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Favourite battle tactics at sea
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Favourite battle tactics at sea
You keep it far, constantly bombarding opponent until his ship sinks
5%
 5%  [ 3 ]
You aproach a bit his ship, shooting chain until you destroy his sails
10%
 10%  [ 6 ]
You aproach more, trying to reduce his crew with grape, then board
47%
 47%  [ 26 ]
You quickly ram his ship and let the blades talk!
20%
 20%  [ 11 ]
Other (please explain)
16%
 16%  [ 9 ]
Total Votes : 55

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Iaspis
Powder Monkey
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 11:43 am    Post subject: Favourite battle tactics at sea Reply with quote

Please vote! If you vote "Other", an explanation would be appreciated. Thanks!
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Chuko
Cutthroat
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would say it depends...
on what? For example, the Marquis de la Montaban's flag galleon vs the only ship I had, a fully upgraded mailcarrier... I blast with normal and grape shot, using my manoverability to avoid his cannons... later in that game, I encounted Montaban again, this time I had a frigate, and charged into him. Basicly, it depends on what ship I have, what the conditions are, and what or whom I am facing... I am not afraid to go 100 against 250 (on rouge), but its not somthing I want to do too often...
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Status of Ships;
Sloop Syzer sunk, all hands presumed dead
Frigate Sezcka, 28 guns, 260 men
Sloop of War Aozora, 12 guns, 120 men
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BlueDEvil
Seaman
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Before entering battle, take into consideration your direction of your ship, direction of the enemy ship, direction of the wind and location of obstacles.

1) If your ship can sail into the wind like sloops, then it don't matter much. But with frigates, you can start with higher speed if facing the right way, away from the wind. This helps you get a headstart on the enemy if you are planning to board it. Also make sure your ship start with the wind behind you and enemy infront of you or else you can never catch ships that can sail into the wind.

2) AI ship battle sucks. Always running their ship aground, so a good tactic to ensure they never get away from you. A stationary target is always easier to hit. Attack them when close to the shoreline or rocks causes them to start in shallow waters.

I don't think you can put a specified strategy on all ships. Use round to reduce the guns, grape before boarding, but chain if you want to save time. But I find chain quite useless, because if you can get close enough to fire means you can try to board, so why bother to damage the sail except to save time. Boarding is always best against merchant type ship which are slow and have less guns. Up aganst warship, you need to reduce the number of guns before even considering sailing close for boarding. Pirate ships tend of have more men, and therefore, they are more likely try to board you, so staying away is always good thing to do. It also depends on your character skill as well. You are likely to exploit your character skill.

Generally, a round or 2 to reduce the guns, then try to close in with few grape before boarding.
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Iaspis
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I personally use the chain shot to completely imobilize the enemy, in every case the ship will strike her colours. I don't have to aproach more to use grape or board for a fight, the entire crew will surrender when the ships sails are destroyed.
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BlueDEvil
Seaman
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you can use chain so many times, I must think you are not playing in swashbuckler mode. Chain shot is useless because of short range, and enemy ships can steer itself clear of your chain shot all the time. Only time I can get them is is when they run aground or sail into the wind. I feel your shots take a longer time to reach the target when play with higher difficulty making shooting accuracy very low. You can miss even with bronze cannon and gunnery which I don't so do earlier in the game. just as fencing, ship battles is a different ballgame in swashbuckler mode.
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Iaspis
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm currently playing in Rogue (advancing from Adventurer). It is not that hard to hit the sails when the enemy is sailing towards me. In fact, if 2-3 chainballs hit him and the sail cloth gets a little torn, he loses speed considerably and it gets a lot easier to hit him again. Usually after 3 volleys that sails are history.
Not to mention the time I'm saving! Laughing
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marichmo
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 7:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I play on swashbuckler and I agree that chain shot is the way to go if you want to avoid a duel. In the time it takes to knock out their cannons with round shot, or kill off half the crew with grape, you can easily de-mast the ship with chain instead and they will immediately surrender without a fight (this works with any of the Top Ten Pirates as well; demast their ship and they won't even duel you! Strangely, only Montalbahn, Raymondo and Mendoza will still fight in this situation). This tactic is especially good if you're hunting ships close to a friendly port where you currently have free repair privilidges, as you can then sell off the damaged ship at full price! But it's also a good alternative to using grape against ships with a superior crew.

Granted this seems tricky at first on the highest difficulty setting but with some practice you will be able to easily demast any ship without taking a hit. I would recommend using a 20 gun Royal Sloop (my ship of choice) as it is maneuverable enough to dodge incoming fire and get you into good firing positions, while having enough firepower to get the job done. Remember to lead your target a bit before you fire, don't turn while firing (your shots will go wide otherwise) and stay close to the maximum firing distance so you have time to evade when the bad guy fires back! Try it, and I promise you won't be disappointed! Cool
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Sonicsfan
Cutthroat
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 8:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I chose others,i keep using my cannons untill my openent has less crew than me.If they sunk bad luck for me.
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Billy Bones
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 12:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1. I approach at long range from windward if at all possible.

2. I begin by hitting him with ball from afar to soften him up, maneuvering to avoid his return fire.

3. Once he is down to about 50% capability. I begin closing on him, zigzagging in order to stay either off his bow or stern so he can not get a good shot at me. During the closing maneuver, I begin hitting him with chain until his ship settles and he can not make way.

4. I close to close range and pummel him with grape until his crew is decimated.

5 Usually at this point he surrenders.

The above tactics work exceptionally well with a Royal Sloop. The windward approach lets you run away to windward if necessary. You must be careful not to get too close until you have dismasted him or otherwise deprived him of his speed advantage. If you do, and he is closing in pursuit, you need to spin up and hit him with chain, then fall off and continue to run, until you can maintain better speed than he can. However, if you let him get to close, the spin up maneuver will only put him on top of you unless you are very luck with your chain shot. In this event, you had best be ready to repel boarders.

One more thing, it seems you can get to a point where you are head to wind and can just keep turning back and forth, achieving a kind of balance, in which you maintain your relative position. If you are parallel to the enemies bow or stern, and his sails are not functional, you can just hammer him into the ground.
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Ruffin
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:09 pm    Post subject: Two ships Reply with quote

(Played for the first time in ten years last night, so this is a newbie question.)

Got into it with two ships - a fast galleon payroll transport and a royal sloop escort - at the same time, which was novel. After I maimed the sloop, they'd sit catty-corner to each other in dead winds so they could cover any angle of approach. The sloop chased me at first - Go broadbeam, let him chase me away from the galleon, turn and rip his sails off, disengage. After that they just stopped and circled the wagons on me. I never got a clean shot at the galleon without the immobile sloop having a broadside toward me.

After that I attacked them maybe eight or nine times - got off one or two shots and withdrew when they catty-cornered themselves. Over the course of the fight (from Curacao almost to San Juan) I managed to degrade their sails to the point where they were almost unmaneuverable at the start of each fight. I could also switch flagships between scraps to keep any one of my ships from being pounded to rubble. It worked (18k gold in booty) but took forever.

Anyone have any better way than attrition to take down a couple of heavily armed and manned ships?
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bryce777
Gunner
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 6:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Iaspis wrote:
I'm currently playing in Rogue (advancing from Adventurer). It is not that hard to hit the sails when the enemy is sailing towards me. In fact, if 2-3 chainballs hit him and the sail cloth gets a little torn, he loses speed considerably and it gets a lot easier to hit him again. Usually after 3 volleys that sails are history.
Not to mention the time I'm saving! Laughing


If you get good at the sailing part, you will never ever get hit and never miss.

I do ALL my firing from close range, though.

The only time it's dangerous against the AI is in low winds.
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bryce777
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 6:47 pm    Post subject: Re: Two ships Reply with quote

Ruffin wrote:
(Played for the first time in ten years last night, so this is a newbie question.)

Got into it with two ships - a fast galleon payroll transport and a royal sloop escort - at the same time, which was novel. After I maimed the sloop, they'd sit catty-corner to each other in dead winds so they could cover any angle of approach. The sloop chased me at first - Go broadbeam, let him chase me away from the galleon, turn and rip his sails off, disengage. After that they just stopped and circled the wagons on me. I never got a clean shot at the galleon without the immobile sloop having a broadside toward me.

After that I attacked them maybe eight or nine times - got off one or two shots and withdrew when they catty-cornered themselves. Over the course of the fight (from Curacao almost to San Juan) I managed to degrade their sails to the point where they were almost unmaneuverable at the start of each fight. I could also switch flagships between scraps to keep any one of my ships from being pounded to rubble. It worked (18k gold in booty) but took forever.

Anyone have any better way than attrition to take down a couple of heavily armed and manned ships?


Just sail in and dodge as you go.

Soemtimes I will blow up the escorts to scoop up all their men after I disable the merchant
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Ruffin
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:33 pm    Post subject: Re: Two ships Reply with quote

bryce777 wrote:

Just sail in and dodge as you go.

Soemtimes I will blow up the escorts to scoop up all their men after I disable the merchant


Tried that - 65 or so of mine on a sloop against 250+ of them... massively outgunned. It's doable in the original - pinnace vs. galleon was easy. But when they can shoot and move in different directions it's real hard to get behind them and tack back and forth while shooting them in the aft. On top of that the sloop escort was as fast as me. Got squished when I tried just charging in.

What do you mean "scoop up all their men"? Can we pick up floaters?
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Dutch Junkie
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:15 pm    Post subject: Re: Two ships Reply with quote

Ruffin wrote:

What do you mean "scoop up all their men"? Can we pick up floaters?


Just sail over the guys and u will rescue them, just sail over floating cargo and it will be yours too (too bad, the guns immediatly sink to the bottom of the ocean)
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Wolfwood
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 8:35 pm    Post subject: Re: Two ships Reply with quote

Ruffin wrote:
What do you mean "scoop up all their men"? Can we pick up floaters?


Yep, you can. I do it only occasionally, however, when I'm really in a need of some more men on my decks before I rush in for some swordsplay...
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