Trade fleets getting stuck

**Rothe** · 04-01-2009, 08:00

After starting a new game as the United Provinces, I got this odd bug. I am not sure what caused it.

What happens is that when I move an indiaman or a Flyut into one of those trade "circles" in the Madagaskar area or somewhere else, they get stuck there permanently. I can select the ship again, but when I then want to move the mouse pointer, all of the sea areas show with this "cross" that indicates you cannot order the unit there.

This is not an issue if I have a non-trader ship in the stack, only if I have all trade ships in the square.

Also, I cannot join a trade fleet in the "trade area circle" with any other ships once the first stack of ships or a single ship has anchored there.

Is this a bug or a feature?

**Dutch_guy** · 04-01-2009, 12:34

I've encountered this too, in the end I simply disbanded the unit and placed a different merchant ship to take over. Haven't seen it since, with ships at least.

Currently my full stack of line infantry, trained to destroy the pirates in antigua, is stuck on one of those little islands with an arrow pointing to their capital island. The stack won't move and won't board, it keeps on telling me it just wants to hang out there. In the meantime, the stack of pirates on their main island is getting bigger and bigger. Waste of a beautiful surprise attack if you ask me.

And I'm playing the UP, on Hard/Hard. Version should be the latest there is.

**Fridgebadger** · 04-01-2009, 12:50

It (at least sounds like) a known bug. If you have a fleet on one of those trade spots, and split it by moving some of the ships off*, it buggers up the fleet left on the trade spot fleet. You can avoid it by moving the whole fleet off the spot, splitting it, and then moving some ships back, but afaik there's no way of fixing it once it's happened.

*Not sure if this applies for all fleets or just if you've got a mix of trade/non trade ships and you try and move the non-trade ships off.

**anweRU** · 04-01-2009, 13:14

Originally Posted by Dutch_guy

Currently my full stack of line infantry, trained to destroy the pirates in antigua, is stuck on one of those little islands with an arrow pointing to their capital island. The stack won't move and won't board, it keeps on telling me it just wants to hang out there. In the meantime, the stack of pirates on their main island is getting bigger and bigger. Waste of a beautiful surprise attack if you ask me.

Is there a pirate ship in their port? If so, you're in its zone-of-control, which even affects your land units. A similar thing happened to me as GB. Louisiana blockaded my port in the Bahamas by entering it. I tried to send a single infantry unit from the capital to the port, but it could not move there due to the zone-of-control. A similar story with trying to invade Gibraltar from Morocco. A Spanish fleet in the Spanish dockyard (not even at sea!) blocked my movement.

Weird thing is, the AI units are not affected by this. I always blockade the pirate ports. Yet they always managed to send an infantry unit to kick me out.

**Servius** · 04-02-2009, 00:08

I've also had this experience. I encountered it in 2 different trade posts in the Straight of Madagascar. I first docked combat ships in each, to hold the spaces, while I waited for trade ships to get in theatre. Once the trade ships arrived, I was able to move the trade ships into the trade posts, but they didn't merge with the combat ships that were already there, and though I could remove the trade ships, I couldn't remove the combat ships. Had to scupper them.

**crazyviking03** · 04-02-2009, 00:20

I get this at the start of every UP campaign. The trade fleet you start out with in the Indies trade theater always has to be disbanded, because it wont move and generates no trade. A damn waste of 3 indiaman. Gives me an excuse to build more fluyts though lol.

**aimlesswanderer** · 04-02-2009, 15:25

They are a real mess all round, sadly. In my Maratha game there are sometimes 2 countries fleets on the same spot, and there are sometimes 1 or more next to them trying to push the others out!

It seems like if you tell your fleet to go to the spot without line of sight they sometimes go there despite it already being occupied. Sometimes I have been able to 'steal' the trade like that.

**Daveybaby** · 04-06-2009, 11:43

There's a spanish trade fleet on one of the blobs in the east indies somwhere that i can't attack (i'm at war with spain). The captain just keeps making snide comments about not being able to go on land whenever i try to attack it.

Think this might be another aspect of the same problem.