Blockaded regions can't build ships?

[Ancient One]

It appears harbours are deactivated and thus can't build ships if the region is blockaded. This means in some cases there could be no way of defeating an enemy at sea if they begin the war with naval superiority. Who thought this was a good idea?

[ledo]

If you're caught so offguard, or your nation starts out as completely devoid of naval forces, that an enemy that has a significant enough fleet that it can maintain a blockade of all your ports while rotating in and out its fleets to avoid losing ships to supply losses, then yeah you have no chance at defeating them at sea. I don't really see the problem with that. For that to happen the enemy would have to have:

Vastly superior sea forces
Be able to split their fleet to cover all your ports (you'd have to have relatively few coastal regions for this to happen)
Have enough reserves to rotate in and out those fleets to maintain supply (costing them significant manpower, gold and equipment that reduces their ability to build/maintain land forces)
Not need those ships elsewhere
Not be at war with another empire that can come and sweep up your heavily divided fleets even if you have superior heavy ships (flanking bonuses)

And even then, it's not the end of the world, you'll take a hit to your trade/building income and they'll be able to siege you at the normal rate.

I really don't see the problem with this. As syracuse on turn 1 I disband my fleet to free up manpower and equipment and stay below maintenance to boost my land forces. The battle against Carthage will be won (fought to stalemate) on land not at sea, they can blockade my ports all they want.

[Ancient One]

What reason is there either gameplay or history wise why blockaded regions shouldn't be able to build ships?

[devoncop]

It appears harbours are deactivated and thus can't build ships if the region is blockaded. This means in some cases there could be no way of defeating an enemy at sea if they begin the war with naval superiority. Who thought this was a good idea?

Entirely sensible design decision in my view.

If you can give a historic example of an enemy navy blockading a nation's port and then sitting there whilst a comparable or superior naval force was built up within that same port then I am sure the designers will review their decision......

As a time saving measure for you I can save you time looking......it never happened.

[PDiFolco]

Well, the design is sensible... who can build a whole fleet in a blockaded port?
And either you only have a couple regions and then don't care about naval superiority, or you have a sizable empire and can build fleet elsewhere...
And btw if you have some big shipyard you should have a defending fleet for it

[Soar]

Well, it's not only about the ships, you need to train the crews too... And you can't really do that very well if they're stuck in harbour.