I've been playing AoP with the official v1.50 patch, mainly because - unlike the Supermod - it shows a red cross on the "paper" map where a colony is under attack. When you're trying to take all the colonies to complete the "Shark's Legacy" quest, this is significant!
It's possible to take over colonies and still work for the governor of your choice. At the time I killed the pirate chief, I still had an ongoing mission from the English governor. I paid off the diplomat so that I could sail into Bridgetown without being attacked by the fort. The soldiers still attacked, though. I made it to the governor's residence, where the governor wasn't too happy to see me until I reported successful completion of his errand. That raised my reputation with England to neutral, and he gave me another job. When I got outside, the soldiers weren't hostile any more. Of course, after I took over another colony, England promptly became hostile again, so I just repeated the procedure.
One of the tavern rumours was that a treasure convoy had just left St. Eustatius bound for Europe, and what was interesting was that I'd taken St. Eustatius a few days before the convoy had allegedly departed. I've never managed to find the convoy before so I didn't waste time searching for it now; I had other business at San Juan. There I found a couple of Spanish ships and a Dutch battleship. So I bombarded the fort for a while, then went and captured the battleship, which had 15 units of gold aboard. After I'd landed troops and captured the colony, I went to the tavern, which duly reported that I'd attacked a Dutch treasure convoy and captured the lot.
In due time, France tried to take San Juan from me. I went there, found a single French ship near the port, captured it, and noticed that the "paper" map still had the red cross. Usually when a colony is under attack, there are four ships, and when they're all captured or destroyed, the red cross disappears. I found that I could "sail to" another French ship, which turned out to be on the other side of the island - I suspect that if I'd put the game into accelerated time and waited for a while, the rest of the French fleet would have sunk itself trying to sail through Puerto Rico.
Santo Domingo was reported as being attacked by the French. While I was on the way there, another report said that the French were attacking Petite Goave. Santo Domingo was nearer so I went there first and found no French ships, although the "paper" map still had the red cross. I tried sailing away, then returned, in the hope that it would reset the map and give me something to fight. It didn't, but it did say that Petite Goave had fallen. Knowing that the game frequently does silly things, I'd saved the game before approaching Santo Domingo the first time, so I reloaded. This time I went to Petite Goave, where I found a French squadron. After I'd beaten it, I checked the "paper" map again and found that both red crosses on Petite Goave and Santo Domingo had gone - apparently the same squadron had been attacking both colonies.
Good officers are hard to find, especially in v1.50 because they don't get replaced as they do in Supermod. So I don't waste them by leaving them ashore. If I remember, I sneak into the colony I'm about to attack, hire someone from the tavern, capture the colony and put this hireling into the governor's seat. If I don't remember, I have to use one of my regular officers, capture the colony, then get someone from the tavern and use him to replace the governor. The game sometimes gets mixed up here - it returns my regular officer to my passenger list but forgets to take him out of the governor's position. And that's why half my colonies all have the same governor, whose other job is to command a prize ship. Now there's a man who's earned his pay rises!
It's possible to take over colonies and still work for the governor of your choice. At the time I killed the pirate chief, I still had an ongoing mission from the English governor. I paid off the diplomat so that I could sail into Bridgetown without being attacked by the fort. The soldiers still attacked, though. I made it to the governor's residence, where the governor wasn't too happy to see me until I reported successful completion of his errand. That raised my reputation with England to neutral, and he gave me another job. When I got outside, the soldiers weren't hostile any more. Of course, after I took over another colony, England promptly became hostile again, so I just repeated the procedure.
One of the tavern rumours was that a treasure convoy had just left St. Eustatius bound for Europe, and what was interesting was that I'd taken St. Eustatius a few days before the convoy had allegedly departed. I've never managed to find the convoy before so I didn't waste time searching for it now; I had other business at San Juan. There I found a couple of Spanish ships and a Dutch battleship. So I bombarded the fort for a while, then went and captured the battleship, which had 15 units of gold aboard. After I'd landed troops and captured the colony, I went to the tavern, which duly reported that I'd attacked a Dutch treasure convoy and captured the lot.
In due time, France tried to take San Juan from me. I went there, found a single French ship near the port, captured it, and noticed that the "paper" map still had the red cross. Usually when a colony is under attack, there are four ships, and when they're all captured or destroyed, the red cross disappears. I found that I could "sail to" another French ship, which turned out to be on the other side of the island - I suspect that if I'd put the game into accelerated time and waited for a while, the rest of the French fleet would have sunk itself trying to sail through Puerto Rico.
Santo Domingo was reported as being attacked by the French. While I was on the way there, another report said that the French were attacking Petite Goave. Santo Domingo was nearer so I went there first and found no French ships, although the "paper" map still had the red cross. I tried sailing away, then returned, in the hope that it would reset the map and give me something to fight. It didn't, but it did say that Petite Goave had fallen. Knowing that the game frequently does silly things, I'd saved the game before approaching Santo Domingo the first time, so I reloaded. This time I went to Petite Goave, where I found a French squadron. After I'd beaten it, I checked the "paper" map again and found that both red crosses on Petite Goave and Santo Domingo had gone - apparently the same squadron had been attacking both colonies.
Good officers are hard to find, especially in v1.50 because they don't get replaced as they do in Supermod. So I don't waste them by leaving them ashore. If I remember, I sneak into the colony I'm about to attack, hire someone from the tavern, capture the colony and put this hireling into the governor's seat. If I don't remember, I have to use one of my regular officers, capture the colony, then get someone from the tavern and use him to replace the governor. The game sometimes gets mixed up here - it returns my regular officer to my passenger list but forgets to take him out of the governor's position. And that's why half my colonies all have the same governor, whose other job is to command a prize ship. Now there's a man who's earned his pay rises!
