Blockading ports do anything?

[Cute Wolf]

sure, with EBBS script, you basically have no use on blockading ports, the same with another mods who has AI money bonus scripts, don't bother with blockading ports, since all they do is negate the trade via sea routes

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I thought that, in Medium Campaign difficulty, the EB script gave the AI 5,000 mnai only if an AI faction went below 5,000 mnai. And that the AI gets 5,000 mnai per turn on Hard campaign, automatically, no matter how rich they are - and 10,000 mnai per turn on Very Hard campaign.

As I understood it, blockading ports does actually reduce AI income - but will never actually put them in the red, since it's impossible for the AI to go into the red in EB.

So AFAIK it's not worth blockading ports in H and VH campaign difficulty, since the AI gets massive bonuses every turn anyway. On Medium campaign difficulty, it might be worth doing to a rich faction, since on M, a rich faction won't get extra funding unless they actually go below 5,000 mnai - so if they have 50,000 mnai to start with, it's worth blockading them until they drop to 5,000.

I may be wrong, though. Can anyone confirm or correct the above?

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

I thought that, in Medium Campaign difficulty, the EB script gave the AI 5,000 mnai only if an AI faction went below 5,000 mnai. And that the AI gets 5,000 mnai per turn on Hard campaign, automatically, no matter how rich they are - and 10,000 mnai per turn on Very Hard campaign.

As I understood it, blockading ports does actually reduce AI income - but will never actually put them in the red, since it's impossible for the AI to go into the red in EB.

So AFAIK it's not worth blockading ports in H and VH campaign difficulty, since the AI gets massive bonuses every turn anyway. On Medium campaign difficulty, it might be worth doing to a rich faction, since on M, a rich faction won't get extra funding unless they actually go below 5,000 mnai - so if they have 50,000 mnai to start with, it's worth blockading them until they drop to 5,000.

I may be wrong, though. Can anyone confirm or correct the above?

I'd tend to agree with you. Its only worth blockading on lower campaign difficulties and if the faction is incredibly rich to begin with.

[Ca Putt]

well you could Argue that it's even more effective in a hard campaign, as in a medium campaign this could trigger financial aid(if you do it to a not overly rich faction) which more than compensates the decreace of trade. in a hard campaign the AI gets the money anyway so it does not help the AI to blockade his ports, anyway I think most of the time 5000 mnai per turn are not significantly worse than 5100(a rough estimate of profit from trade+scripted help) mnai, unlike the deficit caused by upkeep from blockading ships that even bring the risk of getting sunk by pirates :/

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

So you are saying "yae, verily," if I blockade ports, the AI just gets money anyway? Plus ships get out of docks? So there is no reason to build ships to blockade ports... right? This is 100% certain? (Just want to make sure before I disband a bunch of ships)

You definitely don't need any ships just to blockade ports. They are useful though, since the AI does happen to transport troops via sea, and not just in BI.exe.

In my Mak 1.1 campaign Carthage used to transport their armies with the simple ships and I used to sink them, drowning some 20 units of Akontistai or ~10 of heavy phoenician infantry and the like in one sea-assault. Imagine, killing some 48,000 in rp-numbers with just a Triremiolai fleet... pretty effective.

[Ludens]

I may be wrong, though. Can anyone confirm or correct the above?

I can't confirm the exact numbers, but otherwise you are right. The A.I. tends to ruin itself by recruiting too many units, so the EB script gives it financial aid when it run out. This is just to keep it out of a bankruptcy spiral, not so much that it can ignore money. There's various other bonuses as well, because even when the A.I. does have money it won't always spend it well. Finally, there are the hard-coded cash infusions at higher difficulty levels.

So yes: blockading does have an effect, but the A.I. is not dependent on trade-income and you can't push them into bankruptcy. It's not worth building ships for.