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Pirate Missions: Attacking Puerto Bello

Croaker

Landlubber
I am having a really tough time attacking this fort!!!!

I have a Man-0-War, plus the whole pirste fleet 1 more Man-O-War, 2 Battleships, ect.

I've just spent a few hours retrying this and failing. So far my best effort is, 2 ships sunk, other 2 pirate ships hopelesly downwind and impossible to enter the battle, ALL of my guns "fallen out", and when I check the status of the fort with my spyglass I see that it is still at 70/82 cannons.

Any hints?
 
Not sure if you know this, but you can't just pound the fort from any direction, you have to actually aim for the gun ports to take out the guns.
 
Turns out I was actually a lot closer to winning than I thought. To 'destroy' the fort, you only have to knock out 30 of the 82 guns. I think the trick was reloading 50 times until I got favorable wind conditions and my other 4 ships actually got to enter the fight.

It also turns out that this fort battle was not the most annoying part of this mission. After talking to the governor, you learn that they were expecting you. Morgan sends you to do a flanking manouver so you can attack Panama from two sides.

Now this next part is damn near impossible and seams majorly bugged. I have 520 men, check, doublecheck. I land on the shore and POOF!!! Now I am suddenly down to 46 men. Reload, try again. Same shit. Well at least I have my 3 companions to fight with. Enter the jungle and POOF!!! 3 companions are gone.

Now it is just me and 46 guys. With a lot of reloading I manage to fight through the first two zones of Spanish, but when I enter the third zone, its just me and two guys facing a wall of 10 Spanish with muskets. I can't even get near them before they gun me down.

Is this even possible? Do I have to just keep reloading 1000 times until I get lucky?
 
<!--quoteo(post=328430:date=Jun 13 2009, 05:36 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 13 2009, 05:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328430"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Turns out I was actually a lot closer to winning than I thought. To 'destroy' the fort, you only have to knock out 30 of the 82 guns. I think the trick was reloading 50 times until I got favorable wind conditions and my other 4 ships actually got to enter the fight.

It also turns out that this fort battle was not the most annoying part of this mission. After talking to the governor, you learn that they were expecting you. Morgan sends you to do a flanking manouver so you can attack Panama from two sides.

Now this next part is damn near impossible and seams majorly bugged. I have 520 men, check, doublecheck. I land on the shore and POOF!!! Now I am suddenly down to 46 men. Reload, try again. Same shit. Well at least I have my 3 companions to fight with. Enter the jungle and POOF!!! 3 companions are gone.

Now it is just me and 46 guys. With a lot of reloading I manage to fight through the first two zones of Spanish, but when I enter the third zone, its just me and two guys facing a wall of 10 Spanish with muskets. I can't even get near them before they gun me down.

Is this even possible? Do I have to just keep reloading 1000 times until I get lucky?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Update: 30 more reloads. No success. And this is on the easy difficulty, best weapons and armor, 100 fighting skill, full fighting perks. f**k this game! I'm not wasting another minute of my time with it. It's a damn rollercoaster. One minute its fun, then you hit a (bug/annoying pixel hunt/unplaytested bullshit/completely random and unintuitive plot twist) and it just sucks all the fun away.
 
<!--quoteo(post=328430:date=Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328430"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Now this next part is damn near impossible and seams majorly bugged. I have 520 men, check, doublecheck. I land on the shore and POOF!!! Now I am suddenly down to 46 men. Reload, try again. Same shit. Well at least I have my 3 companions to fight with. Enter the jungle and POOF!!! 3 companions are gone.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's not a bug, that's seaward.ru's way of making the game challenging.
 
<!--quoteo(post=328447:date=Jun 13 2009, 10:20 PM:name=Sordid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sordid @ Jun 13 2009, 10:20 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328447"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=328430:date=Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328430"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Now this next part is damn near impossible and seams majorly bugged. I have 520 men, check, doublecheck. I land on the shore and POOF!!! Now I am suddenly down to 46 men. Reload, try again. Same shit. Well at least I have my 3 companions to fight with. Enter the jungle and POOF!!! 3 companions are gone.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's not a bug, that's seaward.ru's way of making the game challenging.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think you're not ready for this mission.
My seventeen year daughter raided the Panama on the IMPOSSIBLE level.
 
Of course not, I haven't even tried that mission yet. But the whole "this bit is supposed to be difficult, so we'll just take the player's fighters away completely arbitrarily and without any explanation whatsoever, reasonable or not" thing crops up all over the damn game. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=328490:date=Jun 13 2009, 08:27 PM:name=Valeriyan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Valeriyan @ Jun 13 2009, 08:27 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328490"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=328447:date=Jun 13 2009, 10:20 PM:name=Sordid)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sordid @ Jun 13 2009, 10:20 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328447"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=328430:date=Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 13 2009, 06:36 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328430"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Now this next part is damn near impossible and seams majorly bugged. I have 520 men, check, doublecheck. I land on the shore and POOF!!! Now I am suddenly down to 46 men. Reload, try again. Same shit. Well at least I have my 3 companions to fight with. Enter the jungle and POOF!!! 3 companions are gone.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's not a bug, that's seaward.ru's way of making the game challenging.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think you're not ready for this mission.
My seventeen year daughter raided the Panama on the IMPOSSIBLE level.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Well I had visited a bunch of ports, gathering a huge crew, spent lots of time training them to Sea Dog status fighters, bought them all weapons, meds and food. So I <b>WAS</b> ready, but all that didnt really matter. All of that effort was a complete waste of time. My 520 men plus 1000+ on the other ship reduced to 46.

My personal toon is level 31, with 100 skill in medium weapons. However, there is only so much I can do alone. First wave I personally kill about 5-6 of the enemy, second wave the same. We are talking sprint up to the nearest guy, 1 shot him with a power strike, sprint to the next, repeat. I don't think that can be improved upon. There is the random amount of men on my team that will still get killed. I can reload a bunch of times and try to get lucky and have only a few die, but the deaths add up fast after a few zones, especially with my guys charging blindly into a wall of muskets that kill them instantly. By the time I reach the third zone, the best I have done is 7 other guys with me. They die immedialty to a musket volley and then its me against 10 guys.... no chance there. No amount of skill on my part is going to help.

I would love to hear some tips from your seventeen year old daughter.

It seems seaward.ru has done a lot of arbitrary stuff to add challenge to this game. I just wish I had stopped at the "why can't I find this game in any stores?" challenge.
 
My sentiments precisely. I like challenging, but making a game challenging by making it unfair is first of all infuriating and secondly... inelegant. I just hope the modding community steps up and corrects some of these glaring problems. It happened with Oblivion, and while this obscure little game doesn't exactly have a comparable fanbase I'm still hopeful.
 
<!--quoteo(post=328539:date=Jun 14 2009, 03:24 AM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 14 2009, 03:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328539"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I would love to hear some tips from your seventeen year old daughter.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Daughter on vacation. I'll try to help.

I hope you have a perk "Landing of troops of the allied ships" (something similar), own or at boatswain, other boatswain perks. Navigation not less than 95 and excellent health.
Doctor with all perks and cannoneer with perk "damage to the crew".
Destroy 15-20 fort guns, continue firing case-shot. Try to destroy more enemy troops.
After battle in fort and town go to the governor residence.
 
<!--quoteo(post=328573:date=Jun 14 2009, 02:14 AM:name=Valeriyan)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Valeriyan @ Jun 14 2009, 02:14 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328573"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=328539:date=Jun 14 2009, 03:24 AM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 14 2009, 03:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328539"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I would love to hear some tips from your seventeen year old daughter.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Daughter on vacation. I'll try to help.

I hope you have a perk "Landing of troops of the allied ships" (something similar), own or at boatswain, other boatswain perks. Navigation not less than 95 and excellent health.
Doctor with all perks and cannoneer with perk "damage to the crew".
Destroy 15-20 fort guns, continue firing case-shot. Try to destroy more enemy troops.
After battle in fort and town go to the governor residence.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Yeah, too bad about your 17 year old, genious, vacation going daughter, not being here to help.
Thank you for your try though. Problem is, that isn't the part I am bitching about. These battle take place AFTER you talk to the governor.

2 details about me. 1) I'm a sadist. 2) I have trouble sleeping when something is pissing me off.

So, I spent more time messing around with this mission and I learned a few important things.

* Regardless of the skill of your crew or the number of crew you have. <b>It doesn't matter if you have 500 or 5 pirates, when you land on the beach, the crew (on your ship) will number 46.</b>
* 46 seems to be a completely arbitrary number. You really only have 13 plus Richard Sawkins (people you can count). The number will always show as 46 regardless of how many of the 13 are still standing.
* The 13 plus Richard Sawkins are completely unaffected by your stats or crew skill rating. They are uncontrollable, untalkable people.
* Your quest objective is to reach Panama and join forces with Morgan who took another route.
* A second objective is to kill Richard Sawkins before you get there. Don't bother with this, it will take care of itself.

So here is my working "strategy". It feels wierd calling it that, since there is no thought or skill involved.

1) Land on the beach and take a headcount... you will see 13 + Sawkins (14), yourself and your companions (who will disappear).

2) Save your game.
* You will enter 4? jungle zones each populated by spanish soldiers and fight your way through them.

3) Enter zone 1. It will contain 10 Spanish soldiers, approximatly half melee and half muskets. They are pretty much equal to your pirates, so regardless of your personal effort, some of your pirates are going to die.
* Results will be completly random. I have charged forward personally killing 6 of the 10 spanish, and only had 1 of my 14 pirates live, and I have stood in the back doing absoluely nothing and had 10 of my 14 pirates live.

4) When the battle for zone 1 is over, do a headcount. My personal minimum critera for this zone is 13 of 14 pirates still alive. Keep reloading and reloading until you get this.
** Beware of the lucky 14/14. There seems to be a glitch, where if all 14 somehow survive, they will all turn on you and attack you. I got this 2x so far.

5) I like to wait at least 2 game hours before proceeding, just in case that helps partially wounded pirates heal. You cant interact with the pirates, so you cant give them any meds.

6) Save and proceed to zone 2. In this zone you will face another wave of 10 spanish (5 melee, 5 musket), plus about 5 indians. Once again, keep reloading until you get a favorable result. My personal best is 11 of 14 pirates still alive.

7) Save and proceed to zone 3. You will see 4 spanish standing across a clearing with muskets, there are 6 more melee hiding behind a rock. Your pirates will charge forward and get slaughtered. The muskets here are very deadly and can easily kill your pirates or you in 1 shot. Once again, keep reloading and reloading until you get a favorable result. My personal best is 7 of 14 pirates still alive. Sawkins was never lucky enough to live to this point.

<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="8)" border="0" alt="cool.gif" /> Save and proceed to zone 4. This is the zone right outside Panama city and you can now see the gates. If Sawkins is dead, you will get a journal entry stating that objective is complete. Unfortunatly, you and however many of your 14 pirates who survived are facing approximatly <b>40 spanish soldiers</b> (20 melee, 20 muskets). In the distance you can see that Morgan has also arived, so there will be about 5 pirates over there too. I have not cleared zone 4 yet. My 7 pirates and the 5 in the distance all die within about 20 seconds and then I am quickly overwhelmed.
* Even if I got miracle results on the first 3 zones and all 14 of my pirates live, I don't think zone 4 would be easy/possible. I also asume there will be a zone 5 fight within the city with even more rediculous odds.

<u><b>Conclusion</b> </u>
If this mission is actually possible, then I have to conclude that something in my game is bugged. 14 pirates, vs. a total of 70+ spanish just is not statistically viable. Anyone who beat zone 4 would have had to have cheats enabled.

<u>Only 2 people replying and neither have personally beaten this.</u>
Sordid - I know you said it isn't bugged, but apparently you havn't finished it yet either, so it's tough to conclude that it isn't. I do appreciate a fellow cynic. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" />
Valeriyan - I'm not sure I'd belive anything you said. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />o)


<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=328626:date=Jun 14 2009, 12:33 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 14 2009, 12:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Sordid - I know you said it isn't bugged, but apparently you havn't finished it yet either, so it's tough to conclude that it isn't. I do appreciate a fellow cynic. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hell, I haven't even <i>started</i> it yet. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Best of luck to you, though. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":drunk" border="0" alt="buds.gif" />
 
When I've had a chance to play that far in, I'll actually have something to say, Croaker. Until then I'd just be guessing.

Cap'n Drow
 
Im facing the exact same problem as Croaker, difference is I cant get past zone 3 atm, and I was worried that maybe I had too few weapons aboard (200 for 800 men) and they keep dying because of that. Im really mad on this whole unbalance thing. Im seriously starting to feel temptation on some cheats
 
<!--quoteo(post=328626:date=Jun 14 2009, 02:33 PM:name=Croaker)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Croaker @ Jun 14 2009, 02:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=328626"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Valeriyan - I'm not sure I'd belive anything you said.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Ha, ha. Believe or not, up to icon lamps. Believe - don't believe, a kindergarten with trousers on straps.
I talked to my daughter, she was a laugh. The solution is very simple. You must create an overwhelming superiority in strength.
I think she is right, there is no need to go to Porto Bello by "Dog of war" (~46 min. crew, ~520 max.). It is necessary to read Morgan dialogue.
"I have to deal with serious corsair, and not with the greenhorn", - Henry Morgan, soundtrack before the raid to Panama.
 
@Valeriyan
He said that he has Man-O-War which you seem to mistake with some warship class 2 I think, I personally got a Battleship with 800 crew , I still have to be missing something.
 
I think I was lucky, I managed to finish this quest today at my first attempt, I just rushed forward taking all the musket shots, barely survived but used lots of medicine and potions, at zone 3 I managed to save 7 pirates, while in zone 4 I just rushed to morgans group and finished any musketeers. As You said Croaker, I think its just a matter of luck. But when rushing forward try to hide behind a landslope tree rock whateveer cover you can find to force the musketeers to miss. good luck to you <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />
 
<!--quoteo(post=329142:date=Jun 15 2009, 05:33 PM:name=Iakhovas)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Iakhovas @ Jun 15 2009, 05:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=329142"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I think I was lucky, I managed to finish this quest today at my first attempt, I just rushed forward taking all the musket shots, barely survived but used lots of medicine and potions, at zone 3 I managed to save 7 pirates, while in zone 4 I just rushed to morgans group and finished any musketeers. As You said Croaker, I think its just a matter of luck. But when rushing forward try to hide behind a landslope tree rock whateveer cover you can find to force the musketeers to miss. good luck to you <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Wow, Congrats!!!

My firsts few tries of zone 4 were such miserable failures I didn't keep trying. One of those times I tried getting to Morgan's men, but they were all dead by the time I crossed the field. I am assuming no zone 5 fight?

I started a new game with cheats enabled and a custom pirate model (no more stareing at Peter Blood, with his fat calfs and girl shoes). <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> I'm having a lot of fun with the core game, but now I will have a handy F11 key for those times when the storyline wants me to be it's bitch.
 
The only hard part of this mission is the fort attack, you need to get the wind from behind so those fools in your fleet wont run away, that was really annoying, the Man-o-war was like 1400 yards away from the fort... >.< I just activated fast time to 6x speed, ordered attack to all the fleet, then send my ship to a safe distance and stroke the sails, went to eat and do some other stuff, after almost 3 quarters from an hour the forst still had 58 cannons, did some precise shooting until it had 52 cannons or so and could land my troops, the rest was piece of cake.
As for the Jungle, the first part was piece of cake, let the mongrels zerg, fight as many as you can handle then move to the next area, this one is slightly harder, try not to get shot down by musketeers.
In the third you can take the right, behind the rock and kill the ambushers then sprint to the musketeers, dont worry about the crew, they can die, you have to stay alive, and besides in the next zone Henry's men attack to. I did it from the second try, in my first try I died from a mistake, went in the middle of musketeers.

My only problem was when I wanted to do this without sawkins dying, thought the plot changes, but nope, henry said same thing as if sawkins was dead... >.<
Anyone else tried not letting sawkins die?
 
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