Black Ship

[PandaChef]

I have only seen the black ship once in my shimazu campaign and that was when i didnt have a big enough fleet. I really want to capture it but i cant find it even though i hold half of japan's coast. I hold the trade nodes by shimazu's capital and i have patrolling ships in the zone next to land where there is no attrition for the west half of japan.

ANy ideas on how i can find it?

[Kraut]

ANy ideas on how i can find it?

Set up some "scout ships" along the western coast of Kysushu, along the northern coast of Kyushu and the westernmost tip of Honshu (where it nearly touches Kyushu). This is most probably the route of the Black Ship, at least to my experience. Set them a little outward (i.e. farther from the coast) than the trade routes are, this should be good enough. Somewhere in Kyushu, e.g. nagasaki, hold a decent fleet ready to capture it.

[Elitewolf]

Also: The black ship is only a fraction of it's worth in autoresolve. If you really can't beat it on the battle map you could use that. I managed to capture it on the battle map exactly once, the thing is incredibly strong

[Morray]

Yea I usually play on Hard campaign so trying to beat him up is extra tricky...

Wonder what he'd be like on impossible...

[CptAustus]

The only time I manage to capture it, I need a lot of decoy ships and some strong boarding ships. Most effective strategy for me is fire bomb/bow kobayas as decoy (setting it on fire/fire bomb okbayas actually kill a lot people) and running a nanban trade ship (7 exp+) in for boarding. The thing that really shocked me is how superior the black ship is compared to a trade ship, they had 14 more cannons, and they are really deadly.

[General Maximus]

Don't know 'bout ye guys but in my Oda game, Imagawa managed to capture it, and looks like the patch works fine because Imagawa took it to their harbor, repaired it, and then used it against me.

Currently I am facing the good ol' ship with my small ragtag damaged navy, but I have got a Nanban Trade Ship and a captured Cannon Bune. The battle has just began, but those Imagawa have taken up a strong position between a chain of islands with reefs in front of it. And they have got the black ship with them. Any ideas how to capture it?

[♔The Black Knight♔]

In shogun 2, getting the black ship is like taking a rpg to fight ants. The ship beats everything and is difficult to capture. I usually keep sengoku bunes in front to then slide to side. Usually the sengoku will last a volly so when you board your men will slaughter portuguese with other bunes ready to board after the first ship gets defeated.

Boarding stoppes cannon fire so this will allow your ships to get close. You'll probely have to lose some ships to distract the black ship but it's worth it.

Once you capture it, you will have to pay a hefty upkeep cost so keep that in mind.

[DukeofBrunswick]

When playing my Shimazu campaign, I used my three Nanban trade ships to lay down fire on it, while I sent all my bunes into defeat the enemies little fleet and to distract the Black Ship while the Trade ships shot it up. Worked first time.

[General Maximus]

It is probably best for Mori. As Mori, you rely on navy, so you must have at least one piece of Black Ships. Other clans rely on army, which means more investment in army than navy. And having that ship is probably a 'powerful' burden on economy.

Secondly as Mori, you have good ships, and their abilities. So if you ever find the Black Ship, you can capture it easily and when it is in problem, you can support it easily with other ships.

I set fire on all the ships around it, which surrender after some repeated firing. Finally I shoot it from front and rear, and it gets trapped between the barrier of surrounding surrendered ships. Black Ship surrenders, your navy becomes invincible.