Sarah Paine

So geographically and economically, it's really vulnerable to blockade.

And I get it.

Germany gets alternate resources.

But they come in at much higher costs.

They're much more difficult.

And so that you're really putting a stress on the German economy and causing inflation and other things.

But if you blockade, a continental power can't blockade you back.

Why?

They're on the narrow seas, so they can't deploy a surface fleet.

You'll sink it.

And also, they can't...

easily blockade a coastline that faces the open seas, the high seas.

You can do other things on narrow seas, but it's pretty tough.

So what do you do if you cannot blockade ships in port?

Well, then what you're going to try to do is commerce raiding.

to try and sink things when they're out and about.

And that was what Germany did in World War II and why its occupation of France was so important.

Because once it took the French coastline, it then set up U-boat pens in Brest, Lorient, Saint-Nazaire, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux.

And they're going to be using these to fight the Battle of the Atlantic.

That's the game.