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Pirate Heavy Frigate

O

omeskeren

Powder Monkey
So i just finished looking for treasure from a map i bought. Got the treasure, was attacked in the cave and town, the usual. The interesting part is when i go to sea. Attacked by a pirate fleet (gentlemen of fortune), it was a heavy frigate and a heavy galleon, while i've never seen a pirate heavy frigate before. Is there any other instances where we could fight pirate heavy frigates? I'm currently looking for as much (free) heavy frigates as i can for upgrading experiments.
 
As you obtain higher rank, you'll encounter more powerful ship. In my game i got rank 12 and most of the ship i encounter are Spanish and pirate's Galleon, heavy Galleon. Heavy frigate seem to serve in national navies of French and English. Heavy Frigate is geared toward speed and combat so the cargo hold is not that big, around 3000. Heavy Galleon is good in a fight with large crew, big cargo hold, mostly armed with 48 to 54 guns, with caliber around 18-32 pounders with slower speed.

The best way to get the Heavy Frigate is to take on large number of pirates, a group of 3 to 6 pirates will give you a good chance to have it or the heavy Galleon. Don't let the number of ship scare you since it contain smaller ship too. Only one or 2 big guy with the rest are small ship that can be kill with to well aim mine or bomb broadside.
Another way is to take part in battles that are being fought. Preferably English vs Spain, English vs Dutch, French Vs Spain and pirate vs either Spain, English or French. Just look at the Avatars fighting on the map, if the Avatars are small, ignore them. When you join the battle and see your prey, stay put and see how the battle goes, when to fight is over, move closer you your prey and unleash grapeshot before boarding. Or you can destroy other surviving vessels before attacking your prey.
Lastly, obtain a bounty on your head that bounty hunter will attack you on the sea. Depend on the prize, the attacking ships could have Heavy frigate and Heavy Galleon. But this is slow since it's take quite a long time to get a big enough prize to entice bigger investment from head hunter.

PS:If you want speed, heavy frigate is quite ok. If you want fire power and cargo space with large number of crew to loots colonies with direct attack from the sea, Heavy Galleon is perfect. I have 7 of them with 356 32-pounders. Getting the ships are easy, getting the guns are the hard part.
 
well i'm aware of the heavier level ships.
yet heavy galleons have 1 major problem: they're ugly and oversized :D
they remind me of my fat, bully of a cousin. also, broke bowsprits far too often (the fleet AI should be fixed though).

so i'll just stick with the heavy frigates which are the middle ground between heavy galleons, manowars, and frigates. better-looking too.

my advice for the guns is to always buy available guns and store in warehouse for future use, savescumming would also help.
(savescumming helps a great deal in this game, to compensate for a terrible luck (real luck, not the in-game luck))
 
So if you want Heavy Frigate, attack French and English fleet. Pirates rarely get Heavy Frigate, most of them got Heavy Galleon or Galleon.
But i don't remember if the Heavy Frigate can mount 32 pounder or not, thus i stick with Heavy Galleon (easy to get) until i have real Battleship in my game. By the way, don't sail with a big fleet or things may get unexpectedly ugly. In one of my engagement, i got 3 broadsides from my fellow captain and was promptly finished off by my enemy.:modding
 
Was this a quest fleet you found? So far as I can gather pirate fleets are limited to class 4 and smaller, whereas the Heavy Galleon is class 2. You would not normally find pirates in a ship like that so it must have been an exception. As for the Heavy Frigate, that one is class 4 so it may well be the heaviest ship you would see regular pirates using.

Moderator Edit: Above message is based on PotC, not SD:TEHO.
 
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Does SD:TEHO have a "ship class restriction" for pirates? I know PotC does for realism reasons, but that was a mod-added feature by us.
 
It's just a random encounter on global map. I am not sure about restriction since the ship in tactical battle depend on the size of the Avatar on global map. Just attack the medium or big Avatar and you can see big ship in the fleet, save before entering into tactical battle, then reload if the battle is too hard or easy for you so the game can randomize the ships though the number will stay the same, just different in ship classes. I once had three Corvettes attack my little Caravel so i reloaded my previous save before the battle, the game reset the ship into a heavy galleon and 2 luggers.
 
Heavy frigates are military ships. I don't like using them as a pirate. I prefer frigates. Better maneuverability, speed and sailing against the wind compared with the heavy frigate. Also the normal frig has sufficient firepower to defeat with ease any ship including line ships. I never fought a man of war with a normal frigate, but man of wars are only in quest, so no problem with that. For that i've stored two line ships with good stats.
Anyway, i will keep in storage a rare heavy frig with very good stats if i will find one.
 
okay, so far, pirate heavy frigates are apparently exclusive to treasure map pirates. unlike heavy galleons, which would be available to the ordinary roaming pirates. this one is a treasure map pirate fleet.

TXryQc2.png
 
With that fleet, the pirates could conquer the Caribbean.

I had some experience with the gentlemen of fortune
It's not right after finding a meager treasure, to be attacked by a pirate band while exiting the cave, attacked by a pirate band at the beach, attacked on the sea by heavy frigates and heavy galleons in the same numbers as the ships in my convoy.
Even more, the enemy captains are very skilled with high accuracy, defense etc so grape shooting their crew takes a while while they... they only use bombs. And three or four well aimed bomb broadsides from a heavy frigate at my normal frigate is painful, not to say it's over.

All of this for a treasure that consisted of a map i already had, 50 cutlasses, a trench cuirass, and hundreds of flint stones and copper ewers. Hilarious... No doubloons, no jewelry, no diamonds... But an entire war fleet will attack for that garbage of a treasure.
 
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I only got attacked once by pirate band after i'd collected the treasure. No Gentlemen of Fortune attack after i left port. But i got random encounter with Gentlemen of Fortune on global map. And it's always a small ship, rarely Galleon or Heavy Galleon.

I guess it's because my S in P.I.R.A.T.E.S is high (i choose the musketeer character) and my Luck maxed out that i only attacked once and no naval battle after that. Or because i moored in port and sleep after i got the treasure. And my treasure contain a lot of gold nuggets (56) with a map, part of treasure map, some trinket and a hanger sword.

Also i think the number of Gentlemen of Fortune you encounter is affected by the number of ship under your command. Since i saw that you have 5 ships vs 5 Gentlemen of Fortune in the screenshot, and i only encounter one Gentlemen of Fortune vs my one and only Heavy galleon.

In conclusion, the S and Luck mattered in the treasure contain and number of pirate band attack, number of ship under your command will affect the fleet that attack you afterward. You may try to sleep for a day after collecting the treasure, see if that avoid the undesirable naval battle. And in the event the attack still happen, you will have the fort firepower to help you even the odd.
 
Seem like the contain and the number of attack depend on S of PIRATES and Luck. I did treasure hunting and got attack only once, no naval combat. But i encounter Gentleman of Fortune as random encounter on global map though. And i guess the number of ship attack you is equal to the number of ship in your fleet. As i see in the screenshot, you have 5 ship and they also have 5. In my game, the Gentleman of fortune only attack me with one ship while i also have one ship, usually smaller than my Heavy Galleon.

If you don't want the naval battle, you could try to dock in the city port then hunt for the treasure. When you get back to the city, sleep for a night and depart. Even if you are attacked, you'll have the Fort to help you out.
 
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