Why Can't I Capture Surrendered Enemy Ships?

**Soryn Arkayn** · March 25, 2009, 06:22 PM

I don't understand why I can't capture surrendered enemy ships. Do I always have to board and capture them? Because this isn't possible if they've already surrendered.

Recently, I fought two naval battles; the first I failed to capture any enemy ships even though there were 8 (out of 14) surrendered and/or disabled Pirate Galleons/Fluyts still afloat at the end of the battle. The second battle I captured only 2 of 4 Danish warships -- and I know I boarded and captured them.

So is boarding the only way to capture an enemy ship?

If it is, I disagree with this, because it's irrational. If a surrendered enemy ship is still afloat at the end of a naval battle, it should be automatically captured. It makes no sense for the victorious fleet to have to board every ship to capture it, because if the player does too good of a job in battle, enemy ships will just surrender and thereby rob the player of his/her prize.

**ghst** · March 25, 2009, 06:30 PM

how you desire it to be is how it always has been for me. you get the choice to add them to your fleet or scrap them for a reward post battle.

**Stavroforos** · March 25, 2009, 06:39 PM

Most of this ships I've captured I've done so because they surrendered, not because of boarding. I think something's up on your side, or those surrendering boats were also sinking.

**Sun Devil** · March 25, 2009, 06:39 PM

Ships that surrender in battle are automatically captured, just not in battle. At the results screen they show up in the captured section, and from there can add them to your fleet etc.

**Rickster11** · March 25, 2009, 06:41 PM

As the battle winds down, you get asked to continue or end. Always continue till the very end. Whenever you quit early...seems like you don't get to keep ships.

At least thats what I think..

**Soryn Arkayn** · March 25, 2009, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by ghst

how you desire it to be is how it always has been for me. you get the choice to add them to your fleet or scrap them for a reward post battle.

I know this is how it's supposed to work, but when I defeated the Pirates, I counted 8 surrendered pirate ships still afloat at the end of the battle, but there wasn't a single one in the results screen, which is why I couldn't add them to my fleet -- to my terrible disappointment.

Originally Posted by Stavroforos

Most of this ships I've captured I've done so because they surrendered, not because of boarding. I think something's up on your side, or those surrendering boats were also sinking.

They weren't sinking; most were heavily damaged from a previous battle, so I only used chain and grape shot to disable and defeat them. But I apparently did too good a job because they all surrendered before I could board and capture a single one.

Originally Posted by USC_Trojans

Ships that surrender in battle are automatically captured, just not in battle. At the results screen they show up in the captured section, and from there can add them to your fleet etc.

I thought so too, but none of the surrender pirate ships appeared in the results screen after the battle.

Originally Posted by Rickster11

As the battle winds down, you get asked to continue or end. Always continue till the very end. Whenever you quit early...seems like you don't get to keep ships.

At least thats what I think..

I always continue battles so I can chase down routing units and ships.

**Keline** · March 25, 2009, 09:45 PM

Originally Posted by Rickster11

As the battle winds down, you get asked to continue or end. Always continue till the very end. Whenever you quit early...seems like you don't get to keep ships.

At least thats what I think..

I've had captures when I quit early because I didn't care for the ships, so that's not it. It's just completly bogus, broken and requires patchfixing.

**Soryn Arkayn** · March 26, 2009, 12:03 AM

After suffering another crash bug, I reloaded an earlier save and fought the naval battle against the pirate fleet again. The result of the battle was the same; I defeated the pirates without losing a single ship.

Fortunately, the surrendered and captured galleons and fluyts appeared in the battle results screen this time (I'm certain they didn't before), and I captured 8 ships. The prize money was worth over 7000 gold -- the ships were heavily damaged -- but I decided to add them to my fleet since galleons and fluyts are excellent combat/trade ships.

Since the battles occurred during the same turn, I had to play my naval battle against the Danish fleet over again. I would've captured more ships this time but the game locked up between the end of battle and battle results screen. Luckily I saved between the two battles, so I'll only have to replay the battle with the Danish fleet -- for the third time!

So I think that capturing ships is buggy, because I know that the first time there weren't any extra ships in the battle result screen to add to my fleet, despite that the ocean battle map was littered with surrendered pirate ships. But after I replayed the battle, the ships were available to capture like they were supposed to.

**Thanatos** · March 25, 2009, 06:42 PM

Thread moved to Gameplay and Strategy Discussion. PM me if you have any questions. - Thanatos

**Switch** · March 26, 2009, 05:10 AM

I tend to get what you experienced the first time you battled the pirates - that is, no matter how many enemy ships surrender (and sometimes it's been as many as 10), I just do not get them at the end of the battle. This lead me to believe a ship only counted as captured if it had been boarded, and as surrendered ships can't be boarded I was most miffed. However now it seems as if it's simply a bug. Bah.