Scupperer/BlockadeGuide

Having organized many a blockade, I figured it time to write some of it down. Call it a work in progress for now.

War Fleet, Stock, Comments
Grand Frigates Fine Rum: 250 Large Shot: 750 Stations: 77 Staffing: 80-100

Comments:

War Frigates Fine Rum: 125 Large Shot: 500 Stations: Staffing: 40-60

Comments:

War Brigs Fine Rum: 65 Medium Shot: 300 Stations: Staffing: 25-35

Comments:

Dhows Fine Rum: 40 Medium Shot: 100 Stations: Staffing: 6-12

Comments:

Sloops Fine Rum: 15 Small Shot: 50 Stations: Staffing: 3-7

Comments:

Blockade Pay
Blockade pay can be a lifesaver or a bankrupter. You have to be careful setting amounts, and very careful starting a bidding war for jobbers. Generally, blockade pay starts out low, perhaps 100-150 poe/segment, but if the blockade is hotly contested, can quickly rise to 250-500 poe/segment.

I've found that the best way to do jobber pay is to start out as Performance/Even, and either match your competitor to start with, or just blow them out of the water if you can afford it. If you go over 250 poe/segment, you may wish to consider changing your pay method to Elite/Even. The problem with paying very very large amounts of poe/segment is that it doesn't take a lot of work for players to make a lot of money, which means they have no incentive to perform any better than fine - they get the same amount as if they were being paid 100/segment and doing good or better, unless you change it to Elite pay. That last thing you need is more jobbers doing less. Very expensive.

The biggest unpredictable factor is the number of jobbers who will show up, so you need to have enough money to cover a worst case scenario. What if everyone jobs for you? Do you have enough? Even at 100 poe/segment, figure on needing 1 million for jobber pay. Once you see how many jobbers actually show up, then you can decide if you have enough free poe to raise the pay, and still be covered. Assume there will be a round 4 and 5, and factor that in.

With the BK blockades, you want to keep pay low, but high enough to compete with pillagers and traders and other activities. Probably 50-100 poe/segment is enough to grab jobbers. They'll make much more than off of bounties and treasure haul, but you probably still need to dangle the carrot.

Blockade Staffing
Blockades are highly stressful event, and if not coordinated or organized well, can easily fall apart in the middle of things, and/or burn out the best of players. Your War Team is the key to success, and keeping everybody well-oiled and helping out can turn a difficult task into a lot of rewarding fun.

Admiral: This is the most important position, and the goal of the rest of the blockading staff is to remove as much organizational pressure from the admiral as possible. You want your admiral focused solely on strategy. The admiral directs navigators in an overall general strategy, and helps to coordinate action across the board. This is generally best accomplished by the admiral sitting out on a sloop in the safe zone, but more experienced admirals are also capable of being part of the action. There's a fine line for an Admiral between playing too loosely, and micromanaging the blockade - either of these problems can easily tip a blockade to a loss, but if you have to make big mistakes, I'd highly recommend playing too loosely. Micromanaging a blockade leads to sour feelings and broken friendships.

Vice Admiral: The vice admiral maintains the list of ships and the list of navigation teams. Responsible for keeping track of which team is on which ship, which ship is loading, and which ships are out & sunk, this is a very valuable member of the blockade team. This is the person who keeps things running smoothly. The V.A. should keep an ear out for ships that are going down in battle, so the next ships can be quickly lined up and called out to the bosun and JC's.

Bosun (Boatswain): I like to call this position the Ship Kicker. The ship kicker is the intermediary between the Admiral/Vice Admiral and the jobbing contacts (JC's). The Bosun is the only person who should use /shout in the crew channel, with frequent reminders of what ship is currently boarding so that new and stray jobbers can get on quickly. The bosun makes sure that the Navigation Team is on a ship, and that the ship is set to blockade voyage. The bosun frequently checks the staffing on a ship, and either hits deport, or calls out to that Nav Team to go when the ship is full. JC's follow the bosun's orders to which ship to fill, and generally only one ship at a time is loaded.

Jobbing Contacts:

Quartermaster:

Doctor:

Navigation Teams:

Large Ships:

Dhows/Cutter Strike Teams: