the Territory Management tab there is a button for Convoys and on clicking this it shows the ships employed for transporting goods and below it there is a line "Primary goods blockade". I presume that you can block the supply of goods from your enemy's colony. Has anyone applied this to his enemy or been subjected to it? How do you find out where your enemy's colonies are, if any, and how do you apply the blockade?

 

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You can blockade an enemy country by keeping ships just outside of all the colonial provinces it has on a continent. It will prevent them from acquiring the materials of their colonies and slightly increase their war exhaustion over time, but they're not much to it unfortunately, as any good can still be imported from the world market. As soon as all the coastal provinces of a colony are blockaded by some ships, their production in these states stops.

 

[Orm]

No one has replied to my query about whether the navy can impose a blockade...

You can blockade the enemy, but what you have to do is to have fleets outside their over-seas belongings. This will stop production in the blockaded provinces. Blockading their home ports will do nothing.