What is the best ship to pirate in

Bllasae · Seaman Posts: 184 **788 Gold** -

You missed the Ship of the Line, did you not? It's definitely the best ship, and up to date, I've only seen/captured one. It's really sad that I can't find one. Lol, I completely pwned the Dutch, up to when they only have one settlement, lol, and the French aren't much of a challenge, but they're mostly poor, so I can't really bother them to get a ship of the line. I've read the Guide for how to get a ship of the line, but yet again, only seen one and captured it, not knowing how rare it actually was, I forgot to back up my game, reformatted my computer, and now I can't find one anywhere. But I'll continue my attacks on the French and some Dutch places, but I guess I can capture some cities, and then again, and appoint a Dutch leader. That's a good idea, posting all my ideas here actually made me think of that. Thanks!

Asclepius · Cutthroat Posts: 333 **11341 Gold** -

loki59 · Rigger Posts: 1082 **24252 Gold** -

Bllasae · Seaman Posts: 184 **788 Gold** -

Captain Blood · Cutthroat Posts: 453 **6396 Gold** -

My bad! I meant to type out "Sloop of War", not "Royal Sloop". Sorry.
The Royal Sloops come from Santiago as Pirate Hunters and I guess I just mixed them in there. I capture a whole bunch of Royal Sloops being spawned from Santiago at the same time I'm snapping up French brigs, frigates and Large Frigates.
Sometimes I slip up and make mistakes. It happens to the best of us.
I capture French Large Frigates in this way pretty frequently, though. So I can state unequivocally that they do exist. Usually they are spawned as Pirate Hunters to come out and stop me from raiding everything with a French Flag that floats.
They don't succeed, but they sure do try!
I know a SoTL Worship

is coming soon when I begin to snap up Large Frigates.
The nicest thing about the French frigates, regular, large and SoTL's Worship

is that they usually come nicely upgraded right out of the port they're spawned from.

I tried something different on my current game and it paid off pretty quickly.
When I started the game the Dutch were at war with the British but very friendly with the French, who were also at war with the British.
So I simply sailed in between St. Kitts and Antigua and snapped up every British ship in sight while using the convenient Dutch and French ports on either side of that stretch of islands to put in and make repairs.
I upgraded from my Sloop to a Brig of War pretty quickly, nicely equiped too. Then to a Frigate, then a Large Frigate, then a SoTL Worship

. I did this in what was, for me, record time.
Not five years of game time had gone by and I had my holds stuffed with gold (over 350,000), had a fully upgrades SoTL Worship

for my flagship and a Large Frigate that was almost as nicely upgraded to use as a back-up flagship/troop transport/cargo hauler.
I moved on from there and pretty much pillaged the entire Caribbean with hardly any opposition.
I have not even come close to having to divide the plunder as my crew has been quite happy.
I'm now well into my late 30's, I have over 1,000,000 gp and huge tracts of land to my name, roughly 400 crew members pretty constantly (it has it's ups and downs depending on where I am on the map), a beautiful wife in Antigua, I have found all the named pirates, all of their treasures, I've beaten Monty, I've found all but one of the Lost Cities and found my entire family.
This has been the easiest game I've ever played.
It's almost been a bit too easy.
I have to admit to having started this game out on Journeyman level and keeping it there for a while, so that may have helped.
Hey, sometimes I want to just have fun and not have to fight the game itself as much as I do the Pirate Hunters! Lost

_________________
'Vast heaving! Belay there, I say!

Marius Dobrique · Powder Monkey Posts: 42 **162 Gold** -

Arr, them Royal Sloops sure be a po'erfull ship if in the hands of an able band of sailors. I was able to put down ships of much greater size with my "Orange Goblyn".

I usually also capture merchantmen and fill em up with plundered cargo, then return to town to sell the plunder and ships.

Grappler · Powder Monkey Posts: 17 **374 Gold** -

I usually sink my prizes unless I am near port or really like the ship so I generally go for demasting and avoiding the whole swordfight thing, you can't beat 48 cannon barage of chain for that, nope can't beat it with a dull cutlass Very Happy

beckett · Powder Monkey Posts: 25 **503 Gold** -

Ship of the Line: 100+ guns, 450 crew

"for England, for glory and for the Prize!"

Razz

Perry · Swabbie Posts: 54 **2746 Gold** -

I can't understand how so many people have voted Frigates as the best pirating ship...? Confused

They hardly move at all if you try to sail against the wind, and is damn near impossible to get hold of any sloop/pinnace/brigantine class ship, because they outsail you in ship battle..

What have I misunderstood? Confused

Captain Blood · Cutthroat Posts: 453 **6396 Gold** -

Perry,
Frigates do have a hard time sailing against the wind, but not that much harder than any other ship except for the Brigs. And when sailing with the wind in your sails you're not going to find a faster ship.
What you're missing is making sure you have the weather guage. As long as you manuever yourself so that the wind is to your advantage you'll never find a finer ship to take into battle.
The SoTL Worship

is simply the best of the best type of ship in my PHO.
That said...
There are many good things to be said about ALL of warships. They each have their place and their purpose.
I have NOTHING against the Sloops, I have often been very glad to find a nicely upgraded Sloop of War and any time I can get my hands on a Royal Sloop I consider it a good day.
Early in the game I won't use a Frigate. Too much overhead. Early in the game I use Sloops and Brigs as my flagship. They're smaller, so they require smaller crews and less gold to maintain. When I come across a frigate class ship early in the game I usually sell it and keep the smaller ship I took it with.
Mid game I'm looking for a Brig of War. I LOVE this medium sized ship, for many reasons. They sail against the wind better than any other ship in the game, just for one. I always wait until I have a nicely upgraded BoW before I head too far west, so I can get back before my crew goes totally feral on me.
Only after I have garnered enough wealth that I can afford a frigate class ship do I begin to snap them up, going after the ultimate prize of a SoTL Worship

for my flagship.
So it's not JUST the SoTL Worship

that tickles my fancy, it's a lot of ships for a lot of reasons.
But if you ask me what the BEST ship is, without putting in qualifiers, than I'm going to tell you my favorite one.
The Mighty SoTL Worship

.
Not historically accurate. Not practical until you've got the fame and wealth to maintain it.
But still the best.
_________________
'Vast heaving! Belay there, I say!

Undershaft · Powder Monkey Posts: 32 **1150 Gold** -

The Ship of the Line is great. 100 tons gives you plenty of carrying capacity and nothing can defeat them. But sometimes they can be overkill. I've watched with sadness as one 48 gun broadside sinks a fat trade galleon instead of crippling it and I went into battle for nothing. If you don't carry a full complement of cannons, whats the point of having an SoL? I suppose it's just fun to sail around in the most powerful ship in the game, but I don't think that much firepower is usually needed. The game I'm playing right now, I captured a french SoL and along with a fully upgraded pinnace wreaked havoc throughout the Carribean. Then I made a mistake. I was in Trinidad and meant to sell Raymondo's galleon, but accidentally sold my SoL instead. That was about ten years ago (game time) and I haven't missed it. I picked up a regular frigate for firepower purposes and it's served me well.

I'm also a big fan of the fully upgraded Pinnace. It's fast (sometimes too fast), it can sail circles around anything else and avoid most enemy cannon fire, and ten guns are enough to stand off and blast your target into surrender. The only real disadvantage is small cargo capacity, only 15 tons.

Every ship in the game has at least one thing going for it. Firepower, speed, cargo capacity, windward sailing ability, etc. With upgrades, you can make any ship work well. I once had a blast pillaging the Spanish Main in a fully upgraded East Indiaman.

Captain Blood · Cutthroat Posts: 453 **6396 Gold** -

Under,
I have found that grape shot mitigates the effects of a 48 gun broadside well enough not to sink any ships, while accomplishing your goal of effecting the enemy ships surrender.
You sure don't have to board very often after a solid 48 shots of grape shot sweep right through those poor little boats.
Exploding

Once I can afford both the manpower and the expense of maintaining a SoTL Worship

, I fully upgrade her and hang on to her with both fists.
That said, I also keep a fully upgraded Brig of War as well, for making my way back to windward when I have to and for "back up ship" purposes.
Sometimes the sails get a bit shredded on the SoTL Worship

when those Captains with no honor fire off chain shot at me.
Now, I'm all for most things that make warfare easier, but there should be limits. Chain shot is just wrong on so many levels that I honestly believe there should be a ban against using it, punishable by 40 lashes from a large woman in leather.
Of course, that might just make some guys use it more...
Laughing

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'Vast heaving! Belay there, I say!