How to Conquer the world!

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

Many Pirates on this board have extolled the virtues of playing an entire game without dividing the plunder. This is clearly the mark of the advanced player and has several values to the game. Here's how and why we aim to achieve this worthy objective:

How to play without dividing:
The name of the game is get the gold, fast! Your aim is to achieve so much gold so quickly that the crew will not mutiny on you. This means achieving 1000 gold per crew member by month 48 at the very latest. Do this by either a) going after Spain early, concentrating on Payroll ships, Treasure ships, guarded Trade Galleons, Immigrant ships and Governor ships, and/or b) going after named pirates and treasures right away, and c) knocking off Raymondo for his 3000 gold and 2000 ship/cargo value. Or, you can mix all three techinques to your advantage. Do not spend money on upgrades, rings, info on your relatives or anything else you can possibly avoid. The name of the game is maximum income with minimum expenses. Doing so you should be at 70,000 at month 48 and can support a crew of 70 at that time, adding one additional crew member for each 1000 more in gold you can hoard. You do not have to have the 3-string fiddle of concertina if you achieve this level.

Once you have passed this hurdle, continue to hunt Raymondo, relatives and Montalbahn at sea until it's time to go after Monty's hideout. If you believe you need a crew size of 250 to take out Monty's army, then you will need 250,000 gold at that time to recruit and retain that crew. In order to do that you'll need to knock off the big named pirates and get most of the treasures unless you were continuing to plunder Spanish or other valuable ships as a good rate.

Now you've taken Monty's hideout and after the four lost cities. After finding the four lost cities you will now have over 600,000 in gold! So, what's so great about this strategy? Why all the high recommendations? Well, with 600,000 you can now recruit and retain an army of 600 Pirates/Buccanneers and hold them indefinately. This means you can attack and defeat any city on the map and take over the world. Take over 3 or 4 cities and then go recruit more men to replace your losses. The only potential roadblock is when you get too old and you run into a small city where you have to swordfight against the Captain of the Guards. If you are too old he will beat you. If this happens, leave and come back later on when the city gets more troops in and you can win just by winning the land battle. This is how to take over all the cities and one of the reasons we recommend you not divide the plunder.

Go get'em!
Salty Very Happy

Javi · Cutthroat Posts: 458 **2778 Gold** -

One question... How do the game calcute the gold per crew? You only have to divide the crew number and your gold (as you explained 70.000 gp makes 70 crew not to munity), or you have to quit the amount of gp youÃ‚Â´ll get as captain (then, checking the amount per crew guy in the divide up the pluder screen)??

Vulture · Gunner Posts: 509 **606 Gold** -

Well, that sorta takes all the fun out of it. If you are omnipotent, where is the challenge? As a general rule, you will accumulate more gold if you divide the plunder a couple of times. You start off each time with your healthy share.
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32 brightly polished cannons, a bottle o'rum, ahh..... a pirates life for me!

Crookshanks · Cutthroat Posts: 268 **336 Gold** -

ruf · Seaman Posts: 198 **899 Gold** -

I have found that at higher difficulty levels, I can only keep 100 to 125 men on my ship no matter how much gold I have. I can pick up a few more men if I know I am going into a big battle. Then I will lose a few men, bringing me back down to the 100 to 125 contented men.

I usually divide, right before going after Monty, so I can keep a large army.

I have found that the largest force I can keep happy is right after the first divide of the plunder. You will start off with your captain's share, and since you haven't been a sea too long, the crew is happy.

I am curious to know upon what difficulty level Salty based his post.

littlebktruck · Powder Monkey Posts: 20 **388 Gold** -

In my first Rogue game, I've found that keeping the crew happy isn't that hard. I'm using a war canoe and manning it with no more than 50 people. The swordfights can be a little hairy at times, but I have a slow computer, so that's not a big problem. I'm 4 years in and I have 85,000 gold or thereabouts.

TheDon · Rigger Posts: 1292 **16718 Gold** -

I'm currently playing a Rogue game, have just over 600k gold (which I add to frequently), and keeping a crew of 300+ men content. They don't stay happy, but they are mostly content. If I add 25 more on to the crew, they get unhappy. BUT, as soon as the gold level rises sufficiently (and I suffer the inevitable loss of a few crewmen), they are content again.

I don't worry about keeping them happy anymore. I keep them on the edge of contentment. As long as they are not unhappy for a long time, you'll be fine. Happy men do perform better, yes. But I've got a Ship of the Line, a Large Frigate, a Frigate, and a War Canoe in my fleet, so I like keeping a large crew.
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TheDon
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Javi · Cutthroat Posts: 458 **2778 Gold** -

I find that keeping happy or content crew has no sense... I read that they do the best if there are happy but, really, I canÃ‚Â´t find any difference between an unhappy or a happy crew in order to destrtoy your enemies...

In my game, IÃ‚Â´ve about 500 men and 900K gp, and I can keep all of them, sometimes content, sometimes unhappy... but, in any case, I always avoid making them mutinity, so, i donÃ‚Â´t care about more...

The Red Curse · Powder Monkey Posts: 12 **574 Gold** -

ARRrrr

I don't mind dividing the treasure once(6 month don't make that much impact compared to your entire career).I usually try to leave the named pirates on the western part of the map(near santa catalina up to campeche)alone in my first voyage and concentrate heavily on finding family members and the map to Monty. Since his hideout is also in the western part most of the time i try to marry a beautiful daughter in a nearby port.(port royal, La habana, santa catalina,florida keys and santiago all qualify). When I'm set up i divide the plunder and start my great journey. I'm taking out morgan, blackbeard and stede (they have a lot of cash by now)and recruit like mad on the way to Monty.Once I have defeated him I return to my wife and dance with her till I have a compete lost citymap . I leave, find it and return to get the location of another one. When I have found all four I normally have ~400k and can support a big enough crew to start plundering towns without the need to ever divide the plunder again. I have never tried this in an era before 1660 but in the 60's and 80's it works everytime.

The Red Curse

Salty Dog · Sailing Master Posts: 10060 **191991 Gold** -

I've been very busy in the game I'm playing. I've decided to see how long I can keep playing. So far, my pirate is 52 years old and has been at sea continuously for 409 months. I have 1,150,000 gold and 41,500 acres of land. I'm now just chasing criminals and doing LOTS of trading. My fleet consists of 2 Frigates, 1 Merchantman and 5 Large Merchantmen. I want to see how long I can keep going as a trader. I heard someone made it to age 70 so that's my next goal, is it possible to keep playing forever? My pirate was beating the jealous lovers in duels at age 48 but could no longer do that when he hit age 49. I doubt I can take on the Captain of the Guards of any cities I try to conquer but my days of doing that are over this game. I can still beat the Annoying Captains in the Tavern and still beat the criminals though. Whenever I start losing to them I will just avoid the Taverns altogether.

No problem at all dancing. If anything the dancing keeps getting easier.

I've romanced so may daughters now that there are always 4 or 5 Mendoza ships sailing around the world. I've seen the pass each other. One time I went 10 years before returing a daughter to Eleuthra! I have two "Mendoza Girls" on my ship right now.

Will let you know my progress. Expect an update when my pirate hits 60 years old!
Salty Wink

Javi · Cutthroat Posts: 458 **2778 Gold** -

TheDon · Rigger Posts: 1292 **16718 Gold** -

My current game is very similar... 52 years old and I can tell he's starting to slow down somewhat in the swordfights. I still take on Mendoza whenever I see him, just to get his gold and sell his ship. I don't worry about returning the daughters, though. If I happen to go visit a governor and I have his daughter, she gets returned, if not, she stays with me and helps to enliven the parties on Saturday night. I now have 10 (count 'em... TEN) governors' daughters on board. Heck, I have one ship just for them.

My fleet now consists of 1 Ship of the Line, 1 Large Frigate, 1 War Galleon, 1 Brig of War, and 1 War Canoe. I capture every Treasure Ship I see regardless its nationality, then sell it as soon as I can, although I have to admit the Large Merchantmen are not as slow as you might think. If that was your only ship, however, it would probably be different.
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TheDon
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Javi · Cutthroat Posts: 458 **2778 Gold** -

TheDon · Rigger Posts: 1292 **16718 Gold** -

I like keeping a fleet of ships, as well as 300-400 crew, so that I have an appropriate ship to attack whatever ship I encounter. Also, with a fleet of warships, if one takes heavy damage the others can be used for attack until I get it repaired.
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TheDon
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Javi · Cutthroat Posts: 458 **2778 Gold** -