Horrible bug annoyed me.

[Nb7]

So i entered a battle between english warships and 3 fat french merchants.
The merchants surrendered without taking much damage.
But i couldn't board them!!! it didn't give me the option as i got to the side of one of them.

 

[Grey Roger]

There is a known bug in which, if the flagship of a group surrenders, the rest of the group turns neutral - you can't board them and you lose lots of reputation for firing at them. The only known workround at the moment is to save the game, reload at once, and everything which should still be hostile will return to being hostile. One of the three merchants should still be surrendered; that's the flagship which really did surrender and triggered the bug.

 

[Nb7]

thats too bad, well i will try to remember to save load next time this happens.

 

[smrtwhkd]

Anyway to figure out which ship is the flagship? Maybe better to sink accompanying ships first.

 

[Grey Roger]

At the start of a battle, the lead ship is the flagship. Otherwise, look at the ships with a decent spyglass - one of them will probably have "Flagship" by its name.

Other tactical considerations are more important. You may want to take out the biggest ship first while you are still at full strength. Or you may want to grab the nearest fat merchant, loot or capture it, then run away before the escorts catch you. Or in this case, with friendly warships already engaging the enemy, the friendly ships won't be bothered that you'll be inconvenienced if they force the flagship to surrender first - serves you right for trying to steal their prizes.