Kazmeister
Landlubber
Historically, the most successful pirates were the pirates that went out every day and captured enemy ships. Sure, stealing cargo is great and all, but ship capture is the real name of the game. Let's focus on how to do that. What are the first steps to take and how can you maximize your chances for a profitable outing. This guide will attempt to help newish players with ship choice, officer management, funding your escapades, closing to board, and ship capture.
<u>Step 1: Choosing your flagship.</u>
Boy those big ships sure are impressive with their 30+ guns, massive crews, towering masts, luxury accomodations, and impenetrable hulls. These are NOT the ships of a pirate. Forget them. You don't need firepower and massive crews, you need speed and maneuverability. The fastes and most maneuverable ships are the pirate variety. The first thing you should do is make a pilgrimage to the Quebredas Costillas shipyard, the mecca of pirate ships.
Actual ship choice is up to you. The things you want to look for are speed: 15's are okay, 16's are better, but the ideal capture-ship will have 17 or more; and maneuverability: 50+ is a must, and the higher the better. Don't worry so much about crew capacity or cargo space. It IS good to have around 1000 hull though, because you really want to be able to take at least one salvo and survive... Just in case.
Some good ships for capture are the Sloop, Bermuda Sloop, Fast Schooner, or War Schooner. Some captains will swear by smaller ships, such as the Cutter, and some captains have been successful with even Gunboats. My major issue with these smaller boats is that sometimes, just due to bad luck, you will enter 3D sail in the range and firing arcs of a heavily armed ship, and one good salvo of cannonfire will cripple or sink these boats. That's not good. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />
Also some captains like the slightly larger ships like the Corvette varieties, and they can be okay, they are fast after all, but they turn like slugs in comparison with Sloops or Schooners. One drawback of the Sloop is that the large sail over the quarterdeck can make visibility an issue while in first-person view during battle. The War Schooner has a nice sail plan for this, as the sails are all high enough off the deck as to not restrict your view.
Overall, only experience will teach you which ship is right for you. But Speed and Maneuverability are the key elements of a good capture-ship. Don't fall in love with the first ship you take out, play the field and find the best ship for you.
<u>Step 2: Recruit Officers</u>
From your first foundering steps as a Pirate captain on, good officers are a key to your success. At the beginning, they are absolutely necessary. They will make up for any skills you lack and bring you victory during captures. This is what you need to succeed:
Right off, you want two toughs or boatswains and one navigator. During your first few captures, you'll probably go through several navigators. At low levels, they don't do well in combat. Unfortunately, you'll need someone with good sailing skill (Defense helps too) to get the most out of your ship. And since you don't have it (because you DID put all your points towards leadership, right?) you need someone in your party who does. You can choose to have your navigator sit out boarding, but navigators are a dime a dozen, and all that "sit this one out" stuff is a pain and takes too much time. Plus, they make good cannon fodder! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> Later you wil be able to raise your sailing ability enough to where you don't need a navigator in your party anyway.
As a side note, you should have three spare navigators (or first mates with high sailing ability) to install in your captured ships, but if you don't it's no big deal. Try to have at least ONE, however. After all, your main one could die.
As for your fighters: Equip them well. Find them the best arms you can and upgrade those arms to the max. Talk to the smith in Falais to upgrade swords and the smith in conceicao for firearms. Also give them health potions and armor. Standard crew members can't hold a candle to experienced, well armed officers. I generally only use a sloop or schooner with about 90-100 crew but have a full complement of lvl 10 melee officers and can capture pretty much anything without too much difficulty.
Worried about how to pay all those high level officers? Sign articles with your crew. Officers morale either doesn't apply or won't affect their ability to fight. Even with low morale amongst your crew, your officers will still fight like hellions.
And don't forget to upgrade your officers abilities as well as their stats. I highly recommend the ability shared experience for all of your officers early on, because they will level up much faster. Bring up their melee skill to 10 first. And don't neglect the melee abilities (toughness will really help), the gunman abilities, and the boarding abilities (particularly the musket barrage one).
Lastly, protect your officers. If you see one of them being ganged up on by several enemy crew, help them out! Your officers represent a valuable investment of time and money... Try not to lose them!
<u>Step 3: Be choosy!</u>
On the world map, approach your target from behind. Wait until daylight to engage them because you need to be able to see. For the same reason, don't attack in the fog. If you can't see the ships you can't make a good judgement call on whether or not to start capturing. NEVER attack in a storm. This is a lose-lose situation.
Don't just attack ships at random. For experience, you want warships, but attacking patrols and fleets can be dangerous, especially early on. For money, groups of merchants with light or no escort are best.
Don't alienate every nation! Focus your attacks on one or two nations. The Dutch are a safe bet because they hate everybody but the portuguese anyway. Spain seems to have the most wealth, and in my experience they have had the most gold and silver laden merchants. You'll want to stay on good terms with the French for their blacksmith, and the Portugeuse for the same reason, but even more so. This is all just a matter of preference of course, but the Portugese should be left alone at any rate. They are a fairly poor nation, and they have the only blacksmith in the game that can upgrade your firearms (to my knowledge).
<u>Step 4: Closing to Board</u>
If you entered battle from behind your enemy, you should begin 3D sail battle from behind your enemy. Your starting position is key. If you look down the line of enemy ships and feel the need to change your underwear, don't hesitate. Get the hell out of there. Go to battle sails, turn your ship on her heel, make full sails and run for it. Likewise if there is little or no wind. Generally, if the wind is 15 kts or less I won't engage. Wind is your strongest ally in ship capture, and without it, the bigger ships are going to EAT YOUR LUNCH. They blast you to toothpicks before you can get in range to board.
Okay so you've decided to stay. Approach the last ship in the convoy from their rear quarter, and under full sails. If they begin to turn, turn with them, and if possible, try to keep their ship between yours and the rest of the fleet. Don't try to get them in your sights for cannon fire, just keep heading towards that rear quarter. Experience will teach you where to be to stay out of their firing arcs. When you begin to get close drop to battle sails. Remember if you come up too fast, you may blow right by them without ever getting the chance to board. Even worse, you may expose yourself to their broadside, which can be fatal, especially if they have a well-armed ship.
<u>Step 5: Boarding and Capture</u>
Keep an eye out for the boarding icon. It may only pop up for a second, and you don't want to miss your opportunity. Once you board them, you want to select your enemies with care. Try to gang up on them with one of your officers as they will be confused as to who to attack and save you and your officers some trouble. Save your ammunition for a time when you can't reach any enemies with your sword. Watch your health, dying sucks. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />
You may have to go through all of the enemy crew without the enemy captain surrendering. Like dying, this also sucks, as you may find yourself too short handed to capture the enemy ship. If this happens check the cargo of the opposing ship and make sure you take on as much high cost goods as possible. Gold, silver, and tobacco are all worth a lot of money.
With any luck though, the enemy captain will give up at some point and request parley. First thing to do is take any gold offered. Spare the crew. You need as many hands as you can get. If you're short on officers, hire the officer on, and then put that officer in charge of the captured ship. If not, take them prisoner, because a live officer is worth far more than a dead officer, even as a captive. Don't forget to check the captured vessel's boarding chests for valuable weapons, items, and armor before you move on to the details screen!
Next, check the crew and cargo. If the ship needs more crew than it currently has you must decide whether or not to give up some of your own crew to capture the ship. This can be a difficult decision. How many ships are there left to capture? Is the ship carrying a very valuable cargo? How fast is the ship? Will it be able to get away, or will it be gunned down, taking your crew with it... Is it a high class ship? Most trading vessels aren't worth enough to keep around unless they have a valuable cargo. Finally, don't neglect their current position compared with yours. If you were about to collide with the ship before you boarded it, you should probably just let it sink, as it will do less damage when you slam into it.
And don't forget... Capturing a ship and then letting it sink is worth as much experience as sinking it with cannons from a distance, so if you've just captured a class 2 ship with your class 5 sloop, you may be at an advantage to let it sink. You and your officers could advance a level or two (or five) from the experience gained!
After you've captured a ship, give it orders to sail away, as it will draw off some enemy fire, and if it stays, it will most likely just be in your way. Then move up to the next ship in the line and repeat.
<u>More tips:</u>
If a ship has just fired a barrage from one side, remember it will take a bit for them to reload, and approach from that side.
High waves are a GOOD thing for capturing, as they will make it much more difficult for the enemy to hit you with cannon fire.
If an enemy ship is a ways off and you think they are about to fire, or you see smoke from their cannon, either drop all your sails until you see the impacts to minimize sail damage, or drop to battle sails and turn towards or away from them to minimize your profile and therefore your hull damage.
Don't blast away at a ship you intend to capture because after all, you're essentially shooting up your own ship.
Early on, it may be better to go into battles between a nation that is friendy to you, and one that isn't, as it allows you to pick and choose which ships to capture while the friendly nation does the grunt work of the battle. (Don't enter while flying the Jolly Roger though!)
If you capture a merchant ship, offload and discard it's non-valued cargo (ale, bricks, etc.) to help avoid game crashes after the battle. Try to keep it's cargo less than 90% full.
Don't get greedy. There's a lot that can go wrong while capturing, so return to a friendly port often to offload your captured ships and cargo and save your game.
Sell off all ships but your flagship before dividing plunder, as the extra crew will only lessen the crews shares.
Oh and one more thing, and it kind of goes without saying: SAVE YOUR GAME before going out with plans on capturing ships! That way if you lose a good officer or the game pulls a fast one on you and crashes, you won't lose much.
Okay that should be enough to get you started. Good luck, and happy hunting! Anyone should feel free to add to this guide, as there's almost certainly things I've overlooked.
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />
-Kaz-
<u>Step 1: Choosing your flagship.</u>
Boy those big ships sure are impressive with their 30+ guns, massive crews, towering masts, luxury accomodations, and impenetrable hulls. These are NOT the ships of a pirate. Forget them. You don't need firepower and massive crews, you need speed and maneuverability. The fastes and most maneuverable ships are the pirate variety. The first thing you should do is make a pilgrimage to the Quebredas Costillas shipyard, the mecca of pirate ships.
Actual ship choice is up to you. The things you want to look for are speed: 15's are okay, 16's are better, but the ideal capture-ship will have 17 or more; and maneuverability: 50+ is a must, and the higher the better. Don't worry so much about crew capacity or cargo space. It IS good to have around 1000 hull though, because you really want to be able to take at least one salvo and survive... Just in case.
Some good ships for capture are the Sloop, Bermuda Sloop, Fast Schooner, or War Schooner. Some captains will swear by smaller ships, such as the Cutter, and some captains have been successful with even Gunboats. My major issue with these smaller boats is that sometimes, just due to bad luck, you will enter 3D sail in the range and firing arcs of a heavily armed ship, and one good salvo of cannonfire will cripple or sink these boats. That's not good. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />Also some captains like the slightly larger ships like the Corvette varieties, and they can be okay, they are fast after all, but they turn like slugs in comparison with Sloops or Schooners. One drawback of the Sloop is that the large sail over the quarterdeck can make visibility an issue while in first-person view during battle. The War Schooner has a nice sail plan for this, as the sails are all high enough off the deck as to not restrict your view.
Overall, only experience will teach you which ship is right for you. But Speed and Maneuverability are the key elements of a good capture-ship. Don't fall in love with the first ship you take out, play the field and find the best ship for you.
<u>Step 2: Recruit Officers</u>
From your first foundering steps as a Pirate captain on, good officers are a key to your success. At the beginning, they are absolutely necessary. They will make up for any skills you lack and bring you victory during captures. This is what you need to succeed:
Right off, you want two toughs or boatswains and one navigator. During your first few captures, you'll probably go through several navigators. At low levels, they don't do well in combat. Unfortunately, you'll need someone with good sailing skill (Defense helps too) to get the most out of your ship. And since you don't have it (because you DID put all your points towards leadership, right?) you need someone in your party who does. You can choose to have your navigator sit out boarding, but navigators are a dime a dozen, and all that "sit this one out" stuff is a pain and takes too much time. Plus, they make good cannon fodder! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" /> Later you wil be able to raise your sailing ability enough to where you don't need a navigator in your party anyway.As a side note, you should have three spare navigators (or first mates with high sailing ability) to install in your captured ships, but if you don't it's no big deal. Try to have at least ONE, however. After all, your main one could die.
As for your fighters: Equip them well. Find them the best arms you can and upgrade those arms to the max. Talk to the smith in Falais to upgrade swords and the smith in conceicao for firearms. Also give them health potions and armor. Standard crew members can't hold a candle to experienced, well armed officers. I generally only use a sloop or schooner with about 90-100 crew but have a full complement of lvl 10 melee officers and can capture pretty much anything without too much difficulty.
Worried about how to pay all those high level officers? Sign articles with your crew. Officers morale either doesn't apply or won't affect their ability to fight. Even with low morale amongst your crew, your officers will still fight like hellions.
And don't forget to upgrade your officers abilities as well as their stats. I highly recommend the ability shared experience for all of your officers early on, because they will level up much faster. Bring up their melee skill to 10 first. And don't neglect the melee abilities (toughness will really help), the gunman abilities, and the boarding abilities (particularly the musket barrage one).
Lastly, protect your officers. If you see one of them being ganged up on by several enemy crew, help them out! Your officers represent a valuable investment of time and money... Try not to lose them!
<u>Step 3: Be choosy!</u>
On the world map, approach your target from behind. Wait until daylight to engage them because you need to be able to see. For the same reason, don't attack in the fog. If you can't see the ships you can't make a good judgement call on whether or not to start capturing. NEVER attack in a storm. This is a lose-lose situation.
Don't just attack ships at random. For experience, you want warships, but attacking patrols and fleets can be dangerous, especially early on. For money, groups of merchants with light or no escort are best.
Don't alienate every nation! Focus your attacks on one or two nations. The Dutch are a safe bet because they hate everybody but the portuguese anyway. Spain seems to have the most wealth, and in my experience they have had the most gold and silver laden merchants. You'll want to stay on good terms with the French for their blacksmith, and the Portugeuse for the same reason, but even more so. This is all just a matter of preference of course, but the Portugese should be left alone at any rate. They are a fairly poor nation, and they have the only blacksmith in the game that can upgrade your firearms (to my knowledge).
<u>Step 4: Closing to Board</u>
If you entered battle from behind your enemy, you should begin 3D sail battle from behind your enemy. Your starting position is key. If you look down the line of enemy ships and feel the need to change your underwear, don't hesitate. Get the hell out of there. Go to battle sails, turn your ship on her heel, make full sails and run for it. Likewise if there is little or no wind. Generally, if the wind is 15 kts or less I won't engage. Wind is your strongest ally in ship capture, and without it, the bigger ships are going to EAT YOUR LUNCH. They blast you to toothpicks before you can get in range to board.
Okay so you've decided to stay. Approach the last ship in the convoy from their rear quarter, and under full sails. If they begin to turn, turn with them, and if possible, try to keep their ship between yours and the rest of the fleet. Don't try to get them in your sights for cannon fire, just keep heading towards that rear quarter. Experience will teach you where to be to stay out of their firing arcs. When you begin to get close drop to battle sails. Remember if you come up too fast, you may blow right by them without ever getting the chance to board. Even worse, you may expose yourself to their broadside, which can be fatal, especially if they have a well-armed ship.
<u>Step 5: Boarding and Capture</u>
Keep an eye out for the boarding icon. It may only pop up for a second, and you don't want to miss your opportunity. Once you board them, you want to select your enemies with care. Try to gang up on them with one of your officers as they will be confused as to who to attack and save you and your officers some trouble. Save your ammunition for a time when you can't reach any enemies with your sword. Watch your health, dying sucks. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />You may have to go through all of the enemy crew without the enemy captain surrendering. Like dying, this also sucks, as you may find yourself too short handed to capture the enemy ship. If this happens check the cargo of the opposing ship and make sure you take on as much high cost goods as possible. Gold, silver, and tobacco are all worth a lot of money.
With any luck though, the enemy captain will give up at some point and request parley. First thing to do is take any gold offered. Spare the crew. You need as many hands as you can get. If you're short on officers, hire the officer on, and then put that officer in charge of the captured ship. If not, take them prisoner, because a live officer is worth far more than a dead officer, even as a captive. Don't forget to check the captured vessel's boarding chests for valuable weapons, items, and armor before you move on to the details screen!
Next, check the crew and cargo. If the ship needs more crew than it currently has you must decide whether or not to give up some of your own crew to capture the ship. This can be a difficult decision. How many ships are there left to capture? Is the ship carrying a very valuable cargo? How fast is the ship? Will it be able to get away, or will it be gunned down, taking your crew with it... Is it a high class ship? Most trading vessels aren't worth enough to keep around unless they have a valuable cargo. Finally, don't neglect their current position compared with yours. If you were about to collide with the ship before you boarded it, you should probably just let it sink, as it will do less damage when you slam into it.
And don't forget... Capturing a ship and then letting it sink is worth as much experience as sinking it with cannons from a distance, so if you've just captured a class 2 ship with your class 5 sloop, you may be at an advantage to let it sink. You and your officers could advance a level or two (or five) from the experience gained!
After you've captured a ship, give it orders to sail away, as it will draw off some enemy fire, and if it stays, it will most likely just be in your way. Then move up to the next ship in the line and repeat.
<u>More tips:</u>
If a ship has just fired a barrage from one side, remember it will take a bit for them to reload, and approach from that side.
High waves are a GOOD thing for capturing, as they will make it much more difficult for the enemy to hit you with cannon fire.
If an enemy ship is a ways off and you think they are about to fire, or you see smoke from their cannon, either drop all your sails until you see the impacts to minimize sail damage, or drop to battle sails and turn towards or away from them to minimize your profile and therefore your hull damage.
Don't blast away at a ship you intend to capture because after all, you're essentially shooting up your own ship.
Early on, it may be better to go into battles between a nation that is friendy to you, and one that isn't, as it allows you to pick and choose which ships to capture while the friendly nation does the grunt work of the battle. (Don't enter while flying the Jolly Roger though!)
If you capture a merchant ship, offload and discard it's non-valued cargo (ale, bricks, etc.) to help avoid game crashes after the battle. Try to keep it's cargo less than 90% full.
Don't get greedy. There's a lot that can go wrong while capturing, so return to a friendly port often to offload your captured ships and cargo and save your game.
Sell off all ships but your flagship before dividing plunder, as the extra crew will only lessen the crews shares.
Oh and one more thing, and it kind of goes without saying: SAVE YOUR GAME before going out with plans on capturing ships! That way if you lose a good officer or the game pulls a fast one on you and crashes, you won't lose much.
Okay that should be enough to get you started. Good luck, and happy hunting! Anyone should feel free to add to this guide, as there's almost certainly things I've overlooked.
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />-Kaz-
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:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/keith.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="keith.gif" />
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i was wondering, when i capture a ship, i have to appoint one of my officers as captain there otherwise ill lose the ship?
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