Blockading

Blockading is one of the major activities that a captain can do in orbit of a zone. Blockading is inherently hostile to the zone below and its faction owner. Blockading attempts to interfere with the commerce of the zone by intercepting merchants who service it. Blockading is most often carried out by pirates who are seeking to relieve rich merchants of their precious cargo. It may also be used by Military and Zealot Captains who wish participate in a faction conflict. During a conflict a Captain may draw a "Strike a blow in a conflict" card which will influence the conflict score away from the zone owner and give reputation with the opposing faction. Bounty Hunters may also be sent to blockade as part of a mission, this is generally do draw out a military ship target. As a hostile act, blockading is likely to draw out hostile military captains of the faction below. Any captain engaging in blockading should be prepared to engage in ship-to-ship combat.

### Strategy

Like other operations, becoming great at Blockading will require a dedicated build. Increasing ship Pilot, Navigation and Intimidate Skill Pools should be a key priority. Blockaders will also need to invest in Talents that will help them determine the results of the card game. Most of these are provided by Pirate and Wing Bomber crew members, though Gunners and Zealots also each have a single Talent that can help. In the early game, it is best to Blockade often, checking the hand that is dealt at nearly every zone that is visited and only playing those hands that give a reasonable chance of desirable outcomes. As a Captain's crew and ship develop, they will be able to engage in more extended Blockades over the planet of their choice.

### The Card Game

The results of blockading are determined by a card mini-game. The Captain will draw 5 cards which are determined by risk and reward factors. He or she may then have the opportunity to modify their draw through the use of one crew talent which can allow them to redraw, remove or improve a card. Then one card will randomly be selected from the remaining cards providing either a negative, positive or neutral result. If a negative result is drawn it is possible that its results may be avoided by a test of certain captain and ship skills. All blockading actions consume time and fuel.

## Card Game Mechanics/Logic

Card games are based on a deck of cards. Based on the Risk Factors and Reward Factors, positive and negative cards are used to create the deck. Risk and Reward Factors are also used to calculate the chance of Common, Good and Rare positive cards and Risk Factors calculate the Low, Medium and Max Risk changes. These are used to then determine which positive and negative cards are in the deck. For example, areas with higher Common Rewards will feature more +1 and +2 cards, while areas with high Max Risks will feature more -5 cards. Once the hand is shuffled and dealt, 5 cards are shown and the chance to draw any one of those five cards is 20% (random card selection). Upon completion of the hand and after the results of the final card are handled, the deck is reshuffled and 5 new cards are dealt.

Mission steps that require a successful card draw start at the normal base 20% chance of selection. However, after each unsuccessful draw, the chance increases by 2%. Without talents modifying the odds, you can expect to succeed at the mission step in 3 or fewer attempts most of the time, in 9 or fewer attempts almost all the time, and for a very unlucky few 41 attempts would be required. On the 41st draw, the chance of success is 100%.