Blockade

A blockade is a large multi-ship sea battle in which factions vie for control of flagged buoys. Unlike regular sea battles, blockades do not involve grappling or swordfighting/rumbling.

Blockades are structured in a best-of-three-rounds format (meaning that a flag needs to win two rounds in order to win the blockade). Each round takes approximately 45 minutes and is followed by a 10-minute break. A successful blockade involves the coordination of pirates, vessels, and materials. The rewards can be substantial, as the winning flag takes control of the island and installs a new governor. The governor of an island controls the economy of the island they rule.

Blockades that cross over a server reboot will resume 5 minutes after the reboot.

Brigand King & event blockades

In addition to blockades to take control of an island, there are also:

Brigand King blockades - Brigand Kings periodically declare blockades on player-held islands, seizing control of the islands if not defeated. Brigand King blockades are always sinking, and the ship budget and 50% damage reduction for friendly fire do not apply. For more information on Brigand King blockades, see here.
Event blockades - Governors may declare event blockades on their own islands at any time. Unlike regular blockades that are a best-of-three-rounds format, event blockades may be configured to be 7 rounds or fewer. The victory condition is still having won a majority of rounds. During an event blockade, the island's league point changes to a symbol with a golden cup. Unlike regular blockades, ships can port and deport as normal from islands during an event blockade.

Special options may be added to the blockade board in an event blockade (for example: only allowing sloops in, making cannons ineffective, or making the obstacles denser). In addition, some event blockades do not use maneuvers. Event blockades are listed on the normal notice board blockade tab, but will have "(event)" listed next to the name of the island. To join the blockade, an officer with permission aboard ship must press the "Join Event" button on the vessel panel. Some blockade trophies are not awarded during event blockades. For more information on event blockades, see here.

Blockade status

The "Blockade" tab of the notice board shows any current and upcoming blockades, along with the current score (if the blockade is live). The Blockade tab also shows if an island is eligible to be blockaded, the level of fame a flag would need in order to blockade the island, the expected mercenary pay rate and minimum and maximum sealed bid, and the time window in which blockade bids can be placed.

Blockades can also be tracked via yoweb, using the links below:

Declaring a blockade

Any player can view the "Blockade" tab of the notice board while standing on an island to find out if that island is open for blockades. If the island is eligible to be blockaded, the "Blockade" tab will show the level of fame a flag would need in order to blockade the island, the expected mercenary pay rate and minimum and maximum sealed bid, and the time window in which blockade bids can be placed. The fame requirement and the blockade bid range vary depending on the size of the island being contested.

To blockade a colonized island, the contending flag must have declared war on the flag that rules the island before a bid can be made. A sealed war declaration is useful here, as it allows royals to place a bid on blockades without revealing their intentions to other players before the window closes. (Note that war cannot be declared on the ally of an ally). For more information on how to make a war declaration, see here.

A contending flag must also have the required level of fame when entering a bid. The fame level required varies depending on the size of the island:

Outpost island - Noted
Medium island - Established
Large island - Renowned

During the hours that the bidding window is open, any member of royalty from a flag with sufficient fame can submit a secret bid on a contestable island. Multiple flags may submit secret bids on a contestable island. The highest bid wins the right to attack, ties at the maximum bid are broken randomly, and losing bidders are refunded automatically.

To submit a bid, the member of royalty must be aboard a ship docked at the island to be blockaded, and must select the "Blockade" button in the vessel tab. This will bring up the "Initiate Blockade" dialogue box, which shows the minimum and maximum bid amounts, mercenary pay, when the bidding window opens and closes, and your current bid, and allows the royal to enter their bid amount and select their preferred blockade start time from an hourly slot list inside the schedulable window (via a down menu). Time slots that conflict with an already-scheduled blockade on the same island are filtered out. If you win, your preferred slot becomes the blockade start time.

Bids must fall between the per-island-size minimum and maximum cap. Bids may be raised at any time while the window is open, but never lowered. (If you want to change your bid, you can do so using the same process as is outlined above). While bidding, you see only your own bid amount and preferred start time. No other bidders are visible, not even a count. This keeps the format resistant to alt-flag shield-dropping.

The winning bidder receives an in-game message at resolution (or queued for next login if offline) confirming the win and the scheduled start time. Losing bidders are notified when their refund arrives, with the reason for the refund.

The flag declaring the blockade will be the attacker in the blockade, while the flag that currently rules the island will be automatically entered into the blockade as the defender. Should the flag disband before the blockade, the island will have no defender (see Ventress LXX for an example of this).

At the present time, blockade bids can only be made between noon on Thursday and noon on Friday, Pirate Time. Thus, all blockades must begin between noon Saturday and noon on Sunday. Ocean Masters and Island Governors may create special event blockades that circumvent these rules.

Financials

A successful bid is used to fund mercenary pay, with the winning bid being moved into an island-locked defense-buffer purse owned by the attacking flag. During the blockade, this buffer is drawn from to pay mercenaries before falling through to the regular flag-funded job offer purse. The buffer only covers mercenary wages. Flag treasurers fund their own war chest for player jobbers (using the "Post Job Offer" button on the "Blockade" tab of the notice board - see the blockade pay section for more information).

When a sealed-bid blockade ends, unspent mercenary funding remaining in the defense-buffer carries forward in the following ways, depending on the blockade outcome:

Attacker wins: Up to 50% of their original bid stays in their buffer for the island they just took. Any excess above 50% is consumed.
Defender holds: The defender's buffer ends at the larger of (a) what they already had after spending in this blockade, or (b) up to 50% of the attacker's bid.
If a flag loses the island, their buffer on that island is forfeited.

The winning bid is entirely allocated to mercenary wages and carryover. None of it goes to the island governance's coffers. (The legacy war-chest fee paid to the defender's palace on a successful defense does not apply to sealed-bid blockades).

Flag info pages show a "Flag financials" section to the flag's monarch and royalty, listing any non-zero defense buffers and any active bids the flag currently holds. The blockade job offer panel also displays the flag's defense buffer balance for that island. The buffer is read-only, so flags cannot deposit to or withdraw from it.

Sinking vs. non-sinking

Blockades may be either sinking or non-sinking. In a sinking blockade, sunken ships disappear beneath the waves, with the ship and all goods aboard being lost forever (although ships can be salvaged at a shipyard). In a non-sinking blockade, sunken ships fade out and reappear at the island where they were last in port, supplies intact. These ships may not reenter the blockade, but their supplies may be transferred to other ships in port.

Blockades of uncolonized islands are always sinking. At colonized islands, blockades default to non-sinking. The defending flag may choose to make the blockade sinking. To do so, the defending flag must declare war on the attacking flag. (Although, war cannot be declared on the ally of an ally). If the current alliance web permits it, war can be declared at any time. If the blockade has already started, the change takes effect at the start of the next round.

On the Obsidian Ocean, all blockades except for events are sinking.

Pirates aboard a ship sunk during a sinking blockade may receive an injury.

Choosing ships

Various factors are considered when choosing which ships to use in a blockade. The ship budget, influence diameter, stock, firepower, damage capacity, number of pirates required for the ship to have influence, and the number of pirates required to run the ship are all important considerations. It is important to know the trade-offs between influence diameter, firepower, damage capacity, and manpower required to run the ship.

Ship Name	Ship budget points	Influence diameter	Min. crew for influence	Max. crew	Total # of stations ^	Move tokens per turn	Cannon shots per move	Cannon size	Firepower * (per turn)	Sinking damage *
Sloop	5	1	3	7	8	4	1 per side	small	1	10
Cutter	7	2	4	12	12	4	1 per side	small	1	12
Dhow	7	2	4	12	11	4	1 per side	medium	1.5	12
Fanchuan	7	2	4	12	11	3	1 per side	large	2	13.125
Longship	10	2	5	15	14	4	2 per side	small	2	15
Baghlah	15	4	6	18	17	3	2 per side	medium	3	20
Merchant brig	15	4	7	20	23	3	1 per side	medium	1.5	20
Junk	15	4	6	18	18	3	1 per side	large	2	25
War brig	25	6	8	30	23	3	2 per side	medium	3	25
Merchant galleon	20	6	13	30	40	3	1 per side	large	2	30
Xebec	30	6	12	45	37	3	2 per side	medium	3	35
War galleon	30	6	12	40	36	3	2 per side	large	4	25
War frigate	40	8	17	75	54	3	2 per side	large	4	50
Grand frigate	60	10	29	159	76	3	2 per side	large	4	60

* -- Small shot equivalent
^ -- Not including the helm

Ship budget

The ship budget limits how many ships each faction can field in a blockade. This limit encourages more strategic play and prevents one team from overwhelming the other with sheer numbers. Blockade ship budgets scale with the size of the island being contested, and are displayed on the notice board and in the bidding window, so you can plan your fleet accordingly.

Factions can use any combination of ships, as long as the total points for ships on the board at any one time do not exceed the total ship budget set for the blockade. For example, if a blockade on an island has a ship budget of 100, you could choose to take one of the following combinations:

10 longships (as they are worth 10 points each) (10 x 10 = 100)
Two longships (10 points each = 20 points), one war frigate (40 points), one Xebec (30 points), and two sloops (5 points each = 10 points) (20 + 40 + 30 + 10 = 100)
Two war frigates (40 points each = 80 points), one dhow (7 points), and one cutter (7 points) (80 + 7 + 7 = 94, so you would have 6 points to spare)

If a ship that will exceed the ship budget tries to enter the blockade board, it will not be allowed to enter and will be given a message saying it exceeds the ship budget cap.

The ship budget points cost for each ship size is shown in the table above.

Influence

In blockades, each ship class has a different influence diameter. In order to influence a buoy, a ship must be close enough to have the buoy inside its circle of influence at the end of the turn. (Mousing over a ship will show it's circle of influence). The bigger the ship, the larger its influence circle.

Each ship type also requires a minimum number of pirates to be aboard the ship in order for it to have influence over the buoys. Swabbies do not count towards this total, but mercenaries do. On the Cerulean Ocean, players need to be subscribers to count. (Note that the minimum number of pirates needed for influence is not the same as the number of pirates a ship needs to effectively function in a blockade).

The influence diameter and minimum crew required to have influence for each ship size is shown in the table above.

Stock

Each ship entering a blockade will need to have sufficient stock. Larger ships require more stock than smaller ships, so this may also be a consideration when choosing a ship.

Ships in blockades are usually stocked with enough rum and cannonballs to complete at least one round of the blockade. When using mercenaries on a ship, that ship will also need to be stocked with a sufficient amount of rum spice. The exact amounts for each type of stock will vary depending on the size of the ship, its crew, and individual preferences.

Blockaded islands

Once the blockade begins, the league point for the island changes from white to a red double flag symbol with a skull and sword. The league point remains red until the blockade ends.

Since the introduction of sealed-bid blockades (with release 2026-06-02), only ships from the defending or attacking flags can enter a blockade. This means that a ship that is not part of the defending or attacking flag can no longer cross the blockade board to leave a blockaded island. If a ship that is not part of the defending or attacking flag tries to deport from an island during an active blockade, they will receive a message that "This is a sealed-bid blockade. Only vessels belonging to the attacker or defender may enter." A ship arriving at a blockaded island must rechart to another island. (Islands with event blockades will have a golden cup on the league point, and ships can port and deport as normal).

Neither navy ships nor merchant brigands will enter a blockade, and the fleet swabbie ship transport feature does not allow you to send ships from a blockaded island.

Blockade gameplay

Blockades are structured in a best-of-three-rounds format (meaning that a faction needs to win two rounds in order to win the blockade). (Event blockades may be configured to be 7 rounds or fewer, but the victory condition is still having won a majority of rounds). Each round takes approximately 45 minutes and is followed by a 10-minute break. A message is broadcast to let players know when a blockade or blockade round has begun. Blockades that cross over a server reboot will resume 5 minutes after the reboot.

Factions

In this image, Cold Steel is part of a different faction than Notorious Fandango.

With the introduction of the sealed-bid 1v1 contention blockade format, blockades are now battled out between two factions:

Defenders - the flag that currently owns the island
Attackers - the flag that entered a successful bid to blockade the island

Attackers and defenders behave the same way when it comes to which side of the blockade board their vessel will engage and disengage on.

When a ship enters the blockade board, it is assigned to one of the two factions (depending on which flag it belongs to), and points scored by the ship are added to the faction's total. Note that even if a ship deed is swapped out of the faction while on the blockade board, it will continue to contribute points to the same faction that it entered the board under.

Friendly fire rules apply to all ships within the same faction, where a 'friendly' ship will only inflict half the damage it would have caused had it belonged to the other faction. (The damage reduction for friendly fire does not apply in Brigand King blockades).

Winning a blockade

Blockades are won on points. The only way for a contending flag to win a blockade is to score enough points to win in two out of the three rounds. (Event blockades may be configured for fewer than 7 rounds, but the victory condition is still having won a majority of rounds). If this condition is not met, then the defending flag, if any, wins by default and the island remains in its current state. For example, if the island is uncolonized, or has no defender due to a flag having disbanded, then the island remains ownerless. If, after a round ends, it is mathematically impossible for the attacker to win, the blockade automatically ends, and the defender keeps the island.

If both the attackers and the defenders agree to end the blockade in one faction's favor, they may petition an Ocean Master to request that the blockade should end early. (Note that an Ocean Master is never obliged to end any blockade ahead of time).

Winning a blockade round

Each round of a blockade is scored separately. Each round takes approximately forty-five minutes and is followed by a ten minute break.

The winner of the round is the faction that scores the most points during the round. (In the past, if the winning faction was neither a contender nor a defender, then the round was scored for the defender, but with the new 1v1 blockade format third parties can no longer contend. This was true even for uncolonized islands where there is no defending faction).

If a round ends in a nonzero tie, the round goes into sudden death overtime and ends once one side takes a lead. If no points are scored during the round, the round is scored for the defender.

The blockade board

The blockade board is 20 squares wide and 30 (36 with safe zones) squares long. At one end is a representation of the island (this end is known as the "island-side"). The other end is blank, but leads to the ocean (known as "ocean-side"). Ships can leave the board at each end, but not through the sides.

The board is reset at the start of each round. Any ships on the board during the reset are ejected. All ships eject from the safe zone and are ported island-side. However, attacker ships remaining in the blockade zone cannot port island side, so they are then deported ocean-side.

The safe zones

The lighter squares designate the safe zone area.

There are two safe zones, one on each end of the board (island-side and ocean-side). Each safe zone is three rows long and is a lighter color than the rest of the board. There are no rocks, winds, whirlpools, or buoys in the safe zones.

When a ship enters the blockade board, the ship is randomly placed along the outer edge of the zone, facing towards the other end of the board. Once a ship crosses from the safe zone into the main blockade board, it cannot return. Any attempt to enter the safe zone is treated as an attempt to exit out that side of the board.

Ships on the defending side can leave the board at either end by driving back into the safe zone. Attacking ships may not put into port at a colonized island that they are attacking - so they will "bounce" off the island-side safe zone and find themselves facing back into the board if they try to exit at that end.

Ships in the safe zone cannot be sunk, and cannot shoot. If they are shot by a ship outside the safe zone, they take no damage. They can, however, be rammed; thus they may be pushed around by other ships, and can even be pushed out of the safe zone.

When a ship is in a safe zone, the commanding officer can click the "Disengage" button and the ship will exit the blockade and return to whichever side (island-side or ocean-side) that the ship arrived from, providing that it is not a break. If moves are in progress, then the button may be clicked once, and the ship will be ejected after all moves for that round have been made. However, there is one important exception: if the ship belongs to the attacking faction during a blockade of a colonized island, then it is ejected to the ocean side, regardless of which side it entered from (as it is unwelcome to port at an island it is attacking). If a ship disengages while in the island-side safe zone, they can then re-join the blockade to appear in the ocean-side safe zone - effectively swapping sides on the board. This can sometimes be used as a tactical advantage.

Buoys & scoring

A sloop, a cutter, and a war brig each have different influence circles.

During a round, the blockade board has several buoys scattered across it. (Buoys are sometimes referred to as "flags.") Each buoy has one, two, or three pennants. The number of pennants indicates the point value of the buoy. Buoys are always placed on open water - never on rocks, winds, or whirlpools. Despite appearing to be solid poles, buoys are not obstacles; ships may sail onto or through buoys with no ill effects.

Each ship that enters the blockade has the possibility to influence the buoys and score points. In order to have influence over a buoy, both of these conditions must be met:

A ship must be close enough to have the buoy inside its zone of influence at the end of the turn. The zone of influence is a circle around the ship. Mousing over a ship will show the circles of influence for all ships in that faction. Different sized ships have different sized influence circles. The bigger the ship, the larger its influence circle.
A ship requires a minimum number of pirates to be aboard in order for it to have influence over the buoys. Different sized ships require a different minimum number of pirates. Swabbies do not count towards this total, but mercenaries do. On the Cerulean Ocean, players need to be subscribers to count. (Note that the minimum number of pirates needed for influence is not the same as the number of pirates a ship needs to effectively function in a blockade).

(See the choosing ships section above for the minimum number of players required and influence diameter for each type of ship).

A buoy is scored for one side when that faction has uncontested influence over it at the end of a turn. Each buoy is counted only once, even if multiple ships of the controlling faction influence it. If ships from different factions both have influence over the same buoy, it is considered "contested", and no faction scores points from that buoy.

Above each ship are icons representing how many buoys it is currently influencing, including contested buoys. The icons also indicate the point value of the buoys.

A ship remains in its faction until it leaves the blockade board. Even if a ship deed is swapped out of the faction while on the blockade board, it will continue to contribute points to the same faction that it entered the board under.

Once the round is over, the buoys are removed from the field, although the board remains the same until the start of the next round.

Colors

Though the war brig has a larger circle, the proximity of the cutter to the grey buoy help to neutralize its point value.

Ships and buoys use colors to denote which faction controls them. When a pirate views the board, the ships and buoys belonging to the same faction as that pirate are always blue. Green represents the defending faction. Red is for the attacking faction. Yellow buoys are not controlled by any faction. Black buoys are contested by both factions.

Buoys that are not controlled by anyone also have two small concentric circles around their base. Controlled buoys have a single circle around their base. Contested (black) buoys have an eight-pointed star around their base.

Obstacles

Several types of obstacle exist on the blockade board. These can sometimes be a hindrance, but can also sometimes be used to a blockade navigator's advantage:

Whirlpools - Whirlpools can be very useful! On each move, whirlpools move the ship clockwise around to the opposite corner of the whirlpool. They simultaneously rotate the ship clockwise 90 degrees. If a ship begins a turn on a whirlpool and the navigator places no movement tokens, then the ship will end the turn (four moves) in exactly the same position and orientation as it started. (For more information on this type of obstacle, see the whirlpool page).
Winds - Winds are tiles that move ships one square in the direction the wind is blowing towards. (For more information on this type of obstacle, see the wind page).
Rocks and edges - Rocks and edges are solid in blockades, and will damage ships that crash into them. Tall rocks block cannon fire, but short rocks can be shot over. Turning into rocks can be used strategically, it allows the navigator to do a half turn on the spot (although the ship will take damage). (For more information about rock obstacles, see the rock page).

Sunken treasure

Sunken treasure appears in sinking blockades in the place of a sunken vessel. A vessel will only leave sunken treasure if that ship had PoE aboard (or in Brigand King blockades, if it belonged to a Brigand King). When another vessel remains adjacent to, or on top of the sunken treasure for all four moves of a turn, all pirates aboard are able to Treasure Haul in order to bring aboard booty from the sunken vessel (note that mercenaries cannot treasure haul). The sunken vessel fades as treasure is hauled from it, and then disappears once all the treasure has been recovered. The better pirates are at hauling, the faster the treasure will be brought aboard. The treasure hauled consists of PoE, which is added to the ship's booty chest for division if the ship manages to port.

Battle navigation

Battle navigation controls
Zoom in and out on the blockade board by holding Ctrl down and using the mouse wheel. Tokens can be moved onto the navigation interface by clicking and dragging (the default method), or by hovering over a move slot and pressing configurable keys to enter moves without clicking (this method can be enabled via Options > Puzzle Keys > Battle navigation). Multiple cannon tokens can be added at once by using Shift-click on a cannon slot to fill that side from the clicked slot downward (Shift-click can be used again to clear it), or by using Ctrl/Cmd+Shift-click to fill the cannons on both sides. (Both of these gestures can be toggled on or off under Options > Puzzle Keys > Battle navigation).

During blockade battle navigation, the navigator (navver) of each vessel guides their ship around the blockade board. The navver schedules the actions to be carried out on the next turn by placing a series of tokens onto the battle navigation interface. The next turn is divided into four "phases": In each of these phases a navver can schedule a movement or maneuver token, as well as one or more gun tokens. The navver is not required to make any moves, however - they can choose to sit still.

It is important to note that some ship types can only play movement tokens on three of the four phases of any given turn, though the navver may choose which phase the ship rests. This is done by dragging the octagonal icon to the phase in which they want the ship to rest. (See the table in the choosing ships section for the number of possible move tokens per turn for each ship type).

As the navver schedules actions, the activity bar above the ship, visible to other vessels, fills. This can be used to the navver's advantage. Last second moves (LSM - or putting moves in at the very last second) can trick the enemy into thinking that the ship is not going to move at all. Putting full cannons in makes it look like a ship is moving even if it is not, and this can be helpful too!

A good navver uses the tokens available judiciously to take advantage of the situation at hand while keeping enough in reserve for later turns.

Navvers have thirty-five seconds to plan each turn. Once the timer runs out, their moves are executed and planning for the next turn begins. While planning, the other pirates aboard the vessel work to provide their navver with sailing, gunning and maneuver tokens, which will be used by the navver to move the ship and fire the guns.

Battle navigators in blockades will usually aim to avoid taking damage and sink the enemy ships, while maintaining influence over the buoys. They will usually co-ordinate their movements with the other members of their team. This allows them to strategize, co-ordinate their moves, avoid friendly fire, and ensure they are influencing as many buoys as possible.

When battle navigating, the order of events is:
1. Navigator movement
2. Wind and whirlpool movement
3. Cannon fire

(Note that ship moves are automatically hidden from all but the vessel's officers when setting the voyage to "blockade", but this can be toggled off at the ship's helm).

Navigation tokens

All actions that the ship can undertake - left, right and forwards movements, firing a cannon, and executing a maneuver - are represented by tokens.

In informal usage, "token" is often used to refer specifically to a maneuver token (and, if used as a verb, it can also refer to the act of obtaining such tokens), whereas a "move token" or simply a "move" refers to a movement token. A gun token is often referred to as a "gun".

Movement tokens

Sailors and riggers produce movement tokens, which allow the ship to move forward, turn left, or turn right. The higher the vessel's bilge meter, the slower the movement tokens are generated. While a navver may save movement tokens from turn to turn, they will eventually disappear if left unused for five turns. A tool tip is displayed by hovering the mouse over each token type in the battle navigation window. This tip indicates how many tokens of that type will be discarded if unused for each turn.

There is a special type of movement token, known as a "maneuver". These tokens require effort from all three duty puzzle areas. Sailors and riggers contribute a third of this effort, as do carpenters and patchers, and finally bilgers. Once earned, maneuver tokens allow a ship to perform incredible feats. (See the Maneuvers section below).

Gun tokens

Gun tokens are produced each time a gunner loads a cannon. For each gun loaded, the navver gets one gun token; this may be fired to the left or right of the ship. Unlike movement tokens, these tokens do not expire over time. Firing a cannon decreases the number of available gun tokens by one. All cannons have a range of three tiles.

Note that the placement of the gunnery stations aboard a ship do not affect the number of cannons which can be fired per side. For instance, a sloop has two guns on each side (for a total of four), but may fire four shots from the starboard side in a single turn.

Maneuvers

The navigation interface, showing maneuver controls.

There is a special type of movement token, known as a maneuver (although, some event blockades have maneuvers turned off). These tokens require effort from all three duty puzzle areas. Sailors and riggers contribute a third of this effort, as do carpenters and patchers, and finally bilgers. Once earned, maneuver tokens allow a ship to execute special moves that may gain an advantage over their opponents.

Maneuvers are available to the navver from a special row on the navigation interface, and are earned by puzzlers aboard the ship completing the corresponding token shapes within their puzzles. The navver may click on a token, or the empty spot for that token to indicate to those aboard which maneuver they would prefer were earned. As progress is made towards various maneuvers, they will fill in on the interface. Additionally, a small indicator will show progress bars for each duty's contribution to earning the maneuver when the user's mouse is over the selected maneuver.

Each maneuver has two levels which can be earned, silver, and gold. Once a particular gold maneuver has been earned, no more progress may be earned towards that maneuver.

Maneuvers:

Circle:
- Chain Shot. This is placed in a cannon slot. A loaded cannonball will still be used as normal, but when the shot is fired, the ship which is hit will lose some of their stored movement tokens in addition to their normal damage.
- The gold version of this is the Skull Shot, which destroys movement tokens and does extra damage to any hit vessel.
Diamond:
- Turn in Place. This is placed in a movement slot, and will default to a left turn. Clicking the slot again will switch to a right turn. This maneuver allows the ship to turn without moving forward allowing avoidance of collisions or a nasty surprise for any foes following too closely.
- The gold version of this is the Wave Turn, which turns in place and generates a huge wave in front of the ship which will swamp any unfortunate ships in that location with a large amount of bilge water.
Plus:
- Burst of Speed. This is placed in a movement slot. A stray gust of wind catches your sails and the ship moves ahead two spaces in a single movement.
- The gold version of this is Ramming Speed, in which the ship moves two spaces and has the ramming abilities of a larger ship.
X:
- Flotsam. This is placed in a movement slot. Floating debris is dumped out the back of the ship in the hopes of slowing your foes. Ships moving onto Flotsam immediately end their movement for the turn, losing whatever leftover movement tokens they might have had.
- The gold version of this is Flaming Flotsam, which will not only stop, but also damage any ship that moves onto it.

Maneuver tokens can be dragged to the appropriate spot within the navigation interface in order to use them. Once the turn ends, these maneuvers will be executed in sequence by the ship just like normal movements.

For more information, see the maneuver page.

Collision mechanics

A collision occurs when two ships attempt to occupy the same tile at the same time, either due to movement tokens or due to wind and whirlpools. For useful info on the game's collision mechanics, see here.

Damage & friendly fire

Each ship class can handle a different amount of damage. The amount of damage a ship has taken is indicated on the damage meter. In a blockade, reaching full damage will cause a ship to sink.

A ship can be damaged by taking shots, or by running into another ship, rocks, or some edges of the board. (The mechanics of ram movement are detailed on the Ramming page). Certain maneuvers, like the skull shot and burning flotsam, also damage ships hit with them.

When ships from the same faction in a normal blockade shoot or ram each other, friendly fire applies, meaning that a "friendly" ship causes another ship only 50% of the damage that would be caused in normal circumstances. (Note that friendly fire does not apply to Brigand King Blockades).

A ship left unmanned in port will reset its damage and bilge to zero after 15-30 minutes. Stepping on board the ship will reset the timer.

Shot damage

Ship Name	Max SF/Rumble Damage			Full Damage
Ship Name	Small	Med	Large	Small	Med	Large
Sloop	6	4	3	10	6.667	5
Cutter	7.5	5	3.75	12	8	6
Dhow	7.5	5	3.75	12	8	6
Fanchuan	7.875	5.225	3.9375	13.125	8.75	6.5625
Longship	9	6	4.5	15	10	7.5
Baghlah	12	8	6	20	13.333	10
Merchant brig	12	8	6	20	13.333	10
Junk	15	10	7.5	25	16.66	12.5
War brig	15	10	7.5	25	16.667	12.5
Merchant galleon	18	12	9	30	20	15
Xebec	21	14	10.5	35	23.333	17.5
War galleon	15	10	7.5	25	16.667	12.5
War frigate	30	20	15	50	33.333	25
Grand frigate	36	24	18	60	40	30

Ram damage

Ship Name	Damage dealt by this ship (Equivalent hits by shot size)			Size class
Ship Name	Small	Medium	Large	Size class
Sloop	0.5	0.333	0.25	Small
Cutter	0.5	0.333	0.25	Small
Dhow	0.5	0.333	0.25	Small
Fanchuan	0.5	0.333	0.25	Small
Longship	0.5	0.333	0.25	Medium
Baghlah	1	0.667	0.5	Medium
Merchant brig	1	0.667	0.5	Medium
Junk	1.5	1	0.75	Medium
War brig	2	1.333	1	Medium
Merchant galleon	2.5	1.667	1.25	Large
Xebec	2.5	1.667	1.25	Large
War galleon ^(verify)				Large
War frigate	3	2	1.5	Large
Grand frigate	4	2.667	2	Grand

Rock damage

Ship Name	Equivalent no. of hits by shot size
Ship Name	Small	Medium	Large
Sloop	0.5	0.333	0.25
Cutter	0.625	0.417	0.3125
Dhow	0.625	0.417	0.3125
Fanchuan	0.65625	0.4375	0.328125
Longship	0.75	0.5	0.375
Baghlah	1	0.667	0.5
Merchant brig	1	0.667	0.5
Junk	1.25	0.833	0.625
War brig	1.25	0.833	0.625
Merchant galleon	1.5	1	0.75
Xebec	1.75	1.167	0.875
War galleon ^(verify)	1.25	0.833	0.625
War frigate	2.5	1.667	1.25
Grand frigate	3	2	1.5

Communication & battle chat

When blockading, communication between players within each faction is very important. In addition to using /fofficer chat, many blockade teams also use Discord voice chat to communicate with each other during blockades. Communication between members of the same faction allows players to co-ordinate their moves and plan to cover points and avoid friendly fire. They can also monitor which of their ships are damaged so that they can adjust strategy or cover the points when someone is about to sink.

In addition to communicating within factions, battle chat is also available. Battle chat is visible to anyone on a vessel inside the blockade (no matter which faction they are in). The command is "/battle". Players are prefixed with the speaker's ship name, and a marker highlights messages from the pirate at the helm. Players on ships in spectating mode are also included in battle chat, with their names being prefixed with <Spectator>.

Battle chat can be muted using the "/battle-off" command, and unmuted using "/battle-on".

Roles

Every team does things in their own way, but there are usually several main roles in modern blockading:

BA (Battle Admiral) - makes all on-board tactical decisions, which navvers to put where, which kinds of ships to load, where each ship should focus on the board, how aggressive each navver should be at different points during the blockade, island-side or ocean-side entry, and whether or not to pull out. They usually aim to have their team's ships covering as many points as possible throughout each round.
LA (Land Admiral) - manages the fleet and assigns ships to the navvers based on what the BA asks for. During a blockade, they usually spend their time at the docks on the island that is being blockaded.
Navvers (battle navigators in the blockade) - steer the ships via the battle navigation puzzle - under the direction of the BA. Navvers usually aim to avoid taking damage and sink the enemy ships, while maintaining influence over the buoys. They will usually co-ordinate their movements with the other members of their team. This allows them to strategize, co-ordinate their moves, avoid friendly fire, and ensure they are influencing as many buoys as possible throughout the round.
XOs - ensure that the ship is stocked and crewed properly (with enough gunners, and puzzlers on station). They also communicate with the LA so that the team can have a new ship ready to go quickly if one sinks.
Jobbers (puzzlers on board blockade ships) - Gunners, sailors, riggers, carpenters, patchers and bilgers all play an important role in generating tokens and maneuvers for the navver to use during the blockade.

Mid-round breaks and watching the score

There are four one-minute breaks during each round. The first begins with 35:00 remaining in the round. The second occurs with 26:15 remaining, the third with 17:30 remaining, and finally with 8:45 remaining. When these breaks occur, no ship movement is possible. All puzzlers receive a duty report, as if they'd reached a league point. The last duty report can also be viewed at any time by pressing Esc.

The duty reports contain the current score. The score is also available on the vessel panel at any time for those not in a puzzle. Clicking on a faction's name toggles between showing the name, and showing the ship names belonging to the faction. Only ships that are currently on the blockade board (including in the safe zones) are included on this list.

Jobber requirements

In order for a ship to be able to enter the blockade board, all pirates on the ship must meet the following requirements:

Participants can not be greenies or unsaved guest accounts.
Participants need to have at least Narrow experience in two or more piracy puzzles.

If a vessel attempts to enter a blockade but does not meet these requirements, a message will be sent listing the pirate names who are not eligible. The vessel will be unable to join the blockade until all pirates on board meet the above conditions.

In addition, in order to score points, the ship must have enough pirates to have influence over the buoys. Different sized ships require a different minimum number of pirates. Swabbies do not count towards this total, but mercenaries do. On the Cerulean Ocean, players need to be subscribers to count. (Note that the minimum number of pirates needed for influence is not the same as the number of pirates a ship needs to effectively function in a blockade). (See the choosing ships section above for the minimum number of players required for influence).

Mercenaries

Mercenaries, or skilled swabbies, can be used in place of player pirates during blockades. Mercenaries will fill up to a certain percentage of a ship's stations, or a ship's capacity - whichever is smaller. This percentage may vary by ocean and is subject to change.

Unlike regular swabbies, mercenaries count towards the minimum number of pirates required to have influence over the buoys. (See the choosing ships section above for the minimum number of players required for each type of ship).

When using mercenaries on a ship, that ship will need to be stocked with a sufficient amount of rum spice (in addition to regular rum).

For more information on mercenaries, see the Mercenary page.

Blockade pay

Flags can specify an automatic payment system for jobbers. This payment comes from a payroll (or "war chest") funded by the participating flag.

Mercenaries are paid a flat amount independent of the player rate. The mercenary pay rate for a particular blockade can be seen on the "Blockade" tab of the notice board. Mercenary pay is initially drawn from the island-locked defense-buffer purse (if there is one) instead of from the war chest. If the defense-buffer runs out, mercenary pay then comes from the war chest - so blockading flags will need to factor this into their budget. (For more information on the defense-buffer, see the Financials section above).

For more information about blockade pay, see the Blockade pay page.

Offering a blockade job

Any member of a participating flag's royalty can post a blockade job offer. This is done using the "Offer blockade job" button underneath the blockade listing on the "Blockade" tab of the notice board.

There are a few options available to configure the blockade job. First, the pay per pirate per segment can be set. This is the average amount pirates will be paid at each duty report. Because this is an average, if a flag has 5 jobbers and is paying 100 PoE per segment, the flag will only pay at most 500 PoE each segment, regardless of how the jobbers perform. When pay is not done evenly, but on a proportional scale due to performances pays, the game will round down in the total pay given. (Note that mercenary pay is separate from this).

Second, several pay schemes are available to divvy pay amongst the pirates in the blockade. Based on these, some pirates may receive more pieces of eight than the average, and some may receive less.

The current systems for pay are:

Performance Pay scheme (the scale on which pay is determined):
- Even - pay everyone evenly, regardless of rankings on the duty report
- Performance - pay based mainly on performance each segment (based on a jobber's ranking on the duty report, but only in the word ranking, not the number ranking. All fines receive the same amount, all goods receive the same amount, etc. The rankings are proportionally related to each other and offset from the base pay (average pay per segment) by a small percentage. This means that jobbers who booch are still paid, albeit in small amounts.)
- Elite - pay based entirely on performance each segment (pay is entirely dependent on how a jobber performs during the segment. A booched report will result in 0 pay for that jobber. However, an incredible does not necessarily ensure a pay of twice the base. This will only occur if rankings are evenly distributed across the rankings.)
- Gunners' Glory - pay gunners more than others
Loyalty Pay scheme (determines which jobbers are paid more):
- Even - pay everyone evenly
- Jobbers' Delight - pay more to jobbers from outside the flag
- Jobbers Only - only pay jobbers from outside the flag

Once a job offer is posted, pieces of eight (PoE) may be added to the payroll for that job offer. Royals can top up this amount at any time. Only the pirate who created the offer may withdraw from the payroll, and any remaining PoE in the payroll will be returned to them when the blockade ends.

In order to ensure timely payment of blockade jobbers, the payroll will keep enough in reserve pay to cover a full blockade round for each jobber. This means that new jobbers (and mercenaries, if the defense-buffer will also not cover their pay) will not be able to join if there is not enough in the payroll. In calculating how much will be needed to be put into the payroll for a blockade, you will need to consider both jobber pay and mercenary pay.

The area to the left of the payroll section of the "Blockade Job Offer" panel provides information on current jobbers in the blockade:

Jobbers: Shows the current number of jobbers in the blockade and the number of jobbers that the current payroll can support. For example, "Jobbers: 12 / 34 max" would mean that there are currently 12 jobbers in the blockade and the current payroll can support up to 34.
Reserve: Shows how much the payroll currently has reserved to cover jobbers active in the blockade, and how much it would need to fully cover the current jobbers. For example, "Reserve: 1000 / 1200" would mean that the payroll currently has 1000 pieces of eight reserved, and would need a total of 1200 to fully cover the current jobbers. In this case, any pieces of eight deposited in the payroll would first be used to cover the 200 needed by the reserve. If the payroll cannot fully pay the jobbers after any blockade segment, they will be paid as much as possible and will be told about the flag's financial status.
Skilled-swabbie buffer: Shows the skilled swabbie buffer amount (the amount remaining in the island-locked defense-buffer purse). This buffer is used before the payroll to pay mercenaries during a blockade. The buffer is read-only, so flags cannot deposit to or withdraw from it. If the defense-buffer runs out, mercenary pay then comes from the payroll. (For more information on the defense-buffer, see the Financials section above).

After a blockade job offer has been posted, the offer will appear on the "Blockade" tab of the notice board, and the "Offer blockade job" button will change to an "Edit blockade job" button. Any royal in the flag can use this button to top up the payroll amount. Royals can also lower the offered pay between rounds, and can remove the job offer. They are not able to do this during a round, however. Only the royal who created the offer may withdraw from the payroll, and any remaining PoE in the payroll will be returned to them when the blockade ends.

Once the job offer has been posted, the flag's officers will be able to configure their ships to "Blockade" from the "Configure Voyage" panel (which is found on the helm). They can then post job offers for the blockade by setting their ship to "Hiring jobbers" in the "Vessel" tab, and have their jobbing notice appear on the "Voyages" tab of the notice board. (Any such notice will only appear if the flag has enough pieces of eight set aside in the payroll to cover a new jobber joining the blockade).

Getting paid

In order to collect payment from the flag's blockade job offer in the blockade, jobbers must be on ships that are set to "Blockade" (set by the ship's officer at the helm via the "Configure Voyage" panel), and they must be actively working at stations. The amount of puzzling per segment affects player and mercenary pay in the same way - both are paid proportionally to the amount puzzled in a segment. Payment comes every break.

If jobbing in a blockade solely for pay, a pirate should consider their own skills and the payment method chosen to decide what side to take. An average or below-average puzzler won't earn much in a blockade paying elite puzzlers more, while an elite puzzler will earn less on Even cuts than on an Elite or Performance pay scale.

Spectating

A player can enter blockade spectating mode by clicking the "Spectate" button when on a ship they control at an island with an ongoing blockade. Players on a vessel in spectating mode show in /battle chat with the prefix <Spectator>.

While in spectating mode:

Players can see the blockade board and score board as if they were in the blockade.
The vessel does not enter the board and does not require any puzzling.
Players may board and leave the vessel.
A "job" offer can be displayed to open the spectating vessel to the public.

Abandoned ships

Ships are sometimes abandoned - either on the blockade board or at the league point of a blockaded island.

Abandoned in blockade

Non-sinking

A ship is sometimes abandoned in a non-sinking blockade if it has too much damage/bilge and a decision is made to bring in a fresh ship quickly rather than spend time trying to fix the ship. The ship will remain on the board until the beginning of the next round (or if in the last round, the end of that round) unless someone shoots it enough to "sink" it to knock it out. Either way it will then be abandoned at sea at the league point of the island where it was last docked, until either someone boards it to port it or the ship resets and ports itself.

Sinking

In a sinking blockade, an abandoned ship can and probably will be sunk, and the ship and all its supplies will be lost forever (although ships can be salvaged at a shipyard). However, ships are rarely abandoned in a sinking blockade, as most people prefer to fight it out to the end and inflict as much damage as possible to their opponents, or will try to sail their ship to the safe zone.

Abandoned at league point

Attacking flags are unable to port their ships at the island they are blockading. This often results in ships being abandoned at the league point because they were badly damaged in the blockade but managed to reach the safe zone and exit before being sunk. These ships will be ported when the ship resets and ports itself.

What happens at the end of a blockade

If the island was already owned by a flag and it is successfully defended, the island remains as is. In the event that an attacker wins the island, the attacking flag's monarch is automatically installed as the governor. If the flag has no monarch, one royal is chosen at random to become governor. Additionally, all infrastructure building deeds are automatically transferred to the new governor. This includes the fort or palace, bank, bazaars, commodities market, and estate agent, as well as any unfinished construction sites. On large and medium islands, shoppe and inn deeds do not automatically transfer, but on outpost islands the single shoppe deed will automatically transfer.

Note that while the deeds to bazaars and housing buildings do transfer to a new governor, the player-owned houses and stalls inside of these buildings do not change ownership.

See the financials section above for information on how unspent mercenary funding remaining in the defense-buffer carries forward at the end of a blockade.

Blockade history

The first blockade ever was for Emperor Island on Midnight. History for each ocean can be viewed here:

Current Oceans

Old Oceans

Trophies

Spoiler warning: Details about trophies are hidden below.

The following trophies are related to blockades:

Blockade Trophies
Battered Hat
Weathered Helm
Flag Bearer
Color Guard
Old Glory
Victory Banner
Iron Coils
Iron Hammer
Iron Pump
Iron Spool
Iron Tackle
Steel Coils
Steel Hammer
Steel Pump
Steel Tackle

For information on how to obtain these trophies, see here.

Historical notes

release 2004-04-28: Blockades were implemented as part of "Bazaar Blockades!"

release 2004-11-22: Weekend restrictions were put in place for blockades. Prior to this, blockades could be declared at any time, giving a 24 hour notice to the defenders.

release 2004-12-11: Blockades were limited to five rounds, requiring three to win. Prior to this, blockades ran a maximum of twelve rounds. A contender needed seven rounds to win the island. Originally, the twelve rounds were each separated by a one hour break. Later, the rounds were grouped into three rounds separated by a four hour break. A full twelve-round blockade would thus be active for three hours, break for four, active for three, break for four, active for three, break for four, and finally active for three. There was always a fifteen minute break after each round, and this remained.

Jobber pay in blockades was not considered a standard until late 2004, when some flags on the Midnight Ocean began paying. Soon, most blockades on the ocean began paying.

release 2005-05-02: Fame was implemented, limiting which flags could drop a war chest.

release 2006-10-17: Jobber pay was implemented, meaning that all jobbers get what the flag announces as pay. (Prior to this, pay could only be done in one of a few ways: The flag could manually /pay all jobbers, the flag could load all jobbers onto a ship and do a booty division, or the flag could use a third party application such as Quartermaster that automated the /pay function). Governor-initiated event blockades were also added with this release.

release 2007-01-25: Maneuvers were released on production oceans, and blockade duty puzzles no longer caused puzzle standings to fall.

release 2007-10-16: Puzzle standing protection was removed.

Prior the November 6, 2015 blockade window, there was a break of one hour and fifteen minutes in between rounds three and four of a blockade, and the drop window and blockade window were 24 hours long each. A blockade could be declared between noon Friday and noon Saturday, Pirate Time, so all blockades began between noon on Saturday and noon on Sunday.

Starting with the weekend of January 15, 2016, a two-hour drop window was added to Saturdays, allowing blockades to once again be scheduled for Sundays, if only during those two hours.

release 2017-06-28: Added requirements that participants in a blockade can not be greenies or unsaved guest accounts, and that they need to have at least Narrow experience in two or more piracy puzzles. If a vessel attempts to enter a blockade but does not meet these requirements, a message will be sent listing the pirate names who are not eligible. The vessel will be unable to join the blockade until all pirates on board meet the above conditions.

release 2023-03-28: Mercenaries (skilled swabbies) were added to the game. Initially, they were not enabled for blockades. On April 9th 2023, Good As Gold became the first flag on the Emerald Ocean to use mercenaries in a blockade (during an accidental scuttle defense of Pukru Island) - so blockade mercenaries were probably enabled during that week.

release 2023-04-22: Removed "attacker's advantage" in blockades. Attackers and defenders now behave the same way when it comes to which side of the blockade board their vessel will engage and disengage on. This update also fixed the blockade jobbing table to be in order of highest to lowest by pay.

release 2023-05-06: Updated mercenary pay to work better with every jobbing offer configuration and made changes to the harshness of pay evasion measures. (Mercenaries now have the same minimum amount of time stationed before they get payed as players do, but their pay is prorated before that. This means players will still have to pay for mercenaries even if they duty for only one turn of a blockade, but the amount they get payed is related to how close they are to hitting that minimum.)

release 2023-09-22: Added /blockade chat and Spectator mode for blockades. Reduced the number of mercenaries on a ship in blockade mode (they will now fill up to a percentage of the stations). Increased war chests, with the new number based on island taxes. Successfully defending a blockade would reward defenders with 75% of the war chest (up from 50%), and attackers would now get 50% of the war chest back upon winning. Blockade pay for pirates was adjusted, with the amount of puzzling per segment now affecting player pay the same way as mercenary pay. (The old pay system paid nothing until a player puzzled a certain amount, then paid for the whole segment. The new system pays proportionally to the amount puzzled in a segment). Blockade max pay was increased to 15000.

release 2023-10-20: Max pay was reduced back to 10k. Mercenaries would now get payed a flat amount independent of the player rate.

With release 2024-02-01, island transfers were no longer permitted, so winning a blockade is now the only way for a flag to take control of an island.

release 2025-12-12: Enabled scroll wheel zoom for the blockade board, and announcements for blockade round starts (the same as blockade starts - making it easier for players to know when they can re-enter). This update would also keep the blockade notice board time displays up to date, so you no longer needed to close and re-open the notice board to see accurate time remaining. Player disconnects were also now shown to the whole vessel, not just to those in the same scene.

release 2025-12-13: Zooming on the blockade board now only happens if you hold Ctrl down, to prevent accidental zooming. The zoom level is now remembered per view type (normal or bird's eye).

release 2026-01-01: Blockades that cross over a server reboot will now resume 5 minutes after the reboot (rather than getting stuck indefinitely). Ship budget is now configurable for event blockades (limiting how much ship power each team can enter at once).

release 2026-03-24: /blockade and /flotilla chats were merged into one /battle chat. /battle chat works across all skirmish types - including Atlantis. The old command names still work, however.

release 2026-06-01: Fleet swabbie ship transport no longer lets you attempt to send from a blockaded island. Popups (settings, event blockade configurator, etc.) are now scrollable when needed.

release 2026-06-02:
- Introduced sealed-bid blockades (a new 1v1 contention blockade format), with the bid funding skilled swabbie pay via an island-locked defense buffer.
- The flag info page now shows a flag financials section to the flag's monarch and royalty, listing any non-zero defense buffers and any in-flight active bids the flag holds. The blockade job offer panel also displays the flag's defense buffer balance for that island. The buffer is read-only, so flags cannot deposit to or withdraw from it.
- Added notifications for winning blockade bids. (The winning bidder receives an in-game message at resolution (or queued for next login if offline) confirming the win and the scheduled start time. Losing bidders are notified when their refund arrives, with the reason for the refund).
- You can now hover over a move slot and press configurable keys to enter battle navigation moves without clicking. This is off by default; turn it on under Options > Puzzle Keys > Battle navigation. In addition, you can also now fill multiple cannons at once by using Shift-click on a cannon slot to fill that side from the clicked slot downward (Shift-click again to clear it), or by using Ctrl/Cmd+Shift-click to fill the cannons on both sides. Both gestures can be toggled under Options > Puzzle Keys > Battle navigation.
- Ship moves are now automatically hidden when setting the voyage to "Blockade".

Prior to release 2026-06-02 - when sealed-bid blockades were introduced, all ships going into or out of port from a blockaded island had to cross the blockade board in order to reach the other side. A ship arriving at a blockaded island had to decide whether to port (and cross the blockade board) or rechart to another island.

release 2026-06-09:
- A new type of "sealed war" was introduced, allowing players to place a bid on blockades without revealing their intentions to other players before the window closes.
- Blockades are now best-of-three rather than best-of-five. This means that a flag needs to win two rounds in order to take the win.
- The notice board blockades tab now shows accurate information about the blockade conditions on sealed-bid islands, and sealed-bid blockade declarations now give you any relevant error messages before submission.
- Introduced the ship budget (a new system that limits how many ships each team can field in a blockade, based on the island's tax revenue. This encourages more strategic play and prevents one team from overwhelming the other with sheer numbers. The budget is displayed on the notice board and in the bidding window, so you can plan your fleet accordingly).

release 2026-06-16:
- Aimuari and Admiral Island were excluded from sealed bids. Blockades on these islands could be declared the same way as before the new features started rolling out.
- Sea battle chat is now prefixed with the speaker's ship name so you can tell who is talking; spectators show as <Spectator> and a marker highlights messages from the pirate at the helm.
- Round breaks will now be shortened to 10 minutes (they used to be 15).
- Yoweb now has a page to track blockades: /yoweb/blockade/status.wm

release 2026-06-29: Blockade ship budgets, mercenary pay, and bid ranges now scale with the size of the island being contested, using a more stable formula. These will no longer be directly impacted by island population. Brigand King strength is now capped according to the size of the island under attack.

release 2026-07-27: Aimuari and Admiral now use the same bidding process as other islands.