Dutch 1620

[Salty Dog]

I just finished a nice game playing Dutch 1620. Similar to the 1600 game but not quite. In 1620 the Dutch had Curacao as well at St. Martin and that helps. The French have only two cities as do the English. So, you did not want to go too far astray with the Spanish.

Like 1600, the game requires a lot of sailing. I chose Navigation as my skill for that reason. Several times I had to go to Havana or beyond to chase Monty. The Lost Cities were north of Vera Cruz 3 of 4 times but pretty well marked by landmarks. Two of the treasures were a bit challenging to find and one of them was near the little lake just SW of Caracas. There was a landmark there but you could not see it from the conventional view. I knew the lake from playing the game so many times.

Surprisingly, there were no named pirates on the coast of Florida. Also, none near Trinidad and I found that very unusual. Monty's hideout was SE of Campeche on the Caribbean side, pretty normal site. It was defended by 7 or 8 bands of Indians but they were not tough to beat.

As I get older I find Monty harder and harder to beat in a sword fight even at Rogue level. Fifteen years ago I could just barely beat him at Swashbuckler but 10 years ago that disappeared for me. So, I did play the game at Rogue level and as always my Pirate's name was Gun Pierson.

I married a beauty from Havana to keep close to the Lost Cities. I captured an Indian War Canoe early in the game and used it as my ship. I accomplished everything but did not have enough land to achieve all 24 Wealth points. I did not want to spend hours more playing the game just to get one more wealth point, so I finished with 125 points and retired at age 33 in fair health. All in all, a very good game.

[fleetp]

I'm glad you had fun. Some day I'll play an era other than 1660.

[Guardacostas]

Very impressive doing all that by 33. I'm too busy doing escorting immigrants and new governors so I would have to max out my career to get everything you got done by 33. That's a good strategy like the 1600 era. Move up rank quick with the Spanish so when you occasionally have to snag a treasure galleon to keep your crew happy you don't end up being a wanted pirate. High enough rank you can even sack a spanish city and change ownership and they still won't seem to mind, honorable duke haha

[bryce777]

In my last few games I went after monty with only 1-2 map pieces. He is always in just a couple places so once you are good at orienteering it is easy to do.

[Salty Dog]

I like to have 200 men. I know some of you can beat his army with a lot less. I would guess I have played this game at least 120 times, maybe150.

[bryce777]

What I do is divide the plunder right before I go after him then I pick up men at the cities and every pirate base. I can easily get 400+ men that way and then take him down before they start to get unhappy.

[Salty Dog]

Very clever! That is the first new tip I have received in a long time! Thanks! I have always followed Rupert's and Gun Pierson's advice of keeping your crew small and achieving immortality, then knocking off the named pirated in year 7 when they are worth enough to give you over 100K in gold. Nice!!!

[Salty Dog]

[Red Rabbit]

Quite lately this have been favourite era. Start with the Spanish and get hold Pinnace as a starting ship. But right away go against them and cruise around using picked Navigation Skill. Build up for that immortality sum of gold and upgrade to Mail Runner. Also attacking lightly defended wealthy/prosperous Spanish towns, and even might get lucky and get to switch those to other nation..



Oh, and just like Salty mentioned, hopefully Havana has a beauty.

EDIT: spelling.

[Salty Dog]

Welcome back!!!

How have you been? Been playing other games? We missed you!