The Pirates Thread

[MAGNUS454]

I had convinced myself I was doing ok with the naval part of the game until I lost 12 frigates to 1 pirate ship. I mean sometimes does need to cheat sometimes but really why give them armour plated hulls of Teflon and lasers for christ sake.

The AI ships are ridiculously overpowered, I cant count the amount of games I have restarted as Britain because all my fleets of 10 + ships just wasted by 1 - 3 pirate ships. It takes a long time to build a decent fleet for 2 silly over powered ships to destroy them.

Hope these shapes get changed soon so the naval games isnt so damn hard.

[Destraex]

what hardness level are you playing on?

[MAGNUS454]

Medium/medium The land battles are to easy - the naval battles are virtually impossible unless you outnumber them massively the pirate ships are just super powered its not funny.

[mirandela]

read the naval strategy guide, new post. after, the pirate ships will become yours.

The best advice I can give to someone trying to fight the pirates is to always deploy your ships on the edge of the map from where the wind is coming. In nautical turns this was called the "Weather gage." It takes enemies longer to get to you and if you flee they won't be able to get to you in time. The other advice i can give is to "wobble" all your ships. Fire with one side, do a 180, fire with the other, wobble back etc. You can fire at a rate of 1.5x that of a standard ship. It requires micromanagment, but with i think 1 4th rate, 2 5th rates and a 6th rate (As well a sloop or brig or two) you can take 2 fluyts and 2 galloens. Also, by cutting through the lines of your enemies and staying between them, you can fire from both sides of your ship, giving you fundamentally a 2x firepower. It can be dangerous to do with too few ships, but I find if attacked broadly, and sailed between, you can manoveur your ships to fire at a greater rate to greater effect then your enemies.

As for admirals dying, if a cannonball sweeps the aft deck of a ship, there is a chance it will kill the tiny man in the silly hat, just as a cannonball can take a general out on the battle field.

Oh, another thing, to the greatest degree possible, focus fire. If you can drive off a high-ranking capital ship early (and even pursue and sieze with a sloop) the rest of the battle can be much easier. Using this tactic along with the weather gague can let you lop off the front ship of a line, before splintering the line with your fleet.

In general, sloops and brigs are not useful unless in large numbers.

Boarding actions should be taken with extreme caution, as the enemy will not hesitate to give you a few broadsides before being engaged, which cause havoc and can sink a large ship, if unlucky, or can easily demoralize a crew.

I hope that helps! Remember to wobble!

All you need BEFORE to put any trade ship in the yellow spots of trade, ofcourse, its to "clean" the waters. Start eliminate the pirate ships ATAKING them first, then eliminate the bases. Invade the land with 3-4 infan. colonial + 3 12 pounds guns (after research ) and 2 of dragoons. The pirate nations its one of the easy one to eliminate. (also read the naval strategy guide).....

Pirate Galleons are overpowered. Pirates themselves are a complete mess. Running around with fleets of 4 galleons and other smaller support vessels. Make these guys the most powerful Fleets in the game.

Darn shame that they had to do this to make the game challenging. The super pirates that own everyone...

Something screwy with the damage they take.

I just had a battle vs 4 Galleons, and 2 smaller support vessels. Vs my 2 4th rates, 5th rate, 6th rate and 2 swoops.

It took me 1/2 hour to take out one galleon with ALT+CNT fire on that one Galleon the things are fraking tanks.

Dear friend, in the verry begining o the game I take out ALL 4 galeons of pirates with just one 48 guns frigate. They go in the bottom like ordinary ships! They are strong, its true, but they also are SLOW. Use that.

[Battletoads]

If you play on battle settings higher then medium the enemy get bonuses. The easy way to win naval battles is to destroy the masts with sloops or sixth rates and then just keep on shooting one side of the ship or go in to board it.

Edit:
Also use galleys for ramming ships. 2 rams = death for nearly anything/

[Medifh]

Try to get second rate ships. World of difference.

[OccamR]

I feel for you man. Whenever I play, I wish I didn't have to fight every naval battle but I know that if I didn't I would get my ass handed to me.

[Monglor]

I find the best navy strategy is to build the best ships you can so that in combat you tend to have fewer, yet more powerful, ships. This makes them much easier to handle. Large fleets require much more management and if you use a line formation there's a real chance of your tail end getting cut off.

The thing to also bear in mind with Pirates is that they tend to steal galleons, and galleons are a match for a 4th Rate in a stand up fight. That said you don't have to let a 4th rate get into a stand up fight with a galleon, you can keep them at arms length because they are sluggish.

Personally my general rule is anything less than a 4th rate is close to worthless unless it's a flagship.

[Osskssa]

Well Galleons are big tough ships bristling with guns, dont go up against a harderned pirate crew in one of them with low lvl frigates its not gonna cut it.Need to use 5th and 4th rates at least

[Heinz Guderian]

I had convinced myself I was doing ok with the naval part of the game until I lost 12 frigates to 1 pirate ship. I mean sometimes does need to cheat sometimes but really why give them armour plated hulls of Teflon and lasers for christ sake.

did that ship have black sails, was unsually fast and was crewed by haggard looking fellows?

[Tassen]

did that ship have black sails, was unsually fast and was crewed by haggard looking fellows?

HAHA Good one...

[Baron von Beer]

I'm starting to wonder if something is "wrong" with naval battles. I'm playing medium. In about 20 battles now, both custom and campaigns I have seen with alarming regularity ships sinking and/or admirals dying for no apparent reason.

I'm not talking when they are in combat trading broadsides or take an unlucky hit. Situations where there are 1 or 2 routing ships left, and a vessel out of their range, and on their bow/stern taking no fire, with little to no sail or hull damage not on fire, and suddenly sinks or the admiral dies.

Again this has not been a one off occurrence, seems to happen to a ship in 1 out of 2 engagements.. They are taking no fire, look to be in fine shape and then the termites let go of each others hands and the thing tries to be a submarine. Admiral having cardiac arrest is more rare, but still kicked the bucket without cause several times.

Maybe the shipwrights got a load balsa by mistake and figured they'd sneak it off on those dupes at the admiralty.

[Osskssa]

I'm starting to wonder if something is "wrong" with naval battles. I'm playing medium. In about 20 battles now, both custom and campaigns I have seen with alarming regularity ships sinking and/or admirals dying for no apparent reason.

I'm not talking when they are in combat trading broadsides or take an unlucky hit. Situations where there are 1 or 2 routing ships left, and a vessel out of their range, and on their bow/stern taking no fire, with little to no sail or hull damage not on fire, and suddenly sinks or the admiral dies.

Again this has not been a one off occurrence, seems to happen to a ship in 1 out of 2 engagements.. They are taking no fire, look to be in fine shape and then the termites let go of each others hands and the thing tries to be a submarine. Admiral having cardiac arrest is more rare, but still kicked the bucket without cause several times.

Maybe the shipwrights got a load balsa by mistake and figured they'd sneak it off on those dupes at the admiralty.

Prob got hit below the water line and were taking on water sometimes on unit card i see a blue flashing symbol in top right corner which i take to mean its taking on water so will prob sink.

[dragos]

I'm starting to wonder if something is "wrong" with naval battles. I'm playing medium. In about 20 battles now, both custom and campaigns I have seen with alarming regularity ships sinking and/or admirals dying for no apparent reason.

I'm not talking when they are in combat trading broadsides or take an unlucky hit. Situations where there are 1 or 2 routing ships left, and a vessel out of their range, and on their bow/stern taking no fire, with little to no sail or hull damage not on fire, and suddenly sinks or the admiral dies.

Again this has not been a one off occurrence, seems to happen to a ship in 1 out of 2 engagements.. They are taking no fire, look to be in fine shape and then the termites let go of each others hands and the thing tries to be a submarine. Admiral having cardiac arrest is more rare, but still kicked the bucket without cause several times.

Maybe the shipwrights got a load balsa by mistake and figured they'd sneak it off on those dupes at the admiralty.

Yes, it happened to me a few times, especially the sudden sinking. I`ve got ships sink for no apparent reason, but, then i noticed that if you have a badly damaged ship (or a sloop, sloops sink very fast!), when it sets sail, it usually sinks.

[hermanJnr.]

I'm starting to wonder if something is "wrong" with naval battles. I'm playing medium. In about 20 battles now, both custom and campaigns I have seen with alarming regularity ships sinking and/or admirals dying for no apparent reason.

I'm not talking when they are in combat trading broadsides or take an unlucky hit. Situations where there are 1 or 2 routing ships left, and a vessel out of their range, and on their bow/stern taking no fire, with little to no sail or hull damage not on fire, and suddenly sinks or the admiral dies.

Again this has not been a one off occurrence, seems to happen to a ship in 1 out of 2 engagements.. They are taking no fire, look to be in fine shape and then the termites let go of each others hands and the thing tries to be a submarine. Admiral having cardiac arrest is more rare, but still kicked the bucket without cause several times.

Maybe the shipwrights got a load balsa by mistake and figured they'd sneak it off on those dupes at the admiralty.

I might be wrong here, but I think the AI "bends the rules" a little if you're horribly maiming it in a naval engagement.

I've played a lot of practice 5th Rate versus AI Galleon battles to get my manouvering and ranging skills up a bit, and I've noticed that 5th Rates have a significant range advantage. You can squeeze off a broadside and sail into the wind, hopefully avoiding counterfire.

However, I've noticed against AI if I'm really hammering the ship like that and it hasn't yet got a shot off, sometimes I'm way out of range (even my 5th Rate can't hit), and suddenly it'll just open up with a full broadside on me regardless.

Each hit also took out like 4 guns and several crew, way more than you'd usually expect from a hit on the side of a boat at that kind of range.

Against a human opponent I've never had this happen, so I can only think it's some kind of emergency fiddle the computer has to help it out.

I wouldn't be surprised if it "tweaks" gunpowder store explosion or admiral death likelihood too in a similar situation.

/Tinfoil hat

[NightFire]

I think that one ship was The Black Pearl

[Quadratus]

Just conquer there two settlements in the Caribbean and they get destroyed.


No more worrying about pirate raids!


Has anyone defeated them yet? I just got done conquering all the Caribbean islands playing as GB.

[S-te-Fan]

I defeated them as the dutch within 10 turns.

[Quadratus]

I'm playing as Britain, and for the last couple turns, the trade screen shows that my trade route to the Colonies is blockaded. However, I've individually traced every trade route to and from every port in America and I can't find any ships anywhere along them. Where else could they be blockading me, or is this just another bug?

Are they enemy ships in your port? They can invade your port and set up camp in there whilst blocking your route. Check if you see any enemy flags near your ports

It's a good feeling know those anarchists are at the bottom of the ocean

[Medieval American]

It's a good feeling know those anarchists are at the bottom of the ocean

What would the world be like without... Captian Hook?