Bit of a Naval Problem here>>>>

[Didz]

Ok! I have a pirate fleet raiding my trade route through Madagascar.

So, I've sent my fleet to persuade them politely to party somewhere else, preferrably with Davey Jones. Trouble is that having arrived it seems the pirates are hiding behind a fleet from the Maratha Confederacy and try as I might I cannot get my fleet to engage them.

It seems I either leave them to raid my trade routes for the rest of the game or start a war with Maratha just to get at them later.

[Dayve]

Just attack Maratha and offer money for peace straight after.

[Slaists]

Ok! I have a pirate fleet raiding my trade route through Madagascar.

So, I've sent my fleet to persuade them politely to party somewhere else, preferrably with Davey Jones. Trouble is that having arrived it seems the pirates are hiding behind a fleet from the Maratha Confederacy and try as I might I cannot get my fleet to engage them.

It seems I either leave them to raid my trade routes for the rest of the game or start a war with Maratha just to get at them later.

Separate a small, fast vessel from your fleet and park it next to the pirate fleet. Park the rest of your fleet so that the small vessel is still in their "area of control". The pirates will engage the small vessel (the AI is dumb...) in the next turn, dragging the rest of your fleet in...

[anweRU]

Better yet (you're UP anyway): capture the pirate regions and kill them off.

[HahnHolio]

well, this exact bug occured in my game as france!
i rushed to get some tradespots in the trade theatres and all of a sudden, when i tried to reinforce one of those tradefleet with 2 more indiaman, the trade income stopped to flow from that point and the reinforcing fleet was not movable anymore.
i could, however, move the single ship that was on the spot before and move it back in would yield 1 ship income, the other 2 ships were lost in oblivion i guess ...
happens near the province of New York often too, when you violently remove an occupying fleet from your port near there, it just sits near the coast and is not attackable or otherwise interaktive ...
strange thing, CA should look into i guess ...

[Prussian to the Iron]

hahnholio: if you want to add more ships to a trade spot, you must move the current fleet out of the tradespot(not theatre mind you, just the spot), merge them, and then move them back on. otherwise you will recieve no income and will have to scupper them.

i found this out after i had 8 Dhows on a trade spot...........

[Didz]

Better yet (you're UP anyway): capture the pirate regions and kill them off.

Thats actually what I did in the end.

I tried Slaists idea but they just ignored the juicy little trade ship I placed under their noses. Attacking the Maratha Confederacy was not really an option, apart from it being blatant gamey behaviour, the Mathatha Confederacy happen to have a hell of a lot of ships dotted all along my trade routes. Attacking them would have meant instant bankrupcy, and no money to pay them off.

@hahnholio: Yep! had that happen to me too, as John says it's a known bug. You just have to remember to move your entire stack of trade ships off the trade port before adding or removing ships and then move them back as a new stack. I lost two two ships that way early in the campaign as the only solution is to scupper them to free up the port.

[maestro]

This is a bug I've had happen to myself as the British. Basically, two fleets are occupying the same spot on the map and therefore completely blocking each other and preventing them from moving. Happened to me very early in the game when I moved my entire atlantic fleet through brazil and they got "caught" on a UP fleet. That's it: game over for the fleet.

Needs fixing - let's hop it (and more) gets fixed tonight with teh release of the patch

[Mr Frost]

Thats actually what I did in the end.

I tried Slaists idea but they just ignored the juicy little trade ship I placed under their noses. Attacking the Maratha Confederacy was not really an option, apart from it being blatant gamey behaviour, the Mathatha Confederacy happen to have a hell of a lot of ships dotted all along my trade routes. Attacking them would have meant instant bankrupcy, and no money to pay them off.

.

Had it happen once in the Med {Was Prussian Ships hiding behind my best {and 2nd longest term} trade partner .
They can actually be attacked , but it takes ages to get a lock {the flags do keep fluttereing and sooner or later , you'll get a brief window of opportunity that you fast enough to grab} . It did take me a good number of minutes of constant trying {and a coffee break to avoid losing temper} before I got the buggers .
Just keep moving the cursor over them and trying until you get it .

[Belgolas]

This sometimes happens with land units. I have seen it on land too.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Thats actually what I did in the end.

I tried Slaists idea but they just ignored the juicy little trade ship I placed under their noses. Attacking the Maratha Confederacy was not really an option, apart from it being blatant gamey behaviour, the Mathatha Confederacy happen to have a hell of a lot of ships dotted all along my trade routes. Attacking them would have meant instant bankrupcy, and no money to pay them off.

@hahnholio: Yep! had that happen to me too, as John says it's a known bug. You just have to remember to move your entire stack of trade ships off the trade port before adding or removing ships and then move them back as a new stack. I lost two two ships that way early in the campaign as the only solution is to scupper them to free up the port.

Try scuppering them one at a time, then check your trade spot status. When I first made the mistake of adding to a fleet already on a trade spot I scuppered one ship at a time then checked for any flow of trade. After 2-3 ships were disbanded the partial fleet appeared on the trade screen again, so I didn't have to disband them all.

[anweRU]

If you add a ship to a trade fleet in a spot, you should be able to move the fleet out and back to update the trade route. A few posts also mentioned that the trade route will be correctly updated at the end-of-turn.

The serious problem happens when you remove a ship from a trade fleet in a spot. I didn't try disbanding them one at a time, but having been forewarned, I made this mistake only once with a three-ship stack (I needed the fluyt in the stack to reinforce my naval stack in a fight, forgot the bug).

[Didz]

If you add a ship to a trade fleet in a spot, you should be able to move the fleet out and back to update the trade route. A few posts also mentioned that the trade route will be correctly updated at the end-of-turn.

I found after it happened to me that I couldn't get the trade fleet to move off the Trade Port at all. It literally had 'zero' movement potential, hence the need to scupper it.

Oh! and incidently, nor could I merge any more ships with it. It basically seemed locked, and all I coud do with it was select it and delete it.

[anweRU]

That may be a relatively new bug then?

[Slaists]

Thats actually what I did in the end.

I tried Slaists idea but they just ignored the juicy little trade ship I placed under their noses. Attacking the Maratha Confederacy was not really an option, apart from it being blatant gamey behaviour, the Mathatha Confederacy happen to have a hell of a lot of ships dotted all along my trade routes. Attacking them would have meant instant bankrupcy, and no money to pay them off.

Well, in my experience usually, the AI is pretty dumb and goes for the bait, especially if the main fleet has been sufficiently removed 'from sight'. Maybe the AI inertness (and your inability to attack the pirate fleet) in your case it has something to do with ships getting 'stuck' in general in the trade theaters.

Here's another thing to consider: combine the main fleet with your trading fleet on the anchor spot and move the juicy bait as close as possible to the pirates. From the look of it, pirates attacking the bait should still drag the main fleet from the trade port.

Why I think this should work? The AI seemingly ignores the enemy ships sitting on the trade anchor spots...