capture boats

**Keyser Soze** · March 22, 2009, 08:36 PM

how can i capture ships? i did it that i choose "hitch" ships had hitched, after fight enemy ship had surrender and ships were be separated. i was victourious, but in results of battle i have not captured ships...

sorry my english.

**nostradamouse** · March 22, 2009, 09:33 PM

Boats surrender, then on the battle resume screen, at the bottom of it, it shows the boats captured. There you can decide whether to scuttle them or not.

**Keyser Soze** · March 23, 2009, 02:56 AM

this i know. but why i haven´t any captured boat if i in battle capture it?

**Ondaderthad** · March 23, 2009, 03:02 AM

The only ennemy ships i captured were from autoresolved battles.

**yonatanp** · March 23, 2009, 03:21 AM

Same here.
I board the ship and it surrenders but after the battle I don't have any new ships.
Could someone post an "idiots guide to ship capture"? since I am obviously missing something here :S

**schatzi** · March 23, 2009, 03:25 AM

on rare occasions, i have been able to board ships and capture them. usually ships surrrender and can then be dragged into your stack afterwards. autoresolve also sometimes gives you surrenderd ships.

the problem with boarding ships is, that you need a larger crew to successfully board enemy ships. the larger ships carrying the larger crew are too slow and cumbersome and take ages to align for boarding. usually the enemy ships surrender beforehand or sink because you keep pounding it as you line up.

**Hellman109** · March 23, 2009, 03:33 AM

When the battle ends and you have the continue option, you HAVE to choose continue to get the ships and wait for the remaining ships to flee, surrender or sink

**yonatanp** · March 23, 2009, 03:46 AM

I do wait for the battle to end. I've had battles where all the enemy ships have been destroyed or captured (none escaped) but after I got back to the campaign screen I still didn't have any new ships...

**Tepok** · March 23, 2009, 04:13 AM

some surrendered damaged ships sink after capture -> no ships in the end
Some surrendered ships are on fire after battle -> No shis in the end

Some ships run away, so continue the battle to board them: as soon as the hulls make contact, you won (even if it's a 6th rate boarding a fleeing 1st rate)

to capture a ship, the best you can do is chain shot it so it has no sails, then grapeshot it (small ones) until it surrenders, out of it's fire arc.

what else...

ah, yeah, a little tip: ships you captured, when appearing in the menu to take them or sell them, can refill your navy's canons:
-select the ship
-join it to your fleet
-scuttle it (the canons go to the rest of the fleet, and so does the crew I beleive)
-un-scuttle it (it'll take back it's minimum, usually 4 canons for small ships)
-put it back to "ships to sell"

like that it hasn't lost much of it's price and your fleet if back to good power (but the hulls aren't damaged. Good enough until you join a port for repairs)

**Reiver** · March 23, 2009, 04:14 AM

I think it's bugged. I recently cleared out the trade nodes so i was fighting a lot of Indiamen. Having a far superior force i decided to go straight for the sails then follow it up with grapeshot. Thanks to retarded Ai and the ridiculous turning speeds of big bulky ships (thoe Indiamen pivot like Ballerinas), I took a bit of a pummeling and suffered more than I should have but I managed to get 8 surrendered ships without sinking or significantly damaging any of them. Quite chuffed i get to the after battle screen to see only two bloody ships!

It had seemed unfair before -in other battles- but i rationalised that i'd done too much damage to the ships that surrendered and they'd sunk before i could claim them as prizes. Now it seems that it's just randomised after the battle and there's not much point doing anything other than trying to sink your enemy. Afterall, the damage and losses you'll take trying to capture a ship outweigh the benefits of a chance at a prize.

**Tepok** · March 23, 2009, 04:32 AM

Originally Posted by Reiver

It had seemed unfair before -in other battles- but i rationalised that i'd done too much damage to the ships that surrendered and they'd sunk before i could claim them as prizes. Now it seems that it's just randomised after the battle and there's not much point doing anything other than trying to sink your enemy. Afterall, the damage and losses you'll take trying to capture a ship outweigh the benefits of a chance at a prize.

I don't know if it's randomised, but all the [undamaged] ships I capture come in the sceen. except, maybe, when I'm the one attacked.

**J. Fishman** · March 23, 2009, 05:11 AM

I haven't found it to be random, but a few caveats:
1. You might only be able to capture ships when attacking: I didn't get to capture when they came out of a port I was blockading.
2. You must formally capture the ship, not hit "End battle" early, to capture.
3. The ship you are capturing must not have taken so much damage that is sinking.

As a rule, here is the simple approach to capturing ships:
1. Use only chain shot. Fire no roundshots, or things are liable to sink.
2. If they still don't surrender or rout after being dismasted, rake with grape until they do.
3. If any ships are routing, board them and they will surrender.

Once everyone has surrendered, the battle will automatically end. Do not click end battle!

**Keyser Soze** · March 23, 2009, 09:59 AM

as i see more people have this problem. hm, thanks for tips but question is still here.
i hitch enemy boat, boarding on it and enemy boat have surrended. after this the boats were automaticly separate and i can´t hitch enemy boat more... the battle i won, all enemy boats were destroyed or were on backdown. when it asked me "End battle" or "Continue" i choose "End battle" - was this problem? because on results of battle i haven´t any captured boat...

sorry my english.

**eatme** · March 23, 2009, 10:22 AM

Originally Posted by visitor

how can i capture ships? i did it that i choose "hitch" ships had hitched, after fight enemy ship had surrender and ships were be separated. i was victourious, but in results of battle i have not captured ships...

sorry my english.

If you managed to get some enemy ships surrendered and they are shown as such in results pane - you also need to men them with crew having enough men in the fleet.

**Pink Beard** · March 23, 2009, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by eatme

If you managed to get some enemy ships surrendered and they are shown as such in results pane - you also need to men them with crew having enough men in the fleet.

And how much men would one need to sail a ship then?