So what Fleet are you rolling with?

[Surfmutt]

Curious from the experienced players, what ships do you roll with in your fleet?

I recently got the Dog of War (COAS quest ship) and it has put me in a delimma. I'd like to limit my fleet to 3 active ships (so I have 2 slots to capture enemies that have good cargo). Then last night I ran into a Man-of-War and it showed me the limitations of my corvette. not only is it a paper tiger against that many cannons, but my corvette only holds like 263 men, after having taken a frigate and put 35 men on it...it was very difficult to survive the cannons to get enough grape shot off to where I could win the boarding battle and have enough men left over to crew both ships.

But...I did it. So now I have 2 Man-of-Wars...one fully tweaked by the shipyard in Bermuda. The idea of running 2 Man-of-Wars with a faster command ship is pretty juicy, I haven't fought any forts yet but with the 42 lb (I think that's right) cannons, errrr 50 on each side, I'm guessing this will be a huge advantage in such a battle.

So I've got the Dog-of-war (corvette) untweaked as yet, with an amazing 25 knots sail speed and its limitations on crew size and total guns, or the Frigate the English corsair starts with (Cingo Legunas or some such name). It is fully tweaked, with double the hull strength of the corvette, twice the crew capacity (483) and more, larger cannons. Bummer is top speed like 18 and when it gets its sails clipped it can be outrun.

For now I've chosen to run 4 ships, with me on the Dog of War. Gives me the option of swapping to the Frigate if I need more men to take a large ship, but severly limits my ability to take enemy vessles and profit from that. The expense to run that many ships with near max crews is pretty staggering too, but what else would I use the money for? Kinda funny to me to be sailing around with near 2,300 pirates onboard...quite an army for the time I'd wager and would draw much attention.

So what are the rest of you runnin?

 

[Handel]

Curious from the experienced players, what ships do you roll with in your fleet?

I recently got the Dog of War (COAS quest ship) and it has put me in a delimma. I'd like to limit my fleet to 3 active ships (so I have 2 slots to capture enemies that have good cargo). Then last night I ran into a Man-of-War and it showed me the limitations of my corvette. not only is it a paper tiger against that many cannons, but my corvette only holds like 263 men, after having taken a frigate and put 35 men on it...it was very difficult to survive the cannons to get enough grape shot off to where I could win the boarding battle and have enough men left over to crew both ships.

But...I did it. So now I have 2 Man-of-Wars...one fully tweaked by the shipyard in Bermuda. The idea of running 2 Man-of-Wars with a faster command ship is pretty juicy, I haven't fought any forts yet but with the 42 lb (I think that's right) cannons, errrr 50 on each side, I'm guessing this will be a huge advantage in such a battle.

So I've got the Dog-of-war (corvette) untweaked as yet, with an amazing 25 knots sail speed and its limitations on crew size and total guns, or the Frigate the English corsair starts with (Cingo Legunas or some such name). It is fully tweaked, with double the hull strength of the corvette, twice the crew capacity (483) and more, larger cannons. Bummer is top speed like 18 and when it gets its sails clipped it can be outrun.

For now I've chosen to run 4 ships, with me on the Dog of War. Gives me the option of swapping to the Frigate if I need more men to take a large ship, but severly limits my ability to take enemy vessles and profit from that. The expense to run that many ships with near max crews is pretty staggering too, but what else would I use the money for? Kinda funny to me to be sailing around with near 2,300 pirates onboard...quite an army for the time I'd wager and would draw much attention.

So what are the rest of you runnin?

I uses Dogs of War to train my companions. Just be carefull not to order them to board larger ships 'cause they will dump the corvette and will move to the larger ship.

 

[Captain Frosty]

Well now I´m using The Kings M-O-W Soleil Royal. I´ve got the rest of my ships (Dog of War and Cinco Liagas) moored in the ports. That´s because now I enjoy that kind of firepower. 112 42lbs cannons on board along with the 1350 sea dogs. It´s a great ship. I can take down "casual" M-O-W even with one broadside. From a short distance of course. She can withstand a LOT with the hull 14 400.

Anyways my "fleet" consists from just one ship because I want to rely just on myself heh and I´m not planning of expanding my fleet in the near future.

 

[Officerpuppy]

Where do you guys get the money and crew to support those beasts? :mm

I'm currently at level 14 and although I think I could afford to buy a MOW, most shipyards I've visted don't sell them and I know my corvette couldn't take on a 1st rate in a boarding action.

 

[Sordid]

A single ship, priorities being upwind ability, speed, firepower, and crew capacity in that order. That usually means a progression of sloop -> schooner -> brigantine -> Blue Bird -> Dog of War (worse point of sail stat, but makes up for it by raw speed, so her upwind ability is about equal to that of the BB).
For the occasional trade run I usually just use whatever ships I can capture, or if it's going to be extremely profitable (ie. hauling gold in bulk) I just buy the largest capacity ships the city has to offer. In both cases I sell them upon arrival at the destination.

 

[Luke159]

I'm normally busy testing but at the moment my flag ship is the Arabella 52, 42 pounder cannons fully upgraded at bermuda with a top speed of 24 knots and a cargo hold of 5,900. :will I recently purchased the Battle Man Of War, 101 32 pounder cannons, not had any tweaks done to her yet and most probably be put into storage till i'm ready to start a fleet. I'm happy to sail on my own running trade missions for the ship owners and from time to time going hunting for enemy ships. My style of play is normaly a peacefull way, doing trading and other none agressive missions. But when i get attacked and my ship is damaged all hell breaks loose and i will chase the enemy ships till they are out of sight or i have sunk/captured them. I normally let them chyase me for a while though and build up a tactical advantage ie having them sailing into the wind so i can turn and start blasting broadsides damaging the sails of the ships and trying to maintain the tactical advantage in the battle. My favourite tactic when having my favourite ship damaged is to demast the enemy ship(s) and sit firing broadsides at the ship just out of boarding range. I often see the enemy ships blow there powder rooms. :

 

[Captain Frosty]

Arabella 52? Where did you get her? Or you just named your M-O-W like that?

 

[Captain Frosty]

Where do you guys get the money and crew to support those beasts? :mm

I'm currently at level 14 and although I think I could afford to buy a MOW, most shipyards I've visted don't sell them and I know my corvette couldn't take on a 1st rate in a boarding action.

Well me personally was boarding and raiding merchant ships when I was in your lvl. Selling contraband (slaves are best) and then I gave my pirate loot to money lenders. And now I´m earning about 2 000 000 piasters per month just from interests that´s quite enough to keep the hold full and crew fully satisfied in brothels drunk from rum

And as far as I know, you won´t be able to buy M-O-W from shipyards. You´ll have to board them

 

[Luke159]

Arabella 52? Where did you get her? Or you just named your M-O-W like that?

I got it from a mod, if you download and install the COAS Combined Mod Version 1 from The FTP Server you will be able to use the Arabella AKA Frigate as she's renamed in the game. Also the said mod will improve some game play, fix bugs, add some features and increase the total amount of ship to around 100. :will

Where do you guys get the money and crew to support those beasts? :mm

I'm currently at level 14 and although I think I could afford to buy a MOW, most shipyards I've visted don't sell them and I know my corvette couldn't take on a 1st rate in a boarding action.

Well me personally was boarding and raiding merchant ships when I was in your lvl. Selling contraband (slaves are best) and then I gave my pirate loot to money lenders. And now I´m earning about 2 000 000 piasters per month just from interests that´s quite enough to keep the hold full and crew fully satisfied in brothels drunk from rum

And as far as I know, you won´t be able to buy M-O-W from shipyards. You´ll have to board them

You can buy MOW's but only from rank 120, and it requires reloading a save many times before one is generated but they can be generated at the store. In the above mod they are anyway and so is almost every ship apart from the Bluebird etc etc.

 

[Officerpuppy]

Rank 120? I'll never get there at the rate I'm going. I'm about to do a fresh install of the game so I can install COAS CM on top of that which will mean having to start a new campaign

 

[Luke159]

: Its all good.

You can view what ships will be generated in ShipsUtilites located in Age of Pirates 2\Program\scripts. You will see about half way down these lines of code.

FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_TARTANE), "ship1");

iTest_ship = rand(2);
if (iTest_ship == 1)
{
if (iTest_ship == 1)FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WAR_TARTANE), "ship2");
if (iTest_ship == 2)FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Gunboat), "ship2");

}
if (iTest_ship == 2)
{
if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LUGGER), "ship2");
if (iTest_ship == 2) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Sloop_Cutter1_18), "ship2");
if (iTest_ship == 3) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Ketch), "ship2");
if (iTest_ship == 4) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_YACHT), "ship2");
if (iTest_ship == 5) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LuggerVML), "ship2");
}

iTest_ship = rand(2);
if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LUGGER), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 2) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_SLOOP), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 3) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_COLONIALSCHOONER), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 4) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BERMSLOOP), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 5) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Cutter), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 6) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Ketch), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 7) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_YACHT), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 8) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Sloop_Cutter1_18), "ship3");
if (iTest_ship == 9) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LuggerVML), "ship3");

Each Rand is a refering to rank, the last rand which is 120 has the MOW and other heavy ships. The ships may differ from the code you see above because this is with COAS CM installed which as i said adds many more ships etc etc.

As you can see here the MOW is part of Rand 120. However you will see Rank 18 i think thats at which point the will be generated in fleets etc. I have used savescum to try and buy a MOW at rank 18 but have never had one generated however as soon as i (using the cheats) reached rank 120 i saw MOW's been generated, not often but they was there.

if (sti(PChar.rank) > 18)
{
iTest_ship = rand(120);
if (iTest_ship == 1)   FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LINESHIP), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 2)   FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WARSHIP), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 3)   FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BATTLESHIP), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 4)   FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_MANOWAR), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 5)   FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_DUTCHLINESHIP), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 6) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LINESHIPHEAVY), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 7) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_SHARK), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 8) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_MANOWAR_FAST), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 9) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BATTLEMANOWAR), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 10) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_HeavyWarship), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 11) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WarGalleon2), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 12) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Manow50_gub), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 13) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Endeavour), "ship16");
if (iTest_ship == 14) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Victory), "ship16");



iTest_ship = rand(120);
if (iTest_ship == 1) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_LINESHIP), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 2) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WARSHIP), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 3) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BATTLESHIP), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 4) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_SOLEILROYAL), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 5) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_BATTLEMANOWAR), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 6) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_MANOWAR), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 7) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_WarGalleon2), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 8) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Manow50_gub), "ship17");
if (iTest_ship == 9) FillShipParamShipyard(NPChar, GenerateStoreShip(SHIP_Victory), "ship17");
}

 

[Surfmutt]

Where do you guys get the money and crew to support those beasts? :mm

I'm currently at level 14 and although I think I could afford to buy a MOW, most shipyards I've visted don't sell them and I know my corvette couldn't take on a 1st rate in a boarding action.

Well me personally was boarding and raiding merchant ships when I was in your lvl. Selling contraband (slaves are best) and then I gave my pirate loot to money lenders. And now I´m earning about 2 000 000 piasters per month just from interests that´s quite enough to keep the hold full and crew fully satisfied in brothels drunk from rum

And as far as I know, you won´t be able to buy M-O-W from shipyards. You´ll have to board them

I agree with Frosty. I ahven't bought a single ship in the game. I use boarding tactics all the time (max perks--musket fire rocks--almost never sink a ship with cannons) and have extra officers just to captain the captured vessles. Don't forget to remove their cannons and sell those separately as well as any cargo they had. Once you get a navigator capable of driving the frigate you have a ton more men for boarding action, makes it very easy to have enough to crew both ships (including the one you take) if you aren't playing with the mods that allow you to take the ship regardless if you can crew it. Also, because you have so many men most merchants will just surrender...makes it easy to grab a bunch of slaves. I think I only sold slaves to the smugglers 3 times, each time worth more than a million piasters. Then the authorities started crashing my little contraband parties so I quit doing it cause it was messing up my faction with the nations (when I killed all their guards).

Around your level I also kept a galleon with me (tweaked in bermuda) just to offload cargo into if I took a ship and they had a little cargo I wanted, but not a ship worth enough to capture. Allows you to keep your lead ship lean, mean and sailing fast, while still gathering cargo.

As far as crew, I like the pirate settlement on the French Island that is just east of Port Royal (forget it's name and no map with me today). These sailors have great fighting skill and respectable sailing / cannons. Usually there are more than a 1000 just waiting there in my game, and they are superior to any sailors I have found anywhere else.

 

[Luke159]

I agree with Frosty. I ahven't bought a single ship in the game. I use boarding tactics all the time (max perks--musket fire rocks--almost never sink a ship with cannons) and have extra officers just to captain the captured vessles.

Thats a big problem in the game it was far too easy to do that and make your furtunes and was one thing that made me think the game was not well thourght out. I would like to think we have improved the naval battles alot over the vanilla and boarding would take a little longer since its harder to kill the crew onboard.

Don't forget to remove their cannons and sell those separately

That is a current thing that annoys me, after removing the guns the ships value remains the same, it would be nice to see that fixed so that the ships value takes into acco8unt the guns and what calibure they are and if removed the ships value drops to show that effect.

 

[Handel]

Where do you guys get the money and crew to support those beasts? :mm

I'm currently at level 14 and although I think I could afford to buy a MOW, most shipyards I've visted don't sell them and I know my corvette couldn't take on a 1st rate in a boarding action.

There are some very profitable short routes. Once you have a treasurer with the both money perks you can get *huge* money by trading. Somethign more - look at the prices of the ship. You can make some money even by buying and selling ships in different ports. So gather a fleet of cargo ships, do some profitable trade with the whole fleet and sell the ships for aditional profit. You can get several millions for less then an hour. And once you have several millions depesiot them at the moneylender (in the capitals and in Panama) for 6% per month. Soon you will have much more money then you can spend. Actually you will have more money then you can safely deposit (you can safely deposti up to 47 millions).