Any tips on catching the black ship?

[Nicolaos]

hi there!

i am currently playing a campaign with the shimazu. i dont want to convert to christianity this time, but i want to get the black ship!
last time i was able to build european trade ships and take out the black ship that way.
but what should i do without the european ships? ive tried it twice now, and ive already lost a maxed out fleet general
i am currently waiting with 3 full stack fleets (8ships) at the spot where the black ship should show up:
1. mainly consisting of sengoku bunes
2. bombing boats, cannon ships and archer boats
3. o ataka bunes and archer boats
i thought i would send them at the black ship in that order.

any tips from you guys?

[maxlurifax]

I'm also curious how people go about to capture it, I've never done it myself but I imagine ships with large boarding crews are a +

[Nicolaos]

yea ive tried that and as soon as my huge bunes get next to the ship, it just shoots its cannons and my ships rout after one wave... its annoying lol

[KamilW]

What I did, but it was some time ago and I don't remember everything, is this:
I never expected a black ship, but I know the importance of navy, so I had about 2 incomplete fleet stacks. In total I had 2 heavy bunes, 4 middle bunes, 2 sengoku bunes, 4 small bomb ketches (or whatever) and 4 small archer ketches or whatever it is called. I took 2 heavy bunes, 2 middle and all the rest were bomb and archer ketches. What I did was approach the Black Ship from the front/back so it couldn't use it's cannons. I swarmed it with bomb and archer ketches. Of course my small boats routed very quickly, but always came back when they had recovered. While the little ships were setting the Black Ship on fire with arrows and bombs, I tried to board the Black Ship with my middle and heavy bunes (because they have a big crew). They also routed but came back. The thing is:

1. I had the Black Ship surrounded and pounded upon the WHOLE time and it was on fire almost the whole time and even though the Black Ship's crew did not loose many men, it's morale dropped significantly and suddenly it surrendered.
2. I was probably lucky

So I had defeated the Black Ship and captured it (that's what's it's all about; you don't want to destroy it) but because I didn't leave an open slot in my fleet I lost the Black Ship. I loaded a previous game and with almost the same fleet and the odds slightly on the Black Ship's side, I auto-resolved and voila. I got me a Black Ship.

[Tomcon]

Let it go. Sea battles are so imba in this game so even DoW games looks 100% more balanced.

[oldboyhammer]

I had 3 medium bune, 2 of those sengoku things, 4 of those fire arrow ships and 1 fire bomb ship. When I played the battle as normal the black ship won without contest. Then I auto resolved the battle and I captured it. This was on normal difficulty.

[IGdood]

I had about 4 heavy bunes, 8 medium bunes, 6 bow kobayas, and 3-4 sengoku bunes surrounding the Black Ship. I first sent out a bow kobaya to draw fire for the first broadside, which made it rout. I then used the Sengoku Bune's speed to board the Black Ship before it could reload. When the Black Ship was being boarded it did not fire cannons, so I manage to position my other bunes in front and in back of it so as to block it from turning. Then, I sent in more Sengoku Bunes to board as they routed abd subsequently dealt their damage. Meanwhile, the other bunes spammed battlecry and fire arrows.

After all my Sengoku Bunes routed, I started boarding with medium bunes and heavy bunes. As time passed by, the Black Ship surrendered, but escaped on the campaign map, so I had to find it again and redo the process, although doing a secnd run was much easier because the Black Ship started with a very low crew count and lost all of its cannons from all those arrows.

[Gulatr]

This is a small guide that I posted on another thread:

You can burn it, you can kill it's crew with arrows, but the only sure way to Capture the Black Ship is to board it and win the boarding melee.

I managed to do that with 4 Mori Medium Bune and 4 Mori Bow Cowboya.

Tactics - Make the Black Sheep sail against the wind so it is slower and less maneuverable, engage from the front or rear of the ship, or at the worst case only from one side (never let it use both of it's powerful broadsides).
Let it make only one broadside with the cannons.
Send in your boarding ship and give it the order to board. as soon as the initial grappling is made and your boarding ship is starting to close in, use another ship to soak up the first broadside from the same side that your boarding ship is going to board.
A long distance for this "Heroic" role is preferable

Timing here is critical, your boarding ship Must Not Receive The First Broadside!

After the boarding starts, move your ships around the fighting vessels, stay at close to medium distance and fire at will with arrows. Don't use fire arrows!
Use War Cries from your Bunes to demoralize the Black Sheep's crew, but only one at a time as their effect doesn't stack

As a safety, bring another potential boarding ship just behind the first boarding ship(facing the same way as well), this is in case your first boarder is not enough.

This has worked for me.

Happy hunting for Black Sheeps!

[LongTom]

Faction: Shimazu
One fleet with 4 european merchants and rest heavy/medium bunes.
Pretty easy when you have cannons too


The chosokabe captured it in my 1st shimazu campaign and in my mori(normal).
Pretty scary when its supported by a full fleet.

[SMcS]

Let the AI handle it. I got it in a Chokosabecampaign on normal. Had a fleet of 8 or 10 ships. Nothing fancy, just a normal mix of everything. I got beaten badly already in another campaign so i thought i let the AI try it. Odds were some 60-40 in my favour. AI captured it and lost only 4 ships. Not sure if its kinda cheating, since we all know how autoresolve work sometimes.

[Amos]

I got it to surrender with no losses of my own but then it retreats on the campaign map. I send 2 bomb ketches and set it on fire it is only a bit damaged and then surrenders. So I thought I had captured it but no I go back to the campaign map and it has decided to sink (didnt even get the achievement for sinking it). So I think you have to have borded on to it before it surrenderd to actually capture it. Just a warning for you guys

[Shintai]

Autoresolve is my solution with a big fleet. Its just not gonna happen without.

The black ship basicly oneshot your boats.

[Slaists]

my tip: wait for the AI to capture the black ship. after that, it is likely to have been severely damaged in auto resolves among the AI's. i have captured 3 of these bastards (in 3 different campaigns) that way...

[[BsA]Dave]

I was lucky with this one. I tried capturing it as chesokabo with a large fleet of o ataka and cannon bunes. I got blasted to shreds, not a chance. Reloaded the game and decided to just follow the ship on the campaign map. Next turn the hattori somehow capture the black ship and managed to get it very close but not quite into one of their ports to repair so on my turn i just rolled my intact fleet in against the wrecked hattori fleet and took the black ship with ease because it only carried a prize crew. Since I have taken it the naval element has become ridiculous. With the help of 2 cannon bunes I can blast a fleet of any size and strength out of the water before they fire a single arrow.

[Nicolaos]

yay i captured it
what i did was setting up a special formation
i would shape a "U" with my bunes, behind the first rank archer boats and bombing boats.
the black ship was surrounded but sunk the two bunes upfront. but then i sent one of the second rank in there, archer boats firing flame arrows, bombs and i finally got

[Harry Lime]

Moved to Shogun: Gameplay & Strategy

[caffeinatedspade]

I made the Black Ship surrender twice but I still didn't capture it. Anyone know why?

[Amos]

I made the Black Ship surrender twice but I still didn't capture it. Anyone know why?

Either it was sinking and too damaged or you had no one bording it.

I have now captured it and my tactic for early game is let it shoot bow ships then roll up a line of medium bunes to board it. Using a couple of bomb ships helps to reduce morale and get them to surrender but beware too much damage and fire as you wint capture it. Worked for me, Happy hunting

[12976]

Autoresolve works

[Amaranthen]

One full stack of bow ships with fire to rip off some armor.

Then another 4-6 stacks of medium bunes doing suicide charges against it.

I captured it this way.