Marooned Challenge Report by Salty Dog

[Salty Dog]

This is a challenge proposed by Rusty Edge that a Pirate make his living on land, not on the sea. It supposes the Pirate has no ship at all and can only operate on land. This means one cannot attack a city that is on an island
because that would require ship transport. The idea is to live as long as possible on land and accumulate wealth and fame by capturing cities.

Now, in order to capture cities this means one has to have an army large enough to defeat the armies defending the cities. If one were to capture as many cities as possible without using ship transport it means starting at the extreme Southeast of the map and work to the upper Northwest, or do so in reverse order. I chose to start in the Southeast corner of our map/world.

Geting back to the size of an army to achieve the goal. If one were to capture all the cities connected by land, it means capturing Panama City. It is well known that city is guarded by a large number of troops. Therefore one has to have a large army similar in size to what is guarding the city, unless one is a tactical genius, of which I do not claim to be. Also, I wanted to chose the highest skill level I thought could win this challenge. It would be but a small challenge to do this at the Apprentice Level. I thought at the Swashbuckler level it would be unachievable since armies tend to be so large one could not hope to knock off Panama. Also, in real life I am one of the older "Pirates on this board and my reflexes are simply too slow for that level. For these reasons I chose the Rogue level for this game. It has a good mix of challenge and reward.

Now, again, one has to have and mainatain a large army. How does one do this? By starting the challenge at the end of a successful game, when one has a lot of money to keep a large army from mutiny. This is what I did. I had already rescued alll relatives, made Duke in all countries, defeated all the named Pirates and found 7 or the 9 treasures plus I had all 4 pieces of Treasue Map No. 8. I had 630,000 in gold. I had my fully equipped war canoe (which I always play the game in) and I captured two Brigs from other pirates and fully equipped them. Also I kept Blackbeard's Large
Frigate and completed all upgrades to it. I then assembled an army of 600 Pirates to begin my quest.

The main challenge is to keep replacing your losses of men. Each time you attack a city you will lose men that have to be replaced. Also, I decided to feed the men as much as possible but found out later on you constantly run out of food and they are starving. When I say I "sacked" a city I mean I actually took it over and installed a new Governor. I started the Quest in May 1674. I parked my ships near a Pirate Haven (PH)called Sydneystown near what is now the city of Pedernale, Venezuela. This was the only PH in the Southeast corner of the map, surprisingly there were no PHs on the
spit of land that runs from Rio Caribe to Punto Penas. I marked my 600 men Northwest towards Margarita but upon arriving near there I found out it is on an island and there was no way to attack it from land. Therefore, I had to bypass Margarita and march on Cumana.

Upon reaching Cumana I found it was well guarded with 380 soldiers. I sacked the city and took it over in one attempt but it cost me 150 of my men. I was now at 450 men and when I went into town I recruited 30 more at the Tavern and that brought me back to 470 men. I installed a Dutch Governor and since they were at war with Spain, he rewarded me. I then marched on to Caracas, stopping my a Settlement to buy some food along the way. I went into town and met the Governor. He was not too angry at me for taking Cumana so I went to the tavern and recruited 20 more men and that brought me back to 490 men. I then sacked the city, which was guarded by 280 and I lost 120, bringing me back to 350 men. I then marched to Puerto Cabello and again the Governor was not very angry so I recruited 20 more, bringing me back to 370 men and I sacked the city in one attack against their 140 men. I was now down to 300 men and this in April 1675.

Looking ahead I saw that Maricaibo was defended by 380 men and there was only one city (Gibraltar) and one PH to recruit from so I figured I needed to go back and get some more reinforcements. So, I marched all the way back to Sydneystown and recruited there, Cumana, Caracas and Puerto Cabello again to bring me back to about 370 men. I reached Sydneystown on Feb 1676, Cumana in May 1676, and Puerton Cabello in November 1676. I then marched in a straight line to Gibraltar
but got lost for a while and finally found Gibraltar in June 1677.

When I visited the Governor in Gibraltar they had completely forgotton about my past sins and was entirely happy with me. So I recruited more men, bought food and sacked the city. It was not well defended, I recall I just had to fight the Captain of the Guards but I still lost 20 men, don't know why. So I still had around 400 when I left Gibraltar. I marched over to a PH accross the inland bay from Gibraltar and recruited there, bringing me to 420. I arrived in Maricaibo in November 1677. They were happy with me and I sacked them They were defended by 340 soldiers, not the 380 I was told before but I lost 120 men and my army was now down to 320.

Wanting more men, I marched north from Maricaibo to a PH located there, arriving in April 1878. I then marched southwest to Rio de la Hacha, recruited men and bought food. Rio de la Hacha had previously been taken over by the Dutch. For some reason I thought I should on attack Spanish towns. So, since my Treasure Map said there was a treasure nearby, I marched over to it and dug it up, earning another 5,000 pieces of gold. Then, I realized my job was to sack ALL cities so I marched back to Rio de la Hacha and sacked the city in September 1678 and installed a French Governor.

I had 320 men left after recruiting.

So, now I marched down to Santa Marta and they were happy with me so I recruited there. They were pretty well defended by 280 soldiers, so when I attacked with 350 I lost 110 men and was down to 240 left after installing a new Governor.

Looking ahead on the map I saw that Cartagena was defended by 400 soldiers so I felt I needed more. So, I marched in a straight line back to Gibraltar and reached there in May 1679. I recruited from Gibraltar, the PH west of there called Tom's Rest, then up to Maricaibo, reaching there in October 1679, the north to the PH called The Fortress, then on to Rio do la Hacha and finally to Santa Marta, reaching there in July 1680.

So now I march down to Cartagena, reaching there in December 1680 and I can't attack Cartagena! It is on an island!!!

So I take my 400 men over to Nombre de Dios, arriving there in August 1681. The map told me Panama was defended by 500 soldiers so I figured I needed all the men I could get, so I recruited from Nombre de Dios and Puerto Bello. Then I marched over to Panama City and they were happy with me so I recruited more men to give me 510 men for my attack. Lucky
for me Panama only had 440 soldiers. Anyway, It took me THREE attacks to capture the city. I lost 330 men in the attacks and my force was down to 180 men. The good thing is I got over 20,000 in gold from those attacks! This was in December 1681.

So, I needed more men to take Nombre de Dios and Puerto Bello. I could either march back to the Santa Marta/Maricaibo area or else more on. Up North the map showed Grand Granada and on the coasts of Nicaragua and Honduras there were 5 PHs, then if I were to move on there were more PHs and three cities (Campeche, Villa Hermosa and Vera Cruz). So, I decided to more north, take all the cities and then recruit more men from the PHs and cities on the way south. I marched north out of Panama and reached Grand Granada I visited several Settlements along the way and did not arrive
until June 1683. They were happy with me so I recruited and then sacked Grand Granada in July 1683. I then marched north, stopping at 3 more PHs along the way and arrived in Campeche in October 1685. I follwed the coast line and it took me longer. I sacked Campeche and then moved south to sack Villa Hermosa in April 1686. Moving North, I visited two PHs along the way and reached Vera Cruz in January 1687. They were happy to see me so I recruited there and sacked their city. I had about 200 men at this point, it was only guarded by 140 men. Villa Hermosa had 240 and Campeche had 120 men. So I marched south and visited the 2 PHs I went to before.

When I was west of Villa Hermosa, I decided to march overland to the coast of Nicarague. It was a LONG march!!!! I arrived at a PH on the middle of the Nicaraguan coast on September 1688! From there I visited 2 PHs and arrived at Puerto Bello with 320 men in September 1689. I sacked Puerto Bello in September and Nombre de Dios in October 1689.

I had now captured every city I could reach by land so technically my quest was over. However, I still had one more treasure chest to find, so I teleported from Nombre de Dios all the way back to my ships near Sydneystown, just west of Trinidad and started going after some of the Wanted Criminals I had found about while dancing with the Spanish
Daughters. On the third city I visited (St. Kitts) I FINALLY was sold a piece of the missing treasure chest map.

Here is what I found out during the challenge:

The Stranger in the Tavern will NOT sell you a piece of Treasure Chest map if you arrive by land! You MUST arrive by sea for him to sell you a map.

The passage of time causes enemies to forget they are mad a you. Also, good things happen while you are marching along and when you arrive in a distant port they are happy with you again.

Time flys by very quickly while marching overland. Look at the dates above, Some of my marches took over a year.

I completed this challenge in about 6 hours, once again you see it was 15 and half years of game time so time passes very quickly onland!

I wasted a LOT of time stopping at Settlements in this challenge, at least a year. If you do this challenge you will spend a lot of time just marching along and having the computer tell you your men are starving. There is no getting around this fact. If I did this again I could probably do it about half the time.

There is no way to make Governor playing as a land pirate. The only way to catch Montabaln, Raymondo or Mendoza is to enter town the second their ship showed up.

I was surprised to learn you can see ships passing by while on land - just look thru the telescope and you will see them if they are close.

I made about 80,000 in gold from plundering plue 5,000 from the treasure chest and probably 3000 acres of land for installing Governors and sacking cities.

Would I do this again? No way, too much time marching through the woods hearing my men tell me they are starving!

[richard sam]

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[Rusty Edge]

What? You didn't make it to Vera Cruz or Saint Augustine ?

So you got around the food logistics problem by having so much cash that your crew refused to mutiny, even when they were starving.

Well, I'm glad to know that the mysterious stranger doesn't sell maps to ground pounders. It'll save me a walk over the ridge to Leogane in future games.

That's much further than I ever managed!

I'd like to propose a toast to Salty Dog, the General of Marines!
Hip! Hip!

[Salty Dog]

Thanks RE !!!
I did make it to Vera Cruz. I captured all the cities from Cumana to Vera Cruz and could have kept going on indefinitely. Of course, my Pirate was age 46 when I captured the last city. If I did it again I could finish by 40 or 41 years of age.
I made one big mistake during the game. For some reason I felt that since I was not using my ships any more then I could sell Blackbeard's ship for 1800 gold and just pocket the money. Well, yes I could BUT I lost the ability to have a super-large army. I had three ships with Triple Hammocks left - a war canoe (75 max pirates) and two Brigs (225 pirates each). That meant my army could not be larger than 525 pirates. Had I kept Blackbeard's Large Frigate, it carried another 300 pirates and I could have an army of 825! So, that was a bad move selling that ship! Start the challenge with LOTS of ships and the most men you can afford (at 1004 gold per pirate).
This challenge took about 6 hours to do - about half as long as the regular game of Pirates - so it is not bad, I may do it again!
Now.....let's see....there were more Spanish Cities I could not reach by land.....!!!!

[Rusty Edge]

Yeah. My reading comprehension suffered a little. Maybe I missed a line, or maybe I had it in my head that Vera Cruz was the final destination..

[Salty Dog]

We started talking about this challenge on the other thread, so I am "bumping" it back up here for all to read.

[Rusty Edge]

One good bump deserves another!

[Captain Teague]

And another after that!

I really considered trying this challenge, but I am a pirate at heart. My first and only love is the sea. Well, I cannot say THAT anymore. I also love a certain "governor's daughter".
_________________
The Code is the Law.

[Red Rabbit]

Thanks for the report Salty Dog. That's awesome!

I tried somekind of marooned challenge once but didn't go beyond Puerto Cabello.
Maybe next time if I gather enough gold to support large crew.

[Salty Dog]

[Salty Dog]

It's time to bump this thread back for newer pirates to read. It shows you what can be done on land.
By the way, I was only an occasional visitor to this site from June 2005 until I "returned" in Nov/Jan 2015. At that time I had 434 posts and was number 37 on the all time poster list. You can see how active I've been here since then, just like some of the other Pirates here!

[Rusty Edge]

Just re-read the thread. That was one awesome accomplishment!

I never made it past Panama and Puerto Bello. Too few men, food, and funds.


Part of the challenge is navigating. It's easy to get lost on those long marches through the jungle. But there is something of the Pirate Elite in it, as Henry Morgan made his big bucks by raiding Panama City & Porto Bello, and Drake made a fortune by intercepting the silver train there abouts