Pirates

TIPS

When choosing nationality, choose English if it's your first game, the others are harder (in the sequence French, Dutch, Spanish) but in different historical periods each has it's own advantages and disadvantages. As for difficulty levels, the more loot you get and the less help from your crew, I think that the governors, Pirate hunters and different nationalities have better memories, but don't quote me on this. At the start of the game, when choosing skill it's a toss up between Wit and Charm or Medicine. With Wit And Charm you can charm the Governors daughters, but this only works if you see them regularly, no use if you are at the other end of the map. Medicine will give you one last trip around the Spanish main.

I always choose Port Royale to start from (if you choose English you are nearly always at war with Spain so there's Santiago and Puerto Principe to start off with but the choice is yours.) Have patience on your first voyage you will sometimes get your boat blown to smithereens when approaching an enemy city by sea, or lose most of your men in a land battle. More of the tactics for those situations later. With no experience you will lose land or sea battles due to having too few men.

When fighting against unbelievable odds don't panic. Choose the longsword. Keep using the slash-high attack to cause the most damage. You may get down to only one man left but you can still defeat the enemy captain. After you win, select send a prize crew so you will have enough people to sail your ship.

Don't attack a nation your home country is allied with, it will upset both of them.

The best way to deal with Sea battles I have found is as follows: When sighted by a boat don't automatically sail away if in friendly waters or close for battle in enemy waters, chances are you'll make the wrong choice and undo a great deal of work for nothing, so take your time and choose wisely.

If you sail out of your first port, hope you meet a pirate hunter. IS HE MAD. No. Because if you win the battle you might get the enemy's crew to join yours, thereby increasing your chances in subsequent battles and boosting your reputation. The best way to deal with enemy craft in battles is to, if close, raise sails and go in close (by close I mean about 1-4 boat lengths away.)

Don't forget the mood of your crew (which goes from Happy, Pleased, Unhappy, Angry) - can have a bearing on the crews cannon loading in battles. If you cannot get to the boat and want it for your fleet try and disable it with your cannons, remember to use battle sails first, realise that you cannot fire straight at the boat - your shots will miss. Aim a little bit in front and that should work. Also, if you let a pirate boat go, if you have a large fleet, sometimes your tail-end boat may be captured, so watch out.

Choose a longsword for battles - good reach and damage. When swordfighting see what the mood of your crew is, strong go in for the kill, shaken go with CAUTION. The fight itself is a different matter. I Normally stick to slashes, the higher the rank the faster they attack (and so will you) but its more tricky, much more. The only thing I can say here is to practice, there is a pattern to the attacks from you're opponent so take heart. When you've won the battle you can take the ship or abandon it.

Take my advice, don't put all you're gold in one ship. Plunder anything above a sloop, have 3-4 sloops and go around the Spanish Main in these. I've found that if you have one big ship (above a sloop) it's harder to steer and fatal to go across reefs. Take what you need from a ship, food is especially handy if you have a big crew. Don't take something, just because you'll get 10 gold more per item. When you're sacking 6 enemy cites, it won't matter, you'll only get 1000-2000 more gold pieces. The best size crew I have to go looting is about 225, so stick to that. At the end when of a trip when dividing up the plunder have as few crew as possible, the more crew you have the less money each one will get and think less of you next time.

Attacking enemies ports can be tricky so here goes. Always try to attack anywhere apart from the west side, it will turn out to be a slow boat to Leogane, Cartagena, etc. If the winds are light turn back and try again. Indian attacks will reduce the number of soldiers and nothing else, pirates take the towns gold and damage the economy, malaria cuts down the number of troops in the fort and will slow or even stop the economy and gold mines turn a poor town into a rich one fairly quickly. If you land near the city (3 boat lengths away or more) you might take all of the cites gold, or you might not.

In land battles try and have more than the fort, then you'll go straight to the fight with the fort's commander. If you don't have enough troops then hide one of your parties in bushes and lure the forts troops away and past you're hidden party, then take the luring troops off the screen and take the hidden ones to fort. It is important that you take the flag on the fort to enter it, if it doesn't work try again, it will. If you reduce a city to 1 person left when swordfighting, chances are you'll be able to see off the old inhabitants and install a new nationality, this will do no harm when you come to visit a governor for services to your crown (king).

Don't wed till you've got all your promotions, your opportunities will be much better. Make conversation with all the governors daughters, since they might gather important information for you from the governors mansion.

In port always visit the governor, no, not for his daughter. Just in case he wants you to do an errand. These are up to you, sometimes they're near sometimes not and can make you miss a treasure fleet or such, so you decide, and save if you must. Propose to the governors daughter only when you're rich and famous. If you aren't prepare to be humiliated and have cheeks the same colour as the young lady's dress.

If playing at higher levels buy information about other cities, because if you check when you first start a game the cities list will be sparse. The old man who offers you a map must be quick on his feet for, if you decide to buy it, 3 quarters is missing, another saving opportunity methinks. Also if you've done you're share of looting and feel that you might be promoted divide up the plunder first, plan another expedition and then go to see the governor, that way you'll get to know the whereabouts of some cad who's got a map to one of you're family.

On this point I can only say to memorize the coastline, isles and anything else or you could save the game find one of you're family and restart. After you've found one of you're family they'll give you another map and you can then track them down (believe me its worth the effort). The family you'll find is, Sister, Father, Mother, Uncle. If you do try to sneak into an enemy port you might be seen by a guard, or not served by a Spanish shopkeeper it depends on how rich the city is (Struggling, Surviving, Prosperous, Wealthy) so keep an eye on your food reserves and be on the look-out for a friendly port.

All the ships handle differently, some slower than others. Some steer better to 12 O'Clock and some to 9 O'Clock. Don't think that smaller is quicker, could larger be faster?