Shop  •   Avatar  •   FAQ  •   Search  •   Memberlist  •   Usergroups  •   Profile  •   Log in to check private messages  •   Log in  •  Register 

Overall strategy - What to do in what order?
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> General Hints and strategies
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
humbe
Powder Monkey
Posts: 11


5860 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 6:14 pm    Post subject: Overall strategy - What to do in what order? Reply with quote

What overall strategies are people using?

On swashbuckler it seems to me attacking the national ships is counter-productive. With slow crew recruiting it quickly becomes a hassle to have enemy ports and many pirate hunters after you.

I typically start the game by hunting down a named pirate to get a vessel that is already upgraded some, and then start pirate hunting to get ranks with all nations at the same time. By visiting pirate lairs and get them to attack cities, I can take out 4 pirates at a time, which quickly make nations happy.

Port Royale, Petit-Goave, Curacao and some Spanist city in the south like Maracaibo seems to be a decent set of cities to go around to get promotions. On the peninsula north of Maracaibo there's usual pirate lairs, and usually also on the island where Port Royale is. San Juan, St. Martin, St.Kitts & Montserrat are closer together, but then you need to travel further to find pirates to fight.

While getting ranks, I get named pirates and pirate treasures if I find any, and if Raymondo get close I take him down. Once I find first relative I hunt down Mendoza and try to pick that fight early.

Specialists come from Mendoza with a few random one first. Items typically from dancing with daughters or from wanted criminals, though I've bought a few ones offered cheap to get at the expensive upgrades faster.

Finding relatives and especially Incan cities typically requires some trips to the west with few cities, but there's lots of pirates here, including named ones, which can net me a lot of goodwill with the other nations. Once all relatives and incan cities have been found, I'm close to Duke with all nations and have taken down most named pirates and treasures.

Being liked by all cities makes it easy as noone is attacking you, and you can gain a lot from all the daughters that will give you 4-5 rewards each just for the cost of a ring. With each reward being worth 2-3000 gold on average that seems better than to loot the cities.

In my last game here, I ended up with 600.000 cash and having maxed all the highscore bits after 12 years of in game time. 20/24 wealth points with 22650 acres gotten, but remaining 4 points is easily gotten by dividing the loot, as that nets me 300.000.

That's a lot of tedious dancing though. And having 20 criminials and 20 mendoza quests at a time can be a bit annoying. Quest bar overflows to the right Smile
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Pirate
Helmsman
Posts: 5579



109543 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I normally start the game with one beer and by the time I'm done playing I've had to many beers to remember what happened in the game.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Rusty Edge
Rigger
Posts: 1977



2992 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Me call dat island with Port Royal on it Jamaica, Mon. You should visit and try the Appleton Estate rum. More fun than playing at Swashbuckler level.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
fleetp
Boatswain
Posts: 3690



35863 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 12:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

humbe, welcome to the forum!
I found that after I've made duke in all nations a good way to build up wealth is to visit the Jesuit missions and accept quests to escort immigrants. When you successfully complete the escort quest, the Governor of the receiving colony will give you land grant.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

humble, Welcome Aboard! Great to see some new blood here on Cutlass Isle!

The name of the game is to knock off Monty in his hideout and defeat the Suitor of the Beautiful Daughter as early as possible in the game. That means by age 31 or 32. After that, your sword fighting ability declines, especially in Swashbuckler level, and you can't win the fights against those two opponents. Time is of the essence in this game. Once you win these two fights, the time pressure is off and you can take your time. There is no time pressure to find Treasure.

How do you get to Monty's hideout and win? You have to rescue your relatives or have a perfect dance with a Beautiful Daughter to get a piece of the map to his hideout. That means chasing down Raymondo until you can figure out where your relatives are and go release them. Hopefully, you can figure out where Monty's hideout is from two or three map pieces.

Once you figure out where his hideout is, you need to show up with an army large enough to beat the Mercenary Indians. I like to have at least 200 men attacking them. Some guys can do it with less than that, but not me.

That means you need to have the Quartermaster, Cook and 220,000 pieces of gold to keep your large army from mutiny.

How do you get 220,000 gold? By plundering the Spanish ships, especially the Treasure Ships and Military Payroll, by finding some treasures along the way but not going out of you way to get them, and by waiting to knock off the Named Pirates until later in the game when they are worth a lot more money. I try to knock them off 10 years into the game when my Pirate is around 27 or 28 years old. If you do this, they will be worth about 100,000 in gold.

I use a small ship - war canoe, pinnace or mail runner. It speeds up the game a LOT! Cuts 2 years off the length of the game. I keep whatever ships I catch and sell them in the cities right away. That is where I get most of my money - from selling ships and their cargo.

Continued next post.......
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 4:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, here is my basic strategy -

I am too old to play Swashbuckler any more. My reflexes are too slow to win the sword fights any more. So, I play Rogue level.

I usually pick 1660, Rogue level and English. Soon as the screen shows up the ship is heading towards Barbados. I turn it around and head south to the Northeast corner of Trinidad Island. I pause the game and look a the Log Book to be sure all three counties are at war with Spain. If not, I start over. The Treasure Fleet shows up Feb 1st and I am there to meet them. I attack one ship and just grab his money and spice or luxuries and sink the ship. Then I attack another ship and keep the ship and all cargo and limp on back to Barbados.

This gets me to Captain with the English and Major with France and the Dutch. Soon as I visit Barbados, Martinique and St. Eustasias, I sail towards San Juan, knock off a couple of ships and then sail along the north coast of Hispanola. I am looking for a small ship including an Indian War Canoe or a smuggler in his Pinnace. I see what I have in Torguga or Port de Paix and then go after ships around Santiago, visit Port Royal and then sail to Curacao to operate out of there attacking lots of Spanish ships. My worry is running out of men, so I visit Pirate Havens whenever possible to keep staffed.

When I get my small boat, I make sure to get the iron scantlings, cotton sails, copper plating and triple hammocks. I never use my guns, I always dodge the broadsides and board the enemy ships. Keep capturing Spanish ships, especially the Treasure ships and Military payrolls. Get to the rank of Baron on a country and then quickly get to the duel with the jealous suitor and beat him. Then concentrate on making money and getting pieces to find Monty's hideout. Figure out where the hideout is and once you have about 120,000 in gold around 8 or 9 years into the game, go after the named pirates, trying to knock off Morgan, Blackbeard and Kidd as the last ones if possible. Then you stop at all the Pirate Havens along the way and build your army to 200 or so. Go knock off Monty and you can finish the game at leisure.

Ask any questions you may have, this is just the short version of my game plan.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
humbe
Powder Monkey
Posts: 11


5860 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Attacking the treasure fleet immediately sounds interesting.

I'm not using guns either. Just ramming and fencing so I don't have to deal with damaged ships that use forever to get to port, and has little value to boot unless I can repair for free.

It seems to me, that then I outgun my opponents, they often ram me voluntarily. Thus a frigate class ship works well, as I can stuff a lot of guns on it and it's still fast, and even though it's a bit more tricky to avoid gunnery fire, I don't take that much damage when I get hit, and often they just ram me and don't try to fire much.

The swashbuckler game I played above I just used Morgan's large frigate. Was hoping for a Ship of the Line but never saw one. Used a mailrunner on simpler difficulty as it was easy to ram anyone without getting damaged, but on Swashbuckler I felt I should try and have more crew as fencing is hard enough.

I get the feeling that sailing with multiple ships slows me down regardless of whether they're all fast or not, so using a frigate class ship, I can sell all other ships immediately and still has storage space for food and a sizable crew.

Does leaving the named pirates for late game net you a lot more money? I typically take them on early as they're easy cash, nice ship upgrades, and earns me creds for all nations.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Salty Dog
Sailing Master
Posts: 10060



191991 Gold -

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pirates want fast ship to catch other ships. Big ships are usually slower. Using a small boat speeds up the game by 2 years. Instead of retiring at age 34, you retire at age 32. Small ships are a lot of fun to race around the map with. It is like driving a Ferrari instead of a Cadillac.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Roland
Helmsman
Posts: 4083



22526 Gold -

PostPosted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

humbe wrote:
I get the feeling that sailing with multiple ships slows me down regardless of whether they're all fast or not, so using a frigate class ship, I can sell all other ships immediately and still has storage space for food and a sizable crew.

The speed of your fleet depends on two things - the speed of your flagship and the total number of vessels you have. If your flagship is a war canoe or a pinnace, your fleet will be fast - it doesn't matter whether your other ships are war canoes or fluyts. But every even-numbered ship you add - second, fourth, sixth, and eighth - will slow you down slightly. So if you care about speed, it's best to limit your fleet to just two or three vessels.

humbe wrote:
Does leaving the named pirates for late game net you a lot more money? I typically take them on early as they're easy cash, nice ship upgrades, and earns me creds for all nations.

The named pirates attack other vessels, and their wealth on board grows over the course of the game. The longer you wait to take them out, the more gold you will gain from them. With the lesser pirates it's not a big difference, but Morgan and Blackbeard can cough up a lot if you're patient.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail Visit poster's website
corsair91
Sailing Master
Posts: 8047



206141 Gold -

PostPosted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 9:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I find if you have a lot of ships in your fleet, keeping the
Crew numbers up can be a pain.
(You always want to outnumber the defenders in Land attacks.)

Especially in sea fights where opponents with a large crew have a
tendancy to always try to board and in the boarding fight
overwhelm you with the numbers advantage.

Disabling the opponents ship with chainshot and then
reducing the opponents crew size with grapshot
can give you the numbers advantage.

At times its not worth heading to port for more crew,
as can lose more crew with desertions than you can replace by
tavern recruitment.

If there is a 2 ship convoy and one is a low value warship escort (no Treasure) -
deliberately sink it with roundshot and swoop in to grab the crew once they abandon ship.
Then take care of the prize with chain and grape shot and grab the plunder.

Attacking Treasure ships, Payrolls, Pirates and Smugglers typically yield best results. Also stopping Invasion ships can be good for promotion.

You are going to want to attack at least one city by land in the
general area of panama or the spanish main and install a new Governor.
Lots of Spanish targets here but few actual ports or havens you can use
unless you change some and limiting the number of spanish ports
is also useful in the hunt for lost relatives.

Decide if its worth bothering with all the low-grade Treasure ships the Barmaids will give you info on.
The same with all the Connerys crooks, as you will need to keep track
of all their locations if you want to capture them.


Last edited by corsair91 on Mon May 02, 2022 10:51 pm; edited 2 times in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Captain Dave
Powder Monkey
Posts: 13


671 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 1:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also like to play at Swashbuckler level by focusing on capturing pirates.

I agree with humbe that it's a hassle to have enemy nations on Swashbuckler for several reasons: slow crew recruiting, high losses sometimes (even when fencing well), pirate hunters quick to appear, and nations also quick to escort merchant ships.

At least for me, taking out the pirates is an easier way to get going at the beginning of a cruise and a lower risk strategy. (I've gotten to 126 points at Swashbuckler level with the traditional strategy of starting off attacking the Spanish, but it always seemed *really* tough to get going early in the game.) I won't accidentally end up with my ship shot up in enemy territory and pirate hunters on my tail. The unnamed pirates virtually always like to close and fence, so I just need to remember not to get in a really outnumbered sword fight early on. That usually means not capturing all 4 ships from the first one or two havens that I hit. I find that about 120 men is a good number to be able to crew all captured ships, deal with losses when fencing - especially before getting the surgeon - and take down all 4 pirate ships (the raiders plus the 3 privateers).

That count of 120 crew works well because that's a mailrunner with triple hammocks. I'll sometimes play as Spanish in 1640 to start with a mailrunner, and just stick with a 1-ship fleet except when I have prizes to sell (or need to load up more men for Montalban's hideout or raiding a city).

I'm also a fan of the royal sloop or sloop of war. I've gotten onboard with the idea of also getting a war canoe and using that as the flagship for faster sailing on the map, even if I only use the war canoe in battle to take down other pinnace class ships. A two-ship fleet of war canoe plus one of those types of sloops seems noticeably faster on the map than a 1-ship fleet with just the royal sloop or sloop of war. The war canoe's min crew is only 6, so I still have almost all of my men on my other ship in battle.

While I can get a royal sloop or sloop of war from one of the 3 least notorious named pirates, there's also a good way to do it if I can quickly find an Indian village. Asking the Indians to raid a village spawns 3 pirate sloop of war privateers at the city that I send them to attack. These sloops of war usually have 2 or 3 upgrades, just like the ships from Bart Roberts or Jack Rackham. That can also be a good way to capture a war canoe, since war canoes are so tough to catch on Swashbuckler with anything except a pinnace-class ship. Go after a war canoe that's damaged as it fights with a pirate sloop of war.

I do find that the money is a bit tighter using this pirate-fighting strategy. I think that I average, though, about 4000 to 4500 gold from each set of four pirates (the raiders and the 3 spawned pirate privateers) that I capture after going to a haven and asking them to attack a city. Over half of that is from selling the ships (a sloop and 3 brigs, each usually with 2 or 3 upgrades). That adds up, though, and can work really well if the map has a group of at least 3 havens close to each other (and cities) that I can "cycle through: spawn raiders and privateers, capture them, go to cities to sell ships and cargo and get promotions, rinse and repeat as the havens "reset" and will once again launch raids.

humbe mentioned that one such grouping often occurs in the middle of the map (at least in eras with Port Royale). The northern coast of Cuba and eastern coast of Florida also often has one. It's a bit out of the way, but sometimes I'll find myself up there after chasing Raymondo or Montalban. If I capture St. Augustine and make it Dutch, there's that plus Havana, Florida Keys, and Grand Bahama to get promotions from all 4 nations.

(continued in next post)


Last edited by Captain Dave on Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:14 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Captain Dave
Powder Monkey
Posts: 13


671 Gold -

PostPosted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

(continued)

I also will selectively attack nations' ships once I get up to Colonel or so. I'll take out treasure ships and military payrolls that look particularly juicy. That obviously slows up promotions, but I find that it's not any big problem as long as I keep regularly attacking pirates (and Indians). I can still get into a nation's ports, for example, and will soon overcome the negative points to keep advancing.

On treasure ships, I'm talking about the ones that spawn from wealthy cities, not the Treasure Fleet. The latter seem to have less gold and cargo than the ones that spawn from wealthy cities, plus each Treasure Fleet ship is -2 points with the Spanish rather than -1. It's lots of fun to have access to Spanish ports and take down a treasure ship with ~3,000 gold, 20+ luxuries and 40+ spice near a big wealthy Spanish port, then immediately go to the port to sell the cargo. And, with me leaving merchant shipping alone and also attacking every Pirate raider that I see (including the ones that spawn without my request), there are usually quite a few wealthy cities in the game.

On military payrolls, it appears to me that the amount of gold is correlated with troop numbers and wealth of the receiving city. Since it's -2 points, I'll usually limit it to payrolls going to prosperous or wealthy cities with 300+ troops.

That usually - but not always - means Spanish treasure ships and military payrolls. Those help with money, of course.

I also find it *really* useful to be able to dance with daughters in all nations' ports. I get all the items that I can by dancing with rather plain or attractive daughters, purposely dancing only OK with the latter. (I get my Raymondo information for free from Jesuits.) That means that I only buy the dancing and medicine items, plus a few rings. I usually don't buy that many rings over the course of the game. I'll dance the initial dance with almost every daughter, but I'll only give the ring and pursue the later stages of the romance with 1 or 2 attractive daughters (to speed up getting items) and 1 or 2 beautiful daughters (marry one of them, obviously, and perhaps another to get more lost city map pieces).

Regarding items, I like to get the Dutch Rutter as soon as it's offered because it helps me a lot with planning. (And, from what I've found, the Dutch Rutter actually shows all settlements, havens, villages, and missions. The Spanish Rutter doesn't do anything more than the Dutch Rutter.) In particular, I can see where pirate havens are and plan how to "use" them, including stops that I may make if I have to go after Montalban when he's a long ways away.

As for Salty Dog's excellent point about getting to Montalban as early as possible, I get most of my leads on Montalban by dancing well with beautiful daughters. I'll take down Raymondo if I get a lead on him and he's nearby, but I usually have found only 1 or 2 of my lost relatives before I take down to Montalban. I also keep dancing with beautiful daughters while Montalban is on the quest bar to get pieces of the first lost city map.

Having a lost city map makes for a productive trip west when I go after Montalban in his hideout. I'll get the lost city, which also helps me with enough gold to have a large enough force to go after Montalban. Then I take down Montalban. Then, with the large crew that I have - and 300k+ gold to allow for recruiting a few more now that I've taken down Montalban - I'll go and change Vera Cruz, Villa Hermosa, and Campeche to non-Spanish nations so that Raymondo doesn't spawn there anymore. Ideally at least one of those cities has a beautiful daughter. I can get more lost city map pieces by dancing well with her, including dancing with her once before I conquer the city from the Spanish. That means a good chance that I can find a second lost city while I'm over there. Then, after tracking down Mendoza elsewhere and coming back to marry her, I'll dance with her repeatedly to get the last lost cities.

As for named pirates, I usually don't go out of my way to pursue them unless I'm at the point where I'm worried about the crew turning mutinous, or building up gold to allow me to get to a large enough crew to take out Montalban. In particular, I'm inclined to let the top 3 or 4 build up more gold. That said, if one of them is located at a pirate haven that I want to "use" a couple times to spawn raiders and privateers, then it can make sense to take them down. As I wrote earlier, each set of raiders and privateers is worth about 4,000 gold (plus promotion points), so it can more than make up for taking down either Morgan or Blackbeard earlier than I otherwise would.

I realize these posts are a bit lengthy, but my overall summary of how I try to go about the game is:

(1) Every game is a bit different based on the map and where Montalban shows up, but in the early to middle game - meaning before taking out Montalban, and after I've gotten a decent ship that I like - I try to balance advancing everything (gold, promotions, Montalban and Raymondo, pirate treasures, dancing with daughters). Neither get stuck spending too much in one spot nor going from one side of the map to the other without making stops on the way. Try to think about how to advance multiple goals, with Montalban and gold as the highest priorities.

One small example: I'll turn down the first piece of a pirate treasure map if I'm in an area where I don't intend to spend much time in the future and wait till I get the offer where a nearby treasure will be more convenient.

(2) Being able to dance well with beautiful daughters *really* helps speed up the process of getting to Montalban's hideout and lost cities. Wit and charm is useful for both the dancing ability and being able to dance with beautiful daughters at the rank of colonel. (Of course, though, skill at fencing is really helpful at Swashbuckler.)

(3) When traveling to the west of the map, it really saves time to try to accomplish multiple things each trip, like the example above.

P.S. - I was late getting into this game, as I just got it (the Mac version) within the past couple years. I do have fond memories of playing the original SMP back in the 1980's. I've found a lot of good information in these forums and also of course in Sashanan's strategy guide, so thanks to everybody who has provided that highly useful information about a great game.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
humbe
Powder Monkey
Posts: 11


5860 Gold -

PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2019 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the lengthy replies. I keep getting back to this game from time to time, and learning some more specifics of how stuff works makes it interesting to replay.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> General Hints and strategies All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group