The complete strategy could not be implemented immediately since no warships of the type imagined for the Mississippi campaign existed. The US Navy was also too small to enforce the blockade in the first months of the war. It would take time to gather and train the forces needed to carry out the Mississippi thrust, and the critics of the plan were unwilling to concede that time. Hence, Scott's plan was subjected to a great deal of ridicule. His opponents called for an immediate overland campaign directed primarily at the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Their stated belief was that if a few strongholds were taken, the Confederacy would collapse.