Fleets

[unmerged(2500)]

Imagine the following:

I have 0 ships in my fleet. I have never invested anything into naval tech. Yet, I control a vast colonial trade empire. AND I have no fear that the trade routes will be threatened even if I go to war with all the naval superpowers in the world, as long as I control the colonies and tradeposts with armies.....

I like EU a lot more than imperialism (good game, but EU is better). But in this aspect, imperialism is a lot more accurate and fun than EU.

A strong merchant marine should be a pre-requisite in having a trading empire. Warships should be able to seriously disrupt another nations' trade routes or protect against this situation.

 

[unmerged(3360)]

As some guy from paradox posted in another thread there will be no merchant fleet implemented in eu2. But I sincerely hope that they will work the role of the navy over. It was a big aspect in wars, especially between france and england. Even when merchant ships will never appear on the map a player should be able to threaten trade routes, for example by moving fleets in a sea zone and click on a button (like the burning trade post option).
The result should be lowered income for the nation you are fighting against, perhaps even a small income for yourself, representing the conquered ships and freightgoods and perhaps also a lowered trade amount in the COT the goods where assigned to.

 

[Xanadu]

But dosen't a blockade already have this effect on any province of an enemy during war for that matter (if you have high enough naval tech)?

 

[Olaf the Unsure]

Privateers, which I think will be included in EU2, could serve this function.