Walkthrough :
Pirates strategy
When choosing nationality, choose english if it's your first game, the others
are harder (in the sequence French, Dutch, Spanish) but in different historical
periods each has it's own advantages and disadvantages. As for difficulty
levels, the more loot you get and the less help from your crew, i think that the
governors, Pirate hunters and different nationalities have better memories, but
dont quote me on this. At the start of the game, when choosing skill it's a toss
up between Wit and Charm or Medicine. With Wit And Charm you can charm the
Governors daughters, but this only works if you see them regualary, no use if
you are at the other end of the map. Medicine will Give you one last trip around
the Spanish main.
I always choose Port royale to start from (if you choose English as your
Nationality You are nearly always at war with Spain, and there's Santiago and
Puerto principle to start off with, but the choice is yours.) Have patience on
your first voyage you will sometimes get your boat blown to smithereens when
approaching an enemy city by sea, or lose most of your men in a land battle.
More of the tactics for those situations later. With no experience you will lose
land or sea battles due to having too few men, but with no experience
(reputation) you cannot get enough men to help you. Joseph Heller anyone(Catch
22).
When fighting against unbelievable odds dont panic. Choose the long sword. Keep
using the slash-high attack to cause the most dammage. You may get down to only
one man left, but you can still defeat the enemy captain. After you win, select
send a prize crew so you will have enough people to sail your ship.
Don't attack a nation your home country is allied with, it will upset both of
them.
The best way to deal with Sea battles i have found is as follows: When sighted
by a boat dont automatically sail away if in friendly waters or close for battle
in enemy waters, chances are you'll make the wrong choice and undo a great deal
of work for nothing, so take your time and choose wisely.
If you sail out of your first port, hope you meet a pirate hunter. IS HE MAD.
No. Because if you win the battle you might get the enemy's crew to join your's,
thereby increasing your chances in subsequent battles, and boosting your
reputation. The best way to deal with enemy craft in battles,is to, if close,
raise sails and go in close (by close i mean about 1-4 boat lenghths away.)
Dont forget the mood of your crew (which goes from Happy, Pleased, Unhappy,
Angry) can have a bearing on the crews cannon loading in battles. If you cant
get to the boat and want it for you're fleet try and disable it with you're
cannons, remembering to use battle sails first, try and realise that you cannot
fire straight at the boat,your shots will miss if you try and shoot at the ship,
aim a little bit in front and that should work. Also if you let a pirate boat go
sometimes if you have a large fleet your tail end boat may be captured, so watch
out.
Choose a longsword for battles, good reach and damage. When swordfighting see
what the mood of your crew is, strong go in for the kill, shaken go with
CAUTION. The fight itself is different matter. I Normally stick to slashes, the
higher the rank the faster they attack (and so will you) but its more tricky,
much more. The only thing i can say here is to practice, there is a pattern to
the attacks from you're opponent so take heart. When you've won the battle you
can take the ship or abandon it.
Take my advice, dont put all you're gold in one ship. Plunder anything above a
sloop, have 3-4 sloops, and go around the Spanish main in these. I've found that
if you have on big ship (above a sloop) it's harder to steer, and fatal to go
across reefs. Take what you need from a ship, food is especially handy, if you
have a big crew and whatever else. Dont take something, just because you'll get
10 gold more per item, when you're sacking 6 enemies citys, it wont matter,
you'll only get 1000-2000 more gold pieces. The best size crew i have to go
looting is about 225, so stick to that. At the end when of a trip when dividing
up the plunder have as few crew as possible, the more crew you have the less
money each one will get and think less of you next time.
Attacking enemies ports can be tricky so here goes. Always try to attack
anywhere apart from the west side, it will turn out to be a slow boat to
leogane, cartagena, etc,etc. If the winds are light turn back and try again.
Indian attacks will reduce the number of soldiers and nothing else, pirates take
the towns gold and damages the economy, malaria cuts down the number of troops
in the fort and will slow or even stop the economy, and gold mines turn a poor
town into a rich one fairly quickly. If you land near to the city (3 boat
lengths away or more) you might take all of the citys gold, or you might not.
In land battles try and have more than the fort, then you'll go straight to the
fight with the fort's commander. If you dont have enough troops then hide one of
of your parties in bushes and lure the forts troops away and past you're hidden
party, then take the luring troops off the screen and take the hidden ones to to
fort. It is important that you take the flag on the fort to enter it, if it
doesnt work try again, it will. If you reduce a city to 1 person left when
swordfighting, chances are you'll be able to see off the old inhabitants and
insatll a new nationality, this will do no harm when you come to visit a
governor for services to your crown (king).
Don't wed till you've got all your promotions, your oppurtunities will be much
better. Make conversation with all the governors daughters, however, they might
gather important information for you from the governors mansion.
In port always visit the governor, no not for his daughter. Just in case he
wants you to do an errand. These are up to you, sometimes there near sometimes
they're not and can make you miss a treasure fleet or such, so you decide, and
save if you must. Propose to the governors daughter only when you're rich and
famous or should that be, anyway if you dont prepare to be humiliated and have
cheeks the the same colour of the young ladys dress.
If playing at higher levels buy information about other cities, because if you
check when you first start a game the cities list will be sparse. The old man
who offers you a map must be quick on his feet, because if you decide to buy it,
3 quarters is missing, another saving oppurtunity methinks. Also if you've done
you're share of looting and feel that you might be promoted divide up the
plunder first, plan another expedition and then go to see the governor, that way
you'll get to know the whereabouts of some cad who's got a map to one of you're
family. On this point i can only say to memorize the coastline, isles, and
anything else, or you could save the game find one of you're family and restart.
After you've found one of you're family they'll give you another map and after
you've calmed down you can go and track this down (believe me its worth the
effort, worth 4-5 rich cities effort). The family you'll find is, Sister,
Father, Mother, Uncle. If you do try to sneak into an enemy port you might get
seen by a guard, or not served by a Spanish shopkeeper it depends on how rich
the city is (Struggling, Surviving, Prosperous, Wealthy) so keep an eye on your
crews stomachs, thats how much food you've got letf and be on the lookout for a
friendly port.
All the ships handle differently,some more slower than others. Some steer better
to 12 o'Clock and some to 9 o'Clock. Dont think that smaller is quicker, could
larger be faster?
When fighting a large ship that has you severely outgunned, try to go in for a
sword fight instead of trying to shoot the ship.
The best skills to choose at the start are sword fighting, and navigation.
Sword fighting will make your opponents move more slowly in a sword fight, and
navigation will let your ship travel faster and turn more quickly.
When fighting against unbelievable odds dont panic. Choose the long sword.
Keep using the slash-high attack to cause the most dammage. You may get down
to only one man left, but you can still defeat the enemy captain. After you
win, select send a prize crew so you will have enough people to sail your
ship.
Don't attack a nation your home country is allied with, it will upset both of
them.
Don't wed till you've got all your promotions, your oppurtunities will be much
better. Make conversation with all the governors daughters, however, they
might gather important information for you from the governors mansion.