Sid Meiers

Pirates

Inhaltsverzeichnis
Sashanans Guide
[ 1 ] I N T RO D U C T I O N
[ 2 ] O V E RV I E W
[ 3 ] C H A R AC T E R C R E AT I O N
[ 4 ] S T R AT E G I E S
[ 4 .1 ] C R E W A N D R E C RU I T I N G
[4.2] CREW HAPPINESS
[4.3] GOLD AND PLUNDER
[ 4 . 4 ] R A N K S A N D P RO M O T I O N S
[4.5] SHIPS TO USE
[ 4 . 6 ] O V E R A L L S T R A T E G Y / WA L K T H R O U G H
[5] MINIGAMES
[ 5 .1 ] N AVA L B A T T L E S
[5.2] FENCING
[ 5 . 3 ] L A N D B AT T L E S
[ 5 . 4 ] DA N C I N G
[5.5] SNEAKING
[6] QUESTS
[ 6 .1 ] C R I M I N A L S
[ 6 . 2 ] N A M E D P I R AT E S
[6.3] BURIED TREASURES
[ 6 . 4 ] L O S T F A M I LY M E M B E R S
[6.5] LOST CITIES
[ 6 . 6 ] M A R Q U I S D E L A M O N TA L B A N
[ 6 . 7 ] RO M A N C E
[6.8] TREASURE FLEET
[7] REFERENCE LISTS
[ 7.1 ] S H I P S
[ 7. 2 ] S H I P M I S S I O N S
[ 7. 3 ] S H I P U P G R A D E S
[ 7. 4 ] C R E W S P E C I A L I S T S
[ 7. 5 ] S P E C I A L I T E M S
[ 7. 6 ] R A N K S A N D B E N E F I T S
[ 7. 7 ] F A M E P O I N T S
[ 7. 8 ] R E T I R E M E N T J O B S
[ 7. 9 ] C R E W H A P P I N E S S C A L C U L A T I O N
[ 8 ] F R E Q U E N T LY A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S

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[9] MISCELLANEOUS
[ 9 .1 ] B U G S ( S P E C I F I C T O P C V E R S I O N )
[9.2] WEIRD THINGS
[9.3] TRIVIA
[ 1 0 ] V E R S I O N C O M PA R I S O N S
[ 1 0 .1 ] N E W S I N C E P I R A T E S A N D P I R A T E S G O L D
[ 10 . 2 ] X B OX / P S P V E R S I O N D I F F E R E N C E S
[ 11 ] R E V I S I O N H I S T O R Y
[ 12 ] F I N A L WO R D S

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Jason Venters Guide

0 01 .
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0 0 7.
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I N T RO D U C T I O N
A bout Dif f iculty...
C h o o s i n g Yo u r C o u n t r y
Cargo Options
Upgrading Ships
Sea Battles
Dueling
Dancing
Tr e a s u r e H u n t s
A t t a c k i n g Po r t s
F o r e v e r Yo u n g
Stealth Visits
S a v i n g Yo u r G a m e
In Conclusion...

StrategyWiki.Coms Walkthrough
Governor's daughters
Items
Getting a perfect score on Swashbuckler
Happiness and dividing the plunder
Swordfighting
Naval combat

Chad Simplicios Compilation

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VERSION NOTES
O V E RV I E W
FA M E P O I N T S Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E
N AVA L R A N K S
V I L L I A N S , N A T I V E S , A N D R I VA L P I R A T E S
TREASURE MAPS
D AU G H T E R S O F G O V E R N O R S
R E A DY T O R E T I R E ?

-3-

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Gamestar.de-Tipps

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[1] BASIC DEFINITION OF THE TERM "SHIP OF THE LINE"
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[ 1 .1 ] S O M E F A C T S A B O U T T H E S O L
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[ 2 ] W H Y I S T H E S H I P O F T H E L I N E C O N S I D E R E D S U C H A H A R D C ATC H ?
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[ 2 .1 ] W H E N D O F R I G A T E - C L A S S S H I P S S PAW N ?
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[ 2 . 2 ] H O W H A R D I S I T T O S U B D U E A S O L , O N C E I ' V E C AU G H T U P
WITH IT?
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[ 2 . 3 ] H OW G O O D A R E M Y C H A N C E S T O S P O T A S O L AT A L L ?
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[ 3 ] H OW U S E F U L I S T H E S O L ?
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[ 4 ] H OW D O I C AT C H A S H I P O F T H E L I N E ?
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[ 4 .1 ] W H A T C A N I D O T O M A K E A S O L C O M E O U T ?
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[ 4 . 2 ] H OW D O I D E F E AT A S O L I N S E A - C O M B AT ?
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[ 4 . 2 .1 ] H O W D O I U S E A S L O O P, P I N N A C E , O R WA R C A N O E A G A I N S T A
SOL?
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[ 4 . 2 . 2 ] H OW D O I U S E A B R I G AGA I N S T A S O L ?
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[ 4 . 2 . 3 ] H OW D O I U S E A N Y K I N D O F F R I GAT E AGA I N S T A S O L ?
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[ 4 . 2 . 4 ] H O W D O I U S E A C O M B A T- G A L L E O N A G A I N S T A S O L ?
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[ 4 . 2 . 5 ] H OW D O I U S E A M E RC H A N T S H I P AGA I N S T A S O L ?
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[ 4 . 2 . 6 ] W H AT S H O U L D I D O I F T H E S O L I S E S C O RT E D ?
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[ 4 . 2 . 7 ] F I N A L WO R D S O N S O L - C ATC H I N G C O M B AT TAC T I C S
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[ 5 ] I G O T S M E A S O L ! N OW H OW D O I U S E T H I S T H I N G ?
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[ 5 .1 ] H O W S H O U L D I H A N D L E M Y O V E R A L L S T R A T E G Y ?
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[ 5 . 2 ] H OW D O I U S E T H E S H I P O F T H E L I N E I N C O M B AT ?
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[ 5 . 2 .1 ] W H A T S H O U L D I D O O N C E C O M B A T S T A R T S ?
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[ 5 . 2 . 2 ] O K , I ' V E DA M AG E D T H E E N E M Y A N D C L O S E D I N T O C H A I N S H O T R A N G E . N OW W H AT ?
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[5.2.3] THE ENEMY'S IN BAD SHAPE, AND I'M CLOSING INTO GRAPES H O T R A N G E . H OW D O I E N D I T ?
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[ 5 . 2 . 4 ] W H AT S H O U L D I D O W H E N AT TAC K I N G S M A L L S H I P S T H AT A R E
FA S T E N O U G H T O E S C A P E ?
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[ 5 . 3 ] H OW D O E S P L AY I N G W I T H T H E S A I L S H E L P M E U S E M Y S O L I N
C O M B AT ?
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[ 5 . 4 ] S U M M A RY O N S O L C O M B AT
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[ 6 ] H OW D O I M A K E L O T S O F S O L S C O M E O U T ?
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[ 6 .1 ] W H A T I S A " K I L L I N G F I E L D " ?
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[ 6 . 2 ] W H I C H S TA RT I N G E R A A N D N AT I O N S H O U L D I C H O O S E ?
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[ 6 . 3 ] W H AT D O I D O O N C E I ' V E S TA RT E D T H E GA M E ?
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[ 6 . 4 ] I ' V E G O T T E N M E N , M O N E Y, A N D A G O O D S H I P. W H A T D O I D O
NEXT?
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[ 6 . 5 ] W H E N D O I G E T T O H AV E F U N ?
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[ 6 . 6 ] H OW D O I G E T M O R E T H A N O N E S O L ?
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Headrocks Guide

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Sashanans Guide
[ 1 ] I N T RO D U C T I O N
Arr! Only one more arr in this document, promise. After the release of Pirates! in 1987 and the subsequent
appearance of Pirates Gold, it's been very quiet for years. November 2004, however, brought a full remake
of the game to the PC, all updated to meet modern expectations in terms of graphics, and with the gameplay fully redone as well. The concept is still the same: sail around the Caribbean, plunder ships and ports,
and retire a wealthy and high ranking privateer who has saved as many of his missing family members as he
can. That part hasn'tchanged. Everything else has, though; the game centers around a set of fully redone
minigames, and to be successful at Sid Meier's Pirates, you'll need to master them. Additionally, an overall
strategy is still required to get the most out of your pirating career.
Sid Meier's Pirates comes with a very good manual, and the purpose of this FAQ is not to restate what's already in there. Consider this a hint book, rather, meant to add to the information already in the game's
documentation. This FAQ is based on my own experiences and those of others I've discussed the game with
online, and has a twofold purpose: to inform you about the game's concepts in more detail than the manual
does, and to give you the advice you need to become a superior pirate.
This FAQ was written with the PC version of Sid Meier's Pirates in mind, and reflects the changes made in
the v1.0.2 patch. The XBox and PSP versions of the game, while very similar, have some differences; if
you're playing either, you'll find that not all the info in this guide applies to your version of the game. I've
noted what differences I know of between the versions in paragraph 10.2, but I dont have access to these
versions of the game myself. Ive had to rely on information I've been able to find online or get from other
players.
Veterans of either or both of the previous Pirates games - the original Sid Meier's Pirates and Pirates Gold may want to read paragraph 10.1 which gives a quick overview of the differences between the new game and
the old ones.
Although I consider this FAQ completed, future updates based on new insights or useful reader input are
not ruled out. The latest version of this guide can always be found on GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com), so
be sure to check there if you got this guide anywhere else. Might just be an updated version waiting for you.
So, without further ado, on to the 17th century Caribbean!

-5-

[ 2 ] O V E RV I E W
When you are still a boy, your family is enslaved by the evil Marquis de la Montalban, and only you manage
to escape. Ten years later, now a lad of 18, you decide to set sail for the Caribbean to try your luck there,
and hopefully find a trace of your family and get your revenge on the evil Marquis while you're at it.
Every game of Sid Meier's Pirates starts with the creation of a pirate. Except for the very first game after installation, where you only enter a name and all the other options are preset to the easiest available, as a tutorial of sorts.
You also choose a starting nationality by signing up with any of the four captains. Your choice between the
Dutch, English, French and Spanish has some consequences on your starting position, but you are in no
way required to stay with the nation you decide to start with. You can work for or against anybody you
choose and change allegiances however much you want during your career.
Once you've chosen who to sign up with, a short scene describes your voyage to the Caribbean, and how a
mutiny on board eventually sees you as the ship's new captain. As the game begins, you have one ship and a
small crew under your command, and you'll start outside a random port (usually one of some consequence)
of the nation you've chosen to start out with.
From there on, the game is completely in your hands. Where you sail and what you do there is now up to
you. Some of the activities you might engage in are buying and selling goods, plundering and capturing
ships, sacking towns, and getting to work on a variety of quests including hunting down other famous pirates, rescuing missing family members, finding treasure and lost cities, and getting your revenge on the evil
Marquis.
The majority of the game takes place sailing on the world map of the Caribbean, and conducting your
business in ports. Apart from that, most activities are structured as a minigame of sorts, which includes naval battles, land battles, swordfighting, dancing, and sneaking in/out of hostile ports. All these activities are
described in detail in this FAQ.
Version 1.4 of this guide introduced a section on overall game strategy, containing my thoughts on how to
best get to the maximum fame score of 126. This being an open-ended game, there are, of course, many other ways to get there. You'll find the new information in paragraph 4.6.

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[ 3 ] C H A R AC T E R C R E AT I O N
Except for your very first game session, every game requires you to select various options before you begin.
Specifically, you must choose a name, a difficulty level, a special skill, an era and a starting nationality. The
last two also determine your starting ship.

NAME
This is purely cosmetic, so pick whatever has your fancy. My only advice here is to remember that if you
name yourself Jack Sparrow, you are not the first player to do so. You might also want to steer clear from
naming yourself Blackbeard, as there already *is* a Blackbeard among the other pirates in the game. Otherwise, your name (obviously) has no effect on gameplay, so if you want to go into history as Duke Bob the
privateer, nobody's stopping you.

DIFFICULTY LEVEL
There are five difficulty levels in Sid Meier's Pirates, and they affect many different factors. As such, the difference between the levels is quite significant, to the point where the first one is very easy (at least once you
get used to the game), and the highest is almost sadistic. I strongly recommend starting low (especially if this
is your first Pirates game) and going up once you grow more confident. The following aspects of the game
are affected by the difficulty level chosen:
- Apprentice level has a lot of tutorial messages and visual hints during minigames that you don't get on any
other levels. This goes as far as governors offering you a free training session with their swordmaster if you
lose a sword fight on this level.
- Enemies, on the whole, strike more quickly in sword fights on higher levels. It varies per enemy and depends on the advantage bar as well, but in general you can expect harder fights on higher levels.
- Enemy AI in naval battles improves on higher levels, and the enemy is capable of quicker turns and sailing.
You'll find enemies circle or escape you much more easily on higher levels. In addition, on Apprentice, the
top speed of your ship is two knots higher than its normal maximum; on Journeyman, one knot. On Adventurer both you and the enemy are limited by the normal max speeds for your ships, and on Rogue and
Swashbuckler they get the advantage by one or two knots. This seriously impacts your ability to catch smaller ships on the highest levels as they can reach impossible speeds.

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- The damage dealt by your cannons and those of the enemy is dependent on level. On lower levels, you'll
do a lot of damage while enemy cannons barely faze you. On higher levels, it will be the other way around.
- Your crew will remain happy for longer on lower levels (see paragraph 4.2).
- You require less map pieces for the various map quests on lower levels. Often you will receive several at once instead of one corner at a time.
- On higher levels, dance sequences contain more complex move combinations and there are also more different music styles; some quicker, others having a tricky rhythm.
- You tend to lose more crew in naval and land battles on higher levels, making it harder to keep your crew
at a decent size. On the highest levels, there's a real risk of running out of recruits in friendly ports, especially when starting out.
- The camera zooms in farther on your party during treasure hunting sequences on higher levels, giving you
less of an overview of your surroundings. You'll need to get closer to landmarks or your target before you
can see them.
- Guards are more numerous during sneaking sequences on higher levels, making it harder to remain unseen. The size of the town garrison appears to be a factor in this as well.
- Nations are much more forgiving to pirates on lower levels. The higher the level, the more likely you are to
get a reward on your head and pirate hunters after you if you attack a nation's shipping or towns.
- Opposition on miniquests (such as escorting a new governor) is stiffer on higher levels. On lower levels, a
single privateer is spawned to thwart you, but on higher levels, itll be two and on Swashbuckler, three.
- The wind is less predictable on higher levels, and harder to sail against. On Apprentice, the wind is *always* straight west. On higher levels, it changes much more, though it will still tend toward west.
- On higher levels, information on towns on your map does not stay up to date as long.
- On the lowest levels, when you start the game, an enemy trade ship will spawn just outside of the first port
after you talk to the governor, for an easy first target. On higher levels, the governor will instead let you
know that he's sending a warship to blockade an enemy port, and suggest you tag along to bag a few prizes.

There are also two advantages to selecting a higher level (apart from making the game more challenging):
- Your share in the loot when you divide up the plunder is directly based on the difficulty level, allowing you
to get much richer if you're successful on higher levels. Share is as follows:

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- LEVEL

SHARE SIZE

Apprentice

5%

Journeyman

10%

Adventurer

20%

Rogue

30%

Swashbuckler

50%

- If you play on Apprentice, you are not allowed to select a different era than 1660 (which is, incidentally,
the easiest one).

The transition from Rogue to Swashbuckler level in particular is a difficult one. At this point, smaller ships
become particularly hard to catch because their speed bonus and your penalty now put you 4 knots apart,
hard to compensate for. More importantly, at this point rapier-armed enemies in sword battles may become
impossibly fast if the advantage bar swings their way.

SPECIAL SKILL
You can choose one of five special skills when you start the game. Each offers an advantage in a specific area. You can use this to tone down the difficulty somewhat in an area you have trouble with; for instance, if
you like the Adventurer difficulty level but find that swordfighting becomes too hard for your taste there,
you can compensate that by picking the Fencing skill. Which skill is the best to pick depends on your playing style; they're fairly well balanced. Your options are:

FENCING Makes your character quicker in sword fights, both on the attack and the defense. All moves can
be pulled off quicker. This skill also appears to improve the chance that dodging at just the right moment
makes your character counterattack automatically. This is a solid choice because you will probably do more
swordfighting than anything else. Especially on the higher levels this might be your best bet, especially once
your character's swordplay slows down because of old age. On Swashbuckler level, I go with this one without
question.

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NAVIGATION Makes your ships move quicker both on the world map and in battle, which is especially
useful when sailing against the wind. You'll find this a good choice if you get annoyed by the long time it
takes to sail from west to east, or if you get outmaneuvered during battle a lot. Navigation skill basically
makes the game more forgiving in these areas, allowing you to focus on the action. It is my personal favorite
for most levels as I hate having to crawl back to the east, but on Swashbuckler I cannot go without fencing
skill.

GUNNERY Lets your crew load their guns more quickly and makes the game more forgiving in terms of
accuracy. Since hitting enemies on higher levels can be tricky, Gunnery skill can make the difference there.
This one's not particularly popular since many people prefer not to fire on enemies too much to keep their
ships intact. But don't discard it too quickly; it also makes the difference when using different types of ammo that don't harm ships so much, and having the ability to get off good Grape Shots can be very important on higher levels.

WIT AND CHARM This skill makes the dancing minigame a lot more forgiving, and since most players
consider that the hardest part of the game, that is a very important consideration. Like the dancing items,
this skill gives you a set percentage to avoid stumbling when you input an incorrect move. It does not appear
to protect you if you fail to input a move at all (which the dancing items do).
While the scope of this skill is limited, it does make a difficult but very rewarding (in terms of items and
information) minigame considerably easier. As such, you may find Wit and Charm every bit as useful as the
more direct special skills.
Additionally, Wit and Charm has been reported to lower the minimum rank requirements for getting invited to the ball by an attractive or beautiful governors daughter (normally Colonel and Baron respectively). I
havent been able to confirm this yet.

MEDICINE If you feel you don't really need any of the skills above, Medicine will prove useful. It basically
extends the health of your pirate, allowing you longer careers before your health gets in the way of your ability to fight properly. You'll be able to start new expeditions for longer, and hold off the ill effects of age for
longer as well. The difference is significant but not earth shattering; expect to get about 4 more years out of
your pirate.

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STARTING ERA
Except on the Apprentice level, you can pick five different eras to start your career in. The era you choose
affects the balance of power between the nations and the relative wealth of each. Generally speaking, the
effect is like this:
- In earlier eras, Spain is much more powerful and the other nations only have a few small colonies. In later
eras, the other nations become more powerful at the expense of Spain. In 1660, all nations have a few viable
ports, and in 1680 Spain is only a little more powerful than the rest.
- The overall wealth of all ports increases in later eras. In 1680, all nations (not just Spain) have a lot of
wealthy ports and ships full of gold sailing around. On the other hand, Spain is richer in the earlier eras;
you can definitely become a very rich man in the 1600s, but you won't have nearly as many ports to run off
to for repairs (and you likely won't have any good places to sell off captured cargo).
- In earlier eras, nations have less resources at their disposal to ward off piracy. There's less to be plundered,
but it's also not as well protected. As time goes by, piracy is taken more seriously and nations work harder to
prevent it. In 1680, pirate hunters are as common as pirates and any attempt to make off with the great
wealth of just about any nation will result in harsh retribution.
For the most part, 1660 is the most balanced and easiest era. It's the default era for a reason, and if you play
on Apprentice you can't even choose a different one. Picking different eras makes for a slightly different and
more challenging experience. 1680 is of special interest to players who'd like to work *for* Spain instead of
against it for a change; it's the only era in which the other nations have almost as much to plunder. Just be
aware that you'll face a lot more resistance than usual.

NATIONALITY
What nation you work for and who you pick as your enemies can affect your game quite a bit. However,
your starting nationality has very little impact on this. You don't have to keep working for whoever you start
out with; you don't even have to work for them at all. You can betray them right away if you so choose, regain their trust a year later and then betray them again. In that sense, what nationality you pick to start with
is mostly a cosmetic choice. It affects the following:
- You always start out near a port of some significance belonging to the nation you signed up with.

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- You get a ship based on the nationality and era you chose. In 1660, this is always a Sloop, but in the other
eras your starting ship changes depending on the nation you choose. Check just below in the 'starting ship'
subsection for the whole list.
- The nation you start out with gives you a free Letter of Marque when you visit a governor for the first time
(though on Apprentice level, they all do this).
Regardless of which nation you start out with, the following is of note when working for specific nations
(assuming the 1660 era):

DUTCH Ports of call aren't very widespread if you side with the Dutch. You've got St. Martin and St. Eustatius next to each other in the east, and Curacao as a lone haven (quite a wealthy one, even) on the Spanish
Main. The English and French don't have any ports near the Spanish Main, so Curacao is actually an important advantage. If you decide to side with the Dutch, you might find it a good idea to stay friendly with
either the English or the French as well, or capture some more home ports for when you're a long way from
both St. Eustatius and Curacao. Port Royale is a good place to have on your side, one way or another.

ENGLISH The English have their ports spread out pretty well, so they're easy to work for. The only place
where you won't find any refuge is on the Spanish Main, so if you do your plundering there, you may find it
beneficial to keep the Dutch on your good side so you can flee to Curacao when necessary. Or you could
just try to take over a few of those easier to capture ports like Rio de La Hacha and Gibraltar. One disadvantage of the English is that Barbados, the best place to sell goods for high prices, is somewhat remote.
But Port Royale is nice and central, there's a bunch of ports huddled together on the east side of the map
(perfect for recruiting) and a few desolate havens in the far north.

FRENCH Like the English, they have a good presence in different parts of the Caribbean. No less than four
ports are available just to the east of Jamaica (where Port Royale is), and south of the Dutch and English
presence in the east you'll find three French ports in a row. To the north, Florida Keys is nicely situated for
raids on Havana and further west. The Spanish Main itself, however, has no French ports anywhere near it.
Once again, you'll find it useful to either befriend the Dutch and sail from Curacao, or capture a smaller
port or two for your own use.

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SPANISH Working for the Spanish appears counterintuitive at first, because that means the best targets are
not available for you. However, there are advantages: all those wealthy ports will buy the goods you steal
from the other nations off you for very high prices, and wherever you are sailing, there's almost always a
good sized Spanish port nearby to replenish your crew and get your ships repaired. Just how viable working
for the Spanish is depends on the era you chose; in 1600, there's not much to attack that isn't Spanish, but
in 1680 there is plenty for you to prey on, and you can easily afford to be hunted by all other nations at the
same time. The one thing you might want to refrain from is to take over other nations' ports and give them
to the Spanish, lest you run yourself out of targets. A favorite approach of mine is to leave working for Spain
(to achieve Duke rank with them) for last, and win their favour mostly by recapturing ports I took from
them earlier in the game.

STARTING SHIP
This is not something you get to choose directly. However, what ship you start with is determined by the era
and nationality you chose. In 1660, the default era, you get a Sloop no matter who you sail for, but in the
other eras there's quite a different selection. This alone may be a reason for you to pick a nationality that
starts with a proper ship. For instance, if you decide to play a 1600 game, you probably don't want to be
Dutch, unless the idea of capturing a proper ship with only a lousy Fluyt at your disposal sounds like a fun
challenge. I've included a 'suitability' column for a quick idea of which ships are viable for piracy and which
aren't.
Starting ships based on era and nationality are as follows:

ERA

NATIONALITY

STARTING SHIP

SUITABILITY

1600

Dutch

Fluyt

very low (1)

1600

English

Merchantman

medium

1600

French

Sloop

high

1600

Spanish

Pinnace

medium

1620

Dutch

Brig

very high (2)

1620

English

Brigantine

high

1620

French

Barque

low

1620

Spanish

Pinnace

medium

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1640

Dutch

Brigantine

high

1640

English

Sloop

high

1640

French

Pinnace

medium

1640

Spanish

Mail Runner

very high (3)

1660

Dutch

Sloop

high

1660

English

Sloop

high

1660

French

Sloop

high

1660

Spanish

Sloop

high

1680

Dutch

Sloop of War

very high

1680 English

Sloop of War

very high

1680 French

Brigantine

high

1680 Spanish

Fast Galleon

low (4)

1: there's something very sadistic about having to start with the single worst ship in the game for piracy purposes. Capture something slightly better, but easy to catch to start out with; a Merchantman, perhaps, preferably a Brigantine. Then use that to get something even better. Trying to capture a Sloop or something with
the Fluyt is pointless unless you're playing on a low level; you'll never catch it.
2: this is one of the best starting ships in the game. Brigs are very powerful and well balanced.
3: excellent ship, but for experts only. Its strength comes from its awesome speed and agility, but it can't carry a lot of crew or guns. You'll come to appreciate this kind of ship as you get better at ship and sword combat, and play the higher levels. Also, since the Mail Runner is one of the toughest ships to find in the game,
starting with one is a tempting offer indeed.
4: while the Fast Galleon is a combat ship, it's pretty slow, worth it only for its high gun count and max
crew. Neither of which you will have early in the game, and its inability to catch smaller ships on high levels
will likely infuriate you. On Rogue or Swashbuckler, you'd need to capture a Merchantman or something to
have a shot at getting a Brig or a Sloop next.

[ 4 ] S T R AT E G I E S
This section describes overall gameplay strategies, not specifically related to any of the minigames. For those,
refer to section 5.

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[ 4 .1 ] C R E W A N D R E C RU I T I N G
Your crew is central to all your pirating efforts. They sail your ships and fight your battles. The more crew
you have under your command, the bigger the targets you can face, and the more you can afford to lose.
This doesn't mean, though, that a bigger crew is always better. The more men you have, the more food you
need to stock to keep them fed, and the harder it is to keep them happy. Unhappy crews appear to be lost
more easily in combat, and may even become mutinous if you don't tend to them soon. Keeping your crew
happy is mostly a matter of satisfying their greed, but there are a couple of factors.
You start each game with 40 men, and the first thing you'll want to do is recruit more. Since you always start
just outside a friendly port, the best thing to do is visit it and go to the tavern to pick up a few more men.
After that, for the rest of the game, your options are as follows:
- Recruiting from taverns. Can be done at any town and pirate haven; not at settlements. When you've just
done this at a specific town you can't do it again for a while. How many men you can recruit is affected by
the following factors:
- your rank with the nation in question; Captains receive a bonus to recruiting, and Barons receive an even
bigger one.
- the wealth of the town (richer towns have more job opportunities and thus less people looking for a captain to sail with).
- the size of the town (bigger towns yield more recruits).
- whether or not you have recruited here before recently (new recruits take time to amass).
- the happiness of your current crew (you get less new recruits if your crew morale is already low).
- your reputation for having profitable voyages. Basically, if this isn't your first expedition in this game, the
crew share of your past voyages will apply a positive or negative bonus to all recruiting. I have no details on
this, but the manual mentions it and it does feel like it makes a difference; Im never short of recruits after
having divided up a good amount of plunder once before.
- Recruiting from other ships. If you defeat an enemy ship and a lot of its sailors survive, some of them
might be willing to join you instead. The size of your current crew and their happiness are also a factor in
this. For the most part, this method is less reliable; it's good to replace losses taken in battle, but if you need
to get more men you're generally better off finding them on shore.

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- Sailors picked up after theyve been thrown overboard in battle by cannon impacts. Such sailors are added
directly to your crew for the duration of the battle, but it seems like only half of them stay on afterward.
The impact on your game is usually negligible.
You have a maximum crew size determined by what ships you have. For instance, say you have one Royal
Sloop (max 125) and one Barque with the Triple Hammocks upgrade (max 100, increased by 50% for Triple
Hammocks, so 150). This lets you have a maximum crew of 275. Contrary to what the manual states, you
cannot go over this. Excess crew is lost as you lose/sell ships, and any excess you recruit is ignored. Losing
crew this way is, by the way, painless. They do not take any gold along.
Your crew is automatically divided among all your ships. Each ship has a minimum crew requirement,
which is higher for bigger ships and also goes up a lot if a ship is damaged. After each ship you have has been assigned the minimum number of men, the remainder fill up your flagship; these are the men you'll use
in ship battles. If you change your flagship, your crew is immediately and automatically rearranged. If you
capture extra ships, always make sure to check how many men remain for your flagship. If you're in the habit of badly damaging ships before you capture them, you may be surprised by how many men have to be
relegated to keeping them afloat. You do *not* want to accidentally enter a difficult ship battle and then
notice there's only 20 men on your flagship. Also, if you should ever have so many (damaged) ships and so
little crew that you cannot meet the minimum staffing on all your ships, your fleet's speed is reduced. That's
a good time to limp to the nearest port, or if none are in sight, to let go of some of your most damaged prizes.
Crew can be lost in ship and land battles. However, not all the crew that goes down in either battle is necessarily dead (or at least too injured to continue sailing); some of them are only down for the duration of the
battle. In land battles, this is particularly noticeable. In ship battles, you only seem to get wounded men
back after the battle if you have a Surgeon. Surgeons, incidentally, cut permanent casualties in half.

[4.2] CREW HAPPINESS

DETERMINING HAPPINESS
Recruiting a crew is one thing; keeping them happy is a different story entirely. Crew happiness is one of
the most complicated (and, unfortunately, obscure) calculations in the game. Courtesy of Wes Atkinson, I
can finally provide the full formula on this - see the details in paragraph 7.9. I will summarize the findings
here.

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Crew happiness is primarily a factor of three things:

- the size of your crew;
- the size of the loot in your holds;
- how long your current expedition has lasted.
Basically, your crew happiness is determined by the amount of gold in your holds divided by the size of your
crew. Plus the longer you have been at sea, the more gold your crew expects to see for their trouble when
you finally divide up the plunder. If your voyage is taking too long and youre not bringing in enough gold,
your crew will become unhappy and eventually mutinous.
The share per crew member can, of course, be increased in two ways: either find more gold, or reduce your
crew size. Your crew doesn't care if you have 20000 gold to be divided up among 50 men, or 40000 among
100. It's the same to them. Thus, losing crew in battle can boost happiness among the survivors as much as
plundering a fat target can.
Contrary to what Ive stated in earlier versions of the guide, how much of the share goes to you as a captain
does *not* factor into this. On Swashbuckler level, half the loot goes to you, leaving a lot less to be divided
among the crew than on Apprentice. But the crew does not seem to realize this what matters is the amount of gold in your hold, not how much is shown as each crew members individual share when you
(prepare to) divide up the plunder.
Apart from this basic calculation, there are other factors that impact the happiness of your crew. Having the
Cook specialist, as does having the 3- Stringed Fiddle or even the Concertina. The Quartermaster is likewise
supposed to boost morale, but does not actually seem to do anything. The other three effects will basically
make your crew more forgiving, and let you get away with longer voyages (or bigger crews) without loot to
match.
But with or without them, in the end it comes down to keeping your loot growing, and the larger your crew,
the more loot it takes. This is the primary reason why you should not keep a bigger crew around than you
need. If you're only hitting small ships, don't take 500 men with you. That kind of crew is only needed if
you intend to take over large cities. For the most part, I find around 200 men sufficient for expeditions that
don't involve attacking well defended towns. Plenty to win even tough ship battles. If you maintain multiple
ships, you may need a few more to keep enough men on your flagship.
As you get better at ship battles and the usually ensuing sword fights afterwards, you may find you can make
do with even smaller crews and make it that much easier to stay at sea for a long time without mutiny. How

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small a crew you can risk will depend on your own skill level and the difficulty level you've chosen. My personal preference for sailing a sole Royal Sloop on the highest difficulty levels caps my crew at 187 (with Triple Hammocks), which is usually enough but makes land battles tricky, and also means Ill have to stop for
new recruits if I lose too many.
Since crew happiness becomes harder to maintain late in an expedition, you will find it relatively easier to
have a large crew during the early parts of a voyage. If you have both city and ship attacks in mind, consider
getting a large crew quickly at the start of an expedition, plundering the fattest cities in the Caribbean, then
reducing your crew size and going after ships for a few years before dividing up the plunder, after which you
can repeat the cycle. Crew reduction can be accomplished by deliberately losing men in battle, or by selling
so many ships that you're forced to leave some crew behind. Either method gets rid of some crew while leaving the loot in your hold untouched.
You'll also need to make sure you keep your crew fed. If it's large, you will need to take a lot of food along,
which can get expensive and takes up a lot of cargo space. A Cooper specialist helps keep food from spoiling, effectively halving the rate at which it is consumed; thus you can get away with buying less. Running
out of food is no fun - your crew can go from full happiness to full mutiny very quickly if you starve them.
Don't let it happen. If you're going on a long voyage with little food, restock at settlements and villages along
the way. If you are really running low on food, attack any ship you see to plunder their food stores. If it actually belongs to a nation you are trying to win the favour of, too bad. You can make it up with them later
when your men aren't hungry.
In the end, you'll find it harder and harder to keep your crew satisfied as your expedition goes on. Usually,
you will have to divide up the plunder eventually, and start with a fresh crew if you intend to ever see them
happy again rather than bordering on mutiny. Dividing up the plunder has two disadvantages:
1. You get to keep only one ship (so you'll have to sell off the rest, like it or not);
2. You lose 7 months of game time starting your new expedition.
You also start with a small crew of 40 again, but if your last expedition was profitable, you'll be able to recruit new men very quickly, so that's usually not a big concern. You'll have it right back up to size by visiting
just a few ports. The real pain is if you used to rely on several ships. Perhaps you used both a Royal Sloop
and a Ship of the Line and switched depending on what you were attacking. In that case, you'll now have to
make a choice as one of the ships has to go.

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Most players prefer to stretch their expeditions for as long as possible to minimize the downtime between
expeditions. How far you can stretch is mostly dependent on the difficulty level and, as mentioned before,
the size of your crew.
However, there is a cutoff point where, if your loot is especially big compared to your crew size, your men
will never become unhappy even if you keep them at sea forever. This is due to the fact that after a certain
amount of time varying per level but its roughly six and a half years the crews gold demands stop increasing. After you get past this point, adding on 10, 20, even 30 more years does not reduce your crews
happiness further. So if you gather enough gold per crew member to keep them happy (or, at least, anything
better than mutinous), you can sail forever.
The exact calculation for the cutoff is described in paragraph 7.9, but the rule of thumb is 1000 gold per
crew member to keep your crew from sinking below unhappy, and thus never becoming mutinous. Likewise, roughly 2000 will fix them at content and roughly 3000 at happy. The obvious problem with this is
that 3000 per crew member is a lot, requiring you to either have stacks and stacks of gold in your holds, or
to have a very small crew. 1000, however, can realistically be done by going after the most profitable quests
in the game, like getting revenge on Montalban and finding the Lost Cities. Montalban alone provides enough gold to keep a crew of 100 sailing forever add all four of the Lost Cities and you could do the same
with 300.
To take advantage of the above, you'll have to get used to sailing with a small crew. I wouldn't worry about
doing this until you're an experienced player - having to divide up the plunder isn't THAT bad. But once
you're at the level where you want to minimize your downtime as much as possible, or if you frequently
make use of different ship types that you don't want to give up, it's something to keep in mind. I find that
on the higher difficulty levels, I usually end up having to divide the plunder once about 5 years in, then for
the second expedition I nail Montalban after about as many years and never see a mutiny again.

CONSEQUENCES OF AN UNHAPPY CREW

Unfortunately, the manual isn't very clear on which aspects of the game are affected by having an unhappy
crew, and it's hard to tell in playing the game exactly where happiness factors in. There's a few clear spots,
but rumours fly on forums about a host of other things it might or might not affect. Over time Ive come to
believe that most of these are either untrue or have so little impact that its hard to tell the difference. Nonetheless, Ill list the suggested areas.

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The following have been confirmed to be affected by crew happiness:

- If a crew becomes mutinous, some of them may abandon you while in port; they do not appear to take any
gold along if they do, though, so this is mostly painless. However, if it has come to this, you'll find it hard to
recruit new crew anymore and should consider dividing up the plunder soon.
- At sea, only if you have more than one ship, mutinous crew may attempt to depart with one of your other
ships. If they do, they take more than their fair share of cargo and gold along as well. You can, however, overtake and recapture your mutineers to get your gold back. This kind of mutiny never occurs on your
flagship.
- If your current crew is unhappy with you, it becomes harder to get fresh recruits. Eventually you may find
it impossible to maintain a crew size you can get anything done with.
- Unhappy crews are poorly motivated in ship battles, and will take noticeably longer to reload your cannons, or raise and lower your sails. Crew morale is also a factor in determining, during boardings, which
side loses men every couple of seconds. Unhappy crews get picked off far quicker during prolonged battles.
The following have been *suggested* to be affected by crew morale, but I have been unable to confirm them
one way or the other (though they seem plausible enough):
- Unhappy crews may perform poorly in land battles, although it must be noted that the morale your units
have within those battles is unaffected by crew happiness. You'll never see units starting at 'angry' or worse
even if your crew is mutinous.
- Unhappy crews may cause your turning rate to drop in ship battles.
- Unhappy crews may cause your sailing speed to drop in and out of ship battles.

[4.3] GOLD AND PLUNDER

Although wealth only makes up a fifth of your final fame score, you'll likely be pursuing gold as your main
objective throughout the game anyway. If only because that is what your crew is after, and if you don't keep
gold pouring into your holds, they will soon become unhappy. Some good ways to make gold are:

PLUNDERING SHIPS
This is the most obvious one and probably what you'll spend most of your time doing. Any ship you capture
is likely to at least carry some gold which goes directly into your hold, and possibly valuable cargo as well

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which you can sell for gold later. How profitable this is depends a lot on the targets you are striking. Bear
the following in mind:
- Indian War Canoes bear either no or very little gold. Not worth it; only attack these to win the approval of
European nations. Warships of most kinds also have little in the way of gold and goods, though there are
exceptions. For the most part, neither of these targets will be a good choice if it's gold you are after, though
both are advantageous for promotions (hunting Indians makes you popular with all four nations, and warships will boost your reputation quicker than trade vessels).
- Grain Transports usually have little gold, and only food on board. You can safely ignore these if your crew
is not close to starving and you're not particularly interested in attacking ships of that specific nation for
rank purposes.
- Regular merchant ships (the ones without any special label on them) tend to have a decent amount of gold
and cargo, sometimes low value (goods/sugar), sometimes high value (luxuries/spice). Loot varies a lot on
the small ship types (Trade Galleon/Merchantman/Fluyt), but if you see a bigger ship in one of those classes, it's usually bigger for a reason. They tend to have a good supply of gold and cargo. Also, if any merchant
ship has an escort, that's a clear sign it has something worth protecting on board. Escorted ships rarely disappoint, but obviously you do have to deal with the escort. Occasionally you may find that it's the escort
that carries the bulk of the gold.
- Smugglers tend to have nice cargo (a small load of Luxuries or Spice) and a little gold as well. In addition,
smugglers have a higher than usual chance of having specialists on board. As an extra bonus, they tend to be
easy targets; only the lucky ones sailing Brigantines pose some threat. The main problem with smugglers
comes into play only on Rogue and Swashbuckler levels, where small ships like Pinnaces become increasingly hard to catch.
- Unnamed pirates are sometimes down on their luck and sometimes they had a good run before you catch
them. You can never be sure, but it's usually worth it to go after them. If nothing else, it'll improve your reputation with all four nations at once. They carry only gold and usually no decent goods.
- Ships carrying immigrants or transporting new governors tend to have a good amount of gold; presumably
the personal fortune of their passengers. Immigrant ships have the added advantage that they have the best
chance in the game of carrying specialists. Both are fairly easy targets, too.
- Military payroll and treasure ships have good amounts of gold on board, easy profit which doesn't require
you to sell cargo first. Payroll ships tend to have hard cash only; treasure ships often have a good load of Lu-

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xuries and Spices in addition to it. The Treasure Fleet, if you can find it, consists of several Treasure Galleons with a better amount of gold than normal, depending on how far it was on its route when you grabbed
it (see paragraph 6.8). Be aware that both payroll carriers and treasure ships will usually be well defended, so
don't bite off more than you can chew. The Treasure Fleet is an especially dangerous mark; if you attack one
ship, you can expect a second Treasure Galleon to jump in as an escort, both brandishing 30 guns. Ive lost
more than one flagship in the crossfire.
- Named villains are always fat targets. Mendoza has 2000 gold, Raymondo 3000 and Montalban 5000, every time you capture their ship. If you spot one, take them out immediately; but be wary, they're among the
tougher targets.
- Named pirates have the best loot of all, especially the most famous ones.
Furthermore, their loot increases over the course of the game, as you get 10% of what the Top 10 Pirates
screen lists as the total amount of gold theyve plundered. I've heard of one lucky player who got no less
than 70000 off Henry Morgan's ship. More realistically, you can expect to get at least 12000 off him, and up
to 30000 if you capture him after 15 years or so in the game. Do make sure you have what it takes to take
these guys down, as the more notorious pirates sail very powerful ships.
- If you frequently talk to barmaids, you will be dropped hints about nearby ships with a lot of gold on
board. This can be any ship that carries at least 700 gold; I've once been pointed to Raymondo's ship this
way. Usually the ships that get pointed out like this are payroll carriers or treasure ships, but occasionally it's
a completely random ship (I've even gotten 1200 gold off an Indian War Canoe after a barmaid told me to
grab it). Long story short, if you get a hint about a fat target, check its route and see if you can easily go after
it. It is almost always worth doing, and sometimes youll be surprised at what kind of mundane ships secretly carry an enormous treasure.
- Barmaids can also put you on the track of the Spanish Treasure Fleet, or you can easily run into it by accident considering it stops by most of the big Spanish ports. It can be tricky to defeat as all ships in it are well
armed and have large crews, but it's profitable if you're up to the task. Between the gold they carry and the
valuable cargo (depending on which part of the journey they're on), you can usually make a couple thousand gold off each ship.
- It appears that the overall wealth of all ships belonging to a nation is directly affected by the power level of
said nation. Spain's ships, in particular the larger merchant vessels and the payroll carriers, always seem to
be richer than English and French ones, and those in turn seem to be richer than Dutch ones. However, if

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you capture ports for a certain nation and have them become more powerful, their ships seem to gain slowly
as well.
This also appears to cause a weird calculation bug in the unpatched version of the game, if a nation runs
out of ports completely (due to you capturing them all for other nations). Players have reported seeing ships
with ridiculous amounts of gold in them after they've taken out all ports of that nation, and one player reported getting *negative* gold from a ship after this (which also caused his game to crash directly after). This
seems to have been fixed in most cases by the v1.0.2 patch.

PLUNDERING TOWNS
While it takes bigger crews to pull off than plundering ships, you can earn yourself some serious money by
sacking the various towns in the Caribbean. The best targets are Wealthy ones, followed by Prosperous;
Modest isn't really worth doing and if you raid Poor towns for the money, you need to rethink your priorities. (It *is* a sound tactic if you intend to capture the town, though.)
The size of the town is another factor. From what I can tell, the wealth of the town (in terms of poor/prosperous etc.) is a relative indicator depending on the size of the town. A big modest town might still have
more gold among its citizens than a small wealthy one. So, basically, pick a target that looks profitable in all
ways.
It appears that how long it takes you to grab a town i.e. how quickly you resolve the land battle affects
your eventual profit. If so, this is a leftover of the previous Pirates games where youd be informed the town
had been warned of your approach and hidden some (or most) of their gold while you were fighting.
Wealth and strength of defenses in a town are not necessarily balanced. Poor towns might have a surprisingly strong garrison and it's possible that a wealthy town - especially one that became wealthy only recently - is
poorly defended. You don't need me to tell you which of these two examples would be the better target to
go after.
Here are a few tips on plundering towns:
- Be sure to talk to mysterious travellers at all times, and to stop in ports whenever you have the time, to
keep your information on as many towns as possible up to date. Visiting a port will update your information on it, and travellers can give you free information on a random other town. You can review this information when you click on a town on the world map. On lower levels, information about a town sticks on your
map for longer, whereas on the higher levels you will have to rely much more on travellers and your own

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visits to keep your map updated. Often you get information about a town just by sailing close to it without
actually having to enter. This will save you a little (game) time, as every visit to a port takes a week.
- When you attack a town, try to have at least as many pirates as there are soldiers defending it. You *can*
beat greater numbers, especially on lower levels, but it's risky. If your numbers are as good as theirs, you can
be pretty sure you'll win it if you don't make a lot of mistakes. Of course, if you're confident about your ability to win land battles, feel free to go up against superior numbers. The AI generally doesn't play these
battles as well as you can.
- A town's defenses can be softened up by going to a nearby pirate haven or Indian village and convincing
them to attack it. Note that each haven/village can only be set on whatever town belonging to a nation is
closest to them, but you can usually find one (especially if you have the Rutter items). This approach is not
entirely without risk, however. If the attack in question fails (likely if the garrison is bigger than about 300
soldiers, but never a guarantee), the garrison will be thinned out and the town is otherwise not harmed. If
the attack succeeds, on the other hand, it's a different story. A pirate attack will reduce the town's wealth
rating to poor instantly, and a successful Indian attack will scare off a sizable portion of the population.
Both are detrimental to the size of the loot you're going to get. In other words, make use of Indians and pirates only if you don't care about the loot size (perhaps you just want to capture the town?) or if the garrison
is so big that their chances of success are minimal. Unfortunately I don't have good stats on that yet.
- If a town is particularly big and rich and poorly defended, you may sometimes find it worth it to plunder it
twice in a row. If your first attack went well, you will hopefully still have most of your pirates whereas the
garrison is battered and bruised. The second attack will be a piece of cake and you can milk that much more
gold from the town. As an added bonus, the second attack will often let you capture the city for another
nation if the first did not.
- It is possible to soften up a town with a coastal bombardment by pressing the space bar repeatedly when
you are close to it. However, if it's plunder you are after, this is not a good idea. It will only damage the garrison slowly, and do a lot more harm to the town's population and wealth rating. If youre going to do this
at all (I dont bother), reserve it for towns you intend to capture, when you don't care about how much gold
it'll earn you.
- It may be worth it not to always intercept governors of enemy nations if you see them sailing. You can chase them until they enter their destination port and upgrade its economy, then sail in right after them and
plunder the town's newfound wealth before it has a chance to strengthen its garrison.

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- If you are serious about robbing a specific nation's towns, aggressively attack its troop ships and military
payrolls to keep it from strengthening its garrisons. Payroll ships are a good idea anyway; they tend to have a
lot of gold on board. Towns will still gradually increase their garrison size if their economy is in good shape,
but without troop ships and payroll carriers to help them, it's a slow process.

SELLING GOODS
Goods of all kinds can be obtained in two ways: they can be purchased from merchants in towns (and in the
various types of smaller settlements), or they can be stolen off ships you capture. Unlike in the previous Pirates games, you don't get any goods when plundering towns anymore; only gold. No matter how you obtain
your goods, you can then sell them in any town you desire, and if you pick the right place for the right
commodity, you can make a hefty profit. It's even possible to have a moderately successful game as a peaceful trader by buying low and selling high. Some tips for getting a profit off selling goods:
- You have better results selling in the towns of a nation you are a Colonel in, or better yet, a Marquis. These
two ranks give you trading bonuses: the town will have more goods for sale and also have more gold in reserve to buy your goods with. Prices won't be any higher, but at least you won't run the merchant out of gold
before you've unloaded even half your cargo.
- Bigger towns don't necessarily offer better prices, but they do tend to have more gold in reserve. This is a
bit of moot point, however, as you can sail out of a port and right back in after you run the local merchant
out of gold, and he will have a fresh supply of it. The only thing this costs you is time (which you might actually find significant; every town visit takes up a full week of game time).
- Wealthy towns pay better and also have a better gold reserve. If you don't sell in the right towns, you might
find they run out of money before you've unloaded more than a fraction of your cargo. The best towns to
sell in are, unfortunately, Spanish. Since you won't find yourself on Spain's side in most games (presumably
because you're plundering all those wealthy towns), you'll need to know the good places that other nations
have to unload your goods.
Which towns are rich varies a bit from game to game, but safe bets are Curacao (Dutch), Guadeloupe and
Martinique (French) and Barbados (English).
Otherwise, any port that happens to be Prosperous or Wealthy at the time is typically a good place.
- If you do keep Spain on your side, you will find you can make almost as much profit selling stuff to their
richest ports as you can stealing from them. This is particularly true in 1680 when the other nations are rich

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enough for a Spanish privateer to succeed. Cartagena, Havana and Santiago are all very good places to trade. Vera Cruz as well, but it's really out of the way. Panama tends to be the single richest Spanish town there
is, but it's not a port, so you'd need to walk there every time you want to visit it. Panama's the kind of place
that easily pays 40-50 gold for 1 ton of Spice and has enough gold to buy it in bulk, if you dont mind the
long walk.
- The False Mustache and Theatrical Disguise items often let you trade in Spanish ports even if Spain is
hostile to you. Regrettably, they don't help you actually get into the ports, making them fairly pointless as
far as I can see. Typically if you can get into a Spanish port without being fired on, you can probably trade
there as well. The only exception I can think of is if you sack a Spanish town and then visit the merchant
before leaving not exactly a good time to get much profit out of your cargo.
- Goods and Sugar sell well in smaller ports. Spice and Luxuries fetch the best prices in larger ports. Both
fetch better prices in rich ports than poor ones.
For the most part, Spice and Luxuries are more profitable; give these priority if you need to choose what to
steal off a captured ship.
- Settlements often pay very well for goods and missions pay well for food, but both always have very small
supplies of gold. Barely worth it. You *can* do the same thing as you can with ports and just sail out and
back in to sell more, but this is a very tedious process if you have to do it after every five tons of cargo. Not
to mention that this could take weeks, even months of game time. Better to spend all those days attacking
ships.
- For the most part, Spice and Luxuries are worth grabbing off captured ships, and Goods and Sugar less so.
They're a nice bonus if you have the room for it, but they're not where the profit is. Excess food, similarly,
can net you some extra gold but nothing stellar.
- Cannons aren't worth it in terms of selling. This is new to Sid Meier's Pirates, as they fetched a good and
consistent price in the previous games.
Never take cannons along instead of any other kind of cargo; just the max you need for your flagship. You
can take extras if you like in case you lose some in combat, but as soon as you need the room for something
else, ditch the excess cannons.

SELLING SHIPS

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If you capture a ship at sea, it's not just its gold and cargo that is of value to you. The ship itself can be quite
valuable as well, up to 1800 gold for the bigger ships if they have a lot of upgrades. You can actually make a
decent profit just nabbing and selling ships, if you know what you're doing.
Here's what you want to keep in mind:
- Try not to damage your prizes. The repair cost of a damaged ship goes off its selling price, and if the ship is
heavily damaged it may well exceed the prize, leaving the ship at the minimum value of 10 gold - for firewood, probably. Even if you have a Sailmaker and a Carpenter working for you, the repairs they can do to
ships are only minor. Try to board ships without shooting too much at them, and rely mostly on Grape
Shot and a little on Chain Shot if you do need to fire a few broadsides. Round Shot is devastating, especially in numbers, and you can forget about getting much of a profit if you shoot a lot of holes in the enemy's
hull. Not to mention the fuss of actually bringing a heavily damaged ship home.
- A Major gets cheaper repairs in port, and can thus get away better with damaging his prizes a little. If
you're a Count, repairs are free, and at that point it doesn't matter anymore if you bring half-destroyed ships
in. But they will still slow you down while you've got them in your fleet, and tie up a lot of your crew.
- If you can have a ship repaired for free (Count rank or higher), you do not need to have your ship repaired
before you sell it. The selling price is automatically fixed to that of an undamaged ship, saving you a mouse
click.
- A Duke gets to upgrade ships for free. If you're lucky enough to be a Duke with any nation, bring your
ships there to sell, and upgrade them before selling to increase the value of the ship.
- You can only have a maximum of 8 ships in your fleet. Plan a return to a friendly port (preferably one
where you have a high rank) when you get close to that maximum. And keep an eye on your crew, so you
don't end up short as it is divided over the ships. If you have little crew left on your flagship you will find it
hard to win any more battles. Even worse, if you don't have enough crew to meet the minimum requirements of all your ships, you will slow down a lot.

QUESTS
The most important source of money in the game is undertaking quests. There are a bunch of different ones, some random and recurring, some set. And some are worth a lot more than others. The following
quests will bring in money for you:

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- Capturing a fugitive criminal: a reward between 1000 and 5000 gold, and easy to get. Get these quests by
dancing with governor's daughters. You get them with a moderate dance from a plain looking daughter already, and as a substitute for various other (better) rewards if they no longer apply. You may find yourself
swimming in these quests in the late game. See paragraph 6.1 for more information.
- Finding a buried pirate treasure: between 2000 and 10000 gold. Talk to travellers in taverns to get map
pieces for this. See paragraph 6.3. for more information.
- Defeating a named pirate: depending on the notoriety of the pirate and how long the game has run on,
you get a sizable chunk of money off their ships.
They start with roughly as much money as their buried treasure (slightly less), but their wealth increases over
the course of the game as they plunder more ships. You can easily get double or even triple the value of
their buried treasure if you only take them out many years after the start of the game. To determine in
advance how much you'll get for defeating a pirate, check their plunder in the top 10 pirates list (updated
monthly), and divide by ten.
- Finding a lost city: this brings in a whopping 50000 gold, but it's hard to do. Get map pieces by rescuing
family members or kidnapped governor's daughters, or by dancing perfectly with a beautiful daughter. See
paragraph 6.5. for more information.
- Vanquishing Marquis de la Montalban: the main quest of the game; it's complicated, takes a lot of preparation, and ends with a fairly tough battle (depending on level, though). But for 100000 gold it's hard to say
no. See paragraph 6.6. for the whole story.

[ 4 . 4 ] R A N K S A N D P RO M O T I O N S
One of the most important aspects of your final fame score is the rank you achieve with each of the four
nations. Furthermore, getting rank with any nation gives you certain benefits in their ports which are worth
having.
Getting promoted by any nation is a matter of making them happy with you. This works on a point system,
where certain actions bring in a happiness point and others 2 (possibly more) at once. You cannot look up
the actual tallies, but you can see when you scored points with a nation by calling up the captains log and
looking at the little nation flags next to certain actions like attackin ships and towns. A little flag (with a
[nation] happy tooltip) indicates a happiness point, while a bigger flag (with a very happy caption) indicates at least two, and possibly more. The following actions will bring in points:

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- Attack a ship belonging to a nation they are at war with; especially a warship. Any ship will bring in a
point, and it doesn't matter if you only damage it, capture it or sink it. In the case of a warship, if you capture or sink it, youll get two points. If you damage a ship but then let it get away, it will be listed as engaged a [ship type] and still get you a point. Occasionally you appear to get credit even if you didnt fire on
the ship at all, but not always.
- Plunder a town belonging to a nation they are at war with; the attack must succeed for it to count. This is
worth at least 2 points.
- Capture a town for a nation. It doesn't matter if they're at war with the one you captured it from or not. If
they are, you get the bonuses for both the sacking *and* the capture; they're cumulative. Once again, this is
worth several points.
- Damage, capture or sink any Indian or pirate vessel. All four nations are happy if you do this. Named pirates are worth even more points; you get a point for stopping the ship *and* some points for taking out the
named pirate.
- Stop (= capture or sink) a special ship belonging to an enemy of the nation, like a governor or an invasion
force. You get extra points for this in addition to the ones you already get for capturing an enemy ship in
the first place.
- Escort a special ship belonging to that nation to its destination - e.g. help a governor reach his destination.
For this purpose, it doesn't matter if you were actually assigned to protect this ship, or even if you're near it
when it reaches its destination. If you've just spotted the ship once and it reaches its destination safely later,
you're considered to have helped protect it, even if the nation in question is hostile to you.
Obviously, while attacking a nation's enemies will make that nation happy, these enemies will become unhappy with you at the same time. The impact of attacking a nation's towns or shipping depends on the difficulty level. At Apprentice, you can often get away with helping both sides in a war at once, making a profit
off capturing both sides' ships, and having both nations forgive you because you are also fighting their enemy. On higher levels, the penalties for preying on a nation are much higher, and the same approach
would soon make both of them mad with you. Note that if two nations have a peace treaty - not nearly as
common as war, but it happens - they consider an attack on their ally to be equivalent to an attack on themselves. However, they do not care about you helping their ally in any way; you still need to make them happy
by attacking individual enemies.

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If you score enough points with a nation, they may decide to promote you. How many points it takes is dependent on the difficulty level; you also need more for higher ranks, so that going from Captain to Major is
easier than going from Marquis to Duke. The ranks and their benefits are listen in paragraph 8.6.
Here are some tips to get promotions the easiest:
- Check who is at war with whom, and pick your allegiances early on. Stick with at least one nation, or better yet, two. For instance, if England and France are both at war with Spain, fighting Spain early will win
you the support of both of them. You can often save yourself time in racking up promotions by picking on
the most unpopular nation at any given time.
- When you become a Duke with a certain nation, there are no more promotions to earn. This is the time
to backstab them and work for their enemy if you want to become a Duke with them as well. You can,
however, get easy land grants from a nation that has made you a Duke if you keep working for them. So decide what you're after and pick your targets accordingly.
- To win a former enemy's trust, you could attack whoever they are at war with. For serious cases (large
bounties on your head), it is easier to convince Jesuit missionaries close to that enemy's ports to speak to
them on your behalf. If you pull this off, the nation will immediately drop the price on your head completely, allowing you start working for them with a clean sheet. Individual ports belonging to that nation may
still be hostile if you harassed them badly, however. Finally, if you don't mind spending a little gold, you can
also "buy off" a price on your head. For this you will need to get to speak with a governor, so you may have
to sneak into an enemy town to do this.
- Remember that hunting pirates and Indians makes you popular with all the four nations. If there aren't
any around, you can go to a pirate haven or Indian village, incite them to attack a nearby town, then immediately attack them as they sail out of port. It's despicable, but it works well. Particularly with Indians who
tend to send out three War Canoes at once. Easy to beat, and lots of points scored with all nations. There
are players who reach Duke exclusively by spawning and then destroying Indian and pirate ships all over the
place before they go after any specific nation's shipping. Bear in mind that if native hunting is what you
want to do, especially on high levels of play, you need a small ship to have a realistic shot at catching them.
Pirates may be a better mark on Swashbuckler, although theyll also put up a tougher fight.
- Check back with your benefactor frequently to see if you have a promotion waiting. You will also get hints
if you're close to it ("Soon you'll be promoted to..."). If you wait for a long time and score more points than
you needed, you still get only one promotion, and the excess points are paid off in a land grant (50 acres per

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point). These land grants are very good for your wealth score, but you can also get these *after* you become
a Duke for a certain nation if you keep working for them. They're probably not a priority for you while you
are still rising in rank, but the choice is yours.
- If you've done a lot for a nation, yet you get just one promotion and no land grant, try visiting the governor a second time immediately. Sometimes, land grants do not trigger appropriately for some reason. In this
case you usually get a second promotion straight away and you do get whatever land grant you were entitled
to afterwards. This seems to happen only in the unpatched version of the game.
- If you have a rank with a certain nation, particularly a high one, you can afford to betray them a little and
get away with it. If you persist they will eventually become hostile to you, but they are more forgiving than
usual, and the rank is never lost. Contrary to what the manual states, you do not lose the benefits that come
with the rank either. No matter how hostile Spain is to you, if you're a Count they will repair your ships for
free in their settlements.
(In their cities as well but those you likely won't be able to enter.)

[4.5] SHIPS TO USE

As you will notice if you study paragraph 7.1, there are a lot of different ships in Sid Meier's Pirates; many
more than in its predecessors. It can be quite daunting to make a choice from the 27 ship types. Fortunately, it's not as complicated as it looks.
For one thing, there really are only 9 different classes of ships, and 3 variants of each; a small, a medium
and a large one. In nearly all cases, the medium and large variants perform just as well as the smaller ones,
they just hold more crew, guns and cargo. Within whatever ship class you prefer to use, you are therefore
always best off getting the biggest ship you can get.
Frigates are good, but Large Frigates are better. It's that simple. (The Fluyt class of ships has the only exception, but you shouldn't use Fluyts for combat to begin with. Worst possible choice.)
The question remains, then, which of the 9 ship classes to use. Which is best depends on what you intend
to do with it. Presumably your fleet will consist of one flagship, or two that you alternate between if you like
to have different types available (we'll get to that in a bit). Any other ships you have, not counting captured
prizes that you intend to sell off at port, are likely only cargo or crew haulers, and the only thing you want
from them is that they balance out speed and capacity. The best choice for that is Frigates, but they are typically hard to find. Just getting one as a flagship can be difficult enough. If you can get additional ones, gre-

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at, but you'll likely have to settle for other types. Merchantmen strike the best balance between capacity and
speed; Galleons carry more, but they will slow your fleet down quite a bit.
Your flagship is a different story. You'll be taking this into battle, and thus you want it to be a sturdy warship that's fast, agile and well armed.
Let's have a look at each type of warship:

PINNACE
The Pinnace class includes the smallest ships in the game; they have very low capacity for guns, crew and
cargo, and are very vulnerable in battle. If they get hit, that is; because they are also the fastest and best turning ships, and perform well even against the wind. In the end, though, the weaknesses are a bit too pronounced. I'd say only the Mail Runner is viable whereas the other two simply don't carry enough guns and
crew to be suitable in battle.
To get a Mail Runner, talk to friendly governors and see if one of them will offer you a mission to escort a
ship carrying a peace treaty or an ultimatum.
These ships are often either Mail Runners or Royal Sloops. You will obviously have to betray the nation to
capture the ship, but this is about the only way to get a Mail Runner during the game. They don't spawn
randomly.
The easiest way to get a Mail Runner, if you don't mind playing a different era, is to sign on with the Spanish in a 1640 campaign. You'll start with one if you do.
Note: certain expert players prefer the War Canoe for its high speed and agility. However, as far as I can tell,
the War Canoe has no advantages over the Mail Runner. It should perform precisely the same in combat,
but carry fewer guns and a smaller crew. Either I'm wrong on this (I haven't used Pinnace class ships all that
much), or using a War Canoe rather than a Mail Runner is only a matter of them being easier to find, or
just a prestige thing. It IS quite cool to be kicking ass with the smallest ship in the game, after all. Anyway,
War Canoe or Mail Runner, it's worth considering if you're a veteran player. By then you're hopefully skilled
enough to avoid all enemy fire with it, and to win sword fights quickly enough so that the small crew capacity doesn't put you at risk. The major advantage comes in being able to capture small prey even on the highest levels, where a big Frigate or Brig, and sometimes even a Sloop, has a hard time keeping up with the
speed bonuses your enemies get.

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SLOOP
Sloops are excellent as small ships go. They are still fast, hard to hit and very agile, and they can carry larger
crews than Pinnace types. The Royal Sloop, biggest in this category, and is one of the two most popular choices for flagship. Many people stick with them exclusively for their high speed and the fact that they rarely
seem to take hits in battle. And with Triple Hammocks on them they can carry a respectable crew of 187,
plenty for everything except attacks on well defended ports.
To get a Royal Sloop, either see if you can backstab a nation allowing you to escort a treaty carrier (see under Pinnace), or track down and defeat the notorious pirate Roc Brasiliano, who sails one. Also, Spain may
occasionally send these after you as pirate hunters, and since you'll be clashing repeatedly with Spain over
the course of the average game, you'll probably see one sooner or later.

BRIG
Brigs are a bit larger than Sloops, but still have a good speed and can sail against the wind with some success. They basically strike the balance between the agility of smaller ships and the heavy armament and ability to take a beating that the bigger ships have. The Brig of War is an excellent ship that is the other common choice for flagship. It's also my personal favorite for the lower three levels (from Rogue on I prefer a
Royal Sloop to help offset enemy speed bonuses).
To get a Brig of War, the easiest way is to track down and defeat Captain Kidd, who sails one. You may also
see them as pirate hunters and new warships.

FRIGATE
Frigates are the best choice in terms of large ships. They can carry huge crews - plenty for any ship battle have room for a ton of guns, and can take quite a bit of punishment. Their inability to dodge salvos as easily
as the smaller ships is offset by this, and for such large ships, they are still quite fast and able to make fairly
tight turns - though on higher levels you'll find that small prey becomes difficult to catch. The famous Ship
of the Line is the biggest of the Frigates and pretty popular (how could the single biggest warship not be?). It
is also the rarest, however, not in the last place because Spain doesn't use Frigates of any kind.
Getting a Ship of the Line is tricky. There's no real way to make this easier;

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they are all New Warship types and those are mostly random. They seem to appear more often if you harass
a certain nation a lot, but it's mostly luck. I seem to have slightly more success going after the French for
one than the Dutch or the English, but that may easily be luck of the draw.
You should be aware that large ships in general become less desirable on the higher levels of play, when
their relatively low speed starts to hurt. From Adventurer on you no longer get speed bonuses, and on Rogue and Swashbuckler, the enemy gets them. By then Frigates will have a harder time catching smaller ships,
and you may find yourself wanting to tone down to Brigs or even smaller warships. Until then, enjoy the
firepower.
GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) has a guide specifically on Ships of the Line and how to get them if you're
interested in reading up further on the subject.

COMBAT GALLEON
The Fast Galleon, War Galleon and Flag Galleon fall in this category. The Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon
and Treasure Galleon do not; those are merchant ships, unsuitable for combat. Actually, the combat galleons aren't particularly suitable either. Their power is comparable to that of Frigates, but they are far slower.
They are fast enough when running before the wind, true, but going against it is almost impossible in a galleon of any kind, and their turning circle is horribly wide. Smaller ships can and will run circles around these cumbersome vessels and pelt them with one broadside after another. If you like to use large ships, you
really should go with a Frigate type instead. Even the smallest kind of Frigate is a better bet than the otherwise very powerful Flag Galleon.
To get a Flag Galleon, either keep your eyes open for Spanish pirate hunters or New Warship types (though
you won't see many Flag Galleons), or find and defeat Marquis Montalban. He always uses one.

Summarizing the above, Combat Galleons are usually not your best choice, and Pinnaces should be considered only if you know your way around the game and are playing a high level. Usually, it's a toss up between Sloops, Brigs and Frigates, and it's mostly a matter of personal preference what works best. I find that the
higher the level I play on, the smaller the flagship I want. On Apprentice I might consider a Frigate (but
pretty much anything goes there), but for Journeyman and Adventurer my favorite is the Brig of War, and
on Rogue and Swashbuckler I tend to go for Royal Sloops. At that point, Mail Runners are an interesting
alternative too, although I find them a little too restrictive on crew size. A Royal Sloop with Triple Ham-

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mocks is just about big enough while still being able to catch most prey. On Swashbuckler level, its Pinnace
class ships that still get away from me more often than not, and Sloops if I dont get into a good position
before attacking. Either can rack up a speed of over 20 knots in the ideal case, which pretty much ends the
chase right there and then.
Make sure that if you do use a larger ship, you recruit a crew to fill it up with. Not much sense using a Frigate if you're not going to put more men in it than you could fit in a Sloop. In fact, as a rule of thumb, the
only reason to pick a larger ship over a smaller one should be that you need the crew and/or gun capacity in
ship combat. If you just need to carry a large crew around for land combat, or you need space for captured
goods, you don't need to have your flagship do the work - just capture a few additional ships.
Your tactics in ship battles will probably change depending on what kind of vessel you are using. Sloops will
want to thin out the enemy crew before boarding, and avoid enemy fire as much as possible. Frigates will
probably be a lot more aggressive, heading for the enemy straight away with just a single broadside to soften
them up if needed, and accepting the fact that they'll take a little counterfire in getting there. Use whichever
ship works best for your style.
You could even have both a Sloop *and* a Frigate available and pick a ship to use for every battle; for instance, using a Sloop against smaller targets and a Frigate against any enemy Frigate and Galleon types. This
would be a sound choice on higher difficulty levels, where small ships are increasingly hard for a Frigate to
catch, and where being hit by a large broadside from a big enemy target *really* hurts your poor Sloop. The
main disadvantage of the dual ship approach is that if you find yourself having to divide up the plunder,
you can only keep one.
Whichever ship you choose, however, be sure to get all the upgrades you can find for your flagship. They're
all worth having and can make a lot of difference. There's only one you might want to skip on purpose: Triple Hammocks. Think about how large you want your crew to be; perhaps you want to keep it small on
purpose. If that's the case, upping the maximum may not be in your best interest.

[ 4 . 6 ] O V E R A L L S T R A T E G Y / WA L K T H R O U G H
By request, I've added this new section which is about the closest thing to a walkthrough that can be made
for an open-ended game like this. It discusses what I think is the best way to "finish" the game; by finishing,
I mean achieving the maximum fame score of 126, although the game doesn't necessarily end there. This
section is purely a guideline, as there are many good ways to achieve that maximum score, but this is the

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approach I find the most convenient. It does not include details on *how* to do the various steps that are
described - that's what the rest of the guide is for.
A typical game will consist of three phases: building up your initial power by recruiting enough crew and
getting the ship(s) you want, building up your ranks and getting most of the quests out of the way, and cleaning up the final quests that take the longest to do (lost cities and Montalban, basically).
Your first order of business should always be to build up. You normally start with a small ship (always a
Sloop in 1660) and you'll want to find the third category vessel for whichever ship class you prefer; most likely, a Mail Runner, a Royal Sloop, a Brig of War or a Ship of the Line.
Start by recruiting more men in the port you appear nearest to. Visit a few friendly ports in the neighborhood for more, assuming you can fit them at the moment. Capture a few easy targets so you can hold more
crew and get your first few promotions out of the way. At this point it is wise not to make an enemy of everybody. You start every game without enemies, and it's a good idea to keep at least one, but preferably two
nations on your side so you have plenty of safe havens to retreat to. Especially on higher difficulty levels, it is
important to always be able to patch up your ships, and also to replace crew lost in combat. If you've recently recruited in a town, you won't be able to do so again for a while, and after that the available recruits
pool will still be small. Keep this in mind before you fire at every ship you see.
Who to work with and who to work against is a matter of preference and the current political climate. It is a
very good idea to fight a nation that is at war with two or (even better) all three other nations, because then
you'll be working at your promotions two or three times as fast. There's little point in attacking somebody
who has no enemies at all, unless the individual target is tempting - maybe an immigrant ship that may carry
specialists, or a fat payroll carrier or treasure vessel. In practice, you'll find Spain is almost always at war with
somebody, usually several somebodies. I almost always start out fighting against Spain, and worrying about
getting their promotions later in the game. The quickest route to promotions with a single nation is to attack ports belonging to their enemies and capturing them for your nation. For this, it doesn't matter if the
port is big or small. Pick something tiny that you can overwhelm with your crew so you actually get to install
a governor. If you don't get the option, sail around and attack them again until you DO get that option.
The gold gains will be atrocious but we're working on rank here, not wealth.
A good way to score poinst with all four nations at once is to actively hunt pirates and Indians. If you don't
find enough sailing around, visit pirate havens/native villaegs, talk to whoever's in charge, tempt them to
attack a nearby target, then intercept their ships as they send them out. This won't gain you as much respect

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as taking out enemy ports as above, but you WILL please all four nations at once, so it's still a pretty efficient way to get promotions. It is possible to use this technique exclusively to become a quadruple Duke without ever making any enemies.
A note on spawning pirates this way: you probably know that if you take on a mission, like escorting a governor or a treaty carrier, hostile Privateers will spawn in your path trying to stop it (only 1 on Apprentice,
up to 3 on Swashbuckler). These may be of any nation your employer is at war with, but will be pirates if
theyre not at war with anyone. In what appears to be a bug, inciting pirates to attack a port will also spawn
Pirate Privateers, which will not actually attack the pirate ship that gets sent out but just sail around in the
area and eventually enter a nearby Pirate Haven. What this means is that if you incite one pirate to go out
and attack a nearby port on Swashbuckler, what you get is four targets. Ive gotten quick promotions all around on Swashbuckler by taking advantage of this; especially when there are two Pirate Havens right next
to one another. Capturing eight pirates makes you popular with the governors in no time, if you have the
resources to pull it off.
But back to preparing for the midgame action. Don't hesitate too long on obtaining the ship you want, it's
your primary way of becoming strong enough to tackle the rest of the game. You'll be facing off repeatedly
against Raymondo and Montalban on their big galleons, and against a variety of named pirates. You don't
want to do all that in your humble Sloop, so aim for one of the following:
- A Mail Runner (repeatedly talk to governors hoping to get a mission to escort a treaty/ultimatum carrier,
then if it happens to be a Mail Runner, backstab it);
- A Royal Sloop (fight the Spanish until they send one out as a pirate hunter, or track down Roc Brasiliano);
- A Brig of War (fight any nation until they send one out as a pirate hunter, or track down Captain Kidd);
- A Ship of the Line (repeatedly harass any nation OTHER than Spain until you see one sailing by as a New
Warship).
In the meantime, grab anything that's at least something of an upgrade. A Pinnace, Sloop of War, Brig or
Large Frigate can easily substitute any of the above until you're lucky enough to find the big one.
Apart from a good ship, items and specialists will also make your game easier without actually adding any
wealth. I wouldn't spend too much time hunting for them specifically, but if a barmaid lets you know about
a specialist on a nearby ship, or you are offered an affordable item in a tavern, you might as well go for it.
(For items, though, be sure that it's something you want, as there are a few that don't do anything useful in
the current state of the game.) If you'd like to max both of these out, be sure to get items in all ways you can:

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talking to strangers, dancing with governor's daughters, and even taking bribes from captured criminals. For
specialists, nothing fancy is needed. Finishing the Montalban quest will automatically give you all of them.
You'll probably earn some promotions while working on getting the ship and the crew you want, and get
offered the chance to dance with governor's daughters. Never turn this down unless youre already wrapping
up the late game and honestly dont need what they can offer (at some point this will be wanted criminal
quests only). Barring that, always dance, romance as many daughters as you come across, and get rewarded
for your efforts. Even plain looking daughters can help you stock various useful items early on, or give you
quests to track down wanted criminals (good for cash early on and helps promotion prospects too - alternatively, you can allow them to bribe you with items once you catch them).
Attractive and beautiful daughters can put you on the trails of Raymondo and Montalban, and as soon as
you're powerful enough to deal with these fellows, do it. The main thing to keep in mind with romancing
governor's daughters is to always go and do what they put you on the trail of *before* you return with gifts
or to fight their suitor, or the like. Otherwise, they'll just repeat the info they gave you before, rather than
coming up with something new. You can safely take any romance subplot as far as you want, but if you go all
the way and rescue a daughter from Mendoza, do NOT ask to marry her unless she is beautiful. You will
only get maximum fame if you marry a beautiful daughter, and you can only marry once.
Once you do marry - and I recommend you take care of this as soon as you locate a beautiful daughter and
have the necessary rank (Baron, less with the right items) to get court her - be sure to revisit your wife regularly, potentially to the point of sailing out of port and coming right back. You get to dance with her as often as you like, messing up will not do any permanent damage, and every time you get it right you will be
getting clues about Montalban and Lost Cities (by far the best way to get those).
It's largely up to you if you want to focus on catching Raymondo or earning ranks first. You can mix 'em if
you like. For promotions, keep an eye on war and peace breaking out, and pick your targets accordingly. If
possible, keep your efforts focused on one nation as an enemy (usually going to be Spain) so you have fewer
people you have to make up with eventually. The way it usually develops for me is that I manage to achieve
Duke with Holland, England and France first, with Spain having a sizable price on my head at that point.
The best way to go about fixing that is to find a Jesuit mission near a Spanish port, and head in. They will
most likely offer to discuss amnesty with the nearby Spanish governor on your behalf (if not, try another
mission), then all you need to do is escort their ship to the nearby port. There will be a single pirate ship
(two on higher levels, three on Swashbuckler) trying to stop them, but after that, the Jesuit will sail into

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port, and the price on your head will vanish at once. Years of piracy forgiven by just winning a single ship
battle. Not a bad deal at all. You can do this as many times during a game as necessary, so even if you just
need Spain off your back for a moment, this is worth doing.
For Raymondo, Jesuit missions are your best bet too. From time to time, an informant in a tavern may offer
to tell you Raymondo's current location for 1000 gold. Governor's daughters may give up this information
after you dance with them. Jesuits, however, give the information often and always for free. If at any point
in the game you don't know where Raymondo is right now and you sail by a mission, stop by and ask them.
It'll save you a lot of time.
(Incidentally, the way Jesuits work is that they give priority to giving you information on Raymondo. If you
already know where he is or youve already finished this quest completely, youll get the amnesty offer if
applicable. If the mision isnt near a port belonging to a hostile nation, youll be offered an immigrants escort quest. All of these exhaust the mission for a few months before it offers up something new.)
Chasing Raymondo (and for that matter, Mendoza and Montalban) around the Caribbean should be a
primary objective by the time your ship and crew are up to the task. They're profitable targets in terms of
gold and the value of their ships, you score points with whoever Spain is at war with right now, and you
advance the relevant quests. Besides, the longer you wait, the harder it may be to figure out where they
went. If you lose track of them, aggressively question bartenders around the area where they were supposed
to be and youll be put back on the trail soon enough.
Similarly, when you've captured Raymondo four times and gotten the full map to a family member - or ideally, if you can already work out their location from fewer pieces - go and rescue that family member right
away so you can get started on getting the NEXT map from Raymondo. Making sure you hurry up and finish these quests when you can helps you finish the game before your pirate becomes too old; age will make
swordfights harder and harder, and eventually take away the ability to divide up the plunder and start with a
fresh crew as you'll be forced into retirement when you try it.
The hunt for Montalban's hideout and the Lost Cities typically come at the end of the game just because
they take the most preparations to do. For the Lost Cities, this is no biggie. It's a boring quest anyway which
involves sailing all the way to Mexico, and sometimes having to go far inland, but there's no opposition to
deal with. Montalban's hideout is a different story, as you need to win a land battle to get in (not a particularly difficult one, but you'll have trouble if you have a tiny crew), and Montalban himself is a very difficult
opponent on the higher levels. The combination of playing on something like Rogue or Swashbuckler and

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your character having been slowed down a lot by age can make the battle almost unwinnable. Do yourself a
favour and get that quest out of the way as quickly as you reasonably can. If you focus on it, it should definitely be possible to do it within 10 game years, long before your pirate reaches poor or failing health.
To get a full score, you'll need to hunt down all nine of the named pirates and find their treasures. Treasures are a matter of talking to the mysterious stranger in every tavern you visit, and making sure to buy every
treasure map they offer. Once you do have the first piece, you'll be quickly offered the rest by other strangers. Just stop by every port and settlement and it won't take long to get all pieces (or enough so that you
can figure out where to go). Do make sure you visit different taverns, returning to the same one over and
over does not appear to work.
Finding the pirates can be a little trickier, as their locations are random. Barmaids will put you on their trail
(or you can blunder into them without prior info), but for either, you need to be close to their home port.
Although neither the names nor the locations of their home ports are fixed, they ARE always distributed
over the Caribbean. Always a couple near the west, a couple near the Spanish Main, a couple around the
eastern islands and one or two in the obscure northern area around Florida Keys and such. Almost always,
when a player has captured 7 or 8 pirates and just can't find the remaining one or two, he's missed the one(s) lurking in that area, because you don't tend to visit there for any other reason. If you just can't find
that last pirate, see if you can get a lead on him by asking barmaids in or around Havana, Florida Keys and
Eleuthera.
For both pirates and treasures, I tend to handle them when I come across them while working on other
quests, then pick up whatever I missed at the end of the game. No matter what order I decide to tackle
things in, though, I always seem to end up finishing my game by finding the fourth Lost City. Getting the
maps is usually a matter of sailing circles around the port your wife lives in, dancing with her constantly to
get her to give up more and more pieces of the map (why won't she just give it to you all at once?), then sailing all the way to Mexico to find the city, and all the way back for more map pieces. It might actually be a
good time saver to marry a daughter around, say, Campeche or Vera Cruz, assuming a beautiful daughter
happens to live there. Lost Cities usually spawn in locations that aren't too hard to find, with the coast visible on the map and ideally a named landmark as well, but other times they spawn far inland and can be very
hard to find. A location hint like "north of Vera Cruz" or "south of Campeche" is rather useless because it
can cover a LOT of territory. If it doesn't feel too much like cheating for your liking, you could keep a separate save of the instant just before you get your first map piece, then if the city does spawn in some hopeless

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impossible location, reload and see where it goes this time. The city is not placed in the game until you get
your first map piece for it.
Finally, if you've become a Duke with each of the four nations, captured all pirates, collected all treasures,
found all four Lost Cities, married a governor's beautiful daughter, rescued your family members and defeated Montalban, the only thing that remains for a perfect score is to have gathered enough treasure. This will
most likely have happened naturally through the land grants you got with your promotions and the vast
wealth you got from defeating Montalban (100k), finding all Lost Cities (200k) and all the gold that pirates
and evil Spanish noblemen yielded. If you're still short some (save before dividing up the plunder and then
see if you got to 24 wealth points or not), the easiest way to add more is to privateer some more. Find two
nations at war, join sides with one of them, and get land grants for every blow you strike their enemy because they can't promote you any further. Especially capturing cities will add up quickly, and get you to your
max wealth quicker than additional gold will.

[5] MINIGAMES
Much of the gameplay in Sid Meier's Pirates consists of playing its various minigames. The premise and controls for each are in the manual, but of course, it does not go into too much detail about how to play them.
But that's what you're reading this guide for, no? Each paragraph in this section highlights a different minigame, giving an overview and a set of tactics to improve your results at them.

[ 5 .1 ] N AVA L B A T T L E S
OVERVIEW
A naval battle is always initiated by you. Enemy ships can never initiate naval battles, though they *can*
bombard you on the world map, causing sail and hull damage, and potentially sinking trailing ships (but
never your flagship).
When one or more ships are in range of your flagship, press 5 and you will be given a list of ships you can
attack. The size of the crew and the number of guns on the enemy ship will be mentioned and you can
compare to what you have on your flagship, or switch flagships if necessary. Note that you can't see the
guns/crew on a ship if it's a special type, like a Treasure Ship or a named villain like Raymondo. Those

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ships tend to have close to the maximum for their ship type, though. Please refer to section 7.1 for more ideas on what to expect certain ships to have in terms of defenses.
If you choose to attack a ship, you will be thrust into naval battle mode. The positions of your ships relative
to each other is the same as it was on the world map.
A naval battle is usually against one ship at a time, with two exceptions:
- If the ship has a dedicated escort sailing along with it, you'll fight both ships at once. Likewise if the ship is
part of a group (Treasure Fleet, trio of Indian War Canoes or two or three Privateers spawned when you take on a quest), attacking one of the ships will cause it nearest partner to take on the escort role.
- If another ship was actively chasing you at the time (normally a pirate hunter but it can be any hostile warship), it will join in. This can happen even if it wasn't strictly in combat range when you initiated the battle;
in that case it'll need a while to catch up, but it will eventually. The warship will serve the same role that a
dedicated escort would if this happens. It may even belong to a different nation than your target.
In a naval battle, you and your opponent(s) will be able to exchange fire, run away from the other by creating enough distance, or start a boarding (and a sword fight) by sailing into the other.
Controls during a naval battle are as follows:
4, 6: turn your ship left and right, respectively. Turning rate is dependent on the type of ship, whether or
not you are turning into the wind (which is a lot slower), and any damage/lack of crew. A ship with Copper
Plating gets a slight bonus to its turning ability.
8: raise sails. By default, sails on a ship are raised. This allows the ship to sail faster than with reefed sails,
but the sails are also vulnerable to combat damage. Your cannons will not be reloaded while you're raising
your sails.
2: lower sails. This reduces the ship's top speed, but allows for slightly tighter turning circles, and provides a
lot of protection against sail damage from enemy cannons. Your cannons will not be reloaded while you're
lowering your sails.
1: switch to grape shot. This ammo type has a short range, but is effective in taking enemy crew out of the
fight while doing little damage to the enemy ship. Great for preparing for boarding while leaving your prize
intact. You can only switch to this if you ship has the Grape Shot upgrade. You do not need to reload your
cannons, the switch to the new ammo type is instant.
3: switch to round shot. This is the default ammo type; it has the longest range and does damage mostly to
enemy hull and cannons. It also damages crew and sails, but not as much as the ammo types specialized to

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do so. Remember that enough hull damage will sink a ship, which is rarely your intention - its treasures will
sink along with it. Use round shot carefully, especially against small targets. Again, no need to reload your
cannons after switching.
7: switch to chain shot. This ammo type has a shorter range than round shot (but longer than grape shot),
and is meant specifically to destroy sails with.
It does little damage to a ship otherwise. Excellent for reducing an enemy's speed, either to be able to catch
up with or outrun them furthermore, 100% sail damage forces a target to surrender without a fight.
Chain Shot will rarely do any significant hull damage, but be aware that totally destroying the rigging on
ships you intend to capture and keep will really reduce your fleet's overall speed. You can only switch to this
ammo if your ship has the Chain Shot upgrade. Again, no need to reload your cannons after switching.
9: change camera views between the overhead view and a "chase camera" of sorts which zooms in on your
ship and uses an angle that lets you see the position of the enemy relative to your own ship. Which camera
mode you should use is largely a matter of personal preference. I usually just stick with overhead.

PICKUPS
As either you or an enemy gets damaged in battle, barrels and sailors may fall overboard. If you sail over these, they will be collected by your flagship. Sailors are immediately added to your crew - if they're your own
that'll let you recover some lost crew, and you can also pick up enemy sailors as new recruits this way.
Presumably, these men aren't too picky about who they're serving and not going to be uncooperative with
the man that saved their lives. Barrels, similarly, contain a small amount of gold. I imagine that if barrels are
lost from your own ship, they're deducted from your loot unless you pick them up again, but I'm not sure
about this. We're talking small amounts of gold here anyway, I believe 50 gold per barrel.
It is possible to exceed the maximum crew size of your flagship by picking up sailors knocked overboard during the battle. They will be available during the sword battle, but after you return to the map, any remaining excess crew will be lost. Even if you don't pass the maximum, it appears that only half the people you
pick up from the sea will sign on permanently.

AI BEHAVIOR
Depending on the type of ship, difficulty level, and the relative strengths and weaknesses of your ships, the
AI may behave in several different ways:

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- If the enemy has more cannons, it will try to weaken your ship as much as it can before boarding you.
When in range it will use chain shot to slow you down and grape shot to thin out your crew, assuming it has
these upgrades. The AI will frequently mix round shot and chain shot in a single volley.
- If the enemy is at a disadvantage with cannons but has a crew comparable to or bigger than yours, it will
attempt to ram and board you as fast as possible.
- Note that damage you cause to an enemy ship during battle may make it switch between the two behaviors
above. If a ship was going to ram you and you hit it with grape shot just before it can, chances are it will
suddenly swing around and start exchanging broadsides with you again.
- If the enemy is grossly outmatched, it will attempt to run away from you, possibly firing a few broadsides at
you to slow you down first (most notably chain shot). Running is much more common on higher levels; on
lower levels even outmatched ships will often keep engaging you even though they should be running. Also,
warships and especially pirates are a lot more reluctant to run than a target that didnt want a fight in the
first place, like a merchant ship or smuggler. Villains will never attempt to run, nor will an escort ship.
- If the enemy is too weak to beat you and too slow to escape - usually this happens after you've hit them a
few times - they'll strike their colours and surrender their ship without a fight. They may still try to sail away
from you, but they will no longer fire and as soon as you come close or board them, it's over. It is possible
for a ship to start the battle with struck colours if it was already badly damaged when you engaged it (for
instance, because of previous battles or a storm).
- If you damage an enemy's sails 100%, rendering them almost immobile, they will always strike their colours.

There are a couple of exceptions to the behavior above:

- Merchant ships are more likely to surrender than warships or ships on special missions. For instance, if a
Sloop contains a new governor, its crew will likely fight until the end even if you outmatch them. Pirates,
too, hate to surrender. Indian War Canoes, on the other hand, always surrender if you manage to board
them.
- Escort ships never surrender. They will fight to the death as long as they still have something to escort. If
you evade the escort and take out the escorted ship, the escort becomes an independent ship which *will*
surrender normally if you damage them a lot.
- Named pirates are very unlikely to surrender, but they can. Usually only if you destroy their sails, though.

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- Villains (Raymondo, Montalban and Mendoza) never surrender. If you pummel their ship enough it will
seem like they do - you get the victory screen and everything - but immediately after, the usual ship battle
scene starts anyway.
Note that you also can't sink these guys - their hull damage will not go beyond 99%.

TACTICS
When fighting a naval battle, you need to strike a balance between defeating your enemy and not damaging
your prize too much. It may be very tempting to just pummel them with round shot, especially if you outmatch your opponent. But if you intend to capture the enemy ship, this approach leaves you with a very
damaged prize that will slow you down a lot and cost a lot to repair when you finally limp it to the nearest
port. Even if you don't intend to hang on to a ship, you run a significant risk of sinking it if you hit it too
hard, and all its cargo and gold will sink along with it. Especially if you are sailing a powerful ship on a low
difficulty level, you may be surprised at how easy it is to accidentally sink an enemy!
On the lower difficulty levels, many players prefer not to shoot at the enemy during a naval battle at all.
They just head straight for them for a quick ram and settle the deal with a sword fight. This is a sound approach for enemies that have far less crew than you (and not enough guns to tear you apart before you reach
them). On Apprentice and to an extent on Journeyman, this also works against enemies that are stronger
than you, as you'll be able to make up the difference with good fencing. On the higher levels, however, this
approach is suicidal against a powerful opponent. Their guns are more accurate and do more damage, they
are better able to run circles around you and hold off your boarding as much as possible, and when you do
manage to board them, you'll find them tough opponents in fencing. The size of your crew against theirs is
a major factor in how difficult the swordfighting will be (see paragraph 6.2), and you *need* to do your naval battles correctly to cut them down to size first. If you don't, even if you pull through, you'll lose far more
crew than you need to and get in trouble later.
As a rule of thumb, on Adventurer level and above, try not to board an enemy ship until their crew isn't
much bigger than yours. Preferably smaller, but just about the same is good enough if you can handle a
sword. Also, the bigger your own crew, the easier you can get away with fighting a numerically superior enemy. 100 against 150 I wouldn't be afraid to try, but 20 against 30 is a bad idea. Chances are you'll run out
of crew before you win the battle.
Here are a few tips to get the most out of your naval battles:

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- Pick the right ship for the job. Different players have different preferences, but the choice is mostly between Pinnace, Sloop, Brig and Frigate types. Pinnaces and Sloops are fast and small, and perfect for running
circles around an enemy. Frigates have a lot of firepower and can stand more punishment, as well as carry
more men so that you can usually go straight for a ram and don't have to weaken your enemies first. Brigs
strike a good balance between the two, and have the unique advantage of maintaining a decent speed against the wind.
- In each class, you're best off with the largest ship within it (Royal Sloop, Brig of War, Ship of the Line), but
every type is servicable. Avoid using other types of ships for battle; only the combat galleon types (Fast/
War/Flag Galleon) are somewhat suitable, and they are too slow and cumbersome to engage anything small.
Pinnaces are also an option, but they come with small crews and not enough guns to really do anything
with.
- On higher difficulty levels, enemy ships get speed advantages. Especially on Swashbuckler you may find
that if you have the same ship as the enemy, they can still easily outrun you. You may want to stick to the
smaller ships to keep the enemy from constantly outrunning you. Besides, on higher levels, it's hard to keep
a large crew satisfied, so you might not be filling up a Frigate anyway.
- Use round shot at long range to knock out enemy cannons and do damage to all other parts of the ship.
Be careful not to overdo it, especially against a small ship. A Large Frigate or Ship of the Line can sink a
Barque-sized or smaller ship with one broadside if it's a particularly good shot. Some players prefer not to
use round shot at all, but it's the only reliable way to cut down the enemy's cannons.
- At medium range, use chain shot to destroy the enemy's rigging. This will slow them down and make them
much easier to catch. If you destroy an enemy's rigging entirely (you'll hear their ship groan and ground to a
halt if you do this), the enemy will surrender even if they still have a good supply of cannons and active
crew. Of course, if you intend to keep the ship, you probably don't want to leave it entirely without sails. It
will really slow your fleet down otherwise. A Sailmaker specialist will help here - he'll repair a quarter of the
sail damage at the start of each month, so even if you destroy an enemy's sails completely, they'll be back at
75% soon and then the ship will be at least somewhat mobile again.
- At short range, grape shot works wonders in reducing enemy crew while leaving the ship almost untouched. This is *the* way to prepare for an imminent boarding; be careful not to actually touch the ship before you are ready to board it. They will likely try to board you before you can hit them with grape shot too
often. Also, unless you've already destroyed some of their cannons with round shot, you may get hit just as

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hard in return. Note that grape shot will not leave the enemy ship undamaged - it won't do any hull damage,
but the sails will suffer.
- If an enemy has struck its colors, stop firing at it; they will not fire back anymore and surrender as you
draw close. A possible exception is when you are chasing a named villain, who won't surrender even now.
Them you may want to hit with more grape shot if you want to reduce their crew size further before you
start the battle. I especially find this important when facing Montalban on Swashbuckler level as duelling
him aboard a ship is brutal.
- The speed with which your cannons load is directly dependent on the size of your crew, their morale (happy crews load faster) and the presence of a Gunner specialist on your ship. Range of your shots is increased
by the Fine-grain Powder upgrade. Accuracy is increased by the Bronze Cannon upgrade and by picking the
Gunnery skill for yourself.
- While it's easier to hit the enemy along the sides of his ships, a shot that rakes over a ship front to aft or aft
to front does more damage. Keep this in mind for yourself as well: heading straight for your enemy through
their broadsides is not usually a good idea. The issue here is speed; if the wind is such that you can approach your enemy very quickly, then broadsides will likely pass over you. If youre not fast enough, youll be
taking hits something you can get away with it on low levels, but not on Swashbuckler.
- If you have a small ship, turning at the right moment may let you sail through gaps in enemy broadsides
and take little or no damage. But bear in mind that the shots that *do* hit you will likely be raking shots if
you do this, which is exactly why you should not try this with a large vessel.
- If you have a lot of cannons, you can fire a "mixed shot" by switching to a different type of ammo just after
firing. Your fire will come out in two bursts, and the second will be of the type you switched to. I haven't
found much practical use for it, but the option is there. One reader suggested using this when you are using
a Ship of the Line or another heavily armed ship against a small target: start with round fire, then switch to
grape shot to make half of your cannonballs fall short. Helps to keep you from accidentally sinking your
target.
- To dodge enemy fire at long range, sail in whichever direction is fastest due to the wind; even if that's
straight away from your enemy. The shot is aimed at the position you were in when it was fired, so if you're
no longer there when it lands, you're safe. If you can get your speed at like 10 knots or above and you're not
too near the enemy, you can usually ignore its shots entirely; they won't connect. At short range, on the o-

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ther hand, you must keep maneuvering to stay away from the enemy's sides. If you're a smaller ship, you'll be
able to keep out of its sights and pummel it with your own broadsides.
- If you lose a naval battle, remember you have the option to restore the
'battle' autosave. This will put you back to just before you initiated the battle, allowing you to try it again or
avoid this (evidently dangerous) target this time around. Whether or not you consider this cheating (and
whether or not you care) is up to you, of course.

In terms of sailing, there are a few things to be aware of:

- You are, of course, much faster running before the wind than going against it. You are also more maneuverable, which is new since Pirates and Pirates Gold. Turning into the wind is slow and cumbersome and
sometimes you might not even manage it at all; you just get blown back. Turn *away* from the wind whenever you can; this might be quicker even if it's a longer turn. Smaller ships do much better at turning into the
wind than larger ones, and Brig type ships specifically maintain a decent speed even when they're sailing
against the wind. Large ships like Galleons (and to an extent Frigates as well) handle very poorly against the
wind, both in terms of speed and maneuverability. Bear this in mind both when you're sailing one and
when you're going up against one.
- You can pick out your starting position relative to the enemy on the world map. When you initiate a battle, your positions will be the same as they were on the map. Use this to your advantage; for instance if you
want to be upwind from your enemy, maneuver to the east of his ship before you start combat. If you're attacking an escorted ship, you might want to move in behind it so you can grab it before the escort can turn
around to engage you. Works very well if it's something slow like a War Galleon.
- If you need to catch an enemy that is upwind, zig zag against the wind (this is known as "tacking"). This is
much quicker than sailing straight against it. If you're in a large ship like a Frigate (or even worse, a Galleon), this becomes especially important, but the main thing when you're using that kind of vessel is not to
get yourself caught in such an engagement to begin with. Maneuver around the enemy on the world map
before you start the fight, and make sure you don't approach the target from the west. Smaller vessels are
not as strongly affected by the wind, so if you're a large ship going up against a small one, this becomes very
important. It's also a major reason why the Royal Sloop and the Brig of War aren't necessarily worse ships
than the Ship of the Line.

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OUTCOME
A naval battle can end in the following ways:
1. Retreat: the distance between the ships becomes so great that they lose sight of each other. How big this
distance is depends on the time of day: it's easier to lose each other at night. If this occurs, the battle ends
and the enemy ship disappears off the map; it has either gotten away or been shaken off, depending on your
perspective. If you've damaged the enemy ship at all, you are said to have "engaged" it, which appears in your
log and earns you a happiness point with the enemies of the ship's nation. Otherwise you gain nothing. Note that if the target in question was a named pirate or villain, they won't disappear off the world map, so you
can catch up and engage them a second time.
2. Boarding: if you ram the enemy ship or they ram you, and the enemy is not so low on morale that they'll
surrender, a sword fight ensues (see paragraph 6.2) that'll decide the outcome.
3. Sunk: if either ship takes on 100% hull damage - which basically only happens with round shot - that
ship will sink. If it's the enemy, the battle is concluded, and you gain no plunder. You do gain some happiness points with the enemies of the ship's nation, though. Your benefactors don't care if you sink or capture
your enemies; but you are likely interested in loot, so sinking enemies is rarely your objective.
If you're the unlucky sod to be sunk, you are transferred to another ship. You lose whatever cargo/crew you
can't carry anymore on the remainder of your ships. It appears you do *not* lose a portion of your gold like
you used to in the past games, however. If you don't have other ships anymore, you are marooned and will
spend some time on a deserted island waiting to be rescued.
This *does* result in the loss of all your loot.
4. Surrender: an enemy ship may surrender to you if you sail close to it and they know they can neither win
nor escape. Sometimes, you actually have to board them before they make this decision. Either way, the ship
is yours without a fight; the swordfighting sequence is skipped. This cannot happen with named villains,
they will always fight you.

In a fight that involves escort ships as well, things work slightly differently:
- If the escorted ship gets out of range, the battle ends in 'retreat' even if you are still engaged with the escort
ship. The ships do not disappear from the world map, but they do appear some distance away from you and
you'll need to catch up if you want to fight them again.

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- If the escorted ship is sunk or boarded, or it surrenders, the battle ends, and (after the sword fight if applicable) you are returned to the world map.
The escort ship now becomes an independent warship which may decide to chase you or flee to the nearest
port. You can then engage it separately if you wish.
- The battle continues if the escort ship is sunk or if you board it (after the sword fight). Escort ships never
surrender. Victories against escort ships are not noted on your record and do not get you any happiness
points, unless you engage them separately after taking the escorted ship. (Technically, at that point, they're
not an escort ship anymore.)
For the most part, avoiding the escort ship is the best thing to do. You can always engage it afterwards if you
like, and that way you *do* get credit for it. Escort ships aren't always easy to avoid, though, especially since
they think nothing of sailing straight *through* the ship they're escorting to get to you. And in some cases the Treasure Fleet comes to mind here, and groups of Indian War Canoes too - it's not even so easy to figure
out which of the two ships is the escort.

[5.2] FENCING
OVERVIEW
Of all the minigames in Sid Meier's Pirates, this is the one you'll see the most often. Many naval battles end
in boarding action and an accompanying sword fight, and you'll need to draw steel in many other scenarios
as well.
Sword fights can occur in the following cases:
- You board an enemy ship (or they board you) and the enemy does not decide to surrender without a fight;
- You decide to teach the annoying captain of the guard some manners when he is bothering the barmaid;
- You track down a fugitive criminal to the tavern of the town he is hiding in;
- You are lucky enough to catch Mendoza, Raymondo or Montalban in port, and fight him in the tavern;
- You decide to fight a duel against the fiance of a governor's daughter you are trying to charm;
- You attack a town which has a garrison smaller than 100 men, allowing your crew to storm the fort unchallenged;
- After losing a fight previously, the governor offers to let you spar with his fencing master for practice, and
you agree (Apprentice level only);
- You track down the Marquis de la Montalban to his hideout and fight your Final battle against him.

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Ship battles are the most common, and the most interesting because the fight between your crew and the
enemy's is a big factor in the fight. When attacking a town with an overwhelming force, this factor is present
as well, but you can barely lose those fights anyway (they wouldn't happen if you weren't badly outmatching
the enemy to begin with). In all other fights, it's just you against the enemy without anybody else influencing the fight.
In a sword fight, your opponent and you start in the middle of whatever area you are fighting in, and you
both have the objective to drive back the other to their end. This is done by scoring hits on the enemy while
not getting hit in return. The first one to get his back driven against the wall - or whatever else, depending
on the area - loses the battle, with various consequences.
You have the following moves available during battle:
7: high chop. A fairly slow attack that drives the enemy back 2 steps if it connects, or 1 step if it is parried.
No damage if the enemy ducks under it, and in fact, you'll be overbalanced for a moment if he does.
1: low slash. Just like the high chop, it drives back the enemy 2 steps if it hits and 1 if it is parried, but it can
also be jumped over. In that case you'll be overbalanced for a while.
4: thrust. A quicker attack than the high chop and the low slash, but it only drives back the enemy 1 step. If
it's parried it has no effect at all. You will be overbalanced for a short while but not as bad as with the stronger, slower attacks. You may be able to hit an enemy with a thrust while they're preparing a high chop or low
slash, cancelling their attack and driving them back. If you and your enemy thrust at the same time, you usually end up parrying each other with no ill effect to either side.
8: jump. Used to jump over an enemy low slash. Successfully jumping over one will usually give you the time
to counterattack.
2: duck. Used to avoid a high chop. If you pull this off you'll usually have the time for a counterattack.
5: parry. Used to stop thrusts, or to reduce the damage for a high chop or low slash. It's better to avoid the
latter two when you can though, as parrying them merely softens the blow and does not give you time for a
counterattack either.
6: taunt. This does not drive back the enemy, but it does swing the advantage bar in your favour (see below).
It's best only to do this instead of an attack while the enemy is overbalanced, or you'll likely get hit while you
are busy making fun of him. If you do take a hit during taunting, the taunt's effect is nullified.
Winning a battle is theoretically as simple as avoiding your enemies' attacks and countering with your own.
In practice, it's made a little more complicated by the advantage bar. This red & white bar at the bottom of

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the screen changes as the battle develops to shift advantage to either you or your opponent, and directly
affects the speed at which you both move. If you have the advantage, your opponent becomes slow and easy
to predict. If your opponent has the advantage, he'll unleash a flurry of blows upon you and you'll have a
hard time just fending them off, let alone countering. A swirly pattern around either combatant's head is an
additional visual clue that their opponent currently holds the advantage. The advantage bar is affected by
the following:
- Every time you dodge a blow or parry a thrust (and only a thrust), advantage shifts to you. If your enemy
likewise avoids your attacks, advantage shifts to him.
- If either side taunts the other, advantage shifts to them. This bonus is nullified if they take a hit during a
poorly timed taunt.
- Taking a hit does not normally reduce ones advantage. Missing the enemy does. You have an advantage
here in ship battles in the buckets and hooks scattered over the floor, however. If youre standing next to
one and perform a chop or slash attack, you will automatically use the item to attack the enemy with, doing
the same damage but this time gaining some advantage as well.
- Advantage generally moves toward the neutral position if nothing happens. Also, if there is a break in the
action due to the territory (going up/down the stairs on a ship or in a tavern fight), advantage returns to
neutral.
- If either side loses part of their crew, advantage shifts away from them.
This happens randomly every few seconds; who loses crew and how many depends in part on how your duel
is going (i.e. who has gotten driven back) and the relative sizes of the two crews.
The last point isn't a factor if there's no crew in the battle, but in most cases there will be. This is why having a larger crew than your enemy is very important on higher levels. It will cause advantage to stay on your
side for the most part, and it will also increase the chance that your enemy loses crew rather than you,
further keeping the battle on your side.
On Swashbuckler level in particular, losing advantage is a very dangerous thing to happen. It's possible for
your enemy to become so fast that he can no longer be hit, and/or that his attacks become impossible to
properly avoid. Rapier wielders (which includes Montalban, if your game is patched) are the real danger here. With advantage on their side they can cut you down in seconds. If you lose the advantage, it will luck
and iron will to shift the battle back in your favour. Usually when things start to go wrong, you're doomed.
On lower levels, advantage is a far lesser concern as you'll still be faster than your enemy even if he has the

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advantage. The difference between difficulty levels is more pronounced in swordfighting than in any other
aspect of the game.

TACTICS
On Apprentice level, you'll find that almost anything goes in sword battles.
You can just randomly attack and usually connect. Enemies are driven back quickly and defeated before you
know it. You can completely ignore the advantage bar and come out of virtually any battle as a victor, even if
your crew is much smaller than the enemy's.
Starting on Journeyman, that approach won't work anymore. Enemies will block and dodge random attacks,
and if advantage shifts away from you, you'll feel it. Better tactics are needed and the higher the level, the
more you have to stick with them.
First off, you need to choose a weapon for each battle if you're playing on any level other than Apprentice.
Your choice is between:

RAPIER: faster attacks but slower defense.

LONGSWORD: balanced for attack and defense.
CUTLASS: slower attacks but faster defense.

In the previous Pirates games, there was a difference in damage and range between the weapons; one effect
of this was that the Rapier was nearly always the best choice. This is no longer the case. Weapons are now
largely a matter of personal preference, and on higher levels it is especially important to pick what suits your
style best. Most players seem to agree that the Rapier is suitable for low levels and you should stick with the
Cutlass on the higher ones, but it's up to you.
When you're in battle, it's best to wait for the enemy to attack; he won't make you wait for long. Identify the
style of attack, then press the right button in response. Jump over low attacks, duck under high ones, and
parry thrusts. It will take you a few battles to get the hang of this, but you'll learn soon enough. How much
time you have to dodge depends on the level. Don't worry about dodging too early; your character will hold
position until the enemy attack goes past. Even if that means hovering in the air for a few seconds after
jumping.
If you press the wrong button in response to an enemy's attack, don't panic.

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Quickly press the right button and your character will correct himself accordingly. As long as you do it before the enemy's attack connects, you can still dodge or parry even if you started off incorrectly. On higher
levels, be wary of enemy feints; they start one kind of attack but then suddenly switch to another. You'll
need to adapt your defense, too. Keep your eyes on the enemy at all times.
When the enemy's attack is past, you can strike back. You don't have to wait for your character to return to
neutral position; the attack is initated as soon as you hit the button. So if you're still hanging in the air and
press attack, your character will instantly be back on the ground to strike his blow.
On the higher levels you *must* take advantage of this if you want to place any hits. But be careful not to
press the button too quickly; if your enemy is still attacking you might get hit after all because you're cancelling your defensive stance.
For the most part, you want to counter with chops and slashes for better damage. However, a thrust is quick
and can sometimes hit where the other two can't. Consider using it if your opponent is particularly fast (due
to his skill and possibly advantage on his side), especially if you're fighting with a Cutlass. Much better to hit
with a thrust than to miss with a slower attack.
On Swashbuckler, or on Adventurer/Rogue when you have lost the advantage, you may want to stick with
thrusts entirely and forget about the other attacks. Or you could switch to the Longsword or even the Rapier if you think you can still defend quickly enough.
You'll need to keep an eye on the advantage meter while fighting, especially on the higher levels. If you let it
shift to the enemy he will soon become so fast that you can't fight him properly anymore. If this happens,
dodge or parry his next attack, and then taunt instead of attacking. This will shift advantage back to you.
Repeat once if necessary. Then dodge his next attack and start countering again.
If you're still having trouble after all this, keep the following in mind:
- If you are having trouble getting your attacks in quickly enough, switch to a faster offensive weapon. Rapier
is best for this, though I find it dangerous to use on higher levels. Your mileage may vary. The Rapier does
offer one extra advantage: if advantage is on your side, you may often get away with hitting the enemy when
he prepares an attack, thus countering without even bothering to defend.
- If you are having trouble defending quickly enough, make sure you are using the Cutlass. It helps immensely. The only possible disadvantage is having to do more thrusts instead of chops and slashes, but thrusts
win battles too as long as you don't get hit. However, on higher levels, you may find you have trouble hitting

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quick enemies who use Cutlasses as well. If so, you'll have to work harder to get the advantage bar in your
favour.
- When deciding to either thrust or chop/slash as a counterattack, keep your opponent's weapon in mind as
well. If he's using a Cutlass, you'll find his attacks easy to dodge, but he'll block your counters just as easily.
But if he uses a Rapier, mercilessly counter with chops and slashes as he can't defend nearly as quickly.
- If your opponent is slow you can sometimes hit him with a quick thrust while he is setting up a slash or a
chop. Keep this in mind especially if you are using the Rapier, which is slow on the defense but can thrust
very well. How often you can get away with this strongly depends on the level. It works brilliantly on Journeyman with most weapons, but on higher levels you'll want to reserve this for Rapier only. On Swashbuckler it is almost always ill-advised to even try it.
- You *will* get in trouble if you ignore the advantage bar on Adventurer level Or higher. Keep it on your
side. You may not be able to do this if you consistently attack opponents with more men on board than you
have, so pick your battles wisely. Many sword fights on Rogue and Swashbuckler are lost not because your
reflexes weren't up to the task, but because you insisted on fighting that pirate hunter with only 40 men on
your Sloop. Keep your crew up and avoid spreading them across too many captured ships (particularly damaged ones). Compare crew sizes before you engage in a battle, and if it doesn't look good, don't fight. Run.
- Balanced swords and fencing shirts help improve your character's battle speed. Get these items off governor's daughters or mysterious travellers. They are especially important on higher difficulty levels. Also, getting armor helps; the Leather Vest will sometimes deflect blows for you if you failed to dodge or block them,
and the Metal Cuiraiss(sic) will do this even more often.
- Skill at Fencing is a good choice on higher difficulty levels. It will speed up your character considerably and
make a loss of advantage a lot less dangerous. I consider it pretty much vital for Swashbuckler, if only because youre going to have to fight Montalban and his rapier sooner or later.
- If you react particularly quickly to an enemy attack, your character will do a flourish and counterattack automatically. This is mostly luck, but the chance increases quite a bit if you've picked skill at Fencing. From
Journeyman on, however, your opponents will do the same to you if you attack randomly.
This is why you should learn to rely on counterattacks once you move beyond Apprentice.
- Be aware of the effect of your health on fencing. Your character will become slower with age whenever his
health category drops a notch. Try to offset this with items to either make you quicker or to hold off the

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effects of aging, but most importantly, know when it's time to retire. You will eventually get too old to fight
properly.
- The jealous suitor of the governor's daughter is one of the toughest enemies in the game, especially if the
daughter in question is beautiful and he happens to spawn with a rapier. Be ready for a tough battle on Adventurer level and up. You may want to use that "Arrival" autosave that's carried out every time you enter a
town if you lose your duel against him.
- Marquis de la Montalban, specifically, is a demon with the blade on higher levels. You'll have to taunt frequently to keep the advantage bar favorable, because if it shifts to him, he may become so fast that you can't
hit him and you can't keep him from hitting you. At that point you're doomed, unable to even taunt anymore without getting hit. You may also find it necessary to use the Cutlass in order to keep up your defense,
and rely on thrusts only because swings will be too slow. Finally, it's a good idea to pursue him as early as
possible in your career, so you don't have to worry about old age slowing you down. All this rides on the
level, though; on Apprentice he's a pushover like everybody else.
- Note that Montalban always uses a Cutlass in v1.0 of Pirates and always uses a Rapier in v1.0.2. The switch
to Rapier was probably done because on Swashbuckler mode, it was well possible that he was simply impossible to hit, so quickly could he defend himself. Of course, now that he uses a Rapier, his own attacks have
become lightning quick. As before, you can make things easier on yourself by finishing up the Montalban
quest quickly and not waiting until your pirate is pushing 50. Montalban himself is completely unaffected
by the ravages of time, unfortunately.

OUTCOME
Unlike in the previous Pirates games, you cannot flee from a sword fight. The possible outcomes are therefore win or lose. A battle can be won in two ways:
- One fencer drives the opponent to the edge of the area;
- In ship/fort battles only: one side runs out of crew and then takes another hit, forcing surrender.
If you go into battle with small crews, be very aware of that second possible outcome. If you run out of crew
you *can* still win, but you can't afford to take a single hit.
What happens if you win or lose a battle depends on the setting.
- If you win a ship battle, you'll automatically plunder their gold, and get to keep their cargo and their ship
if you desire. If there is a specialist on board you don't yet have, he'll be added to your crew automatically.

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You may get the option to recruit additional crew from the enemy ship, and you may get information on the
location of a villain if he was spotted in a city near where the battle took place. (This will only happen if
you're already tracking the villain in question.)
- If you lose a ship battle, your flagship is lost, along with any excess cargo/crew your remaining ships can't
carry. You will escape to one of your other ships. However, if it was your last ship, *or* if you are forced to
surrender by running out of crew, you will not be able to escape. You are imprisoned in the nearest town if
the enemy ship belonged to one of the four European nations, or marooned if you were defeated by a pirate
or named villain (they simply chuck you overboard). Either predicament will put you out of action for some
months and result in the loss of all your loot.
- If you win a fort battle, you get to plunder the town. If you somehow manage to lose one (shame on you,
they're easy!), you escape unharmed but the sack fails.
- If you lose against a jealous fiance, you won't be getting that governor's daughter. The romance subplot
ends.
- If you lose against an annoying captain of the guard or a fugitive criminal, you are thrown in jail, similar to
being defeated in a ship battle when you have no other ships to run to. The same thing happens if you catch
one of the named villains in port but you fail to defeat them.
- Winning or losing against the governor's fencing master does nothing. It's purely a practice bout.
- If Montalban defeats you in his hideout, you escape safely, but you'll have to fight the Indian mercenaries
again if you try another assault.

[ 5 . 3 ] L A N D B AT T L E S
OVERVIEW
Land battles usually occur when you decide to attack a town. In a turn based strategy minigame, you move
your pirate units across the map, trying to outmaneuver and defeat the defenders. You win either by routing
all defending units or by reaching the gates of the city with one of your units. You lose if all your units are
routed.
In order to attack a town, you must do either of two things:
- Beach your ship some distance away from the town and march inside, then pick the option to attack the
town when it is presented;
- Sail into a hostile town which opens fire on you as you try to enter, then pick the option to attack.

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The latter only works if the town opens fire on you; otherwise, you will just sail inside peacefully and never
get the option to attack. For this reason, it is usually easier to use the former method. If you can't (perhaps
the island the town is on is too small, St. Eustatius is a good example), or if you just don't want to, you'll
need to piss off the town enough to open fire on you. The best way to do that is either to get a price placed
on your head by its nation (just keep attacking them), or to get an individual grudge from the town. To do
the latter, attack ships coming in and going out of the town, and press the space bar a couple of times to
bombard its fort with your cannons while on the world map. Especially on the higher levels, their patience
runs thin, and you'll soon be able to attack them from sea. Be aware that both approaches will impact the
town's wealth, however, so don't overdo it (particularly not on the bombardments, which gain you nothing).
In terms of how the minigame works, it doesn't matter which approach you take.
They both result in a land-based battle. The approach in which you have to maneuver your ship toward the
fort while dodging its fire, popular in the last two Pirates games, is gone.
How hard the battle is going to be depends entirely on how wisely you pick your targets. Make sure you pick
cities with good wealth but a small garrison and you'll have a much easier time than if you insist on cracking
the toughest nuts. Note that if you attack a city with less than 100 soldiers, you don't even have to do a land
battle at all; your men will storm the fort and it'll be an easy sword fight instead. On the other end of the
spectrum, if your crew is much smaller than the garrison, your men might refuse to even go up against the
uneven odds, and the option to attack is greyed out. If this happens, you need to come back with more
men, or soften up the garrison first.
When a battle starts, your crew and the enemy soldiers are divided up into a number of units varying between 3 and 10. You get one unit of officers (elite melee), and a number of pirate (melee) and buccanneer
(ranged) units. These numbers are usually equal, or have 1 more of pirates. So at the least you'll have 1 of
each, and at the most 1 officers, 5 pirates and 4 buccaneers. How your units are divided up seems mostly
random. Sometimes the game gives you a few big units and sometimes many small ones. Usually you get
unit sizes roughly equal to the enemy's, but that's not a given either.
Logan Louden has mailed in additional insight on how the game seems to determine the makeup of your
troops. It appears that the way the game can place your starting troops is a factor here; normally, if you'd
look at a formation like:

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BOPPBP

Then if obstacles (rocky terrain) make this placement impossible and holes fall in your formation, this can
affect the actual type of unit you will see. For instance, suppose that the above formation is broken up by a
rock in the location where normally the top left buccanneer unit would be:

PrOP
PBP

In this case, the top left unit has been placed one more square to the left, and apparently, that has caused
them to spawn as pirates rather than buccanneers. Note that this is a fictional example, your units don't necessarily spawn in such a predictable pattern. However, it does seem that discrepancies in pirates vs buccaneer unit numbers show up only if the formation is thus broken up by obstacles.
You can't really choose how your units are divided up, but you can choose their starting position - sort of.
When the battle starts, you can click 'change start location' to cycle through three different ones, and pick
whichever one you think is best. (In scenarios like the one described above, potentially the starting location
may also affect what units you get to an extent!) The enemy units are placed after yours, and you get the first
turn.
Each turn you get the option to move your units and attack enemies. When all your units have moved, the
opponent does the same. The battle continues until either side runs out of units, or one of your units reaches the city gates.

TACTICS
Be sure to read the manual section on land battles before you do any. This is the most complex minigame in
terms of strategy and controls, so it's good to know the basics. Here are some tips on getting the most out of
your land battles:
- Buccaneers are weak in close combat and should never be exposed to it.
Maneuver your pirate units such that no enemy can ever engage your buccaneers in melee. Fail to do this
and you'll find that the AI often prioritizes exposed buccaneers as targets.

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- Buccaneers can shoot *from* a forested square no problem and they can also shoot *at* an enemy in a forest, though damage is halved in the latter case. However, they cannot shoot *through* a forested square
even if you can see the enemy. The same restriction applies to all your ranged enemies. Shooting through
friendly units and rough terrain is no problem at all. In fact, just behind an impassible rough terrain square
is one of the best places for a buccaneer unit to be, especially if he happens to be in a forested square.
- Your buccaneers have more range on them than all enemy ranged units. This is an important advantage,
so use it. Keep your buccaneers at the maximum range of 4 spaces whenever you can, so the enemy can't
ever catch and rout them. You don't do any more damage by getting closer.
- Buccaneers win your battles. Period. The main focus of any effort to take out the enemy (as opposed to
sneaking a unit through to the city gates, a viable alternative) is to maximize the potential of your buccaneers to wreak havoc unchallenged by keeping them covered with your pirates and officers.
- Enemy infantry has a gun attack range of 2; guards have a range of 3. I find the two units a little tricky to
tell apart, myself. But as long as you keep your units in forests, you usually don't really have to worry about
this range difference. Often they will come out in the open and then stand and fire at you, and you can just
return fire with your buccanners from forests (or even hovering just outside their reach) and do major damage.
- Enemies can be routed before the unit is destroyed by hitting them with one attack after another. This way,
your buccaneers can defeat an enemy even if it's hiding in a forest, but you'll need to concentrate your attacks on one unit. Morale will drop to angry, then wavering, and finally panic, and at that point the next
attack automatically routs the unit regardless of how many men are left in it.
- The single best way to beat any enemy unit is to flank it. If you attack from either of the sides or one of the
three rear squares (so anywhere except from the three in front), your attack rating is doubled. This practically guarantees a win under all but the worst circumstances. Even if you use a badly mauled and panicky unit,
chances are you rout the enemy, although in this case you'll probably be routed at the same time.
- Infantry units have 2 moves, cavalry has 3. However, when either type of unit moves into a forest square,
their turn ends. Indian units are the exception they are therefore the only ones who can move into a forest and then immediately move again. Be aware of
this advantage as they *will* use it to launch surprise attacks against your weak buccaneers, if you let them.
- If a unit's first move is attacking an enemy unit, it may or may not be able to move again. This depends on
how easily the battle is won. If it's a close call, it takes them the entire turn to do it. If you waltz over the e-

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nemy you get another move, assuming the enemy was not in a forest. This isn't entirely predictable, but
you'll develop a feeling for when this will happen. Remember that flanking attacks tend to be easy wins.
- Enemy units will usually opt to shoot rather than engage in melee, unless they spot a weakened melee unit
or can reach a buccaneer unit. Because of this, there's something to be said for *always* ending your turn in
a forest square.
90% of the units I've lost in all my games were repeatedly shot at while they were in the open.
- When enemies are in range of both your pirates and buccaneers, have your buccaneers soften up the enemy before you let your pirates have their turn.
Use "skip turn" (SHIFT-7) liberally to let your units act in the order you want them to. You can also click on
a unit to select it, assuming it hasn't moved yet.
- Enemy cavalry is very dangerous in the open field, especially if they're attacking. Don't let them catch any
of your units, not even your powerful officers, out of a forest. If they attack you while you're in a forest their
attack is greatly reduced and you can probably beat them off. If you can hit
*them* while they're in a forest, you will slaughter them. If they don't let you lure them into a forest, shoot
'em from a distance with buccaneers or set up a flank attack. Preferably a combination of the two.
- Enemy cavalry shows up randomly, however, it appears to happen mostly on bigger garrisons, and on higher difficulty levels. On the lower levels, in my experience enemies tend not to have cavalry unless the garrison size is at least 300, but on Swashbuckler Ive seen an army of 100 field a cavalry unit, and thats the
smallest possible garrison where you still *have* a land battle.
- Artillery, though mentioned in the manual and the piratopedia, does not appear to have made it into the
game at all. Even if you attack a huge enemy garrison on a high level, you may see plenty of cavalry but never any artillery. I've yet to hear of one player who encountered any.
- If you can reach the gates of the town without finishing your enemies, do so unless you can wipe them all
out the same turn. You might get a little less gold and not wipe out as many enemies this way, but nothing
stops you from attacking the same town a second time right afterwards to get the rest; and if you've done
well, this time you'll be facing a much smaller garrison. In fact, you might not even need to fight another
land battle if you reduced the garrison to less than 100 men.
- If an enemy is too powerful for you, you can bring more men; but you can also convince Indians and pirates in nearby villages/havens to attack the target and soften it up for you. They will only hurt the garrison if
their attack fails, though. If it succeeds, pirates will destroy the wealth rating and Indians will scare off po-

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pulation, both of which reduce the loot you can still get. And as a final insult, the garrison remains fully
undamaged by a successful attack. Therefore, reserve this approach for well fortified enemy towns (say at
least 300 soldiers) so that the attack will probably fail. This kind of preparation becomes more important on
higher levels, where getting a big crew together can be hard to do.

OUTCOME
A land battle can end in three ways.
- If one of your units reaches the gates of the city, you win the battle and the sack commences. You'll get an
amount of plunder based on how many of the enemies you managed to defeat, and how wealthy and big the
port is. If your force was particularly overwhelming, you will also get the option to install a new governor,
thus switching the town's nationality.
- If you rout all enemy units, you win the battle. You get the maximum amount of plunder and a bigger
chance that you're allowed to replace the governor, though that still depends on how overwhelming your
force was.
- If all your units are routed, you and the other survivors (not every unit that falls in a land battle is killed,
per s) regroup at your ships. You gain nothing and you're left with a much smaller crew than before.
You can expect to get up to 10000 gold from a wealthy and well-sized port, though it's not impossible to get
more than that. Usually, however, expect the loot to be in the 5000-8000 range as long as you stick to juicy
targets. That means Wealthy or at least Prosperous, and a decent population size. In addition, sacking and
especially capturing towns can make you popular quickly with the nation's enemies and goes a long way to
earning promotions and land grants. For the most part, that aspect is more important than the gold.

[ 5 . 4 ] DA N C I N G
OVERVIEW
This is considered by most players to be the most difficult minigame, and in many ways it is. It requires quicker reflexes than sword fighting, that's for sure (at least on the lower levels). However, unlike sword
fighting, dance sequences aren't entirely random. There are set patterns in each dance and the real trick to
getting good at dancing is to learn them. The better you know the patterns, the less you have to rely on reflexes to get through, and the better you will perform as a result.

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In a dance, you watch the hand signals the governor's daughter gives you to know which move to make next.
Do it in time and you will perform the move with some degree of grace; if you time it perfectly you will add
a flourish and look particulary elegant. Don't press anything in time or press the wrong button, and you'll
stumble and get everybody's attention for all the wrong reasons. During the dance, a heart symbol at the top
of the screen symbolizes how charmed the daughter is; this is determined directly by your performance on
the dance floor. An additional visual cue to how well you're doing is the camera; the better you're doing, the
farther the camera will zoom in on you and the daughter. At the end, there are three possible outcomes based on how well you did:
- If you danced poorly, the daughter will be annoyed and turn her back on you.
No reward;
- If you danced moderately well, the daughter will let you kiss her hand and you get a reward based on her
beauty;
- If you danced very well, you will sweep the daughter up in an embrace, and get a better reward (but still
based on her beauty).
It goes without saying (or does it?) that beautiful daughters are harder to please. Their dances are more
complicated, and they're also less forgiving of mistakes. Their visual clues are a little more obscure, too; for
instance the plain looking daughter has her hands behind her back whenever she's not giving a cue, whereas
the beautiful one is waving them around, making the gestures trickier to spot. The difficulty level also factors into the complexity of each dance, and in how difficult the timing is. Practice with plain looking
daughters on Apprentice while you're getting the hang of it, then gradually set your sights higher.
You have six different dance steps available to you, under the 8, 2, 4, 6, 1 and 3 keys. (7 and 9 can be used
instead of 1 and 3 as preferred.) The governor's daughter will show you in advance every time which you
have to press; on lower difficulty levels and on your first dance of the game on all levels, the correct icon will
also flash in the bottom right of the screen.
The right time to press the button is usually just after the daughter finishes her hand gesture, or exactly
when the icon flashes. For some quicker dances, you have to press right away when the daughter gestures.
If you'd rather work with the music, the right time to press the button is exactly on the beat after the daughter gestures. How much time there is between beat and gesture varies per dance; you'll get the hang of this
with experience.

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If you get the timing right, you will do a flourish; if you're a little off, you will still do the move correctly but
without a flourish. If you press the wrong button or don't press one at all, you will usually stumble, but having Calfskin Boots or Dancing Slippers introduces a random chance that you make the correct move anyway (though without a flourish). The Wit and Charm skill does the same thing for incorrect button presses
only, it will not guard against missing a button press entirely.

PATTERNS
Each dance is built up from a number of different patterns. Which ones appear and in which order is random, but once a pattern starts it will be finished. Furthermore, the combination of the first move and whether it comes immediately after the previous pattern or after a single pause is unique for each pattern. This
means that if you learn them, the first move in any sequence will tell you what comes next. Once youre at
that point, dancing will become a lot easier. The patterns are as follows (I made up the names):
BASIC SIDE-TO-SIDE 4-6-4-6, or 6-4-6-4. The two often follow each other, so you get things like 4-6-4-6-6-46-4. Not guaranteed, but especially on Apprentice that is a very common one. Timing on these is standard
and easy to get right. This easy pattern becomes a lot rarer on higher levels in favour of the more complicated ones.

BASIC PIROUETTE 1-1-1-1 or 3-3-3-3. Always four in a row, with standard timing. Easy enough. These will
still appear on higher levels but less frequently.

ADVANCED PIROUETTE This one mixes the two previous patterns, and is either 4-3-4-3-4-3-4-3 or the
opposite, 6-1-6-1-6-1-6-1. You can recognize this pattern by the fact that it runs faster than the basic side-toside. If you just came out of another pattern and you immediately get a cue to do a 4 or a 6 without any
pause, it'll be this one, not the basic side-to-side. The pattern runs twice as fast as the previous two.

BASIC MARCHE 8-1-1-8-1-1, guaranteed. There is no mirrored variant of this one. You recognize this, of
course, by the fact that it starts with an 8. It starts after a brief pause just like the other patterns (barring the
advanced pirouette), but it runs at double speed. There is another pause halfway, so it is more like P-8-1-1-P8-1-1.

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ADVANCED MARCHE 8-2-1-1-2-8-3-3. The most complicated pattern you'll be getting on the lower levels.
Like the Advanced Pirouette, it starts immediately after whatever comes before it, rather than with a pause.
This is how you tell it apart from the Basic Marche. The whole pattern is at double speed, so you need to go
through it quickly. This one *will* trip you up the first few times, but once you've gotten it memorized, you
will be able to get a good number of flourishes out of it. This pattern is very rare on Apprentice (only seen
with beautiful daughters) but becomes more common on higher levels with all daughters.

EXPERT PIROUETTE This pattern never occurs on Apprentice and only rarely (with beautiful daughters
only) on Journeyman. Beyond there, it becomes more common. There are two variations: the fairly easy 1-21-2-1-1-2, and the more difficult 3-2-3-8-3-2-3-8 which will trip you up completely the first time it happens to
you. This is another double speed pattern which starts directly after another without any pause.
Swashbuckler level tends to throw a lot of Expert Pirouettes at you and in the faster dances, this is where
youre most likely to mess up, especially since these two are not perfect mirror images of one another. Itll
take getting used to and Dancing Slippers dont hurt either.

MORE HELP
If you just can't get the patterns right, there are a few things you can do to make dancing easier:
- If you press the wrong button and you know it, immediately press the right one after. Your character will
correct; you lose the chance at a flourish no matter how good your timing is, but you will not stumble. In
fact, it appears that if you just mash several keys and the right one is among them, often the game will accept the move as correct. This isn't a good way to learn to dance, but it's nice to know the catchnet is there.
- Note that if you correct yourself incorrectly (you press the right button first and then the wrong one), it'll
count as a stumble. You won't actually see your character stumble and the governor's daugher doesn't react,
but the governor himself does groan and the heart meter *will* decline.
- Some players report better results with flourishes by double tapping the right button rather than doing a
single press. One reader reported he got the most flourishes by doubletapping as the daughter nods her
head, rather than timing it on the hand gesture.
- Pick the Wit and Charm "skill" at the start of the game. This skill will help by preventing some of your
stumbling by accepting a wrong button press as a right one sometimes. It won't help you make any flouris-

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hes, but since a stumble really hurts your rating, having one or two prevented by this skill can make quite
the difference.
- The Calfskin Boots item, or even better the Dancing Slippers, give you a set
% chance to make a correct move even if you press the wrong button or take too long to press one. They'll
help reduce the number of mistakes you make, just like the Wit and Charm skill (and the skill doesn't help
you if you neglect to press a button at all, whereas these items do). The Dancing Slippers in particular help
cover up a surprising number of mistakes. Get them from mysterious travellers or as a bribe from criminals.
Jump on the opportunity when they are offered as these items are hard to find.
- Some players report getting more flourishes too with the dancing items. It may be that the window of opportunity for them is increased. I haven't really noticed this myself, however.
- Some people have reported good results with pausing the game (shift-P) every time the governor's daughter
gives her cue, watching what she's indicating, then unpausing and immediately doing the move. They even
manage to get a lot of flourishes with this approach. It's not entirely fair, but you could try this if you really
can't get it right otherwise, and perhaps you'll find it useful as a learning aid when you're still getting used to
the dancing.
- If you mess up a dance, especially an important one (perhaps one of the few beautiful daughters you could
find?), you *can* always use the autosave option to give yourself another chance. Just load the 'arrival' save; it
is saved whenever you enter a port, so in this case, it'll be just before you visited the governor.
Most of all, though, practice makes perfect. All of us struggled with this when we started, and many of us
have gotten very good at it just by doing it over and over. Never pass up a chance to dance with a governor's
daughter, and you will learn before you know it.

OUTCOME
Dancing properly with a daughter will initiate or advance your romance subplot with her, and comes with
various rewards as well. Refer to paragraph 7.7 on romance for the whole story.

[5.5] SNEAKING
This is likely the minigame you'll see least often. Sneaking happens in only two instances: if you decide you
have business in a town that won't let you enter peacefully (and that you can't/don't want to attack it), or
when you are trying to escape captivity. In the former case, you start at the city gates and try to reach either

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the Governor's mansion or the Tavern. In the latter case, you start in the middle of the city and want to reach the gates.
Guards walk around the city carrying lanterns, and you want to stay out of their sight. They will spot you if
you get too close, and if you are spotted the alarm will sound and all guards will pick up speed to catch you.
If they manage it, you are thrown in prison, end of story; you don't get a chance to fight.
To stay out of the reach of guards, keep the following in mind:
- Guards can only see in front of them. If you walk (don't run, you can be heard that way) up to one from
behind, you will automatically knock him out.
They will stay down normally, however a different guard may help them back up on their feet, so don't linger. For the most part, it's safer to stay out of their sight completely than to try and knock guards out.
- White arrow signs are on various streets pointing in the general direction of the governor's mansion. The
tavern is usually one block behind it. There are more signs on lower levels.
- If you walk up to a wall, you can climb over it. Guards can't do this, so this is an easy way to lose one.
- If you walk up to a haystack, you will automatically hide behind it. Then you can wait for guards to pass
and come out of hiding when all is safe.
- By holding shift you can run rather than walk, but this limits your vision and also makes more noise, potentially alerting nearby guards. Use sparingly.
Of course, if the alarm sounds and they're on to you, you'll want to run.
- Even if the alarm sounds you can still arrive safely at your destination, though if you're closer to the ship
you are probably better off escaping and trying again. You can also hide in a nearby haystack and wait for
the alarm to die down, which it will in a while (but itll take longer for the guards to disperse so you can
come out safely again).
- I've been told, but I'm not sure about this, that day will dawn if you take too long. Ive never been able to
confirm this, however, so it if happens at all its after a long time. Ive taken my time on difficult sneaking
sessions and never had an issue.
If you reach the Governor's mansion or the tavern, you will be able to conduct business there normally and
you will automatically leave town afterwards. You can't access any other of the town's services through sneaking. If you absolutely must visit the merchant or shipwright in a hostile town, your only choice is sacking
the town. You can access all the options afterwards.

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If you succeed in reaching the city gates when escaping captivity, you can resume your career. But if you're
caught when trying this, expect your prison sentence to be lengthened without another chance to escape.

[6] QUESTS
This section details the various quests you can embark on during the game. Each paragraph describes a different type, going through all the steps and giving advice on how to perform them. Since a good number of
your fame points are determined by your success at quests, be sure to take them seriously.
As a bit of general advice pertaining to all quests, it's usually to your benefit to embark on one as soon as
you get info on it. If you do not, you will often get redundant information on quests you already know about, effectively making it go to waste. No sense hearing where Raymondo is if you already know about the
family member he can tell you about, or getting lost city map pieces for a map you've already completed.

[ 6 .1 ] C R I M I N A L S
Fugitive criminal quests start when you dance moderately well with a plain governor's daughter. You may
also get them if you dance better than that or with a more attractive daughter if the usual reward you would
get has run out (e.g. you would get an item but you already have all the items you can get this way, or you'd
get information on Raymondo but you've already rescued all of your family). In these cases, the governor's
daughter will tell you the location of a criminal wanted by the nation she belongs to.
Criminals come in five flavours, each with a different name and reward:

CRIMINAL

NAME

GOLD REWARD

Libertine

Chatterley

1000

Embezzler

Farthingsworth

2000

Spy

Connery

3000

Blackmailer

Shawshank

4000

Traitor

Faulkes

5000

The more prolific criminals give better gold rewards, but are also better sword fighters. You also score more
points with the nation hunting them if you capture them.

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When you get a criminal quest, he spawns in a random city which may or may not belong to the same nation that's after him. He'll stay here forever, so there's no rush in going there. To catch a criminal, you need to
sail to the city in question, visit the tavern and talk to the bartender. He'll bring you in contact with the
criminal.
You must then face the criminal in a sword fight, and beat him. Once you do, he'll surrender. You can then
choose to make him stand trial, or to accept a bribe if he offers you one. The former gets you a reward between 1000 and 5000 gold, and some happiness points with the nation that was after him. The bribe takes
the form of an item, which is take it or leave it - if you take it, you let the criminal go and he disappears forever. Which items you can get is in part dependent on the criminal's rank; the more valuable ones tend to
offer better items too. You may not get a bribe offered at all if you already have all items the criminal in
question might offer.
If you choose to accept a bribe, you get no gold and no happiness points for the criminal's capture. It is up
to you what's worth more to you. On the higher difficulty levels, where items are harder and usually more
expensive to get, you may find it more appealing to accept bribes than on the lower levels where you can
usually buy them easily from travellers, and for less gold than you're giving up by letting the criminal go.
You can have an infinite number of criminal quests open at any time, but you can only catch one during a
visit to a tavern. If two criminals hide in the same town, you must catch one, leave town, reenter, and only
then you can go after the second. You should also make sure you catch a criminal before you revisit the same governor's daughter. If you do not, you risk getting the same info repeated as you charm her further,
which is quite a waste. Nothing quite like giving her an expensive Diamond Necklace only to be reminded
that a 1000 gold reward can be gotten in Santiago.
Criminal quests are a minor pastime, not particularly important to go after but worth doing if you're in the
area. On the higher levels, you may find this a painless way of obtaining items you can't get from governor's
daughters. The travellers usually ask loads of money for them.
Late in the game, when you've gotten most or all of the other rewards you can get for dancing, you may find
your quest log filling up completely with a bunch of criminal quests. At that point you may find it more
profitable to just go do them all than hunt ships. The more valuable criminals bring in quite a bit of gold
and at this point, you'll likely get land grants as well for the happiness points you earn, as presumably you'll
already be a Duke with one or more nations.

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[ 6 . 2 ] N A M E D P I R AT E S
"Captain! There's a steering wheel sticking out of your pants!" "Arr, it's drivin' me nuts!"
The Caribbean is littered with pirate havens, and from nine of them (chosen randomly), named pirates sail.
These guys are all modelled after historical pirates and privateers, and in this game they are your direct
competitors. They all have a certain amount of plunder to their name and various other stats (ships taken,
towns sacked etc.). One possible objective you can set for yourself is to outdo them, though this doesn't get
you any fame points directly.
A much more profitable course of action is to track them down and defeat them.
Each pirate sails a well-upgraded ship, and the most notorious ones have pretty good ship types at that. All
have the maximum number of guns and close to the maximum crew on board. They also each have a good
haul of gold in their hold which increases over the course of the game. Finally, you get a fame point for every pirate you put out of business. If you defeat a named pirate, they're gone from the game for good.
Finding named pirates is usually a matter of talking to barmaids. If one operates somewhat near the port
you have stopped in, you may be told about the location of their home base, and you will usually find them
sailing nearby.
Named pirates usually do not attack you, though if you've found and stolen their buried treasure before (see
paragraph 7.3), they will chase you down if they think they can handle you. You may also run across them
randomly while they are out hunting for merchant ships to plunder. Named pirates never lose battles against other ships, so the only one who can actually defeat them is you.
Once you locate a named pirate, defeating them is done in the same way as you take any other ship; a naval
battle followed by a sword fight. They are a little more skilled at both than most of your opponents, but not
very much so.
A pirate can be defeated by sinking his ship, but this is a total waste because of the large amounts of gold
they all carry. You *can* also pummel their ships into surrendering so you don't have to do a sword fight,
but this is rare. They don't give up easily; usually you'll need to knock out their sails with chain shot for it to
happen at all.
The following is a list of the named pirates in order of most notorious to least, with the ship they sail and
the value of their buried treasures. The gold they have in their vaults is usually just a little lower than their
buried treasure at the start of the game, and increases as they take down more targets. One player reported

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getting as much as 70000 gold off Henry Morgan's ship. My personal record was just over 30000, after 15
years in the game.

PIRATE

FLAGSHIP BURIED TREASURE

Henry Morgan

Large Frigate

10000

Blackbeard

Frigate

9000

Captain Kidd

Brig of War

8000

Jean Lafitte

Brig

7000

Stede Bonnett

Brigantine

5000

L'Olonnais

Brigantine

6000

Roc Brasiliano

Royal Sloop

4000

Bart Roberts

Sloop of War

3000

Jack Rackham

Sloop of War

2000

Note that hunting named pirates is also an excellent way to get your hands on some hard to find ships. Roc
Brasiliano's Royal Sloop and Captain Kidd's Brig of War are of particular interest, and Henry Morgan's Large Frigate is a decent substitute for the hard-to-find Ship of the Line. Named pirates typically have a bunch
of upgrades on their vessels as well.
It is possible to predict how much gold capturing a pirate will get you. Just have a look at the Top 10 Pirates
list, and have a look at how much gold they've plundered over their career. Exactly 10% of that will be on
board their ship when you capture it. Pirate wealth (as well as their other stats)
updates at the beginning of every month, so decide for yourself if you want to capture them early, or leave
them be for a while so you can go after them later in your career and get more gold.

[6.3] BURIED TREASURES

Each of your nine named rivals has portion of his loot buried somewhere in the Caribbean. To increase
your wealth - and to earn extra fame points while you are at it - you can look for these treasures. To be able
to start looking for a treasure, you need to talk to mysterious travellers in taverns until one offers to sell you
a part of a treasure map. They will often (but not always) sell you a map for whichever pirate's home base is
nearest to your current location.

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The treasure always spawns somewhat near your current location regardless of how near said pirate is,
though. If you're offered a map piece in Trinidad, the treasure won't be buried near Vera Cruz.
If you're playing on Apprentice, buying one part is enough; you get a (usually)
clear map which shows you the direct area around the treasure, tells you in the vicinity of which port to
look, and shows you several distinctive landmarks to help you find the right spot. On Journeyman, you only
get a quarter of the map initially, but if you find another mysterious traveller to sell you a piece you will get
the other three quarters right away. From Adventurer level on, you need to buy four separate map pieces to
get the entire thing.
You don't *have* to gather an entire map to be able to find a treasure; if you think you can do it with the
parts you have, go ahead and give it a try. You do need to get at least one piece for a treasure to spawn in the
first place, though; you can't run into them randomly without any sort of map. You also can't hunt for more
than one treasure at a time, as map pieces for a new treasure aren't sold to you until you find the previous
one. In other words, once you get the map to a treasure, you should go find it at your earliest opportunity.
Every map includes instructions on which city's area to search, assuming you have the bottom right part of
the map which tells you so. If you collect all four pieces it will also say in which general direction of the city
the treasure is. The rule here is that the treasure isn't necessarily right outside the city or even on the same
land mass, but it will always be closer to that city than any other. How useful that is to you depends on
which city it is. If a treasure is near Rio de La Hacha, that's helpful because there are other cities near it, and
you know it has to be relatively close by. On the other hand, if a treasure is "near" Gran Granada it could be
damn near anywhere in Mexico. Thankfully pirate treasure almost never spawns that far in the middle of
nowhere, but you'll be remembering this when you're after a Lost City or the hideout of Montalban.
Sometimes, a treasure map is kind enough to include the city itself on the map, or something else that's easily recognizable, like a named settlement. Usually however you have to make do with a named landmark,
something like Captain's Shallows or Rum Rock or a dozen other randomly generated names. These are
never in the same spot twice when you start a new game. The way to find them is to first get to the city
that's mentioned on your treasure map, then sail around it until you spot the landmark with the right name. Landmarks look like brown rocks just off the shore, and their name will only show up if you come near
them. On Apprentice and Journeyman level, if you are near the right landmark, its name will alternate with
the text "Buried treasure landmark!" so you really can't miss it.

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Once you know roughly where to beach your ship, do so and use the in-land landmarks (which only appear
once you're marching) to get your bearings. Head for the red X as best as you can, frequently checking your
map. You can use the spyglass to see landmarks before they actually appear on screen. How useful this is
depends on the difficulty level. On higher levels, the view zooms in further and you see less of your surroundings when just walking around, but the spyglass functions the same on all levels. Thus, on Apprentice,
it hardly shows you any more than you already see without it, but on Swashbuckler you're practically blind
without it. Interestingly, you don't actually need to get either of the Spyglass special items to have it available
for treasure hunts.
The treasure location itself looks like a mound of sand, a pole with skulls hanging from it, and a big red
glowing skull & crossbones mark on top of the mound. To dig up the treasure, simply walk into it and your
men will do the rest.
The value of each treasure is fixed between 2000 and 10000 gold; the treasures of the more notorious pirates are worth more. Each treasure also earns you 1 fame point, as well as the wrath of the pirate you stole it
from (assuming you haven't defeated him already). Count on said pirate to chase and attack you if you ever
meet him and you don't outmatch him.
A final thing to note on treasure spawn locations: it seems that there is a fixed number of locations where
treasures can in fact spawn. If you play many games, you may eventually discover patterns to where they turn
up, such as noticing that a treasure said to spawn "west of [whatever port]" always seems to be in the same
one or two spots, rather than the potential hundreds of possibilities. I'm not entirely certain about this, but
I definitely get this impression from the games I've played and the sentiment was shared by some of the reader input I've gotten. And Ive played more than one game where, after finding a treasure or a lost city, I was
later directed to a new treasure in virtually the same location.

[ 6 . 4 ] L O S T F A M I LY M E M B E R S
One of the major quests of the game is to find the four family members that Marquis de la Montalban takes
into bondage during the introduction scene. These are your sister, uncle, aunt and grandfather (presumably,
your parents were on the fleet that was lost?). Conveniently, all four have been shipped to the Caribbean
and are now locked in little shacks littered all over the place, waiting for you to rescue them. But to do that,
first you need to find out where they are.

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Surprisingly, it's not Montalban who can tell you where they are, but one of his henchmen: Baron Raymondo. To get information on your family members, you need to track down Raymondo, defeat him, and
get him to give up map pieces detailing their location. Strangely enough, you only get one piece at a time,
and to get more information you must then track him down and defeat him again.
This can mean that you need to find and defeat Raymondo no less than 16 times over the course of your
career. Why your character is so kind to let Raymondo go every time he gives up a little bit of information
and then goes through the trouble of finding him again, who knows.
There are three ways to get a lead on Raymondo and start the hunt:
- Talk to the abbot at a Jesuit mission, and he'll give you Raymondo's location just like that.
- Talk to a mysterious traveller at any tavern. If he tells you he has news about your family, pay his fee (fixed
at 1000 gold for all levels) and he'll give you Raymondo's location. Its not a lot of money in the long run, so
you might as well do it if the option comes up.
- Dance near-perfectly with an attractive governor's daughter, or moderately with a beautiful one, and they
will tell you where to find Raymondo.
Once you have a lead, you can have your information updated by talking to bartenders or by capturing ships
near the city where Raymondo is supposed to be. You'll often be told if he's still there or if he's moving somewhere else by now. Raymondo rarely stays in one port for long, and he's usually out on the sea in his fully upgraded and well-crewed War Galleon. Just keep chasing him down and getting your info updated until
you spot him, then attack his ship.
You usually can't catch Raymondo in a port. Even if he stops somewhere, his ship will just be stationary
right outside it, and as soon as you come near and he spots you he'll make a run for it. However, it is possible that you get information on Raymondo's whereabouts from a governor's daughter and he happens to start
in the same port you're in right now. If that happens, you
*can* go to the tavern, talk to the bartender, and get to fight him just like a fugitive criminal. Saves you the
hunt, though it also means you won't get his ship and the gold on board.
Assuming the above doesn't happen, Raymondo always moves from port to port, and only stops in Spanish
ones. He can't visit ports that no longer belong to Spain, and he *can* visit ports that were originally a different nationality if Spain has captured them. Some players deliberately capture the more out of the way
Spanish ports early in the game to make sure Raymondo can't spawn or travel there anymore. Note that if

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you run Spain out of ports completely, Raymondo will start moving between another nation's ports instead.
I havent tried out yet what happens if you leave Spain with one port.
You need to defeat Raymondo in a regular ship battle and sword fight. You cannot sink his ship (it won't
take more than 99% hull damage no matter how much you hit it) and you cannot avoid the sword fight.
Fortunately, if you wear his ship and crew down enough, it's not a particularly challenging battle. It is possible, for instance, to use chain shot to destroy his rigging (causing the ship to strike its colours, but they will
still fight you when you get close), then circle around it and repeatedly hit it with grape shot until you've
brought the crew down to a manageable size. All the way down to 1, if you wish.
When you beat Raymondo, you get a map piece for whatever family member you are currently looking for.
On Apprentice you need to gather only two map pieces per family member to get the entire map; on all other levels you need to get four. Raymondo always carries exactly 3000 gold on his ship as well, so that's a
nice bonus.
Finding the family member then works exactly like hunting for a pirate treasure. Use the landmarks on your
map to track down the right location, then march to it. You're in the right spot when you see a low blueish
building. You will automatically rescue your lost family member when you find it.
You get 1 fame point for every map piece you discover regarding a lost family member. If you manage to
find one without getting the entire map, you still get the total 4 fame points for that member. Furthermore,
any family member you rescue gives you the location of Marquis de la Montalban (see paragraph 6.6).
If you already know where he is or have even already defeated him, you get a Lost City map piece instead
(see paragraph 6.5). As soon as you rescue one family member, any further leads you get on Raymondo will
be regarding the next. Raymondo will stop appearing when you've rescued your entire family.
Like pirate treasures, lost family members appear to spawn in specific spots, so that over the course of several games you will notice you are returning to the exact same spot for certain rescues.

[6.5] LOST CITIES

"Lost a city, master Kenobi has! How embarassing, how embarassing."
Lost Cities are kind of a wrap-up quest that is offered as an alternative to the main one of vanquishing
Montalban. There are four Lost Cities in the Caribbean belonging to various famous Indian tribes, and
finding them is a daunting but profitable task. As with pirate treasures and family members, you need to

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gather map pieces, but you'll find that with Lost Cities this is only the beginning. They are usually in very
out of the way and hard to find places.
First off, to get a Lost City map piece, you must do one of the following:
- Rescue a family member, and already know the location of Montalban or have vanquished him;
- Dance near-perfectly with a beautiful governor's daughter, under the same conditions;
- Rescue a governor's daughter from the evil Colonel Mendoza.
You basically get a Lost City map piece as an alternative to Montalban's location if you don't need it, or by
rescuing a daughter (something you will typically do only once, though there's nothing stopping you from
running as many romance subquests as you want).
On Apprentice level, you need to get two Lost City map pieces to complete the map; the first is just a quarter, then the second piece completes the map right away. On Journeyman, the first piece is a quarter, the
second piece brings you to three quarters instantly, and the third piece completes the map. On all higher
levels you need to find four pieces to get the full map. You don't strictly need the entire map to be able to
find a Lost City, though - it spawns as soon as you get the first piece, and can theoretically be found then.
Finding a Lost City takes a lot of luck and patience. They are often in the middle of Mexico or other big
land masses, nowhere near the city they are claimed to be in the vicinity of (though closer to there than any
other). There is often a lack of shoreline on the Lost City maps, making it very hard to have any idea of
where to start your search. All I can advise you to do is to check the map carefully, and sail around the coast
hoping to recognize any landmarks.
Failing that, you'll have to march, check your treasure map frequently, and hope for something recognizable.
A Lost City looks like two red poles opposite each other.
A good suggestion mailed in by Andrew Durdin: it is possible to spot landbased landmarks while sailing if
you use the telescope (right mouse click), so if you have trouble determining where to look for a Lost City
(map has no coastline), it may help to sail just by the coast and use the telescope to see if you spot a familiar
set of landmarks.
One other thing that will help is that landmarks typically only appear in the area surrounding your target. If
you beach your ship in a random location and start exploring, you wont be stumbling over Incan Temples
and Geysers and Dead Trees and whatnot the land will be barren. But if you approach a Lost City or other land based target, they will start showing up. Theyre not necessarily within the maps range, and the
map may not show all of them even if they are in range, but its your first sign that youre getting close.

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Quarter map pieces for Lost Cities are worth 1 fame point each. Completing a map (or finding a Lost City
without completing the map first) earns you the full 4 fame points for that city, and a chance to start gathering map pieces for the next. Each Lost City you find also has a little bit of treasure waiting for you. 50.000
gold, to be exact. A fitting reward for the headache of finding one.
As with pirate treasures, there seems to be a finite number of locations where Lost Cities can spawn, and
you may notice from one game to another that there is a pattern to where Lost Cities appear and where they
do not. But I don't have hard data on this.

[ 6 . 6 ] M A R Q U I S D E L A M O N TA L B A N
The main quest of Sid Meier's Pirates, and certainly the most convoluted one, is tracking down and defeating the evil Marquis who made off with your entire family in the introduction movie. To do this, you'll
need to find his hideout and defeat him there; but to do that, you'll need to track him down at sea a couple
of times, first.
To be able to find Montalban at sea at all, you'll need to get a lead on him just like with Raymondo, except
the lead is a little harder to get. You must:
- Rescue a missing family member (which in turn requires you going through the whole Raymondo chase
several times);
- Dance near-perfectly with a beautiful governor's daughter.
Either will get you Montalban's location. You will then need to chase his Flag Galleon in exactly the same
way you track down Raymondo; talk to bartenders and crews of captured ships to find out where he's gone
off to next. Soon as you catch up with him, you need to defeat him in a ship battle, which is no easy task.
Flag Galleons may be slow, but they're very powerful, and Montalban only sails fully upgraded ones with a
sizable crew. He's powerful in duels, too, probably the most powerful opponent in the game. Just how hard
he is depends on the level, of course. Like Raymondo, Montalban *can* be caught in port but usually only
if he happens to spawn in the same one you are in when you get a lead on him. If you fight him at sea, you
can use the same trick as with Raymondo to make the battle easier: take out his sails with chain shot first,
then circle his defenseless ship and repeatedly hit it with grape shot to take out the crew. If you reduce him
to the minimum of 1 crew, he'll lose the sword battle as soon as you hit him just once, so you may want to
do this on the highest levels when he is difficult to beat regularly.

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Defeat Montalban at sea and he'll manage to escape, but searching his ship will turn up a map piece for his
hideout (as well as 5000 gold). On Apprentice level you only need to find two of those to get the complete
map, on Journeyman you need three, and on all other levels you need four. Then, when you finally have the
complete map, you run into the same problem as with Lost Cities: more often than not he's got his hideout
somewhere in Mexico, far away from the coast, and very hard to find.
When you do finally come across his hideout, it's not over yet. The exterior is protected by a band of Indian
mercenaries that you need to defeat in a land battle. I'm not quite sure if the size of this band is dependent
on the difficulty level; on Apprentice and Journeyman I found that a crew of 200 was plenty to be able to
win this battle, but you may need more on higher levels. I was able to do it on Swashbuckler with a fully
crewed Royal Sleep (187 men), but only barely better to get a second ship and some extra hands before
you go into this fight. As with all land battles, though, you can sneak a unit through to the main gates instead of defeating all the enemies. And at least the Indians won't have any cavalry.
When you're through the land battle, you finally need to face Montalban in a one on one duel and prove
one more time that you're his master with the sword.
On the lower levels, this isn't much harder than any other duel in the game.
On Swashbuckler, it will take everything you've got.
The reward for going through all this is solid though. You get 2 fame points for every map piece to the hideout you uncover, and another 2 for tracking him down and defeating him (for a total of 10 fame points
regardless of if you completed the map). Furthermore, you get 100.000 gold from his hideout - the highest
gold reward in the game - all crew specialists that you don't have yet, and any further family members you
rescue/beautiful daughters you charm will give you Lost City map pieces so you can focus on that very profitable quest.
Two pieces of advice for completing the Montalban quest on higher levels:
1. In ship battles you may find it necessary to use the trick of destroying his sails and then cutting his crew
down to 1 with Grape Shot so that tagging him once during the duel will force a surrender. The issue here
is the staircase hell flee up or down halfway the battle, resetting the advantage bar. On Swashbuckler, armed with his trusty rapier, Montalban is almost impossibly fast whenever the advantage bar isnt on your
side, and the stairs make it so that you cannot *keep* it on your side. Ive been beaten by him many times
because he manages to regain momentum at the stairs and then became so fast that I couldnt defend myself anymore. This is actually less of a problem during the final battle with him as there is no advantage bar

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equalizer there, so you can keep up a steady rhythm of dodging blows and alternating counterattacks with
taunts.
2. Don't delay. Get a lead on him as soon as you can - this will require tracking down a beautiful daughter
and getting to dance with her (become a Baron or get the Ostrich Feather Hat), and doing it well. If you
hold off too long and you only get around to tracking down Montalban when your pirate is already past 40
and getting slow, you may find the final duel unwinnable. Its perfectly possible to wrap up the quest in 10
years if you focus on getting Montalban leads as soon as youve got the ship and crew you need to be able to
beat him.

[ 6 . 7 ] RO M A N C E
OVERVIEW
Apart from gathering riches and tracking down villains, a significant part of your fame points and happiness
come from romance. Your ultimate objective here is to get close enough to one of the many governor's
daughters in the Caribbean to win her hand in marriage. More points are earned for charming a more beautiful daughter (looks really do count in the 17th century, it appears). A maximum of 10 fame points can
be earned for marrying a beautiful daughter.
You need to go through a couple of steps to marry a daughter, and here they are:
- First, you need to get introduced. This requires you to at least be a Captain for a plain looking daughter, a
Colonel for an attractive one or a Baron for a beautiful one. The latter two requirements can be bypassed if
you have either or both of the fashion items (French Chapeau / Ostrich Feather Hat). Once you are introduced, you must accept the daughter's invitation to dance with her at that night's ball, and you must dance
at least moderately well and not make a fool of yourself. More info on dancing in paragraph 5.4. If you
don't mess up, the quest continues on your next visit; if you do, youll have a chance to try the dance again
later.
- On a subsequent visit, the daughter will remark she would really like to have a Ruby Ring or a Diamond
Necklace. Subtle. She will keep repeating this on next visits until you actually bring her one. Obtain them
from the mysterious traveller in the tavern, or occasionally as a bribe from a fugitive criminal. Note that if
you actually have either of these items but refuse to give it to her, she'll somehow magically know it and be
insulted. I believe this may end your romance subquest with this daughter, but Im not sure if you cant just
return and give her the gift later.

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- The next time you visit town after giving the governor's daughter a gift, it turns out she has a fiance who is
now less than pleased with you. In fact, he will challenge you to a duel. You fight this duel the next time you
visit
*after* this (you can immediately revisit the governor in this instance to get it over with). You'll need to win
the duel for the romance subplot to continue. Losing it ends the subplot as far as Im aware.
- On your next visit, you have to dance a second time. Strangely, the game's dialogue is exactly the same as it
was with the first dance, so that it seems like you don't even know this daughter yet. Don't worry, the quest
hasn't reset. But you do need to get the dance right a second time for the subquest to continue.
- The next time you visit, the governor will tell you his daughter has been kidnapped by the evil Colonel
Mendoza. If you refuse to go after him, the poor governor will faint, and the subquest ends. If you decide to
rescue her, you need to track down Mendoza's ship (a Fast Galleon) and defeat him in battle to rescue the
daughter. Tracking him down works in exactly the same way as Raymondo and Montalban, and the battle is
slightly easier. The old trick of chain shot to take out the sails and then grape shotting the crew down to the
minimum works once more. Whatever you do, the next time you return to the city the daughter will be
reunited with the governor. She will also give you a Lost City map piece.
- On your next visit to the port, you have the option of asking for the daughter's hand in marriage. If you do
not, you will end the subplot and break the lass heart. If she is beautiful, go ahead and propose; if she is
less so, it's up to you if you're okay with ending up short of the maximum fame score. You can only marry
once, and you will only get all points out of this quest if you marry a beautiful daughter.
- After marriage, subsequent visits to the city give you a chance to dance with your wife and gain more rewards; messing up or refusing the dance causes no permanent harm, but yields no rewards either. You can
still flirt with any other governor's daughters you desire, playing the romance subquest right up until marriage, but you can only marry once. You can, however, rescue as many more daughters from Mendoza as you
wish. In fact, if you have multiple romance plots running at the same time, it's perfectly possible to have
multiple clones of Mendoza sailing around the Caribbean, all having a different daughter as their hostage.
Once you retire, your wife will move to whichever city you settle down in. You don't have to stop your career
in her home city.

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REWARDS
You get a reward in fame points based on the best romance result you've had so far. You could be running a
dozen romance subplots in different cities at the same time, and whichever one is worth most based on the
daughter's beauty and how far you have advanced the plot is the one that determines your fame points. The
rewards are as follows:

SUBPLOT

PLAIN

ATTRACTIVE

BEAUTIFUL

Completing the first dance

Giving her a gift

Hearing that fiance is jealous

Beating the fiance in a duel

Completing the second dance

Rescuing daughter from Mendoza

Returning daughter to her father

Marriage

10

In addition, you can get two grades of reward from a daughter whenever you advance the plot. Which reward you get depends on how well you've handled this particular part of it, and once again, on how beautiful the daughter is.
- For dancing: a moderate dance where you end up kissing her hand yieds the lower reward, while a good
dance which ends in an embrace also gets you the bigger prize.
- For gifts: a Diamond Necklace should get you the better reward compared to the Ruby Ring. However, Ive
found this is not always true.
- For defeating the fiance: this always yields the lower reward. There's no way to get the better one here.
- When you rescue a daughter from Mendoza, she always gives you a lost city map piece regardless of her
beauty.

After handling a part of the subplot, your rewards can be:

- Information on a fugitive criminal (see paragraph 6.1);
- A free item (see paragraph 7.5);

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- Information on the location of Baron Raymondo (see paragraph 6.4);

- Information on the location of Marquis Montalban (see paragraph 6.6);
- A lost city map piece (see paragraph 6.5).
The following table describes which reward you get under which circumstances:

BEAUTY

REWARD #1

REWARD #2

Plain

Criminal

Item

Attractive

Item

Raymondo

Beautiful

Raymondo

Montalban/Lost City map

If you already have all items you can get from governor's daughters, you will get information on a criminal
instead. Similarly, if you already rescued all family members and no longer need to chase Raymondo, you'll
get information on a criminal. If you already know where Montalban is or you have vanquished him, you
get a lost city map piece instead. If you've cleared Montalban *and* found all Lost Cities, you get information on a criminal. Due to the way this system works, you will often end up with a quest log full of criminal
quests late in the game.
Note that if you advance a romance subplot with a daughter before acting on the information you got from
her earlier (on either criminals or Raymondo, not for the lost city maps), she'll merely restate what she already said earlier. This is a bit of a waste, so if the daughter you're wooing has given you info to act on, do so
first before coming back to her.
In the original unpatched version of the game, during the Mendoza part of the romance subplot, the plot
can break if an invasion force captures the city before you manage to return the daughter to her father. If
this happens, this plot is effectively gone and you'll need to find somebody else to marry. After you have
married a daughter, even the capture of the city she lives in won't end your marriage, though it may cause
other weird effects, such as her appearance changing to reflect the new nationality. It is not possible to install a new governor yourself in the city your wife lives in.
If the governor of a city is changed but the nationality isn't, the romance subplot is unaffected. Apparently,
every new governor promptly adopts the old governor's daughter.
Version 1.0.2 of Pirates contains some safeguards against the nationality changes breaking the romance
subplot. When the subplot is in the critical stage (from the moment the daughter is kidnapped by Mendo-

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za), you can no longer switch the town's allegiance by sacking it, and AI controlled invasion forces will no
longer target it. It does appear that the patch has gone a bit overboard Ive found that once a city is thus
protected from invasion, I start having trouble attacking *any* port where I have a romance subplot running up to any level. I simply dont get the option anymore even when entering on land.
A final tip: marrying a beautiful daughter as early in the game as you can doesn't just ensure you've got those 10 fame points pocketed: she will act as a renewable source of Montalban leads and Lost City map pieces
since you can return to dance with her at any time. This is especially useful on high levels to track down
Montalban before you get too old to have much of a chance against him in battle.

[6.8] TREASURE FLEET

Every two years, the Spanish Treasure Fleet sails around the Caribbean to pick up valuables at each important port to carry back to Spain. Obviously, this is a very profitable target for a bold pirate. The Treasure
Fleet consists of 3 Treasure Galleons which, starting with Trinidad, sail west along the Spanish Main, then
up north to Havana, then back east and out to Europe. This trip takes about a year and a half, and along
the way the ships sell off Luxuries and Spices and pick up gold. At the start of every even numbered year,
some months after the Treasure Fleet has left for Europe, a new one appears at Trinidad.
In the original version of the game, various bugs associated with the Treasure Fleet made it hard to find,
and often it would not appear (or reappear) at all.
Version 1.0.2 fixes these bugs and you should run into the Treasure Fleet much more frequently now. Barmaids can tell you where it is currently heading, and you can also stumble upon it yourself. Bear in mind
that it's around Trinidad in January, then sails west up to Puerto Bello, then straight north to Havana, and
then straight east. It will reach the east edge of the map about halfway the next year. The Treasure Fleet only
spawns in odd years, so in the standard era, the first one will appear in 1660, then the next in 1662, et cetera. However, if you capture or sink the entire Treasure Fleet, a new one can spawn almost immediately, ignoring the previous time frame. I've once captured three separate Treasure Fleets in only a little more than
one game year.
While the Treasure Fleet is still intact, its ships will not actually be labelled 'treasure ships'. However, if the
fleet breaks up - which can be caused by pirate attacks but also by you just coming close to it - the individual
ships that leave the formation will get the 'treasure ship' label.

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Especially in this case, you might not even realize you just captured part of the Treasure Fleet - it will look
just like any other treasure ship.
When you attack a ship in the Treasure Fleet, one of the others will typically act as an escort. This means
you'll have two big ships with lots of crew and guns after you at once, so you'd best be prepared. These aren't
ordinary merchant ships you're after and you may find yourself biting off more than you can chew. If you're
well armed and have a sizable crew, you can pull it off, but head in to board them quickly. You don't want to
exchange broadsides with two 30+ gunners at once.
The loot on each ship in the Treasure Fleet depends on when you catch it. Since it will sell off cargo and
pick up gold in every port it stops at, the loot grows over time. Capture one or more of the ships at Trinidad
early in the year, and you'll get just about a thousand gold and a fair bit of cargo.
Capture it when it comes out of Havana - perhaps swooping down on it from Florida Keys - and you can
expect each remaining ship to hold 3000 gold easily. Of course, the downside is that by then, perhaps only
one ship survives as enemy nations and pirates have already sunk the others.
There are no fame points associated with capturing the Treasure Fleet, nor any special sequences; it's just a
couple of well armed Treasure Galleons with a lot of gold on board. A little disappointing compared to the
awesome target it was in the original game, but still a nice boost and a challenging battle on the higher
levels.

[7] REFERENCE LISTS

[ 7.1 ] S H I P S
This is a complete list of all 27 ships in the game, sorted by 9 different classes. Info comes directly from the
game and should be accurate.
Note that the term 'combat galleon' does not come from the game, I made that up. Had to distinguish somehow between the merchant types and the warship types, and since 'war galleon' was already the name of a
specific type of ship, that would have been a little awkward to use. Hence 'combat galleon' is how I refer to
the fast/war/flag galleon line of ships.
'Crew' refers to the maximum crew a ship can carry if it does *not* have the Triple Hammocks upgrade. If it
does, the ship can carry 50% more crew, rounded down.

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'Min crew' refers to the minimum crew needed to operate the ship at full sailing speed; the game will automatically assign exactly this crew to any ship that's not your flagship. If a ship is damaged, the minimum
crew required raises. If at any time the minimum crew requirement cannot be met, the ship slows down
considerably.
In battle, having just the minimum crew will let you sail the ship at its proper speed, but cannon reloading
will be seriously slow. The more excess crew you have, the faster your cannons will be reloaded. Excess crew
does not increase sailing or turning speed though; only so many men can be in the rigging.
The fastest possible reloading speed for cannons (not counting the bonuses that a Gunner specialist and the
Gunnery skill add) can be achieved by having the minimum crew, plus three more men for every cannon
your ship has. For instance, 12 men are required to keep an (undamaged) Royal Sloop sailing at its best possible speed; if it has its maximum 20 cannons on board, you'll need 60 more men to reload those at the best
possible speed, thus ideally a Royal Sloop should have at least 72 men on board to function perfectly in
battle. This same formula works for all ships. Keep in mind that as soon as a ship takes on damage, its minimum crew increases on the spot, and with it the ideal crew for maximum reload speed as well. Your men
can't load cannons and scoop out water at the same time.
All missing minimum crew figures as well as confirmation of the ideal crew formula (min crew + 3x number
of cannons) were kindly provided by Strange.

CLASS

SHIP

SIZE

TURNING

TYPE

SPEED

Pinnace

War Canoe

Small

Very tight

Merchant

Very fast

Pinnace

Pinnace

Small

Very tight

Merchant

Very fast

Pinnace

Mail Runner

Small

Very tight

Merchant

Very fast

Barque

Coastal Barque

Medium

Tight

Merchant

Slow

Barque

Barque

Medium

Tight

Merchant

Slow

Barque

Ocean Barque

Medium

Tight

Merchant

Slow

Fluyt

Fluyt

Medium

Wide

Merchant

Very slow

Fluyt

Large Fluyt

Medium

Wide

Merchant

Very slow

Fluyt

West Indiaman

Medium

Very wide

Merchant

Very slow

Large

Very wide

Merchant

Slow

Merchantman Large Merchantman Large

Very wide

Merchant

Slow

Merchantman Merchantman

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Merchantman East Indiaman

Large

Very wide

Merchant

Slow

Merchant Galleon

Trade Galleon Large

Very wide

Merchant

Very slow

Merchant Galleon

Royal Galleon Large

Very wide

Merchant

Very slow

Merchant Galleon

Treasure Galleon

Large Very wide

Merchant

Very slow

Sloop

Sloop

Small

Tight

Warship

Fast

Sloop

Sloop of War Small

Tight

Warship

Fast

Sloop

Royal Sloop

Small

Tight

Warship

Fast

Brig

Brigantine

Medium

Medium

Warship

Medium

Brig

Brig

Medium

Medium

Warship

Medium

Brig

Brig of War

Medium

Medium

Warship

Medium

Combat Galleon

Fast Galleon Large

Wide

Warship

Slow

Combat Galleon

War Galleon Large

Wide

Warship

Slow

Combat Galleon

Flag Galleon Large

Wide

Warship

Slow

Frigate

Frigate

Large

Wide

Warship

Fast

Frigate

Large Frigate

Large

Wide

Warship

Fast

Frigate

Ship of the Line

Large

Wide

Warship

Fast

CLASS

SHIP

CREW

CANNONS

CARGO

MIN CREW

Pinnace

War Canoe

50

20

Pinnace

Pinnace

60

10

25

Pinnace

Mail Runner

80

12

30

Barque

Coastal Barque

75

12

60

10

Barque

Barque

100

16

70

12

Barque

Ocean Barque

125

16

80

14

Fluyt

Fluyt

50

80

12

Fluyt

Large Fluyt

75

12

100

14

Fluyt

West Indiaman

100

16

120

18

125

16

100

16

Merchantman Large Merchantman 125

20

120

20

Merchantman East Indiaman

20

140

24

Merchantman Merchantman

150

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Merchant Galleon

Trade Galleon 100

20

120

16

Merchant Galleon

Royal Galleon 150

32

130

20

Merchant Galleon

Treasure Galleon

40

140

24

Sloop

Sloop

12

40

Sloop

Sloop of War 100

16

50

10

Sloop

Royal Sloop

125

20

60

12

Brig

Brigantine

125

20

60

12

Brig

Brig

150

24

70

14

Brig

Brig of War

200

32

80

18

Combat Galleon

Fast Galleon 160

24

80

16

Combat Galleon

War Galleon 200

32

90

20

Combat Galleon

Flag Galleon 250

40

100

24

75

200

Frigate

Frigate

200

32

80

16

Frigate

Large Frigate

250

40

90

20

Frigate

Ship of the Line

300

48

100

24

Some notes on the various ship types:

- The third ship in each class tends to be a lot rarer than the first two.
They are also almost always preferable over the two earlier types, having better crew/cargo/cannon capacity
with roughly the same performance. The West Indiaman is the only exception, performing worse than the
other two Fluyts. But what the heck are you doing using a Fluyt in battle to begin with?
- Pinnaces, Barques, Sloops and Brigs are used by all nations. The War Canoe, specifically, is an Indian-only
ship.
- The Spanish use merchant Galleon class ships as their merchants. The Dutch use Fluyt classes. The English and French use Merchantman classes.
- The Spanish use combat Galleon class ships as warships. The Dutch, English and French use Frigate class
ships instead.
- Virtually all merchant ships in the Caribbean are the smallest type in their class. The Spanish variant, the
Trade Galleon, is the single most common ship in the game. Bigger merchant ships like Royal Galleons are

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noteworthy since they will almost always have a lot of gold and/or valuable cargo, whereas the smaller
merchant vessels are a bit of a gamble.
- The Ship of the Line is the rarest and most sought after ship in the game.
Check the first entry of the Frequently Asked Questions section (paragraph 9)
for some hints on how to get one. There is, unfortunately, no easy foolproof method.

[ 7. 2 ] S H I P M I S S I O N S
While many of the ships you encounter in the Caribbean are just randomly sailing merchant ships, a lot
have special missions which will light up as you hold your cursor over a ship. A ship's mission can be important to know, as it gives you important clues about what to expect if you engage it, and what effect this
ship may have on the game world if it reaches its destination safely. This section details all possible ship missions and what you need to know about them.

REGULAR MERCHANT These ships have no special marking at all; they are the most common in the
game. Merchants spawn in any port, and then sail to a different port belonging to either the same nation or
another nation they are not currently at war with.
They are usually the smallest kind of the regular merchant ship class used by this nation: Trade Galleons for
Spain, Fluyts for Holland, and Merchantmen for England and France. Barques of all kinds (but mostly the
medium size one) are often used as well, or the medium size merchant ships (Royal Galleon, Large Fluyt,
Large Merchantman). Rarely you may see Sloops (only the small size)
or the largest kind of merchant ships (Treasure Galleon, West Indiaman, East Indiaman). If you see several
unmarked Treasure Galleons sailing in formation, you just stumbled upon the Treasure Fleet (see paragraph
6.8).
If a regular merchant reaches its destination, this has a subtle effect on the wealth of both the source and
the destination port, helping them improve their wealth ratings over time. If a merchant is intercepted, the
destination port is unaffected, and the source port loses part of its wealth. Consistently taking ships as they
come out of a port will reduce it to Poor fairly quickly.
Merchants are typically poorly defended, with a small crew (often smaller than 50) and only a few cannons.
There are exceptions, though, and the better defended ships often have more loot. Some merchants bring
along an escort, and that's a dead giveaway that their ship holds something valuable.

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Merchants typically have gold and a decent load of one specific kind of cargo;
often Goods or Sugar, but occasionally Luxuries or Spice.

SMUGGLER Smugglers are basically merchants who trade with the enemy. Smuggler ships spawn in any
port, and sail to a port belonging to a nation its home port is currently at war with. Smugglers often use
Pinnace class ships (always the medium size kind), Sloops (the small ones) or Brigantines.
If a smuggler reaches its destination, only the destination port benefits from it economically. Interestingly,
though, the smuggler ship is considered to be a loyal ship to the nation it comes from in terms of who gets
happy and who gets mad if you sink it.
Smugglers tend to be a little better armed than regular merchants, but this is offset again by the fact that
their ships are smaller. They usually just try to escape if you attack one. Only the Brigantine using smugglers
can pose some threat.
Smugglers usually have a decent amount of gold, and a bit of cargo - almost always something valuable like
Luxuries or Spice. They also have a better than normal chance of carrying specialists.

TREASURE SHIP These rare prizes are some of the most sought after targets in the game.
Treasure Ships carry pure profit. They usually sail from one port to another, but the Spanish Treasure Fleet
spawns from Europe in the southeast corner of the map (near Trinidad) at the beginning of every even year,
and consists of 3 Treasure Galleons sailing in formation. These ships, however, are not marked
'treasure ship' unless and until they leave the formation.
Treasure Ships are always the largest in the nation's merchant class of ships (West Indiaman, East Indiaman,
Treasure Galleon). They tend to have a large number of cannons and a decent sized crew, and are often, but
not always, escorted by a warship as well. I'm not sure yet on what impact they have on their source and destination ports if they reach their destination, but it seems logical that they take wealth away from the source
and make the destination richer.
Treasure Ships carry both a large amount of gold (starting at 1000, going up to as much as 3000 sometimes)
and a large cargo of either Luxuries or Spice.
Sometimes both. They are the among the most profitable targets in the game.

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GOVERNOR TRANSPORT Governor turnover in the Caribbean is extremely high. Very frequently, settlements spawn small ships transporting governors to nearby ports belonging to the same nation. The usual
targets are poor ports, but it can happen anywhere. If a governor reaches his destination, the wealth rating
there is instantly boosted; to Prosperous if it was Poor or Modest, or to Wealthy if it was Prosperous. If the
town was already Wealthy, it appears to get a population boost instead (which might actually make the new
rating Prosperous as the wealth rating is relative to the population size).
Governor Transports are typically Sloops (small size) or Barques (medium size).
They are typically poorly defended and unescorted - perhaps hoping just not to be seen - and have a fair amount of gold but no cargo to speak of on board.
You can spawn Governor Transports yourself by visiting a settlement and talking to the Mayor. If there is at
least one nearby port belonging to the same nation, you will spawn a Governor Transport and be given the
task of escorting the governor. The game will also spawn 1-3 Privateers (depending on level) of a random
enemy nation directly between you and the destination port, which will attempt to sink the governor's ship.
If the nation in question has no enemies right now, the Privateers will be pirate class instead.

IMMIGRANT TRANSPORT Immigrant Transports are a little less frequent than governors, but still quite
common. These ships spawn in settlements and head for a port belonging to the same nation. If they arrive
safely, the port gets a significant population boost. This may make the wealth rating seem to drop a notch,
as it is relative to the size of the town. The boost can be up to 2000 depending on the type of ship.
Immigrant transports are typically small merchant ships (Trade Galleon, Fluyt, Merchantman). They are almost always poorly defended, with a small crew and few cannons. They do carry a lot of gold - the personal
fortune of all those immigrants, no doubt - and have the highest chance of all ship types in the game to carry specialists.
You can spawn Immigrant Transports yourself by visiting a Jesuit mission and talking to the Abbot. Often,
you will be given the opportunity to escort immigrants to the nearest port of any of the four nations. Once
you choose a nation, the immigrant ship will take that nation's flag, and 1-3 enemy Privateers (depending
on level) will spawn between you and the target.

SEEDLING TRANSPORT Seedling Transports are a rare kind of ship that doesn't spawn on its own, but
only as a specific mission for you. When you visit a settlement that doesn't have any ports belonging to the

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same nation nearby, you will be given a chance to escort a ship carrying hardy sugar seedlings. As with immigrants, you choose what nation it's going to, and you bring them to the nearest port belonging to that
nation.
Attacking the seedling ship is mostly pointless as it won't have much gold or cargo on board. If you escort it
to its destination, however (and as with the governor and immigrant transports, you'll have enemy Privateers
to deal with along the way), its wealth rating will be boosted, and I believe its population as well.
Seedling Transports appear to be Barques for the most part. They are poorly defended and can definitely
not fight off any Privateers on their own.

GRAIN TRANSPORT Grain Transports spawn from either settlements or ports - not sure which, it might
even be both - and head to a random port belonging to the same nation.
They are largely uninteresting targets which may have some gold, but rarely a lot, and carry only food. They
become interesting only if your crew is close to starvation and you are desperately in need of new supplies.
Grain Transports are almost without exception Coastal Barques. They are, completely without exception,
poorly defended.

RAIDER Raiders are warships sent out to blockade and harass an enemy port. They spawn at any port,
head for a specific port belonging to an enemy nation, attacking any enemy ships along the way. When they
reach the port, they will park in front of it and bombard it for a while, lowering its population, wealth rating and garrison size. If a Raider takes heavy damage during the blockade or before, from combat, it will
retreat to its home port.
Raiders are always Sloop, Brig, Frigate or (in the case of Spain) combat Galleon type ships. They are usually
not the biggest kind; Royal Sloop and Brig of War sightings are rare. Frigate or combat Galleon Raiders are
never the biggest kind; you won't see Ship of the Line or Flag Galleon Raiders.
Raiders typically have little in terms of interesting cargo, but taking out enemy warships is an excellent way
to get on a nation's good side quickly. They always have plenty of cannons and a decent sized crew, so
they're not easy marks.

INVASION FORCE Invasions forces spawn at any port - usually the best defended ones - and head for a
random enemy settlement or port in an attempt to capture it. If they reach their destination, their attack

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either succeeds or fails, with the chance depending on the size of the garrison (settlements are always captured successfully). If the attack succeeds, the port or settlement now belongs to the new nation; if it fails, the
garrison size is reduced.
Invasion forces are always the largest kind of combat vessel - combat Galleons for Spain, Frigates for the other nations. They may be either the small or the medium variant, never a Flag Galleon or a Ship of the Line.
Invasion forces always have the maximum crew on board (however, they do not take advantage of Triple
Hammocks if the ship has them). They tend not to have many guns. They're worth taking out for the prestige with the enemy nation and if you want to prevent the invasion from happening, but there's very little to
plunder on a purely military ship like this.

TROOP TRANSPORT Troop Transports are basically the peaceful variants of Invasion Forces. They are
often Brigs, occasionally Frigates/combat Galleons. Just like Invasion Forces, however, they are fully stocked
with troops and have few guns. Troop Transports spawn in settlements, then head to a random port belonging to the same nation; usually, but not always, a port that could do with some reinforcements. If the troop
ship reaches its destination, the garrison size is boosted.
Troop ships aren't worth taking out in terms of plunder, and don't gain you all that much prestige. The
main reason for going after one is to prevent the reinforcing of a port you intend to plunder now or in the
near future.

NEW WARSHIP New Warships randomly spawn from settlements or ports and sail to a random other port
belonging to the same nation. They can be any kind of Sloop, Brig, Frigate or combat Galleon, including
the biggest ones; this is the only way to see a Ship of the Line, or a Flag Galleon if you dont count Montalban. New Warships appear to spawn mostly randomly, but more seem to appear if you harass a nation a lot
by attacking its ships and ports. They are, perhaps, reinforcements or just a show of arms from a nation that
is having a lot of trouble with pirates.
New Warships always have the full complement of cannons, but only a small crew.
As such they're relatively easy targets as warships go, and a good way to earn prestige. Most of all, however,
they're a great source of good ships to put to use for your own pirating needs. If you need a Ship of the Line, this is the kind of ship you want to keep an eye on.

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New Warships are occasionally escorted. Think long and hard before you go into a battle like that, as this
means you'll be up against *two* heavily armed warships. It is possible for a New Warship's escort to be a
Flag Galleon or a Ship of the Line as well, so in theory you might see either of these ship classes in pairs.
You'd better know what you're doing if you're going to engage a pair like that.

MILITARY PAYROLL Of all the military targets, this is the one that is actually worth grabbing in terms of
loot. Usually a Frigate or a Fast Galleon, but sometimes foolishly an easier target (Ive seen an Ocean Barque payroll carrier once), these ships are normally well armed and crewed, but carry a good sum of gold. No
Spices or Luxuries on these ships, no fuss about selling them, just pure gold, often around 2000-3000. Ive
seen up to 6000 on rare occasions. As if that isn't enough, stopping a payroll carrier earns you a lot of prestige with the nation's enemies as well.
Military Payrolls spawn randomly in settlements and head to a random port belonging to the same nation.
If they reach the destination, the garrison size is boosted.

PRIVATEER Privateers spawn exclusively in response to you taking on a quest, although this includes inciting pirates to attack a town (possibly Indians as well, havent confirmed this). They will inevitably spawn in
the path between you and your quest destination solo on Apprentice and Journeyman, in pairs on Adventurer and Rogue, and as a trio on Swashbuckler. Their nationality is a random nation at war with whoever
your benefactor is, or if nobody is or this doesnt apply (like with Jesuit amnesty offers), they will be pirate
type.
Privateers are after the ship youre escorting (in the case of an incited pirate attack, where their spawning
appears to be a bug, they sail around aimlessly), but will get into fights with hostile ships if they encounter
them.
Privateers may turn into Pirate Hunters if you sail close to them and the nation they belong to has a price
on your head at the time.

PIRATE HUNTER Pirate Hunters either sail from ports, or are escort ships/raiders/privateers that break
from their current mission to chase you. They only show up when they're after you specifically; they're always sent by nations that have a price on your head. Often they come directly in response to an attack
you've done nearby, but if the price on your head is high, you will start seeing pirate hunters sail spontane-

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ously from hostile ports if you come near them, too. Similarly, escorts and other warships might spontaneously turn into pirate hunters if you come near and that nation is particularly anxious to capture you.
However a pirate hunter spawns, there will be an audible warning: a specific piece of music starts to play
that you will learn to recognize. When you hear it, you know somebody's out for your blood.
Pirate hunters will chase you, yelling at you to stand and fight, and shoot at you as well until you shake
them or engage them. If you flee into a friendly port, pirate hunters will give up the chase and disappear
from the map.
Pirate hunters usually have well upgraded ships with maximum cannon counts and big crews. They normally sail Sloops (usually Sloop of War or Royal Sloop) or Brigs (usually Brig or Brig of War). Occasionally you
may see Frigate/combat Galleon size ships as well. Contrary to what I reported in earlier versions, it does
not appear to be possible for Flag Galleon/Ship of the Line pirate hunters to spawn.
A pirate hunter usually has no loot or valuable cargo to speak of. You will likely have to fight them purely in
self defense. They're good for scoring points with nations at war with the hunters home nation, too.

PIRATE RAIDER Pirate raiders spawn from pirate havens and sail to a random nearby port belonging to
any of the four nations. They will then enter it and attempt to plunder it. If successful, the town's wealth
rating is brought down a notch and the population may decrease somewhat as well. If unsuccessful, the garrison takes losses but the wealth remains unaffected.
Pirate raiders normally sail in Sloops or Brigs; usually not the largest kind.
Occasionally you may see them in Pinnaces as well. Pirates tend to have few cannons but a large crew.
You can spawn pirate raiders yourself by visiting a pirate haven and talking to the captain. You can then advise him to attack the nearest port of any of the four nations, and they will send out a pirate to do just that.
You could then backstab and attack the pirate to score points with the four nations, or let them hit the target. This can be a good tactic to soften up the defenses of a strong town, but if the garrison is about 300
men or lower, there's a good chance their attack will succeed, leaving the town robbed but the garrison untouched.
Pirate raiders sometimes have a decent amount of gold on board, and sometimes not so much at all. It's
luck of the draw. It's worth it to engage them anyway though, since this is a surefire way to score points with
everybody. And of course, if a pirate raider is about to rob the town you were intending to plunder, it is in
your best interest to prevent them from doing so.

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Unfortunately a pirate disappears after a successful raid, so you cannot attack their booty-laden ships on the
way back. (If you're reading this, Firaxis, missed opportunity!)

INDIAN WAR PARTY From time to time, the local Indians decide it is time for a punitive raid on a European port. At this time one, two or three War Canoes will leave a random Indian village and sail to a nearby
port. Like pirates, they will attack it, and if they fail the garrison will be weakened. If they succeed, however,
they scare off population rather than lower the wealth rating. This still impacts the plunder you can get
from the town, though.
Indian War Canoes always have the maximum 4 guns and 50 men on board. They will Usually attempt to
flee if you attack them, and often succeed because they are very fast and hard to catch. If you manage to
board an Indian War Canoe, the crew will surrender immediately; there is never a sword fight against the
natives.
Their ships usually hold only a few tons of food and if they have any gold at all, it will be very little (barring
one or two freak incidents where I got over 1000 off a Canoe after a barmaid tipped me off). Normally, the
only benefits in stopping Indians are to prevent them from hitting a town you intend to plunder or trade
in, or to score points with the European nations. It's usually easier to go after pirates, though. War Canoes
become very hard to catch on higher levels unless you sail a small flagship yourself.
You can spawn Indian War Canoes yourself by visiting a village and talking to the Chief. You can then incite him to attack a nearby European port, and they will send out three War Canoes for the job. As with inciting pirate raids, be careful only to do this on well defended ports, because if the attack succeeds you're left
with a less profitable target that's still just as well defended as before. Or you could just sink the three Canoes the moment they leave the safety of their village...

TREATY CARRIER These rare ships only appear if you've been given the mission to escort one.
They carry either a peace treaty, an ultimatum, or an amnesty proposal. The first two types are missions assigned by governors, and they will be to the nearest port of a specific other nation. Escorting a peace treaty
to its target will trigger peace between two nations at war, and escorting an ultimatum will cause war to
break out. Amnesty proposals are spawned when you talk to the Abbot at a mission, and he offers to have
one of his monks speak on your behalf to a nation that has a price on your head. If you deliver the amnesty

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proposal safely to its target, the price on your head is lifted and the nation in question is neutral toward you
again.
Treaty carriers normally sail in Mail Runners, the largest kind of Pinnace.
Since this is the only time you'll ever see these ships, they're pretty rare.
Occasionally, they will also use Royal Sloops, not a common ship either and a very desirable one at that.
Either way, the ship tends to be poorly defended and doesn't have much loot on board. You may find it
worth it to backstab one of these ships just for the ship itself, though, and you can delay (but usually not
prevent) two nations from making peace or declaring war by intercepting the right kind of ship. Preventing
war is usually pointless, but there are good reasons to want two warring nations to remain at odds. War is
always profitable for privateers.

[ 7. 3 ] S H I P U P G R A D E S
All ship upgrades are done in port, and every shipwright has only one specialty. These are random in every
game, so you have to find out where to get which upgrade done. Best way to find out is to talk to bartenders, who will often hint at possible upgrades your flagship doesn't have yet if they can be done in nearby
ports. Your first ship in every game starts with the Grape Shot and Chain Shot upgrades already in place,
and ships captured from the enemy might have any number of upgrades. Warships and pirates tend to have
some, and named enemies (like the most famous pirates, or the various evil Spanish noblemen) tend to
have most or all.
In v1.0 of the game, the upgrades that each port can do change over the course of the game; talking to a
bartender to find out which upgrade can be done actually resets it. This bug was fixed in v1.0.2.

GRAPE SHOT Allows the ship to use Grape Shot as an alternative ammunition type. Switch to Grape Shot
in battle by pressing 1; this can be done while the cannons are loading and even when they're already loaded. Grape Shot has the shortest range of all shot types and is hard to hit with. However, it mostly does
damage to the enemy crew, doing only very light damage against sails and hull.
It is perfect for weakening an enemy crew before boarding while leaving the ship as intact as possible.

CHAIN SHOT Allows the ship to use Chain Shot as an alternative ammunition type. Switch to this by
pressing 7 in battle. As with Grape Shot, you can do this at any time.

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Chain Shot has better range than Grape Shot but not as much as regular Round Shot does. When it hits, it
mostly damages the enemy's sails but leaves its hull intact. This is particularly useful if an enemy is threatening to outrun you or maneuvering around you. A good broadside of this can cripple an enemy ship without any real danger of sinking it before you have a chance to plunder it. If you wipe out an enemy's sails
entirely, they will always strike their colours.

COTTON SAILS Cotton Sails improve the overall sailing speed of a ship, both in and out of battle. Out of
battle its usefulness is limited as, unless you get this upgrade for all your ships, your flagship will still have to
adapt its speed to whatever the slowest vessel in your fleet is. But in battle the advantage of Cotton Sails is
too important to pass up; it can be the difference between catching an enemy or not. Or when you're the
one who is in danger, it can be just what you need to escape. Especially on higher levels, actively search out
a port that can give this upgrade to your flagship as soon as possible.

IRON SCANTINGS Iron Scantings provide extra protection to a ship's hull, making it harder to damage.
Your ship will take less hull damage from enemy broadsides, allowing you to sail that much longer. Only
hull strength is affected, so damage to your cannons, crew and sails is the same as always.

BRONZE CANNONS Bronze Cannons fire more accurately than regular ones. Your shots don't spread out
as much, and a small degree of auto-aiming takes place when you fire your broadside. Overall, your broadsides will do considerably more damage with this upgrade.

FINE-GRAIN POWDER Fine-grain Powder gives your cannons a better range for all three ammunition types. Especially with the shorter range on Chain Shot and Grape Shot, this difference can be very significant.

TRIPLE HAMMOCKS Triple Hammocks increase the maximum crew size of your ship by 50%. This allows you to carry larger boarding parties into battle. Your crew size is hard capped by the maximum carrying
capacity of your ships (contrary to what the manual states you are not allowed to overload), so this is one
improvement you might want to get for *all* your ships, not just your flagship. Particularly if you're putting

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together a large crew for an imminent attack on a large Spanish port. On the other hand, if you are deliberately keeping your crew small, it may be in your best interest to use this upgrade sparingly or skip it entirely.

COPPER PLATING Copper Plating lets you turn your ships faster in battle. The importance of this upgrade can't be overstated, as all your success in battle - be it with gunnery, catching and boarding an enemy, or
running away from a very angry Flag Galleon - depends on being able to turn swiftly and outmaneuver your
opponent.
While this upgrade won't turn a Galleon into a Sloop, it always helps, and should be obtained as soon as
possible.

[ 7. 4 ] C R E W S P E C I A L I S T S
Enemy ships might carry specialists which you can recruit for your crew. This happens automatically if you
capture such a ship, and specialists remain with your for life. They are basically "crew upgrades", each of
them affecting a different part of the game to your benefit.
Barmaids can often tell you if there's a ship sailing nearby that has a specialist you don't have yet, so you can
follow their advice to get them. You can also just randomly attack ships and gather them soon enough;
especially when you don't have any yet, you'll find some easily. Smuggler ships have an improved chance to
have a specialist on board, and immigant ships in particular have a very good chance. Seek these targets out
specifically if you're after more specialists.
Finally, if you capture Marquis Montalban (see section 6.6), you will get a full complement of specialists
right there and then if you didn't have them already.
The following specialists are available:

CARPENTER Carpenters are capable of making hull repairs at sea. At the start of each month (signified by
the sound of a bell), Carpenters repair 25% of the hull damage on all your ships. Note, they repair a quarter
of the damage, not 25%
worth of damage. So if a ship has 40% hull damage, a Carpenter will bring it down to 30% at the start of
the next month, then to 22% on the next month, et cetera. The effect is therefore useful for particularly
bad damage, but you'll still do the bulk of your repairs in port.

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COOK Cooks prepare tasty meals at sea, which helps to keep crew morale up. With a cook, you can basically go for longer without your crew getting unhappy.
Particularly on the higher levels where your crew tends to be unruly, this makes a big difference. The Cook
is therefore one of the most useful specialists around. To be specific, what a cook does is make your crew
appear to be 19 heads smaller for the purposes of the morale calculation.

COOPER Coopers help you preserve your food in barrels. In gameplay terms, this cuts your food consumption in half, and thus lets you sail twice as long with the same amount of food. This saves you money for
supplies, decreases the risk of starvation and frees up cargo space for more valuable goods. All in all, a specialist you want to have.

GUNNER Gunners train your crew in fast reloading. Your accuracy is unaffected - that's what Bronze Cannons are for - but the reloading speed is increased significantly. About twice as fast, as far as I can tell. This
is an important advantage in battle, depending on how often you rely on your guns. If you're the kind of
pirate who prefers to ram the enemy without using your cannons at all, you'll likely be indifferent about the
Gunner. But on higher levels you usually don't have the luxury of not using them, making the Gunner
much more important then.

NAVIGATOR Navigators increase the speed of your ships both in and out of battle. It should be obvious
that this is a significant improvement: shorter voyages and better battle results. As with the other upgrades
that affect speed - Cotton Sails on your ships and the Navigation skill for yourself - you'll find this especially
helpful when sailing against the wind. Saves you a lot of headaches.
I haven't yet been able to determine exactly how much of a difference the Navigator makes, but it is noticeable.

QUARTERMASTER The quartermaster enforces discipline at sea. This should manifest itself in the same
way as the Cook's special ability: your crew remains happy for longer than usual. However, now that the
calculation for morale has been revealed (see paragraph 7.9) and it turns out the Quartermaster is not a part
of it, Im unclear on what, if anything, he does.

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SAILMAKER Just like the Carpenter repairs damaged hulls over time, sailmakers do the same to sails. A
quarter of the sail damage on all of your ships is repaired at the start of every month. As with the Carpenter, the repairs are nice for emergencies but not very effective. It mostly comes in useful if you've decided to
keep any ships of which you destroyed the sails entirely in order to catch them; a ship with 75% sail damage
sails a lot better than a ship that has no sails.

SURGEON Surgeons can treat injured crew members. This basically manifests itself as fewer losses in
battles of all kinds, as crew members who might otherwise die or be too injured to continue sailing can now
be patched up. In ship battles, the difference is obvious; half of the people lost during the sword fight return to duty afterwards. The impact during land battles is not as easy to figure out, but I suspect it may be
the same, cutting losses in half. The surgeon does not affect the decay of your character's health over time;
only Medicine skill and two of the special items help with this.

[ 7. 5 ] S P E C I A L I T E M S
This section describes the special items you can get over the course of the game, and their effect. There are a
whopping 17 categories of items, and two in each category; the basic item and the upgraded one that has a
stronger effect along the same lines.
Items can be obtained in three ways:
- They can be bought from mysterious travellers in taverns. They offer a random item for sale sometimes, a
one time offer for a flat fee of gold. How much gold depends on the item, the wealth rating of the town,
and the difficulty level.
Prices also seem to rise over the course of the game; perhaps depending on passage of time, but more likely
depending on how many items you already have.
I've seen Ruby Rings for as little as 600 gold on Apprentice level but as much as 3300 on Swashbuckler. Similarly, I've seen a Dutch Rutter for sale for 6000 gold on Apprentice so I dread to think how much that
would cost on higher levels.
- Items can be gotten as a bribe from fugitive criminals. When you catch a criminal, they will often offer you
an item if you allow them to escape. If you accept this offer, you forfeit your gold reward and a chance to
make the nation that wants him happy; the criminal disappears forever. But if the reward is low and/or the

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item is good, it can be a good deal. Particularly on the higher levels, where travellers will make you pay
through the nose for their items.
- Finally, items can be given as gifts by governor's daughters you have impressed sufficiently with your
dancing or with subsequent actions on return visits. You normally get a choice between two and four different items.
However, not all items can be obtained this way. I've indicated in the item descriptions which items can and
can't be given out by governor's daughters. It appears that if there is only one item choice left, you don't actually get it, but you get a criminal quest instead.

Below is a list of all items in the game and their effects. I have sorted them from most to least important in
the eyes of yours truly.

3-STRINGED FIDDLE / CONCERTINA Among the most important items, these help keep your crew
happy. They basically work by extending the time it takes for your crew to become unhappy, just like the
Cook specialist does, and like getting more gold in your hold does. Specifically, the 3-Stringed Fiddle tweaks
the morale calculation such that it effectively cuts 4 months off the length of your expedition the Concertina cuts 8.
You'll want to get these at your first opportunity, particularly on the later levels. Fortunately they are often
offered by governor's daughters.

MEDICINAL HERBS / INCAN MYSTIC SALVE Another important set of items, these are harder to find.
They increase your health, basically ensuring that A) you don't get slower with age as quickly and B) you can
extend your career for longer. The effect of these items is retroactive, so even if you acquire them late in
your career, your health will be boosted right back up. The Incan Mystic Salve has a stronger effect. Have
them both as well as skill at Medicine and you can extend your career as far as age 54 (farther if you don't
divide up the plunder). Have neither these items nor the Medicine skill, and you will already be too old to
start a new expedition at age 42.
Get these items when you can; an extended career is never a bad thing, and even if you don't need more
than 24 years for your game you will still be in better health (and thus remain faster in sword battles). I've
never seen a governor's daughter offer these, but you can get them from travellers in taverns.

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RUBY RING / DIAMOND NECKLACE By far the most common item in the game (at least the Ruby
Ring is), this is also the only class of item you can lose once you've got it. Basically, these are gifts for the governor's daughter, which can be given to her on your second visit (after you danced with her the first time).
This advances the romance subplot and will also get you a reward in return. Which reward it is depends on
the beauty of the daughter and the item you gave her. A Ruby Ring does the same as dancing adequately
would, and a Diamond Necklace is equivalent to a perfect dance.
You can't get these items from a governor's daughter (obviously). However, you will find the Ruby Ring is
the single most offered item by travellers in taverns. In fact, you probably want to get one and hold on to it
if you want them to offer you anything else, because they'll rarely do otherwise. You can only have one of
either item at a time, but as soon as you give them away to governor's daughters you can obtain new ones.

CALFSKIN BOOTS / DANCING SLIPPERS These items are particularly popular because they help with
dancing, which many people consider the hardest part of the game. These items have mostly the same effect
as the Wit and Charm skill (and are cumulative with it): when you press the wrong button during a dance
scene, or none at all, there is a flat %
chance that the move succeeds anyway, though without a flourish. In addition, unlike the Wit and Charm
skill, these items may even prevent you from stumbling if you fail to press any key at all in time.
So basically, these items help cover up mistakes, and that means your overall dancing ratings will come out
better. The Dancing Slippers offer a higher percentage and let you get away with even more slip ups. I haven't yet worked out the actual percentages, but the difference is noticeable. The Dancing Slippers seemed
to cover about half of my mistakes easily. Note that neither item will help you do more flourishes as best as I
can tell, but they should help you get through a dance somewhat gracefully if you don't have the hang of it
or on Swashbuckler, just in general.
These items are never offered by a governor's daughter. You may be able to get them from travellers, but
they're not commonly seen. If a fugitive criminal offers you these in exchange for his freedom, I suggest you
give it some serious thought.

SET OF BALANCED SWORDS / SET OF PERFECTLY BALANCED SWORDS Since you are going to
do more swordfighting than anything else in the game, most likely, items that help you with this are among

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the more important ones to have. This is particularly true on the higher levels where a few of your opponents can be very tough, or if your character is aging and becomes slower in combat. Balanced swords improve the speed of your attacks. The perfectly balanced swords have a stronger effect.
Balanced swords are easy to get from travellers and governor's daughters alike.

FENCING SHIRT (PUFFY) / SILK FENCING SHIRT Fencing shirts are the other item to improve combat speed, and as such just as important to have as balanced swords. They improve the speed of all your defensive moves - parrying, jumping and ducking. The Silk Fencing Shirt is more effective than the puffy one.
Like balanced swords, fencing shirts are often offered by governor's daughters as gifts, and you can get them
off travellers as well.

ONE-SHOT PISTOL / BRACE OF PISTOLS Owning a pistol, apart from adding a cool extra scene to the
start of battles, gives you an edge in terms of your starting position in combat. Normally when a sword fight
starts you and your opponent are in "neutral" positions in the middle of the battlefield, and it takes an equal number of blows for either to be driven back so far that they'll be defeated. A one shot pistol shifts the
balance one step in your favour at the beginning; a brace of pistol gives you two free steps. It is basically the
same as getting a free thrust or chop/slash on your opponent, respectively.
Pistols are easily obtained both from governor's daughters and travellers.

LEATHER VEST / METAL CUIRAISS Armor is the final enhancement item for sword fights. Leather
Vests give you a % chance to deflect a thrust; the Metal "Cuiraiss" (their typo, not mine)
gives an even better chance at this. If a thrust is deflected by your armour, you are not driven back and any
attack you were setting up is not foiled. As far as I can tell, armor has no effect on enemy chops and slashes.
Like the other battle items, armor can be gotten both from travellers and governor's daughters.

QUALITY SPYGLASS / FINE TELESCOPE After the battle items I'd consider this one among the more
useful things to have. Spyglasses improve the range at which you spot other ships at sea.
Without them, you don't necessarily see ships even if they're close enough to be displayed on the overhead
view (depending, of course, on how far you are zoomed in). The Quality Spyglass improves the range at
which you see them somewhat, and the Fine Telescope is good enough to let you spot pretty much all ships

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that sail into the range of your screen. Note that you don't need these items to have the "spyglass" option on
land and sea; they are purely meant to spot ships from farther away.
The spyglass items can be obtained from travellers and governor's daughters alike.

WEATHER GLASS / PRECISION BAROMETER Among the middle class items in terms of usefulness,
the Weather Glass and the more effective Precision Barometer reduce the damage caused to your ships by
sailing through storms. According to reader input, they work not so much by cutting the damage, but by
allowing you to sail closer to the center of a storm without taking damage. This way, with these items, you
can take full advantage of the speed boost a storm can give you without taking on damage, or at least, not as
much. These items are useful, but not vital. Buy them from a traveller if offered and affordable, or get them
from a governor's daughter if she has nothing better to offer.

DUTCH RUTTER / SPANISH RUTTER The Dutch Rutter contains the names and locations of a number of "hidden" settlements, missions, Indian villages and pirate havens. The Spanish Rutter contains even
more. What these items do is add these locations to your world map, which is convenient but not vital.
They do not actually cause new settlements to spawn in the game like I thought they might; they just reveal
the existing ones to you. This is decently useful item but nothing vital.
Mostly interesting if you rely a lot on Indians and pirates to weaken down ports for you, or you just like to
lure them out and then ambush them to improve your standing with the four nations. Or to find the nearest mission easily if you're looking for free information on Raymondo.
Rutters can be bought from travellers but tend to be among the most expensive items they offer. You're probably better off getting them from a governor's daughter at some point.

FRENCH CHAPEAU / OSTRICH FEATHER HAT These two stylish items of clothing allow you to get
invited to the ball easier. The French Chapeau lets you bypass the requirement to be a Colonel to dance
with an attractive daughter, and the Ostrich Feather Hat lets you dance with beautiful daughters even if
you're not a Baron. It is theorized that they will also let you see the daughters more often in general (i.e.
they'll show up more often if you visit the governor) but I'm not so sure about that part.

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One way or another, getting promoted is usually not a big problem (at least not to Colonel) and you get to
see governor's daughters quite often as it is, so these items have low priority. Note that you cannot get stylish
clothing from governor's daughters.

FALSE MUSTACHE / THEATRICAL DISGUISE Wealthy Spanish ports will often refuse to trade with
you if your relations with Spain aren't very good. The likelihood of this depends on how much Spain hates
you and how poor (i.e. desperate) the port in question is. The False Mustache helps ease the equation and
make it easier for you to trade even in hostile ports, while the Theatrical Disguise helps even more. Contrary to what I first believed, it seems that even the Disguise doesn't guarantee a chance to trade, though it does help the chances a fair bit.
The usefulness of these items is limited as they only apply to trading, not to being able to get into the port
in the first place. Not much use being allowed to trade in Spanish ports even when they have a price on
your head, when there is no way to sail your ship into port in the first place. You would only be able to sneak in (and then you can't trade), or plunder the port and trade directly after; and if you plunder a port it
typically ends up so poor that they'd be desperate enough to trade with you to begin with. As such, these
items have little practical use as far as I can tell.
Disguise items can't be obtained from governor's daughters.

LOCKPICKING KIT / SKELETON KEY If you're down on your luck and get captured, you might find
yourself imprisoned for quite a few months. With luck you'll get a chance to try and escape along the way.
You can help Lady Luck a little by having either or both of these items; a chance to escape will come sooner
and assuming you do not mess up the sneaking out of town part, you can escape very quickly and thus shorten your time in captivity if worst comes to worst. The Skeleton Key offers you an opportunity even more
quickly than the Lockpicking Kit does.
These items will probably be of little value to you, though. Most players would reload the game if they lose a
battle and get captured, anyway; the fact that an autosave is done right before every battle certainly encourages this.
But if you decide to play a game in which you do not allow yourself to rely on saving and loading to get you
out of trouble, you'll likely find these items somewhat more important.
Lockpicking items can't be obtained from governor's daughters.

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SIGNALING MIRROR / SIGNAL FLARE The signaling items serve the same purposes as the lockpicking
ones, except that these are meant for when you are marooned rather than captured. The time it takes for a
ship to pick you up is shortened by the Signaling Mirror and shortened even more by the Signal Flare. Once
again, how important you find this is going to depend on whether or not you just reload your game if you
lose your last ship. If you do, these items are useless. If you don't, their value to you is going to depend on
how often it happens to you.
Signaling items can't be obtained from governor's daughters.

GOLDEN CROSS / SACRED RELIC The purpose of the Golden Cross and the Sacred Relic was to be to
improve your standing with the Jesuit Missionaries, making them more likely to offer you missions or offer
to speak on your behalf to a nation that has a price on your head. However, Jesuit relations were never implemented in the game; you are always on good terms with them. As such, these items do nothing and you
needn't waste your money on them. Unless, of course, if it's for completion purposes or because you want
the travellers to stop offering them in favour of something more useful.

SHRUNKEN HEAD / CARVED SHAMAN STAFF Similar to the Golden Cross and the Sacred Relic,
these items are meant to improve your standing with native Indians and make it easier to convince them to
attack a port on your behalf. However, the same situation arises here;
Indians are always friendly to you no matter what, making the items useless.

[ 7. 6 ] R A N K S A N D B E N E F I T S
Rank is earned by making certain nations happy with you and then visiting their governors afterwards. You
get a happiness point for every merchant ship you take that belongs to an enemy of the nation in question,
as well as for serving them in another minor way (catching a criminal, intercepting an enemy governor, helping them get a special shipment of some sort through). You earn 2 or more happiness points if you sack an
enemy town, capture one for them (this is cumulative!), or take an enemy warship. For the purposes of 'taking' an enemy ship, capturing and destroying both count, and even just engaging a ship and then fleeing or
letting them flee counts as long as you damaged it.
In your Captain's Log, you will see little flags next to every action you've taken that has made a nation happy. A small flag is 1 point, a large flag is 2 or more points. Hovering your mouse over them will pop up a

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text like "Dutch happy" or "French very happy" which also indicates the difference between 1 point or several. You may see "Pirates happy" for some actions too (most notably striking military targets), but this has
no effect on the game, as pirate relations are not actually implemented.
You lose happiness points with a nation if you destroy any of their ships or sack any of their towns. How
bad these losses are, and how many happiness points are needed to get promoted to each rank depends on
the difficulty level.
On Apprentice, if England and France are at war and you destroy one ship of either, they're both happy and
neither cares that you took one of their own ships out too. Try that on Swashbuckler and they'll both be
mad. Simply put, on higher levels your transgressions are taken more seriously and your exploits don't impress as easily. Here, pick your battles carefully to avoid pissing off all four nations at once.
The following is a list of all ranks and the benefits you get with a certain nation for earning one. Veterans of
the old Pirates games will notice that the Ensign rank has been scrapped.

RANK

BENEFITS

Captain

% bonus to recruiting in taverns

Major

% discount on ship repairs

Colonel

Merchant offers more goods and has more gold

Admiral

% discount on ship upgrades

Baron

Boosts recruitment bonus further

Count

Free ship repairs

Marquis

Boosts merchant bonuses further

Duke

Free ship upgrades

Benefits only count in a port or settlement belonging to the nation you hold the rank in question with.
French ports couldn't care less if you're an English Duke. Note that even if you anger a nation enough to
make them put any kind of price on your head, you retain the rank (and the fame points) and the associated benefits. Though you might have a hard time claiming them if every port belonging to your former ally
opens fire as you approach it.
Rank also is a factor in which governor's daughters are willing to dance with you (and thus start the romance cycle). Plain daughters will be willing to dance with Captains and up, attractive daughters with Colonels

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and up, and beautiful daughters with Barons and up. These requirements can be bypassed with the French
Chapeau and Ostrich Feather Hat special items.
Roland on the Hooked on Pirates fan forums has done extensive research on how happiness points work,
and what the requirements are for each level. Although not everything is conclusive at this point, he made
an important discovery.
Apart from the overall happy ration of a country, there is also an individual bias for governors. If youve
escorted a governor to a new port, ensured that immigrants/reinforcements arrive there, or even advanced
the romance subplot with his daughter, your favor with an individual governor can rise above that of the
nation as a whole. This manifests in specific ports of a nation promoting you earlier than others, and/or
giving you bigger land grants. A funny side effect is that its quite possible to get promoted *solely* for courting the good mans daughter.
Getting specific numbers on the happiness points required for each promotion was made difficult both by
this and the fact that not all actions that do result in happiness with a nation are properly reflected in the
log. For instance, reinforcements arrived at [port] does not come with any flag, but it does seem to at leat
raise that ports individual attitude toward you. Points lost for attacking someones ships, or the ships of
their allies, are not shown. It is unclear if attacking a nation that someones ally is at war with also gets you
happiness points with the nation that isnt. It also appears that attacking a ship right next to a port, even a
hostile ship, can result in that port opening fire on you when you try to enter it even though you technically
did nothing to *them*. And, of course, plenty of things can happen in the Caribbean even if *you* do nothing, such as getting credit for arriving governors and immigrants that you had nothing to do with.
Due to these factors, the following table should be considered an indication as its hard to pin down the
exact numbers.
Happiness points needed for each promotion per difficulty level, as provided by Roland:

Rank

App

Jrn

Adv

Rog

Swa

Captain

Major

Colonel

Admiral

Baron

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Count

Marquis

10

Duke

10

10

[ 7. 7 ] F A M E P O I N T S
Fame points are the closest thing you have to a score in Pirates; a numerical representation of the success of
your exploits. You earn points in specific categories up to a certain maximum. About half of these points
come from how wealthy you've managed to become and what ranks you have reached with the various nations. The rest comes from completion of the game's various quests.
A "perfect" game, in which you get the maximum ranks, enough wealth to qualify for all wealth points and
full completion of all side quests, would earn you the maximum of 126 fame points. On the personal status
screen, fame points are referred to as 'achievement points' instead, but it's the same thing.
Fame points are divided into the following categories:

WEALTH (24)
Fame points for wealth are earned based on how much land you've been granted, and how many gold pieces
you've managed to put away for yourself. Land grants are given in addition to promotions if you've done
particularly well, and as alternatives to promotions once you have achieved the rank of Duke with any country. They come in units of 50 acres. Gold flows into your pocket whenever you divide up the plunder at the
end of an expedition; you get a set percentage of the total loot based on the difficulty level you're playing,
unrelated to how many men your loot is divided amongst.
I have yet to determine the formula for wealth, but I've found the following to be true:
- The first wealth points are easier to get than the last ones; the difference between the 23rd and 24th point
is much, much greater than the requirement for the first point.
- Land is much more valuable than gold, so 10000 acres of land equals more wealth than 10000 gold pieces.
In a typical game, nearly all of your wealth score tends to come from land grants. This is especially true on
lower difficulty levels where your share of the loot is so small. On Swashbuckler its more even because you
get to keep half of the gold when you divide up the plunder.
- About 30000 acres of land appears to be enough for 24 wealth points regardless of how much gold you
have brought in.

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RANK (32)
More fame points to be gained here than anywhere else, and the formula is simple: every promotion gains
you 1 point. There are 8 ranks and 4 nations to gain them with, so if you manage to become a Duke in all
four nations, you get the maximum of 32 fame points for rank. Whereas if you only managed to become a
Captain with England and a Major with France, you'd have to make do with 3 fame points.

PIRATES (9)
There are 9 other named pirates out in the Caribbean of various levels of strength. Each pirate you track
down and defeat in a naval battle earns you a fame point. It doesn't matter if you capture his ship or sink it,
though you always want to capture them as they carry large amounts of gold.

TREASURES (9)
Each of the named pirates has a treasure hidden somewhere in the Caribbean, which you can find if you
buy at least one map piece off a mysterious traveller in a nearby tavern. The value of the treasures varies
between 2000 and 10000 gold - based on which pirate it is, the higher ranked pirates have the bigger treasures - and each one earns you a fame point for finding it. As well as the wrath of the owner, if he's still alive.

LOST RELATIVES (16)

You have four lost relatives - your sister, your uncle, your aunt and your grandfather - held captive in the Caribbean. To find them, you must learn the location of the evil Baron Raymondo, track him down and defeat
him in battle either on land (sword fight only) or on sea (naval battle followed by sword fight). Each time
you find him he'll give you a piece of the map to find the next relative in line, and you'll need to track him
down and fight him again for additional pieces.
You get 4 fame points for every relative you find and rescue, and a fraction of that for merely getting pieces
of the relevant map. Rescuing all four family members gets you the maximum 16 points. You reach 16 even
if you only rescue the first three and complete the map for your grandfather's location without ever rescuing
him.

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LOST CITIES (16)

There are four lost Indian cities in the Caribbean, which you may find if you get map pieces either from
governor's daughters or from rescued family members.
This is worth doing as every city holds a treasure of no less than 50000 gold, and you get 4 fame points for
every lost city you find. A fraction of that is earned for getting map pieces but not finding the city in question. Finding all four cities makes you a very wealthy man, and gets you the maximum 16 fame points too. As
before, though, you can also get 16 points by finding three Lost Cities and completing the map for the
fourth without locating it.

ROMANCE (10)
Your romance score is determined by how far you managed to get with any governor's daughter, and how
beautiful said daughter was. Just having danced with a plain looking daughter will earn you only 1 fame
point, but you get far more if you manage to marry any daughter. The maximum of 10 is only earned if you
marry a daughter in the "beautiful" category, so be picky if you are after a maximum score. You can only
marry once.

VILLAIN (10)
The last 10 fame points are earned for tracking down and capturing the evil Marquis Montalban who wronged your family. This is a long and complicated quest - easily the most time consuming in the game - but is
well worth it.
A full 100.000 gold await in his hideout, and capturing him gets you the maximum of 10 fame points for
this quest. Merely defeating him in ship battles a few times and thus getting parts of the map to his hideout
will earn you a fraction of this - 2 for every quarter of the map, so 8 for completing it. You must actually
track down and defeat Montalban at his hideout for the final 2 points.

[ 7. 8 ] R E T I R E M E N T J O B S
Your job when you retire is determined solely by how many fame points you have earned. It is a direct representation of how well you did as a pirate. Here is a list of jobs and the range your fame needs to be in to get
this specific job.

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The list has been updated and appears to be fully accurate now. All previous cases of conflicting information have been checked and confirmed. I see one oddity in that the fame range for a Magistrate is smaller
than that for the lower ranking Fencing Master, which happens nowhere else, so there may be an inaccuracy
left in there. If you get a result that contradicts this table, I'd appreciate an e-mail with a screenshot of your
final results screen.

JOB

FAME RANGE

Pickpocket

Pauper

Clerk

Fisherman

3-4

Mortician

Bartender

8-10

Constable

11-14

Butler

15-19

Farmer

20-24

Parson

25-30

Merchant

31-37

Innkeeper

38-44

Shipwright

45-52

Fencing Master

53-61

Magistrate

62-69

Surgeon

70-78

Mayor

79-91

Bishop

92-102

Governor

103-126

A little blurb of text on the retirement screen also changes depending on the success of your career. It is
possible to get all 126 fame points and still not have the best possible outcome: namely, by getting the full
map to rescue your grandfather, but not actually rescuing him.

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[ 7. 9 ] C R E W H A P P I N E S S C A L C U L A T I O N
Up until v1.5 of this guide, the exact calculation for the happiness rating of your crew was a mystery to me.
Along with other veterans of the game we discovered that eventually, there is a cutoff point where no matter
how long you sail, your crew will never fall to mutiny we also found it to be roughly 1000 gold per crew
member. But we never got at the precise formula, as it contains a lot of different factors.
The mystery has been solved now by Wes Atkinson who generously provided the exact formula, gleaned
from studying game data. This is a pretty technical section, so feel free to skip this if youre not interested in
the inner workings. The rule of thumb of 1000 gold per crew member to never see a mutiny is pretty accurate and all you really need to know.
The following formula calculates the minimum amount of gold required for a crew to have a certain morale
level:
G = R * (20 + C 19*K) * M 500
G = total amount of gold on your ships C = crew size K = 0 if you dont have the Cook specialist, 1 if you
do M = morale rating; 1 = Unhappy, 2 = Content, 3 = Happy, 4 = Very Happy
It bears restating, as Ive claimed the opposite in earlier versions of the guide, that G is the amount of gold
in your hold as shown in the bottom left corner of the screen when youre on the world map. It does NOT
matter how much of this gold will go to the crew when you divide up the plunder, and what % goes to you
(as affected by the difficulty level). I thought the crew cared. They do not.
R is a calculation of its own:
R = (int((T-D) / 2) ^ 2 ) 4*I)
T = total months of expedition D = difficulty level: 4 = Apprentice, 3 = Journeyman, 2 = Adventurer, 1 =
Rogue, 0 = Swashbuckler I = 2 if you have the Concertina, 1 if you have the 3-Stringed Fiddle only, 0 if you
have neither
Furthermore, R is capped at 999.
What does this all mean? Depending on all the factors in the calculation whether or not you have a Cook,
3-Stringed Fiddle and/or Concertina, difficulty level, and how long youve been sailing, it is possible to
calculate how much gold it takes to reach a specific morale level. For example, lets assume an Adventurer
level game, crew of 100, with the Cook and both items available, and weve been sailing for 24 months. First
we calculate R:
R = (int((24 2) / 2) ^ 2) 4*2

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= (11^2) 4*2
= 121 8
= 113
Now to plug that and the values for C (100) and K (1, for the Cook) in the main calculation:
G = 113 * (20 + 100 19) * M 500
= 113 * 101 * M 500
= 11413M 500
Now if we plug in the values for each morale rank, we can determine the exact amounts of gold needed for
certain morale levels.
The crew will be very happy if G is at least:
G = 11413 * 4 500 = 45152
They would be at unhappy if G is at least:
G = 11413 * 4 500 = 10913
If after two years, this crew would have less than 10913 in their holds, theyd be mutinous.
So whats this about a rule of thumb that 1000 gold per crew member is enough to keep them happy forever? This is where R being capped at 999 comes in. The longer you sail, the higher T becomes and thus the
higher the value for R, but at 999, it no longer matters how many months you sail, so its essentially a worst
case scenario. Lets say we havent sailed for 24 months but for 10 years (120 months) in the previous example:
R = (int((120 2) / 2) ^ 2 4*2
= (59^2) 4*2
= 3481 8
= 3473
R now gets reduced to its cap of 999. Moving on to G:
G = 999 * 101 * M 500
= 100899M 500
So now, for our crew to be at least Unhappy (M = 1) so they will not mutiny, were looking at:
G = 100899 500 = 100399

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Dividing this by 100 to get to the gold per crew member, we come to 1004 gold; very close to the 1000 gold
often used as a rule of thumb. Similarly, the values for being Content and Happy come to roughly 2000 and
3000. The values get skewed somewhat for very small crews, but they work well enough in all other cases.
Perhaps more interestingly, what does this tell us about what the Cook, the special items, and the difficulty
level do, exactly?
1. The (20 + C-19*K) calculation comes to [crew size + 1] when you have a cook. Combined with the maximum of 999 R, this result in the almost but not quite 1000 gold per crew member needed for each morale level, further corrected by the 500 thats subtracted at the end. Without a cook, it is as if we have 19 more
crew members than we do. At this point 100000 gold (roughly) would be needed for 81 crew members already. Put differently, with a crew of 100, the cook is letting us get away with about 20% more crew or 20%
less gold, depending on how you want to look at it. However, since 19 is a fixed number, this percentage
only holds true for crews of 100 the cooks impact is absolute. On larger crews, the relative benefit is lower
and on smaller crews it is larger.
2. The 3-Stringed Fiddle and the Concertina do exactly the same thing (with the Concertina being cumulative and thus doubling the effect). They lower the value of R by a flat 4 or 8. Since R is an exponential value, this means that their relative benefit drops rapidly the longer an expedition lasts, at some point disappearing entirely when they fail to reduce R below 999.
3. From the formula for R it is possible to derive the moment at which it exceeds 999, whether or not you
have the special items; this is the number of months at which your crews demands for gold stop increasing.
The moment, in other words, where the 1000 gold per crew member estimate comes into play. Due to the
position of D in the calculation for R, this varies per difficulty level, but only slightly. On Apprentice, the R
cap is hit at 68 months, and at each higher difficulty level it happens one month earlier, for 64 months on
Swashbuckler. Therefore you have about five and a half years since the last time you divided the plunder
before you really need 1000 gold per crew member, and after that, you can sail for as long as you like without ever seeing a mutiny.
4. Perhaps most surprisingly, nowhere in the calculation do we find the Quartermaster. Maybe he does something else perhaps has an impact on what actually happens when your crew has fallen to Mutinous status but he does not factor into your crews morale, and is not equivalent to the Cook as I always thought.

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[ 8 ] F R E Q U E N T LY A S K E D Q U E S T I O N S
This section contains questions I have seen asked on GameFAQs' Sid Meier's Pirates forum with some frequency, as well as other anticipated questions about aspects of the game that don't specifically fit in one of
the other sections. It has been structured in classic question & answer format.

Q: Know any good Pirates fansites?

A: Hooked On Pirates (www.hookedonpirates.com, formerly known as Cutlass Isle) and Addicted To Pirates
(www.addictedtopirates.com) are as good a place as any to start. Both have forums dedicated to this game
and a wealth of information, and both have contributed to this guide.
Q: Where can I find a Ship of the Line?
A: Ships of the Line spawn only as "new warships" (previous information that they can be pirate hunters as
well appears to be incorrect). It appears that a nation spawns more of these the more you harass them, but it
also happens spontaneously.
One thing to keep in mind is that Spain does not use Frigates of any kind, so they're out. Keep an eye on
the other three nations instead.
There's a specific FAQ on the topic of the Ship of the Line on GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) if you wish
to read more about them.
Q: I wanted to pick a difficulty level and a skill but it just went right into the game, and now I'm an
Apprentice with skill at Fencing. How do I change this?
A: The game locks you into these options for your first game after installing, as a sort of tutorial mode. If
you start a second game you'll be able to set the options yourself. Also, for difficulty level, you can also increase this during a game whenever you divide up the plunder.
Q: I want to pick a different starting era than 1660 but the options are greyed out. How do I unlock them?
A: Play on any other level than Apprentice. You're restricted to 1660 on Apprentice level, probably because
it's the easiest era.
Q: Is it possible to change my pirate's appearance?
A: Not in-game, however, Pirates is a fairly moddable game and different skins have been created by fans on
the net. A good place to start looking is the fansite Hooked On Pirates (www.hookedonpirates.com, used to
be known as Cutlass Isle) which has, among a lot of other things, a forum devoted specifically to skins and
modding.

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Q: Where's my parrot?
A: Bartender made you curious, huh? There is no obtainable parrot in the game, they merely say this when
they have nothing else to say (the equivalent of the barmaid's "it's pretty quiet around here"). Although some
fan mods (as noted above) have altered the main character's appearance to have a parrot on his shoulder.
Q: What does aging do, precisely? How old can my pirate be? Will I die of old age?
A: Every pirate has a health rating depending on age, skill at Medicine and possession of either or both of
the health items (Medicinal Herbs and Incan Mystic Salve). Your health rating can be:

HEALTH

AGE (WITHOUT ITEMS/MEDICINE SKILL)

Excellent

18

Fine

21

Good

24

Fair

27

Poor (1)

30

Poor (2)

33

Failing (1)

36

Failing (2)

39

forced to retire

42

A new 18 year old pirate starts at excellent, then as he gets older, his health will gradually drop. Normally,
health drops once every 3 years. Having skill at Medicine adds 6 months to every health drop interval, and
both of the healing items do the same. Thus, if you have the Medicinal Herbs, the Incan Mystic Salve *and*
skill at Medicine, your health drops only once every 4 and a half years, and the forced retirement age is
bumped up to 54.
As you fall to lower health ratings, your speed is sword duels is adversely affected; you become slower as your
health rating drops. Your pirate will also visibly age, getting more lines in his face as he gets older. Note that
there are two categories of poor and failing each. You won't see the difference in the overview, but it's there.
A drop from poor (1) to poor (2), for instance, counts as a health drop as significant as going from fair to
poor, and your pirate *will* slow down.

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Additionally, when you've spent some years in "failing" health, you are no longer allowed to start a new expedition. If you divide up the plunder, you'll be told it's time to retire, and that's that. The age at which this
happens appears to be 42 without the Medicine skill and the health items, and 54 with the skill and both
items; since you start at age 18, that means you normally have 24 game years available to you, and that can
be extended to 36. However, you can play on indefinitely as long as you don't divide up the plunder, and
your health won't fall any more. A 70 year old pirate isn't any slower than a 54 year old one. You also can't
die of old age.
Apart from age, and the slowdown effect from the skill and the items, nothing in the game appears to affect
your health. Losing battles, getting imprisoned or marooned, taking hits, starving, having a Surgeon specialist, it all does nothing to your character's health.
Q: The manual says I can go on pirating indefinitely, yet I divided up the plunder and was told it was "time
to retire". What gives?
A: The manual is misleading here. When you divide up the plunder, if you're too old and in failing health,
you will be forced into retirement. However, as long as you do not divide up the plunder, you *can* sail on
indefinitely on your last expedition, or at least until you can't keep your crew happy anymore.
Q: How much gold does it take to keep my crew happy?
A: It depends on how long your expedition has run, how big your crew is, and a variety of smaller factors
(Cook specialist, 3-Stringed Fiddle and Concertina items, difficulty level). The exact calculation can be
found in paragraph 7.9. As a rule of thumb, the amount of gold per crew member that you require goes up
for about the first 6 and a half years of an expedition, and then caps at a required 1000 gold per crew member to keep them from falling from Unhappy to Mutinous. Likewise, about 2000 would fix them at Content, 3000 at Happy and 4000 at Very Happy. These figures arent 100% accurate but theyre close. If you
remember that 1000 gold per crew member will always prevent mutiny, youre set.
Q: I want to divide up the plunder, but the option is greyed out. Why can't I do it?
A: I haven't yet determined when exactly this happens, but it always seems to be early in your expedition,
and it appears that on lower levels it takes longer. At any rate, whatever the level, what you need to do is to
sail for longer and plunder more before you divide up the plunder. It's no big deal as the option is usually
only greyed out when your expedition has barely begun and you shouldn't even be thinking of dividing up
the plunder yet. Most players prefer to hold off on it as long as possible, anyway.
Q: I want to attack a city, but whenever I sail to it I just enter it! How do I attack?

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A: This happens if you try to attack a friendly city from the sea. It won't work. There are two ways to attack
a city:
- Beach your ship some distance away from it, choose to march, then march over to the city. When your
men reach it you get the option to attack it even if it is friendly.
- Get the city hostile. This approach may be necessary if the city is on a small island where you cannot actually beach your ship next to it (St. Catalina comes to mind, as do many of the cities on the Windsward Islands). If you try to sail into a hostile port, it will fire on you and you get the option to attack it.
If the nation already has a price on your head, that should be enough to convince most or all of their cities
to open fire on you. If not, a good way to get an individual city mad enough at you to open fire is to capture
some of the ships going in and out. They have very little patience with this if you snatch them right outside
port. Alternatively, or in addition to this, pressing the space bar just outside a port lets you bombard their
fort. This doesn't seem do much damage to their garrison, but it will piss them off. Soon you should be able
to do an attack from the sea. Do note that this approach can really ruin the population and wealth rating of
a city, so you're cutting into your own plunder.
Q: I marched into a city as you said to do, but I *still* just entered the city without ever seeing an option to
attack! Why is that?
A: This appears to be a side effect of a bugfix in the v1.0.2 patch. The patch fixes an issue where a port
changing hands (through you, or through an AI invasion force) breaks the romance subplot you may have
running with a governors daughter; the method of fixing is that invasion forces no longer target the port at
a certain point (apparently once Mendoza comes into play) and you yourself can no longer sack it. However,
it seems to do more than that, and occasionally prevent you from attacking a different port that shouldnt
be a problem. Im not entirely clear on when it happens.
Q: I want to attack a hostile city, but the option is greyed out! Why?
A: You have brought so few men that you don't stand even a remote chance. Come back with a bigger crew,
and/or convince nearby Pirate Havens/Indian Villages to attack the target. They can soften it up for you.
Q: I successfully sacked a city, but I didn't get the option to replace the governor. What did I do wrong?
A: You only get this option if you completely overwhelmed the city. Try using a bigger crew, and make sure
you win the battle by wiping out the garrison, not just running past it to the city gates. It also appears that
cities are easier to capture if their economy is poor. In some cases, you may be able to capture a city by sa-

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cking it twice in a row; the second time the city has already been made poorer by your earlier attack and the
garrison will still be thinned out.
Note that in v1.0.2 there are a few restrictions on replacing governors as well. You can no longer keep changing the allegiance of one city back and forth all the time (thus milking promotions easily), and in all versions of the game, you cannot change a city's nationality if you're married and your wife lives there. v1.0.2
also puts additional restrictions on nationality changes if the governor's daughter of that town has been captured by Mendoza, to avoid breaking the roamnce subplot. And, as mentioned above, it seems to affect other ports as well on occasion.
Q: The manual mentions I can get Indian units to fight on my side?
A: So it does, but it's wrong. The best you can do is to go to a nearby Indian village and convince them to
attack the city before you do. They will send out war canoes to do it; just stick close, intercept any ships trying to sink them, then let them enter the port before you do. They'll thin out the garrison and if they are
successful, the population as well, without touching the city's wealth. That's where you follow up with an
attack against the weakened city.
You cannot actually get to command Indian units in battle, though. That's for the AI only.
Q: The manual mentions that defenders might use artillery in land battles, but I never encountered it. Am I
just lucky?
A: No, it appears artillery never actually made it into the game. You might say we're all lucky, considering
how dangerous they sound in Piratopedia.
Q: I am using a laptop and I don't have a keypad. How will I be able to play the game properly if nearly everything is controlled with the keypad?
A: There are two things you can do. First, your laptop will have an "Fn" key, likely near the bottom left of
the keyboard. While that is pressed, certain keys will function as a surrogate keypad. Look for secondary
functions on the front of your keys (as opposed to on the top), and you'll be able to see which keys these are
for you. For instance, on the laptop I originally typed out this guide on, Fn + the U key emulated the left
cursor/4 key on a keypad.
If you find this hard to do, you can also remap the keys. Go to your Sid Meier's Pirates folder through the
Windows Explorer, and open the keymap.ini file you find there. You can change the keys for most functions in the game here, so just replace all references to the keypad with whatever keys you want to use instead.

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Make sure you make a backup of the .ini file before you change anything in it; that way if you mess up, you
still have a version that works and won't have to reinstall the game to fix it.
Q: How come the Treasure Fleet is always said to go to the same port? OR: Why is the Treasure Fleet not
where the barmaid says it will be?
A: This was a bug in version 1.0 of the game where the barmaid's information doesn't update after the first
time, and the Treasure Fleet itself doesn't always spawn properly. Updating your game to version 1.0.2 will
fix this problem, and you'll have much better luck finding the Treasure Fleet.
Q: Is the compass working incorrectly? It seems to be pointing east when I go west and vice versa!
A: No, it's working correctly; this is what compasses do. The gold indicator does not point in the direction
you are going in. Rather, it's indicating where north is. Therefore, if you are going west (which means the
north is to your right), it will be pointing to the right; that doesn't mean it's pointing east. Note that the
gold indicator only changes direction at all if you're using a view that rotates based on the direction you are
sailing in (and when youre on land). In the default overhead view of a ship battle or the world map, the top
of the screen is always north.
Q: The manual states that I need to be on good terms with pirates or Indians to get them to attack a port.
Yet I never seem to have any trouble convincing them. Why is this?
A: Looks like a missing feature. Jesuit missions, pirate havens, Indian villages and even the four nations'
settlements always seem to be on good terms with you regardless of what you've done. You can even offer to
escort governors for nations that have a huge price on your head, ambush them immediately outside of the
settlement, then visit the next settlement and do the same again, over and over. This seems to happen on
every difficulty level.
Q: So if Indians and missionaries always cooperate, what's the point of having the items meant to boost
your relations with them?
A: None, as it stands. Unless this is fixed/changed in a future patch, don't bother buying those items. They
still don't do anything in version 1.0.2.
Q: Is the fact that I'm always chasing the same Baron Raymondo to learn about my family members a bug?
A: No, this is intentional. One reader confirmed this by taking a peek in the game's source files, and finding
out that the name of the villain who knows where your family members are is not a variable. Both Raymondo and Mendoza are set names just like Montalban is. Chasing a plethora of different Spanish nobles died
with Pirates Gold.

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Q: The money I get when dividing up the plunder doesn't appear to match up.
I've calculated how much I *should* get according to my share percentage, yet it doesn't add up with the
gold for my next expedition. What happened?
A: When your share is determined, 90% of it goes into your retirement fund. In other words, it disappears
from the game, appearing only in your status screen, where it helps to determine how many fame points you
get for Wealth (along with the land grants you've gotten). The other 10% are the starting fund for your next
expedition.
For instance, on Journeyman you get 10% of the share. If your expedition yielded 50000 gold, that means
5000 gold is for you; 90% of this (4500) goes into your retirement fund and the other 10% (500) will be the
money you start your next expedition with. 45000 gold is divided up among your crew.
Q: You refer to ships called 'combat galleon' and 'merchant galleon' but I've never seen ships with those names. Don't you mean war galleon and trade galleon?
A: No. These names I came up with myself to describe the whole group of ships;
there are six galleon types in Sid Meier's Pirates, but they're actually two different classes of three ships each.
With combat galleon, I refer to the line of ships Fast Galleon, War Galleon and Flag Galleon. With
merchant galleon, I refer to the Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon and Treasure Galleon.
Q: Are there any easter eggs in Sid Meier's Pirates?
A: Two obvious ones that I know of (provided by Aleksi Aalto and David Vallee respectively). Look up the
entry for St. Eustatius in the Piratopedia, notice that early in the entry, in the word 'eastern', the 'easter' part
is a clickable link. Click it for an easter egg entry that strongly hints at the existence of others. The second
occurs if you play the game on September 19th (or just set your system date to that). This day is known to
some as International Talk like a Pirate Day, and as a tribute to this, the game's dialogue is made more 'piratey' when you play on this day, including a lot more arrs and mateys.
There are also a couple of less obvious ones, such as certain characters in the game taking on the appearance of game developers. The bartender, for instance, is modelled after Sid Meier.

[9] MISCELLANEOUS
This section is a comprehensive list of all bugs and glitches that people have Reported running into in this
game, as well as other weirdness which may be bugs or oversights, and random trivia which may be of some
interest. Since PC games can cause a variety of weird problems on different systems, I've only included bugs

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if I've seen more than one person report more or less the same problem. That said, if you have something to
add do mail me, and if you're not the only one I'll be happy to add it. In the future, if and when patches for
this game are released, I'll specify which problems got fixed when and which are still outstanding. At the
time of this update, the only significant patch out there is v1.0.2, and it's been out for a while. I suspect it
will be the last.

[ 9 .1 ] B U G S ( S P E C I F I C T O P C V E R S I O N )
These are the outright game problems; sometimes showstoppers, sometimes merely annoying. All are obvious problems that will hopefully get fixed in a patch at some point, with some more important than others. These are all PC specific issues, not necessarily present in the XBox/PSP versions, and those versions
may have issues of their own that I'm not aware of. Check paragraph 10.2 for what information I have on
those versions.

CRASH, CRASH AND CRASH SOME MORE

BUG: An often heard report is that the game is unstable and crashes (very) frequently, often within seconds
of actually starting on the map.
SOLUTION: counterintuitive as though it is, for many people this problem seems to be solved by turning
your graphics settings UP. Apparently, some of the 'low' settings for various graphics options are unstable. If
you have a lot of unexplained crashes, this might help for you.

X DOESN'T MARK THE SPOT

BUG: Several people have reported getting a treasure map of any kind (pirate treasure, family member,
Montalban) without a red X. Even when the map is complete, no X appears, and if they go to the general
area the target is nowhere to be found. In one instance somebody reported having the X initially, except it
disappeared later. And sure enough, when he went to the exact spot where the X used to be, nothing was
there.
SOLUTION: patch 1.0.2 fixes this issue. Red Xs no longer disappear and neither do the things they point
to. You might still get fiendishly obscure maps at times (especially for Lost Cities), though.

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SLOWDOWN
BUG: Many players have reported that the game slows down over time, and I've noticed the same. When
you first start up the game, it runs at a brisk pace (assuming your specs are up to the task), with sea battles
running quickly, fading out going smoothly and your units rapidly hopping from one square to another during land battles. As the game goes on, however, everything slows down a fair bit. Several players have suggested the game suffers from memory leak problems, causing this slowdown. Others have suggested the
problem occurs specifically if you skip scenes a lot; perhaps the memory isn't properly freed if a sequence is
skipped.
SOLUTION: saving, quitting the game and starting it up again usually solves the problem; rebooting always
seems to do so. Perhaps not skipping sequences helps, but I have not been able to confirm this. If this *is* a
memory leak, with any luck it can be addressed in a patch. In v1.0.2 I observe this problem happening less
frequently, although it's not entirely gone.

THE ELUSIVE TREASURE FLEET

BUG: For nearly all players, barmaid hints on the Treasure Fleet's location do not reset properly. Initially
the location she names for it is accurate, but for the rest of the game, they keep repeating the same port
name without it ever updating. Even if that port is no longer Spanish at the time. I've heard sporadic reports of people who did not have this problem, but it seems mostly consistent.
SOLUTION: all issues with the Treasurs Fleet's appearance and the information on its current location were fixed in patch 1.0.2.

THE EQUALLY ELUSIVE BARON

BUG: Many players have reported isolated instances of Baron Raymondo (or, for that matter, Mendoza or
Montalban) seemingly disappearing. Bartenders keep reporting that they left for this port or that many,
many days ago, but they never seem to arrive and cannot be found. It seems that this issue is caused by the
destination port being captured by another nation than the Spanish (by the player, and possibly by AI invasion forces) while they're on their way. In some other cases, the good Baron merely gets stuck on a landmass
somewhere between the two ports, and you may find his ship trying and failing to get around an island if
you check out the route.

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SOLUTION: to the latter, explore the route carefully. To the former, no known solution, and what's more,
this issue has been reported to happen even with the 1.0.2 patch installed, and on more than just the PC
version too.

NO LAND GRANT?
BUG: Occasionally, when you have done a whole lot for a nation, you will still get only a promotion and
the expected large land grant doesn't show up at all.
However, if you visit the governor again immediately, you get a second promotion and then the remaining
happiness points are converted into a land grant after all. This is not supposed to happen; you are meant to
get one promotion and then a land grant, however big, for the remaining points.

SOLUTION: if you get only a promotion and nothing else when you are pretty sure you did enough to earn
more, immediately visit the governor again.

UM, SIR...YOUR DAUGHTER

BUG: If you rescue a governor's daughter from Count Mendoza, but an invasion force from another nation
captures her home port in the meantime, you will be forever unable to return this daughter to her father.
The romance subplot just ends, and presumably the woman sails with you for all eternity.
SOLUTION: this issue appears to have been fixed by the 1.0.2 patch; the town can no longer be taken over
(either by your or AI invasion fleets) at this point during the romance subplot.

INCORRECT MAPS
BUG: Apart from the missing red X problem mentioned above, sometimes a map is plain wrong. Named
landmarks and red X's always appear to be in the right spot, but other points of recognition like Incan
Temples and such are often either not on the map when they should be, or on the map when they don't
actually exist (or at least not in that location). Sea based landmarks, while usually accurate, sometimes have
duplicate names and cause confusion that way - it is possible for a map to have two instances of 'Rum Rock',
for example, and they could in theory spawn near enough to each other to be easily mistaken for one another. None of the above appears to be intentional.

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SOLUTION: none, except to make sure that you rely on sea based named landmarks and things like ports/
settlements on a map before you rely on the inland points of recognition. I haven't run into this issue since
updating to patch 1.0.2 so it seems that they fixed it along with the disappearing red X bug. Duplicate
landmark names still happen, however.

RANDOMIZATION BLUES
BUG: Since many of the game's events are random, a few problems can result. It is possible for two landmarks in the game to have the same name, and especially if they're close to each other, this can lead to some
real confusion when trying to follow a treasure map. Another player reported having absolutely no ports in
the Caribbean that offered the Cotton Sails upgrade. Presumably it would also be possible (though unlikely)
that no beautiful daughters exist anywhere in the game, as there is no set number. These latter two problems would become more common in the 1600 era which has less ports overall.
SOLUTION: none.

GHOST PIRATES
BUG: Several players reported seeing a named pirate sail again after they had already defeated him. Sometimes they had a big loot again, sometimes their ship was practically empty. Haven't had it happen to me yet.
SOLUTION: none known, but I'm sure you won't mind a second opportunity to grab Henry Morgan's
stash if it occurs.

STUCK SHIPS
BUG: Rarely a ship becomes stuck in place, no longer moving, not selectable, and thus not attackable. It
often stays where it is forever. This seems to happen particularly with ships that spawn spontaneously rather
than in port, such as the ones that appear to intercept you when you're escorting a governor or such, or one
of your own ships if it's taken over by mutineers.
SOLUTION: none.

STUCK SHIPS STRIKE AGAIN

BUG: It is rare but possible for your *own* flagship to get stuck in a landmass, most notably when consistently sailing in and out of the same port without putting some distance between you and the port first. To

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prevent the player from constantly being whisked into the port screen again while leaving, the game waits a
few seconds before it lets you reenter. If you turn around immediately when you leave a port and stubbornly
try to sail in anyway, your ship will be stopped, but it may be able to get some way into the landmass and at
that point become stuck. You may even find your ship being warped to the west coast of that same landmass
in an effort by the game to get you unstuck, which doesnt always help.
SOLUTION: none, except not to invite the issue; if you want to leave a port and reenter, sail a little distance away before turning around again. If it does occur, and you cannot get your ship unstuck, youre going to
have to revert to an earlier save.

LEAVING SO SOON?
BUG: Occasionally if you have just sacked a town, clicking any of the options is taken as "leave town" and
you end up back outside.
SOLUTION: none short of just sacking the town again immediately (which you can probably pull off if
you've thinned out the garrison in your last attack).
Fortunately the problem doesn't seem to occur very often. I also haven't encountered it since upgrading to
version 1.0.2, though considering how rarely it happened to begin with, that could be just luck.

LOOT PROBLEMS
BUG: Several players reported seeing ridiculous amounts of loot on certain ships; five or six digit rewards at
times on completely random trade or immigrant vessels. This seems to surface specifically if a nation runs
out of ports due to you capturing them all. One player reported actually getting a
*negative* loot from one ship, subtracting from his current treasury and crashing the game to boot. These
are very likely calculation problems; perhaps the number of ports a nation has is a factor in determining
how much loot their ships has, and a 0 for that variable is causing this problem.
SOLUTION: this issue is caused by taking away a nation's last port; just don't do that and it won't occur.
Version 1.0.2 seems to have some safeguards against taking a nation's last port, although I understand it's
still not impossible.

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[9.2] WEIRD THINGS

These aren't necessarily bugs, just things that seem to be poorly implemented, forgotten, or perhaps just ignored. Mostly things that, if the game had just a little more polish, probably wouldn't be there. For the most
part tiere is no serious impact on gameplay.
- If an escort ship is fought and defeated (either captured or sunk) in the same battle where you are hunting
an escorted ship, you get no credit for it.
It does not appear as captured or sunk in your captain's log, the nation it belongs to will not be mad, and
you will not score any points with their enemies. To get credit for an escort ship, you must evade it and deal
with the escorted ship first, then when you are returned to the world map, reengage the escort now that it is
on its own.
- Indian War Canoes always surrender if you board them; escort ships never surrender. In the rare event
that one Indian War Canoe escorts another, if you ram the escort ship, it is automatically sunk.
- Escort ships can sail right through the ships they're escorting. In addition, any ships - both yours and the
enemy's - can sail through shoals and ports as if they're not there while you're in battle. Only the shoreline
actually stops a ship from passing. Since v1.0.2, sailing through shoals while in battle does cause damage to
your ship, however Ive noticed enemies large ships like galleons, no less - getting away with it.
- After a battle, upon returning to the world map, you are still in the same spot and direction where you
started the battle. Even if you sailed somewhere completely different during the battle.
- If you've made a port mad enough with your previous actions (bombarding it, or engaging ships near it), it
may continue to be hostile and fire on you even if you've captured it for another (friendly) nation. This appears to be related with individual governors having a different attitude toward you than the nation as a
whole (also seen in the way promotions work). In some cases, the new nation's governor might even scold
you for sacking the town instead of congratulating you for capturing it for him!
- Indian/pirate/missionary relations do not appear to be implemented at all.
While Indians and pirates occasionally use the "steer clear you scurvy pirate" line on you if you've attacked
them a lot, you can still visit their villages and havens and get all the support you need. Similarly, settlements are always friendly to you even if the nation they belong to has a large price on your head. And they'll
still happily let you escort (and backstab) their governors.
- Artillery is mentioned as an enemy unit type for land battles both in the manual and in the piratopedia and made out to be very dangerous, to boot.

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However, it doesn't appear to have actually made it into the game.

- If you're out of the loop for a couple of months - be it because you divided up the plunder, or because you
get captured/marooned - the only thing that changes about the state of the world is which nations are at
war with each other (and the prices on your head will drop a bit). Otherwise, everything is still exactly where
it was. You might see a nice treasure ship sailing outside a port, go in, divide the plunder, take 7 months to
start a new expedition, then when you leave port again it's still there.
- Named villains (Mendoza, Raymondo and Montalban) never surrender. However, if you pummel their
ship so much that a normal ship would surrender, it does raise the white flag and you get the "as you approach the ship strikes its colors" message when you come near. Directly after, you suddenly get a sword
fight anyway.
- The game gives you credit for any special ship safely reaching port (immigrants, governors etc.) if you've
ever spotted it. It doesn't matter if you've taken any effort to escort it, if you're friendly with said nation, or
if you're completely on the other side of the Caribbean when it reaches its destination.
- In unpatched games, new governors arriving in a town apparently adopt the old governor's daughter. Romance subplots go on exactly as they did. However, if you or an AI invasion force changes the nationality of
a town, the subplot is automatically ended. From version v1.0.2 on, this can no longer happen once a governor's daughter has been captured by Mendoza. Also, in this version the subplot is reset to the beginning
if a port changes hands pre-Mendoza. Nonetheless, the new daughter will have the same beauty rating,
and if you romance her, she will repeat the same information the previous one gave you (if you havent acted on it yet) with the I believe I have told you this before message.
- If you are married, you cannot change the nationality of the port your wife lives in anymore. However,
randomly spawned invasion forces still can, and if one does, your wife will mysteriously change to the new
nationality, appearance and all. This issue seems to have been fixed in v1.0.2.
- You can have as many romance subplots running as you like, up to the marriage proposal (you can only
marry one woman). Most notably, it's perfectly possible to be saving multiple daughters from Colonel Mendoza, and if this happens there will actually be multiple clones of Mendoza sailing around the Caribbean.
One player reported seeing three of them sail in formation.
- While town merchants are limited in how much gold they have to buy your cargo, their gold resets instantly when you leave port. You can sail out, sail right back in, and start selling again. Do bear in mind that
every town visit takes a week in game time, which can add up.

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- One player reported seeing a named pirate (Blackbeard, in his case) engaging and successfully sinking Baron Raymondo, which wiped the Raymondo quest off his log. While it must have been a sight to see, the
lesson is clear; if you see them fighting, hurry up and intervene before you lose your precious target. Oh,
and it also establishes the Frigate's superiority over the War Galleon. :)

[9.3] TRIVIA
Random facts about the game. May or may not be of interest. Read at your own risk.
- All named pirates have their bio listed in the in-game piratopedia. Captain Kidd is a little tricky to find as
he is listed as "William Kidd".
- The flag that's on the wall behind the mysterious traveller in the tavern is the actual historical flag of Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard. Probably one of the more famous pirate flags; definitely one of the most famous pirates.
- The names of the criminals are set, depending on what exactly they've done.
Each name is a reference, too, as follows:
"Chatterley", the libertine, is likely named after Lady Chatterley's Lover, an early 20th century novel notorious for its (by those days' standards) explicit sexual content.
"Farthingsworth", the embezzler, doesn't seem to refer to a specific person.
However, the farthing is an old British monetary unit.
"Connery", the spy, is a clear reference to Sean Connery, the original James Bond actor.
"Shawshank", the blackmailer, refers to the movie The Shawshank Redemption in which blackmail is a major theme.
"Faulkes", the traitor, most likely refers to Guy Faulkes, a famous British terrorist (or folk hero, depending
on who you ask) who planned to blow up the House of Parliament.
- The named pirates are all actual historical figures, though most don't exactly fit in the default 1660 era.
The majority are 18th century pirates, and Jean LaFitte is in fact 19th century. Raymondo, Montalban and
Mendoza are fictional. Montalban and Mendoza are references to the original Pirates and Pirates Gold games, however, where all pirates, pirate hunters and evil nobles had randomly chosen names from four lists,
one for each nationality.
Mendoza and Montalban were two of the possible Spanish names. Raymondo is new;
possibly named after somebody on the development team?

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- In addition to having been used before in the original Pirates games, "Montalban" may well be a reference
to one of the actors in Fantasy Island, Ricardo Montalban.
- Historically, piracy tended to be a lot less rewarding than Sid Meier's Pirates makes it out to be. Just checking the bios of the named pirates will confirm this. Out of these nine pirates, three were hung, three were
killed in battle (and all of them quite brutally), and one went missing, presumably lost at sea. Only two of
them, namely Henry Morgan and Jean LaFitte, retired in wealth. And Henry Morgan soon ate and drank
himself to death on Jamaica.
- The original Pirates had four difficulty levels rather than five, however, there was a hidden fifth level, sort
of. If you failed the copy protection question at the start of the game, your career would start off disastrously with a small ship, a skeleton crew, a serious starting injury that instantly cut your health down a few
levels, and all four nations hostile to you. In addition, the game would run onhe hidden fifth difficulty level
where battles were incredibly hard to win. Your career would almost inevitably end in quick disgrace. The
Swashbuckler level in Sid Meier's Pirates seems to be something of a throwback to the difficulty of that hidden level, minus the injury and the "everybody hostile" touch. Although in the original game the fourth
level was called Swashbuckler; Rogue is the one that was missing.

[ 1 0 ] V E R S I O N C O M PA R I S O N S
This chapter is aimed at two specific groups: veterans of the previous Pirates games who want to know how
this one differs from them, and players of the XBox or PSP versions of Sid Meier's Pirates who want to
know how their version differs from the PC version this guide is primarily aimed at. All others can skip this
chapter without having to worry about missing anything.

[ 1 0 .1 ] N E W S I N C E P I R A T E S A N D P I R A T E S G O L D
This section is specifically aimed at veterans of either or both of the previous versions of this game. If Sid
Meier's Pirates is your first game in this series, feel free to skip this section. If it's not, you'll probably want to
know how much is the same and how much has changed, so here's a handy overview.
- You still sail around the Caribbean plundering ships and ports, finding treasure and lost family members,
getting wealth, acres of land and ranks, and hoping to retire in the highest social standing possible before

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you grow too old for more expeditions. You still have to strike a balance between a crew large enough to
fight your battles with and small enough to keep happy, and you still get more ships only by capturing them.
- The 1560 era "The Silver Empire" where Spain controls 95% of the Caribbean is no longer available. All
the other eras are still there.
- A new difficulty level has been added between Adventurer and Swashbuckler, named Rogue. Rogue is
roughly the equivalent of what Swashbuckler used to be, whereas Swashbuckler is now a brutal difficulty
setting that will really test you, but also give you a whopping 50% share of the loot.
- There are many more ships now; 9 classes which each have a small, medium and large ship variant, for a
total of 27 different ships.
- When you sail in the Caribbean, you don't run into other ships randomly anymore; you see them sailing
now, and can pick your targets with impunity.
You'll also find the world a lot more interactive now; trading vessels get escorted by military warships and
attacked by pirates and raiders of other nations. The appearance of new governors, pirate and indian attacks
and (sometimes) even the outbreak of peace and war no longer happens spontaneously; they're all triggered
by ships reaching their destination. It is now perfectly possible to foil pirate attacks by sinking the pirate before it reaches its target, or prevent nations from making peace by capturing the ship carrying the treaty.
- Trade has become a lot more profitable, if you know where to buy low and sell high. Cannon value has
been nerfed a lot though, so no more getting rich by stealing and selling cannons only. It's now all about
Luxuries and Spices.
As a side effect, working for the Spanish is now a viable option; trading goods in their wealthiest towns is a
working alternative to plundering them.
- In addition to regular ports, there are now various settlements, missions, indian villages and pirate havens
on the map, with various functions. The pirate havens are of particular interest if you'd like to be completely freelance and attack everything that moves regardless of what colors they're flying. Even if all four nations
have a price on your head, pirate havens will offer you refuge and let you repair your ships and recruit new
crew.
- Naval battles are a lot like they used to be, with slight tweaks. You can now buy various upgrades for your
ships to make them faster, turn better, shoot more quickly etc. You also have 3 different types of ammunition available for your cannons; the regular round shot, and two special types meant specifically to kill off
enemy crew or destroy their sails and make them easier to catch.

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- Swordfighting has been redone, and the overall style is now much more defensive. Rather than going berserk on your opponent right away, you now get the best results from dodging and then countering his attacks.
- Land battles are now turn based strategy where you move your units over a grid, trying to outmaneuver the
enemy units and either beat them all or reach the gates of the town. Attacking a town from the sea is no
longer possible; any attack on a port is now a land battle. However, you still go straight to a sword fight
instead of a land battle if you grossly outnumber the enemy.
- You can now get special items that make certain parts of the game easier, such as better swords that swing
more quickly, or musical instruments that help keep the crew entertained on long voyages. You can also
find specialists on board other ships that enhance your crew, such as an expert gunner that helps your crew
load cannons faster. You also get special service in ports as your rank rises; Dukes can get their ships repaired and upgraded for free.
- Marrying a governor's daughter is a lot more work now than just proposing if you're rich and famous enough. You will have to win their heart on the dancefloor first, in a rhythm-style minigame. You will have to
go through several more steps before one will consider marrying you. Alternatively, you can just dance with
beautiful women all over the Caribbean and gain valuable items and information in return.
- There's still buried treasure to go after, but each treasure now belongs to a specific pirate, and they will not
be pleased if you steal it. On the other hand, beating the pirates themselves tends to earn you good, upgraded ships as well as a good amount of gold from their holds.
- You still chase evil Spanish noblemen to learn about your missing family members. The Incan treasures
that your rescued family members would point you to have been replaced by lost cities that work much the
same way. You also get a chance now to track down and defeat the evil Marquis that enslaved your family in
the first place, and get a huge reward in the process. This can be considered the game's main quest now,
though it's as optional as everything else.
- The Silver Train is no longer among us, and the Treasure Fleet cannot be caught in port anymore. It can,
however, be attacked on the high seas if you manage to find it. Its relative value has declined a fair bit,
though, and it's now a nice bonus rather than one of your most profitable targets.
- Plundered ports recover their economy much more quickly as trading vessels go in and out, and new governors are assigned to them. The danger of ending up with a Caribbean plundered dry, as would happen

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on the lower levels a lot in the previous games, is effectively gone. There's always more loot for a daring (and
aging) pirate to go after.
- Your retirement age is no longer a factor in your final score. While you will get slower in sword fights as
you get older (as before) and you will eventually be too old to start new expeditions, you no longer have to
decide between retiring early or amassing more fame and wealth. For as long as you can sail, you can pursue
your objectives without fear.

[ 10 . 2 ] X B OX / P S P V E R S I O N D I F F E R E N C E S
In this paragraph I'll be listing differences between the PC version of Sid Meier's Pirates - the one this guide
was written for - and the newer XBox and PSP versions which has changed quite a few things around. While
not identical, the PSP version is based off the XBox rather than the PC version and thus has a lot more in
common with it.
Aside from a short session with a borrowed PSP I havent really played these versions and most of the information here comes from external sources. Consider it a reference, but take it with a grain of salt. I do
believe that most of the information in the actual guide will still be useful to you if you play either of these
versions, as long as youre aware of what does *not* apply.
- There is a multiplayer component in the XBox version allowing up to 4 players (including any number of
AI opponents) to fight a free for all ship battle.
- The XBox and PSP versions have a more compact Caribbean map. Getting from the east to the west side
(and vice versa) is a quicker and easier affair, and you'll generally be spending more time in action and less
sailing from place to place over large stretches of sea. Unfortunately, there is one bug associated with this on
the XBox and possibly the PS as well: rarely a missing family member might spawn just outside the area you
can sail in and be impossible to rescue.
- Beaching your ship and marching across the land - either to attack a city or to find a family member/treasure/lost city - was taken out of these versions.
Attacking cities can still be done from the sea, obviously, and to find the other three, all you need to do is
beach your ship as close to the spot indicated on your map as you can. The search is then automatic.
- Due to the above, some ports are missing from the XBox and PSP versions. The landlocked ones (Panama,
Gran Granada, Puerto Principe) are gone as they would now be unreachable, and Leogane is missing as
well. Bermuda is gone too, being too far on the edge of the map to be reachable on the more compact game

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map. Also reported missing is St Thome (I've never seen that one in the PC version either though, perhaps
in different eras than the default?). On the XBox only, Havana has been given its proper Spanish name, La
Habana.
- Apparently the XBox version's ingame map shows only ports you've already visited, except if you get the
Dutch/Spanish Rutter. If so, it'll be a lot more useful in the XBox version, at least until you learn for yourself where each port is. Ive confirmed this is not the case for the PSP version, though.
- There are no settlements in the XBox and PSP versions only straight out ports. This also means that there
will never be sugar seedling quests. New governor ships do seem to spawn on their own. Also, Jesuit missions, Indian villages and pirate havens are present.
- In the PC version, a treasure map's "near [town name]" hint is on the bottom map pieces. On the XBox
version, it's on the top of the map.
- The Spyglass and Telescope function differently in the XBox version; rather than letting you see enemies
from farther away (they will always be visible in this version), they give you detailed information on enemy
crew size and cannon count prior to going into battle. On the PSP version, these items appear to allow you
to zoom the map out further than you could without.
- There is a structured set of quests to undertake which includes the ones from the PC version but also a
couple of other goals to complete (such as sinking a certain number of ships). These quests are given by the
mysterious stranger in taverns, and they're random (although at least some of them always show up somewhere in the sequence). All in all, the XBox and PSP games play like a more structured, linear consoletype game, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for a game like this. In order to get to and defeat Montalban,
you'll need to go through this series of quests.
- Perhaps to compensate for the treasure hunting minigame being taken out, the XBox version has an extra
minigame that triggers when you board an enemy ship, called "Evening the Odds". A time bar appears at
the bottom of the screen, and you need to press a sequence of buttons that appears on screen as well (three
buttons, repeated three times). Do it correctly, and you will dispatch some of the enemy's crew before the
sword battle begins. This sequence will trigger only if the enemy crew outnumbers your own at the time of
boarding.
- The sneaking minigame uses a different, zoomed in perspective in the XBox game, which gives it some nice
added atmopshere but makes guards hard to avoid. However, it's my understanding that you can still over-

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power and escape a guard if he spots you, whereas in the PC version you'd be captured automatically if a
guard catches up with you.
- The dancing minigame now only has you handle forward, backward, left and right movement - the pirouettes (controlled by the diagonals in the PC version) are automatically handled by the game. There are no
patterns to follow, apparently, just a matter of pressing the right button one at a time, and with more obvious visual cues (the button itself is displayed on screen, and colour coded at that). There might not be
Calfskin Boots/Dancing Slippers in the XBox version, but from what I hear, they aren't particularly necessary. The PSP version, meanwhile, has a more familiar type of rhythm game with cues for button presses
scrolling by that need to be hit at the right moment.
- Cannons are not a commodity to be captured and sold in the XBox and PSP versions. Ive had conflicting
reports on how they do work, but the majority opinion seems to be that a ship comes with a certain number of cannons (bound by the upper limit for whatever the ship type is, but can be fewer) that never changes
once the ship is in your fleet.
- Your fleet can consist of only 5 ships in the XBox and PSP versions, as opposed to the PC version's 8.
- You can pick a sword to use on all difficulty levels in the XBox and PSP versions, including Apprentice.
- There is no advantage bar in the sword fights in the XBox version - this reduces the importance of having a
large crew compared to the enemy's (as long as you don't run out) and presumably also removes the practical
benefit of taunting.
- There is no autosaving in the XBox version. You can only save manually and (as in the PC version) only
while you're at sea. The PSP version allows saving while in port.
- The "Talk like a Pirate" Day easter egg is present in at least the XBox version.

[ 11 ] R E V I S I O N H I S T O R Y
v1.0: (22 Dec '04) First version of the FAQ.
v1.1: (20 Jan '05) Thanks for your feedback, everybody! Significant updates and corrections throughout the
guide based on my own experiences and a vast amount of reader input.
v1.2: (22 Feb '05) More updates and corrections, and this time the credits list is complete. Sorry for the ones
I forgot the first time around; that's what happens if you keep lists in two separate places :(

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v1.3: (30 Sep '05) Updated with a few more corrections and some information pertaining specifically to the
v1.0.2 update. In addition, I've made a few notes on differences between the PC and XBox versions. Finally,
my contact info has been updated, previous contact address is no longer in use.
v1.4: (19 Jul '07) Following my first full completion (126 fame) of the game on Rogue, updates have been
made throughout the document reflecting new insights. There's been a slight renumbering of sections as I
moved the 'version differences' paragraph to the end of the document. I have also, once again, received a lot
of valuable reader input on a variety of topics - thanks everybody!
v1.5: (12 May 08) Having at last completed a full fame game on Swashbuckler level, the time was right for
what will probably be the last major update. This version of the guide corrects falsehoods, compresses
rambling, and adds new insights. Major updates include new information on promotions, courtesy of Ronald of Hooked on Pirates, and at last the full story on how crew happiness is calculated, courtesy of Wes
Atkinson.
No more updates are specifically planned for the future, but you never know.

[ 12 ] F I N A L WO R D S
ABOUT THIS FAQ It had been a good four years since I started writing for GameFAQs, and longer still
since my first offline experiments at FAQ writing, but my first full FAQ for Sid Meier's Pirates finally saw
the light in late 2004. Before then, my full guides had been limited to retro games - decidedly easier to write
an exhaustive FAQ for - and for more recent gaming I've stuck to specialist, in-depth guides which don't require broad coverage. This project was a much bigger time investment, and has been successful beyond my
wildest expectations.
At the time I rolled out my final (cant ever be sure with FAQs!) update in May 2008, this guide had received over 300.000 hits on GameFAQs alone. Id never have believed it would go that far. A big thank you
goes out to all readers, and I hope you enjoyed the guide.
For questions, comments, suggestions, praise and criticism, please contact the author, Sashanan, at
sashanan.faqs@gmail.com. This e-mail address is for FAQ feedback only. Whatever you wish to share about
this document or Sid Meier's Pirates, chances are I'll want to hear it. Any serious mail will be answered.
Specifically, if you have additional strategies or different views on the ones I've posted, I'd love to hear about
it. Reader input helps to make any FAQ better and more comprehensive.

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If you wish to do anything with this FAQ except for just reading it, check the Disclaimer section at the top
of the FAQ to find out what you can and can't do. When in doubt, you can always mail me.
THANKS I would like to thank the following people for their help in bringing about this document:
- bansama, for being my primary proofreader for the initial version of the guide;
- ASchultz, falsehead, lisanne, MartinG and siara79 for their continued providing of motivation and inspiration;
- All readers who have sent in feedback for updates/corrections to my guide. In Alphabetical order, these are
Aaron Bilger, Aaron Goldfein, Addiction, Agent Edmonds, aGorilla, Aleksi Aalto, Andrew Durdin, aramil34, Aron Postma, Bennet Gubat, biologic, Bobguy, Brian Barzeele, Brian Gilbert, Brett Turner, C. Griffin Mitchell III, Chris Miller, Christopher Agne, Cody Williams, Colin Sellar, Corey Close, CyRxRich, Dan
Needler, David FitzSimons, David Vallee, Deaddrop, Death on a stick, dj arcanus, Don Bosh, Evreitor, Gin
Ryu, Guillermo Baena Fernandez, J. Weiss, Jay247, Jacob Finn, Jason Cote, Joel Hansell, Jon Pearson, Jonatan Vincent, Kevin Dorough, Kristan McDonald, Lemonade SODA, Leonidas, Logan Louden, Luke Sweatlock, Mrci S. Fujikawa, Mark Warren, Martin R. Huttenloher, Michael Mifsud, Noah Langowitz, Paul Aubuchon, Riidi WW, Robin Toll, Rokenbok, Roland, Sam Greene, SlowRazorz, Strange, Strategerm, Surumon White, Thaddeus Kohrman, Tola Burke, Vasco Cabral Martins, Wes Atkison, Will Saab, wonka wonka, YuPing, and anybody else whose name I might have misplaced in the mess that updating a guide of this
size really is. (If I replied to your e-mail, used your info but did not credit you, please feel free to mail me
again to remind me!)
- The regulars of the GameFAQs/GameSpot Sid Meier's Pirates forum, as well as the regulars of Hooked on
Pirates (formerly Cutlass Isle) and Addicted to Pirates, for their many insights and the discussions that helped shape this document;
- GameFAQs administrator SBAllen for his tireless efforts to keep up GameFAQs as the best place to go for
your gaming resources, and for submitting your own for that matter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Born in 1980, a good 300 years too late to be a pirate, Sashanan has settled for
being a software engineer. Unlike his countrymates Bart Roberts and the Roc of Brasiliano, he will likely
never be rich, nor feared all over the Caribbean, though he'll likely live longer. When not developing software, he is usually found playing games or writing about them. He does not like macaroni.
This document is a copyright of Peter "Sashanan" Butter, 2005-2008. All rights reserved. Disclaimer at top
of document. Avast!

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Jason Venters Guide

0 01 . I N T R O D U C T I O N
I think maybe I should have been a pirate. I know I was born in the wrong century and all that, but there's
something vastly entertaining about the swashbuckling era and the adventures that went on in the Caribbean. That's why there have been so many pirate games. With that said, few have come close to matching Sid
Meier's Pirates!: Live the Life in terms of sheer enjoyment.
There's so much to do, so much to see, and more than one way to get lost...
That's what this FAQ will address. I'm not going to give you long lists of information about each port, nor
will I be describing the pros and cons of each available ship. There are others who like to do this sort of
thing, and I welcome them to keep right with it. Think of this as a quick reference guide.
Is a general concept really hanging you up? You'll (hopefully) find it covered here. That's all you need, anyway. Half the fun is in exploring for yourself!

0 0 2 . A B O U T D I F F I C U LT Y. . .
The game lets you choose your difficulty right from the start. What some people might not realize (unless
they've read the manual, and who has time for that?)
is that you can also select it whenever you choose to 'Divide the Plunder.'
This is both a blessing and a curse.
When you start the game, you'll default to the lowest difficulty level. What this means is that you'll find the
game to be a cakewalk. Duels are so simple that unless you really blunder, you'll have no trouble winning
against even the
'toughest' opponents the game throws your way. About the only way to lose is if you have a crew of 10 pirates or so and you go toe-to-toe with Blackbeard or something equally ludicrous.
As you ratchet up the difficulty (by choosing to continue as a different rank), various factors change in ways
you won't immediately notice. One or two levels won't make much difference. In fact, it's not until you hit
the fourth or fifth option that you'll start to really sweat it out when you find yourself in a sea battle, or invading a port, or whatever.

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Difficulty affects how much time you have to respond to a sword thrust during a duel, how quickly you can
parry a blow, how easily you can overcome guards when you're sneaking into an enemy town, and even whether or not obvious directions appear as you're dancing. On lower levels, for example, you'll see a button
indicator at the bottom of the screen, telling you which button you should press to please your dancing
partner. On higher difficulty levels, she'll just ask you to let her gestures do the work.
But enough about that. What you will want to know is this: what rewards are there for playing at tougher
levels? Well, there's one. You get a larger share of the plunder. For example, suppose you divide 10,000 gold.
At the lowest level, you get 5% of the treasure. Each step up the ladder increases that amount by 5%. In the
case of our example, that amounts to an additional 500 gold for each juncture. This makes it easier to get
back into the swing of things, but it's an advantage you'll need if duels suddenly rock your socks.
With all of that said, this FAQ is going to assume that you're playing on one of the lower three difficulty
levels. If you're playing on tougher levels and you're still having trouble, reading this FAQ won't hurt.
However, it won't be quite as useful. Just lower the freaking difficulty level! Now that we've got that out of
the way, let's continue to the strategies...

0 0 3 . C H O O S I N G YO U R C O U N T RY
When you first begin the game, you'll be able to choose from four nationalities:
English, French, Dutch and Spanish. By the game's reckoning, this is roughly equivalent to choosing your
probable difficulty level, in ascending order. The game explains it all rather accurately.
If you go English, there will be a fair number of ports in the northern portion of the world, while the southern half is almost exclusively Spain's domain.
It's easy to get promotions because there are plenty of enemies to attack, but the sprinkling of English ports
throughout the world means you also can rest up following those daring raids.
Choosing the French is just a way of making things a bit harder on yourself.
There are fewer French ports and they aren't positioned in as many convenient spots. However, you can generally still head into English ports if the need arises. The Spanish remain the constant thorn in your side,
if you decide to play the game in a war-like fashion.
Then there are the Dutch. If you pick them, you're going to have a time of it.

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The reason is that they hardly have any ports at all, and they're not on particularly good terms with anyone.
It's quite easy to find someone to attack from an opposing nation, but much harder to find a safe haven if
you pick on all your opponents at once.
And finally, the Spanish selection can either be simple or brutal. It's simple if you don't care about earning
constant promotions. There's a Spanish port at every peninsula, it seems. However, this also means that
most ships you encounter are technically your allies, so plundering them for treasure is pretty stupid. And
since most ports already belong to your friends back at home, well, you get the idea.
Personally, I say just go with whatever country you like and play the game however you want. The country
you choose only comes into play if you're honorable.

0 0 4 . C A RG O O P T I O N S
Now that you know who you're sailing for, what are you carrying on your ship?
The way I play, it's mostly food. There's a reason for this.
Let's say you've got a ton of spice on your ship, or maybe a lot of luxury items. That's all well and good, but
you're going to run into any number of problems. The first is starving crew members.
Constantly as you play through the game, your sailors are thinking about how long they've been at sea, how
much money you've made, and how hungry they are.
If you run out of food, each minute you sail is going to increase the likelihood of mutiny. You don't want
that, so the solution is obvious: carry plenty of food. Unless you want to stop at every port you see on a long
voyage, at least half your cargo should be food.
There's another thing to keep in mind, though: you should vary your cargo. I know it's tempting to load up
on spice and then head for that port where you get a bunch of money for the precious commodity. But
what I've found is this: if you have too much of one particular item, the merchant you wish to sell it to runs
out of money before you can get rid of it all. Therefore, a better strategy is to buy various types of cargo cheaply, from several ports throughout the world. Then sell them at the ports where they have the most value,
buy something else, and repeat.
This is of course assuming that you care to trade at all. There's another (equally effective) method called 'piracy.' You see, plundering ships often gets you precious cargo and ships to haul your loot. Not only that, but
you can gain sailors. If you have the vicious tendency to dominate those weaker than yourself, you can easily

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find yourself in a position where you only buy food at ports, then gain your other merchandise through
thievery. This is an easy way to build up a small fortune, as you can also sell any ships you happen to steal.
If you're like me, then, you'll do the following: start by filling up your ship with food. Leave the port, then
zig-zag across the ocean, fighting enemy ships as you go. Keep each ship you find, and its cargo. When you
have the maximum number of ships (I think 5), just head back to town. Sell all your cargo, sell off the four
extraneous ships, then fill the flagship back up with food. Now repeat the process.
Do this before you take any long voyages and you'll never have to worry about running out of money for
food or repairs. You'll also keep your crew happy because you're making money, and you'll be able to trade
in plenty of ill-gotten goods. Everybody wins, except for those ships you plunder.

005. UPGRADING SHIPS

The game makes a big deal out of upgrading ships. There's an option to do so at any regular city, and you'll
hear bartenders telling you how you can get one upgrade at one port, another at a different one. Not only
that, but you get discounts on ship upgrades as you gain favor with various governors.
Ignore all of this.
There's little reason to buy more than the most minimal of upgrades. Why's that? Because you can almost
immediately steal something better through a simple sea battle, all without spending a dime.
Most of the ship upgrades are tailored toward making you better at confrontations with enemy ships... if
you happen to like sinking them with cannon fire. However, doing so is a waste of a perfectly good ship.
Instead, you should just board the enemy ship and then steal it.
The minute you realize this, you have your pick of any ship on the ocean. As the story arc proceeds, you'll
find numerous pirates who sail the best ships money can buy. Just board one such ship, best the captain at a
duel, and there are your upgrades all wrapped up in a pretty package for you to enjoy. There's no need to
sail from port to port seeking out the upgrades, no wringing your hands over how you'll ever earn enough
money to buy those cool cannons. They can all be yours for free. End of story.

0 0 6 . S E A B AT T L E S
Because this is a game about pirates, and because it's so easy to succeed if you're willing to pick on a few
ships, you'll find that sea battles occupy a large portion of your time. At least, you will if you're successful.

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The game tries to steer you toward thrilling battles that prove who is better at aiming cannons. In fact,
battles often revolve around you circling your enemy and firing cannonballs from your ship as the other guy
does the exact same thing. Personally, I like to avoid this as much as possible and just move in close, then
board my enemy's ship. This way, you don't have to head back to port and repair your flagship, and you gain
whatever loot you plunder when the battle ends. The only reason to sink lots of enemy ships is if you want
to pass that '100 ships sunk' mark that you see mentioned on the 'Status' screen.
Okay, so let's say you do. What's the best way to sink an enemy ship? Well, first of all you should either have
purchased (or stolen) a ship with lots of cannons available. This means a larger ship, and it means buying
the expensive upgrades. Or, as I mentioned in the section above, stealing them (which is recommended).
Once you have a ship that's up to the task, the rest is mostly easy. When a round begins, you'll see almost
invariably that the wind is blowing from the east. The ship you face is usually located to the west, so all you
have to do is turn so that the wind is at your back. Once you've turned, you generally head in circles around
the outer edge of the area, while your opponent does the same.
The reason for this is that your ships can only fire from the side. They can also reach approximately 3/4 of
the way across the screen, if you're using the standard shots. If you allow for the cannonballs to spend time
traveling through the air, you should aim for the very front tip of your enemy's ship, anticipating that its
center will pass into range just as your shots connect.
As you are doing all of this mental math and strategizing, so is your opponent.
If you have a small ship, you can render his carefully-aimed shots useless.
Just turn your ship sideways at a sharp angle, and most of his shots will splash into the water on either side.
Charging him may also cause his shots to splash into the water behind you. Once that's happened, you can
always zip back into your regular path, fire a volley of your own shots, then repeat.
Honestly, these battles are not that difficult. Later in the game, when you have the best ship, they'll be
downright simple. But like I said, duels are where the real money is at. I'll cover those next.

0 0 7. D U E L I N G
You'll encounter duels at various stages in the game. The only thing that changes significantly from one to
the next is the location. However, even that shouldn't alter your strategy. Whether you're battling on the
deck of a ship, along the stairs in a tavern, in a garden or on the top of a stone tower, one basic notion will
serve you most efficiently: use the rapier.

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There are three swords available to you at the start of any duel. Apparently, you have them all in your pocket
and you pick the one most suited to a particular encounter. Like I said, though, it's always the rapier. The
reason for this is the blade's speed. It meshes nicely with the strategy of the day, which is to let your opponent start to swing, then counter before he can finish.
You can easily tell when your enemy is about to slash, because he'll often draw his arm to the side before
thrusting. As he starts to do so, tap the 'A' button and you'll cut short his evil plans. That's all there is to it.
Though the game does allow differing strategies, thanks to other button combinations, all you have to do is
watch for the opening and thrust.
On the first three difficulty levels, that's all there is to it. Seriously.
And if you want to tilt the scales even further in your favor, you can also find various accessories throughout
the world. You gain these by purchasing them from the mysterious stranger in taverns, or by dancing particularly well with a given governor's daughter. I'll talk about that next.

0 0 8 . DA N C I N G
This is going to call my manhood into question, I'm sure, but I actually enjoy the dancing mini-game. Or
rather, I do now. At first, I thought it sucked. I wasn't sure why I couldn't seem to impress the lady, and I
thought for a time that even one mistake meant the dance was not a success.
You'll always know when you've danced well, because instead of whispering useless information, the lady
will give you a gift or (in some cases)
information that's absolutely critical to find the man who knows where your family members are hidden.
You'll also know when you've done badly because your dancing partner will look extremely disappointed
and you won't get squat. The middle road--general information about things you don't care about--is the
most common reward of all.
To get the free goodies, including upgrades to your sailing ability, disguises and clothes that make you better
at duels, you'll want to master what the game's instruction manual calls the 'flourish.'
Basically, a flourish is just an extra fancy movement in the middle of a choreographed dance. You get a
flourish each time you press the appropriate button in time with the music. At least, that's what I read somewhere.
However, I found that trying to listen to the music and tap the button at the right moment is pointless.
Instead, you should watch your dancing partner.

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The trick to a flourish is to wait for your lady to nod, hesitate for just a moment (I'm sure the exact time
varies according to difficulty level), then press the button a short time later. Obviously, you don't want to
wait until you're stumbling over your boots, which you may do at first. However, you'll soon get the hang of
it.
The reason flourishes rock is that even if you mess up early on in the dance, a few flourishes not only erase
such bad memories but also help to ensure that you have a little extra padding, so to speak. If you perform a
flourish or three in a dance (not difficult to do at all), you can rest assured that only some really boneheaded footwork can get between you and the lady's affections. That would be a good thing.

009. TREASURE HUNTS

As exciting as it can be to win the love of a governor's daughter, there's other treasure in the world. More
specifically, each of the nine other famous pirates has buried a stash of gold in some remote location, and
you want it! However, finding treasure can be a tedious affair.
The first step is generally to talk to the mysterious stranger in the back of your local tavern. Early on, he'll
charge 200 gold pieces for a treasure map.
You can carry only one treasure map at a time. The minute you find that treasure, you can return to the
stranger and buy a new one, until you've found each of the famous treasures. That's the easy part.
Now for the hard part, reading the map. The problem is that the maps are only slightly useful. They consist
of a few inked in landmarks and some red text referencing the relative location of a town. Ignore any references to landmarks. They may or may not have any impact on your search at all. Instead, look at the red
text that says something like "Northeast of Gibralter" or whatever.
That text is your compass. Based on what it says, imagine a straight line that extends between one and three
'screens' of ocean. The treasure is somewhere within that line. Ignore landmarks as you sail along the coast
in that approximate line of sight, checking each shallow bay or line of pale-colored sand. You'll find the treasure in no time.
Of course, there's the other option: study the map carefully, trying to make out landmarks and then search
to their side. This may or may not work. Sometimes you'll find treasure right on top of a landmark. Sometimes it won't even be close. That's why I say you should just follow my trick. Trust me on this. I spent hours
trying to find a treasure by consulting landmarks. This happened several times. As soon as I used my

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'straight line' trick, it never took me more than 2 or 3 minutes to find a treasure again. The same is true of
missing relatives and hidden cities.

01 0 . A T T A C K I N G P O R T S
On a completely unrelated note, sometimes it can be fun to sack a port and claim it for your beloved country. There are actually a number of ways to accomplish this, but always your strategy should start with some
not-so-friendly shots from your ship's cannon.
While sailing about on the world map, get within range and press the 'A' button to send shots at the city. It
only works on real cities, not settlements or sanctuaries. You'll know your attack was a success when the port
decides to return fire.
Now, just keep sailing nearby, firing cannon shots. Over time, successful hits will reduce the number of soldiers defending the area. You can sail within landing range from time to time, and you'll get a window that
tells you how many active guards are on duty. Now, the number of soldiers determines the next step.
If it won't take forever, whittle down your enemy's troops to 80. As you do so, you'll need to prevent reinforcements from arriving in other enemy ships. If you can quickly fire a few shots and drop the number of defenders to 80, though, that's the way to do it. Why? Because then all it will take is a quick duel and the city
is yours.
However, many tempting cities are guarded by 100 or more soldiers, and often by three or four hundred.
You don't have time to whittle down their numbers in this fashion. In such an event, attacking the fortress
will bring about a dangerous land battle. Therefore, be sure of the enemy's numbers before you attack. You
want (at worst) an equal number of pirates to soldiers. If you can manage superior numbers, do so!
Why is that? Because land battles are actually a reasonable challenge. In fact, I'm not particularly good at
them. Therefore, I won't pretend otherwise.
What it comes down to is this, though: you have about five soldier types at your disposal, broken into units.
Some are good at close combat while some can fire shots from a distance. Some are just morale boosters
(don't put them in the front lines).
The enemy has the same. Numbers matter, too. You and your foe might each have 6 units, just as an example, but one of you will likely have more men in each of your units. This is why I said that attacking with superior numbers is a swell idea. The game just divides however many men you have into appropriately-sized
groups.

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So basically, put your distance attackers in the back and move forward with those who are best at hand-tohand combat. Use the trees for shelter and to improve your defense against gunfire and the like. Try to gain
elevation advantages. That's about all there is to it. I'm sure someone else has better strategies, but it's not
me.

011 . F O R E V E R Y O U N G
Unfortunately, this game is realistic enough that you will age as you progress through the game. You start at
about 20, and you have that many years again before your body is so beat up that you have little choice but
to retire.
Basically, it's a timer for the whole game. It equates roughly to around 10 or 12 hours of play. However,
there are ways to cheat fate.
One way is to choose the 'Medicine' skill at the game's opening. However, I never care to do that. The default skill, which improves your skill at fencing, is much more practical. Not only that, but it plays heavily in
my strategy to stay fit for longer.
Basically, what you want to do is stay wealthy. As you sail around the world, the men grow impatient of life
at sea unless you're steadily building a larger stack of gold. This means that the healthy pirate is constantly
raiding enemy ships. It also means that he's finding hidden treasures and family members and missing cities. The game rewards you handsomely for such actions. For example, having your revenge (which takes
quite awhile) gets you a ship full of skilled workers and a bag of 100,000 gold.
However, there's the time in between that you have to worry about. If you spend much time just wandering
around, you'll not make the money you need to keep your men happy. Thus, one of the most important
strategies is to loot most of the ships you encounter along a given voyage. This ensures that your time is
spent most efficiently. For example, if you are asked to find someone that lies across the map, you'll probably want to hit up around six ships along the way.
Sure, it takes longer. However, it can also delay the moment you fear, when the men ask for you to divide
the plunder.
Dividing the plunder is bad because it robs you of a few months of your life, immediately. Every time you
do, that's like giving up fifteen minutes of game time, maybe more. You can see why it's in your best interest
to delay the process for as long as possible.

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Something else you should do is dance with the governors' daughters. They sometimes will give you items
that slow down the aging process. Likewise, such boons can often be obtained from the mysterious strangers
that reside in taverns you may visit.
A final strategy is to never hold onto a large crew unless you absolutely must.
The more men you have, the less treasure there is to go around and the more impatient they'll become. This
means that although you may often have brief moments where five ships are at your command (as described
a few pages up), you should never do so for a prolonged period. Only keep around a hundred men, unless
you're on your way to raid an enemy village and you have a lot of money hiding in your vault. Keep these
strategies in mind and the requests to divide the plunder will occur much less frequently.

01 2 . S T E A LT H V I S I T S
Before I forget, I should also tackle the matter of those stealth missions you sometimes encounter as you
progress through the game. These take place when you are wanted by another country's governors. For example, let's say you've sunken a few Spanish treasure ships and you took over a port or three. You're not
going to rank high on their list of allies. In fact, ports may fire on you as you draw near.
In such cases, you can choose to sneak into the port. Most of the time, this won't be necessary. However,
there are times when you need to talk to the barmaid in Santiago and for some reason, everyone there hates
you. This happens frequently when you're trying to find missing family members. What do you do?
Why, you sneak in at night!
This mode of the game isn't particularly fun, truth be told. Fortunately, it also happens to be quite simple
until you try on higher levels.
You start at one side of the town, with your men watching. Ahead, you'll see the city at dusk. Glowing patches of light move to show you where guards are patrolling. You never want to stumble across two of these
in close proximity to one another. Instead, you want to stop near walls, wait until a guard turns his back,
then run up behind him and hit him over the head so that he is knocked unconscious.
If you are seen, you'll have to mash the 'A' button until you fill up the meter and overpower the scoundrel.
That's just how it works. If you're in the middle of such a struggle and another guard finds you, well, you've
failed. So don't do that.
The game and instruction manual mention that you can hide in hay, and that you can climb over walls.
This is true. However, it's mostly just not necessary until you choose to progress in rank. Since only skilled

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players will encounter these situations, and because those folks would never, ever consult a guide like this
one, I won't even waste your time. Go forth and sneak!

01 3 . S AV I N G Y O U R G A M E
This may seem like a stupid section to include, but when I first played the game I had trouble figuring out
how to save my progress. I eventually figured it out and thought nothing more of it until I posted this guide.
Then people started writing me, asking how to save. Enough people wrote that I'm giving it a special section
now.
Basically, there are two places where you can save. One place is the world map.
You can pause the game, which brings up a series of icons along a bar near the bottom of the screen. Just
around halfway to the right is an icon you can select when you want to save. You'll save your progress right
where you are at that particularly point in time.
You can also save when you're visiting a port town. It's there right on that first menu, as I recall. Saving there is easy. Those are the only two options I know of. Hopefully, something I just said helps you and people
will only e mail me when they're wanting to tell me how good this mini-guide is...

014 . I N C O N C L U S I O N . . .
Well, you're ready to spread your wings and fly. While I've certainly not gone into as depth as some of the
more experienced players among you might like, I've covered the game's main sticking points quite nicely. If
you've read through this FAQ, you're now ready to tackle most anything the game will ever throw at you,
confident in your fencing and sneaking and romancing capabilities.
There are plenty of ways to play. I could probably go on for another ten pages about differing strategies, but
I won't. Half the fun of Pirates! is finding your own techniques and then applying them to see how well they
work. Romance a few daughters, plunder a few ships, and think of me the next time you dig up a treasure
chest full of gold. I take tips!
Closing Notes:
If you have any questions or comments about this FAQ (including corrections, information about glaring
omissions or just a few words of praise), please don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail

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(jasonventer[at]yahoo.com). Include the relevant game's title in your 'subject' line to ensure that your e-mail
is not erroneously deleted.
On a more tedious note, remember that this FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without
advance written permission.
Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. At the time this FAQ was last updated, the following sites are permitted to post it:
HonestGamers (http://www.honestgamers.com)
GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com)
NeoSeeker (http://www.neoseeker.com)
GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com)
AOL (http://www.aol.com)
IGN (http://faqs.ign.com)
This list may change to reference new friends or to revoke permission if I decide that I am at war with a particular site, so you may be viewing an older version of this FAQ. If you wonder whether or not your favorite
site has permission to post it, you can always find the list of authorized sites by viewing the master copy, available at HonestGamers.com.
Finally, if you frequently consult this FAQ as you write strategy content of your own, I would appreciate a
tip of the hat in your closing comments, or wherever it seems appropriate. I work hard to make my FAQs
useful, and I'm pleased when you find them to be helpful. Let others know about them, too!

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StrategyWiki.Coms Walkthrough
G O V E R N O R ' S D AU G H T E R S
One way to rack up items quickly is to find an attractive daughter once you're a Colonel with that country
(or have the French Chapeau) and interact with her repeatedly. To get items from an attractive daughter,
you must get an OK dance, not a perfect one (which will give you information on Raymondo instead useful, but you can already get that from Jesuits), so dance the best you can and, if your dance is going too well,
intentionally fail to press a key near the end of the dance. Stumbling once at the end is sufficient no matter
how well you're doing. So, when you find an attractive daughter, the sequence goes like this:

Mediocre dance (one item)

Ruby Ring (one item) do not give the Diamond Necklace or you'll get info on Raymondo Defeat suitor
(one item)
Mediocre dance (one item)
Get Mendoza and return her (info on Montalban, or a Lost City map piece if Montalban has already spawned or been defeated)

Each time, simply leave and come right back and until you've played out the whole sequence. (Decline the
marriage proposal, though, since you need a beautiful daughter for a perfect score. Marrying a beautiful
daughter also makes it easier to get Lost City map pieces.) So that's up to four items and Montalban info/a
Lost City map piece for very little time and effort! Note that, when the daughter tells you about her suitor,
you can revisit the governor and fight him immediately instead of leaving town again, saving a week of game
time.
Note that if you already have many items, a mediocre dance, ruby ring, or defeating the suitor will likely give
you a Wanted Criminal quest instead, and you will have to do the quest before you can get anything else
from that particular daughter.

ITEMS
Combat items

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Any of the combat items are good choices. When a governor's daughter offers you an expensive item, choose the expensive item, since you may be able to purchase the cheaper item later for a low price.

Longevity items
These are of paramount importance. They extend your health, which broadens the window for when you
can fight Montalban with a decent chance of winning.

Crew happiness items

These are great items to get, because you can last longer before you have to divide the plunder. Paying
10,000 gold for a Concertina is silly, though, because the gold is more useful in the long term for keeping
your crew happy. If your crew is already unhappy, paying such an exorbitant fee for a Concertina can actually make them mutinous. Get them from governor's daughters or Wanted Criminals instead.

Dancing shoes
The Calfskin Boots are a good purchase, especially if you can get them very cheap. The Dancing Slippers are
probably not worth the money if you are a decent dancer, though you may want to take them if a Wanted
Criminal offers them. Once you marry someone, you can dance with her as many times as you like, so
dancing skill is not a very high priority.

Ruby Ring / Diamond Necklace

You should get a Ruby Ring, partly so that travelers will offer other items instead (they will offer a ring very
often if you don't have one). However, you can get one for about 1800 gold (assuming you're playing on
Swashbuckler), so if the price is much higher than that, you can wait unless you really want to woo somebody now. Don't buy Diamond Necklaces, which are much too expensive to justify the expense, but you might
want to take it if a Wanted Criminal offers one (especially if the monetary reward is small, like 1000 gold).
Be careful not to give a Ruby Ring or especially a Diamond Necklace to someone who has already given you
a Wanted Criminal quest you have not yet fulfilled, or it will be wasted.
The best person to give a Ruby Ring to is an attractive daughter, since you will get a choice of items.
The best person to give a Diamond Necklace to is a beautiful daughter, who will give you info on Montalban, or a Lost City map piece if Montalban has already spawned (or been defeated). Both are quite valuable.

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Giving one to a plain daughter will give you a choice of items. Giving one to an attractive daughter is the
least desirable option; she'll give you info on Raymondo, which you can already get for free, and you can get
an item if you give her a Ruby Ring instead.

French Chapeau / Ostrich Feather Hat

The higher your rank with the various countries is, the less useful these are. For example, the French Chapeau is useless if you're already a Colonel with everybody (though you can use it as a stepping stone to an
Ostrich Feather Hat, which won't be offered if you don't have the Chapeau).

Dutch and Spanish Rutter

The Dutch Rutter will reveal many small settlements; the Spanish Rutter will reveal more. These are largely
useless and should only be taken when you have a choice between this and an even more useless item. You
will rarely need to seek a settlement except for Jesuits and Pirate Towns, and you can find these easily enough on your own. They might be decent purchases on lower difficulty levels, but are a waste of precious
money on Swashbuckler.

Completely useless items

Do not buy items that improve relations with the Jesuits or Indians. These are the Golden Cross, Sacred
Relic, Shrunken Head, and Carved Shaman Staff. They are completely useless because the Jesuits and Indians are always on good terms with you. This was not the way the designers originally planned the game: originally your relations were supposed to vary, but they had to release the game before they had a chance to
implement this, and for some reason they left the items in.

G E T T I N G A P E R F E C T S C O R E O N S WA S H B U C KLER
Before the game
You can start in any era, but things tend to be easier in the later eras thanks to the presence of more cities.
1660 and 1680 have a good distribution of cities from each country, whereas, in, say, 1600, the Dutch only
have one city (St. Martin) that, since nearby cities like St. Kitts haven't been founded yet, is in the middle of
nowhere. 1660 and 1680 are exactly the same map except Gibraltar is missing on the latter; the difference

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has more to do with things such as the frequency of pirate hunters, the types of ships used, and how much
wealth each nation, city, and ship has.
Out of the skills, the Fencing skill is likely the most useful, since you'll be spending so much time fighting
and you will eventually have to face the lightning fast Montalban. Navigation and Medicine are also strong
choices, since Navigation will get you from place to place faster (especially when sailing against the brutal
winds you'll find on Swashbuckler), potentially saving you years' worth of game time, and Medicine will
broaden the window for when it's possible to beat Montalban. Navigation is particularly helpful in 1600,
since there are so few cities. Gunnery is not a good choice unless you just really love shooting at ships, because usually you want to capture the ships near intact, thus getting their gold and goods, plus the price of
the ship when you sell it. Wit and Charm is also not a good choice once you've practiced the dancing game
enough, but it may be useful until then, since it is quite difficult until you get the hang of it.

During the game

First you'll need to assemble a decent crew. You'll want at least 100, since ships you capture will tie up some
of your crew until you sell them, and 200 or more is even better. However, you're unlikely to get a crew of
200 in the beginning of the game. You just won't find many pirates in the towns.
To solve this problem, you can divide the plunder as soon as you have the opportunity to do so, so long as
your crew will "eagerly" take their share (each pirate gets 50 gold or more). You'll find many more pirates
willing to join you in towns, which should make up for the months you waste by dividing the plunder.
When you try to divide, if they merely "gladly", "willingly", etc. take their share, cancel and go earn a bit more money or simply lose some crew in a battle (either a sea battle or land battle will do), since losing crew
increases the average share per remaining member. You might not want to do something like take out
Henry Morgan, though, because you'll get way more money than you need before dividing. It'll be more useful after dividing and help your next crew last.
Once you've got a decent crew, the number one thing to do is find Montalban. You only have so many years
before you get old (especially before you've found the longevity items) and Montalban is an extremely tough
opponent. Once your health is "poor" (which happens when you hit 34 if you have both longevity items and
your special skill is not Medicine), you can probably forget about beating him. (Do remember that you'll regain some health if you purchase a longevity item, so hope is not lost if you hit poor health but don't have
the items yet.) Once you've beaten Montalban at his hideout, it's all downhill from there.

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A good way to get a lead on Montalban is to find and defeat Raymondo and repeat until you can rescue a
family member. The family member will tell you where Montalban's ship is, and from there, barkeeps will
usually keep you informed of his location if he's anywhere nearby. (Once you've defeated Montalban at his
hideout, further family members will give you Lost City map pieces instead.)
That means your immediate objective when starting the game is to find Raymondo. The best way to do this
is enter a Jesuit settlement; the abbot should volunteer the information. Once Raymondo has spawned,
barkeeps should keep you updated on his location. (If you aren't getting any information out of the barkeeps, try asking around somewhere else, especially at or near his last reported location.) If the map piece
isn't enough to find your family member, repeat until your map is complete enough.
Montalban's hideout spawns as soon as you beat him once, so by all means head straight there if you think
you have a good guess as to where it is and you will have a large enough crew (you will need at least 200;
250+ is better).
Since Montalban and Raymondo (who is a frequent source of your leads on Montalban) sail in Spanish
ports, it helps to be on friendly terms with the Spanish so you can enter their ports freely, since you will usually have to be near Raymondo or Montalban to get hints as to their exact location from bartenders. Note
that playing for the Spanish doesn't have to mean fighting against the other countries; this is elaborated upon below.
Whatever you do, don't get arrested or thrown overboard. (This is not so vital if you just reload from the
autosave when this happens, but if you don't like "save scumming", this is of paramount importance. Of
course, it's also OK to take risks in the early game if you don't mind starting over if it goes wrong.) The former wastes valuable time and the latter causes you to lose all the gold you're carrying on top of that. To avoid this, take care not to start a fight with insufficient crew. If you don't know how many men are on the ship
you're up against, assume a lot. Also, if you're attacking a nation's ships near one of their cities, assume a
pirate-hunter will spawn sometimes you get in trouble not with the ship you attacked, but with the piratehunter that spawns after it. If you do wind up in such a position, it may be better to let the pirate hunter
fire away at you as you try to escape, since even letting a ship sink is preferable to being jailed or lost at sea.
If you have only one ship, though, you'll be lost at sea if it sinks, so you might end up having to fight the
hunter anyway in a last-ditch effort to stay in the game.
Of course, early in the game you might want to take some risks with the idea of just starting over if you get
jailed or marooned, for instance to defeat Raymondo quickly or to get a better ship.

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Pirate hunters can be troublesome, so how do you avoid them? The easiest way is not to get in fights with
national ships at all. It sounds crazy and runs directly against the common wisdom of plundering the plentiful Spanish ships, but it's perfectly viable to simply never attack a national ship (Raymondo/Montalban excepted) in the early game and it won't damage your chances of a perfect score at all. Enemy pirate ships are
fair game since they don't spawn pirate hunters. One trick you can do if you're not coming across enough
pirates is to go to a Pirate Town and encourage them to attack a city. They will send out a ship that you
yourself can attack. If you wait a bit before you do this, one to three Pirate Privateers should show up as
well. (This is because the game thinks it's an escort mission, and escorting a ship always causes privateers to
spawn. These Pirate Privateers won't do anything, though.) The Pirate Privateers might not be carrying
much gold, but you might find their ships useful, and the reputation you gain for beating them all is quite
useful. In fact, pirates make great targets exactly because you can advance your standing with all four nations at once. You can find lots of Pirate Towns (and usually a few named pirates) along the coast of Central
America and Mexico if you're looking for action and promotions. As your rank advances, the nations will
forgive you for taking the occasional potshots at their treasure and payroll ships, though obviously this will
reduce your chances for promotions/land grants.

HAPPINESS AND DIVIDING THE PLUNDER

The happiness of your crew depends on two things: how long you've gone without dividing and how much
gold you have per crewmember. The longer the voyage or the less gold per crewmember, the unhappier
they'll be. The unhappiness they experience due to voyage length, however, can be modified by crew happiness items (the fiddle and concertina each make the voyage seem four months shorter to your crew), and
there is also a cap, so after about a couple of years of game time, the length of the voyage cannot make the
crew any less happy. At this point, you will be able to keep your crew unhappy (as opposed to mutinous) if
you have about 1000 gold per crewmember. So if you have 300,000 gold, you'll probably never have to divide the plunder again, because you'll never need more than 300 crew (unless you love trying to raid big cities). The only exception is if you can't find enough people willing to join your crew no matter where you
go, but this seldom becomes a problem if you've already divided and each crewmember was "eager" to take
their share (each gets 50 or more gold).
You'll want to divide the plunder as infrequently as possible, because it removes you from action for six game months, causing your character to age. In fact, if you're very lucky, you can get away with dividing only

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once (at the start of the game, to make it easier to recruit more pirates), so long as you get a steady supply of
gold from named pirates, buried treasure, and especially lost cities (50,000 gold each) and Montalban
(100,000 gold). However, don't fanatically avoid dividing the plunder either. You will need at least 200 (preferably 250 or more) to face Montalban at his hideout, and it makes sense to divide if you will be fighting
Montalban soon but don't think you'll be able to maintain a large enough crew. Mutinies are also headaches, especially when they start stealing ships and taking some of your hard-earned gold with them. You can
sell off all ships but one to avoid mutinies, but then you will be very vulnerable against powerful opponents
like Raymondo and especially Montalban. It's best to always keep at least one spare ship and instead lose
some crew through battle to avoid mutinies (since a mutiny is always caused by crew size or hunger, but
this is rarely a problem if you're careful), or divide if your crew is already too small to allow this.

S WO R D F I G H T I N G
Choice of swords
If you're experienced at the swordfighting minigame, your choice of sword doesn't matter much. For example, simply choosing the Longsword every time will do fine in most cases, regardless of your opponent or his
choice of weapon. However, you may want to consider using a Cutlass against Montalban to counter his
blazing speed. (This is assuming you are playing the 1.0.2 patch, where Montalban always wields a Rapier.
Otherwise, Montalban will be wielding a Cutlass and you might possibly want a Rapier.)
Once your pirate's health falls down to "poor", you will likely need to use the Rapier to be able to attack effectively. Your defense will more than likely still be OK except against Montalban, though a strong opponent with a Rapier of his own will be quite difficult.

General strategy
If you just pound the attack keys, you will lose very fast. The way to fight is to watch your opponent's move,
then use the correct response, and attack if you have an opening after the response. You can sometimes take
the initiative with a thrust against a stationary opponent, but only do this if they are slow due to low Advantage.

Moves

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The High Chop and Low Slash seem identical at first glance both will advance you two squares if they
connect, one if parried, and none if dodged but in fact they are a bit different. The low slash starts out
slower, but the recovery is quicker. Hence, especially if your character is slow, it may be best to thrust at a
low slash instead of hoping to jump and slash/chop back, or perhaps just jump and forgo a counterattack. If
your opponent has the low slash skill, more than likely you can forget about doing anything about his low
slashes at all. You should prefer using the high chop to the low slash, since you'll be using it when your opponent is overextended and so its longer recovery is not a problem, whereas the low slash's longer setup time might be. (You might prefer a low slash or a thrust against an opponent with the Fast Jump skill,
though.)
If your opponent is very fast, thrust instead of chop. Better to advance one space than to screw up and be
driven back two. If you're fighting Montalban, you can virtually forget about chopping unless you've slowed
him down a lot.
Taunting is usually useless because you're typically better off using the opportunity to score a hit instead of
tweaking the advantage bar. It may be worthwhile against Montalban, though, since keeping the advantage
on your side will help keep him from becoming so fast that you just can't respond to him.

N AVA L C O M B A T
Choice of ship
Your choice of ship is very important. Attacking in a trade galleon, for instance, is never a good idea, because they're slow and not very maneuverable.

The combat ships are:

Sloop class: Sloop, Sloop of War, Royal Sloop
Brig class: Brigantine, Brig, Brig of War
Combat Galleon class: Fast Galleon, War Galleon, Flag Galleon
Frigate class: Frigate, Large Frigate, Ship of the Line

As you can see, each class has three types of ship, listed in ascending order of size and power. Generally,
when you can, pick the third ship in your chosen class. Which of these four classes is the best is a matter of
taste, but it's generally agreed that the Combat Galleons are not as good as the other three.

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Ships of the Line are exceedingly rare. You might never see one during an entire game.
Another interesting class is the Pinnace class:

Pinnace class: War Canoe, Pinnace, Mail Runner They are capable in combat, but the tactics you employ
must be quite different from most other ships. With a Large Frigate, you can attack virtually any ship and
get close enough to board before you take too much damage. But with a pinnace, you really must avoid getting hit if you can help it, since you are not hard to sink. Instead, your strength lies in your maneuverability,
making it more difficult for them to hit you. If you're going to use a Pinnace, get a Mail Runner (either by
starting as Spain in 1640 or by starting an escort mission for a declaration of war/peace and taking the
ship).

It is quite difficult to capture a Pinnace of any kind on Swashbuckler difficulty, since they will be able to
outrun you.

All other classes are useless to you and you should sell the ship as soon as you can:
Barque class: Coastal Barque, Barque, Ocean Barque
Merchant Galleon class: Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon, Treasure Galleon
Merchantman class: Merchantman, Large Merchantman, East Indiaman
Fluyt class: Fluyt, Large Fluyt, West Indiaman Tactics

Usually you'll want to use grape shot to reduce enemy crew without harming the ship too much. Be aware,
though, that it has a limited range, and not all ships come equipped with it.
At higher difficulty levels, the wind direction and speed can have a significant impact.

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Chad Simplicios Compilation

1. V E R S I O N N OT E S
1.10 - December 11, 2004 Updated information from more recent gameplay
1.00 - December 4, 2004 Initial compilation of the fame-building information.

2 . O V E RV I E W
How do you want to live your life as a pirate, you handsome devil of an adventure-seeking land-lubber?
* Do you want to live a life of plundering on a nation's shipping lines, especially those Spanish Treasure
Ships?
* How about a life of peaceful trading or treasure-hunting?
* Or cleanse the seas some, hunting down pirate raiders, notorious ones, or stopping the natives from raiding ports and cities?
* Maybe you want to force Captain Morgan or Blackbeard into retirement?
* Or woo those breath-taking beautiful daughters of governors and make them fall in love with you?
Whatever you do, land-lubber, the seas are always ripe with gold and goods. So go out there, and live the
life, pirate!
And when you're ready to retire into a new career, we'll see how much fame you have gotten which will guide you into a new land-lubber life.
HAR! HAR! HAR!

3 . FA M E P O I N T S Q U I C K R E F E R E N C E
Wealth: Up to 24 points.
- More land and more wealth = more pts. When you divide the plunder and prepare for another adventure,
a portion of what you keep is then placed in a bank that goes towards upping your wealth fame pts.

Promotions: Up to 32 points, 8 per nation.

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- Simple...try to become the regional Duke for each nation, although becoming one for Spain and England
is much easier than it is to become one for France and Holland. Promotions can entitle you to a piece of
property outside their cities, which can then generate more fame.

Named Pirates: Up to 9 points.

- Just take down the other top pirates, as listed in the top 10.

Treasure Maps: Up to 9 points.

- Find those top 10 pirates' treasure.
Lost Relatives: Up to 16 points.
- Find and defeat the evil Baron, get the map pieces, then find your lost relative. Rinse and repeat as necessary until all four members are found.
Lost Cities: Up to 16 points.
- Get the map pieces, then find these cities.
Romance: Up to 10 points.
- Win the heart of a governor's daughter. For the full 10 points, win the heart of a beautiful governor's
daughter.
Villains: Up to 10 points.
- Beat up your family's adversary in swordplay to win a piece of map. Piece them together and go storm his
hideout, then beat him one last time.

4 . N AVA L R A N K S
Accomplish enough feats for a nation, and the next time you see a governor of a port city, you may be promoted beyond just being given a Letter of Marque that authorizes you to attack their warring European
neighbors' ships. The ranks are as follows, from lowest to highest, with their benefits:
Letter of Marque - Authorized to attack a nation's enemy ships Captain - Easier recuitment in nation's cities
Major - Cheaper ship repairs Colonel - More merchant goods to trade Admiral - Cheaper ship upgrades Baron - Easier recruitment in nation's taverns anywhere Count - Free ship repairs Marquis - Many more available goods to trade Duke - Free ship upgrades

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Be advised that if you turn on a nation and attack their ships, you'll lose your rank benefits until you
purchase amnesty or have a jesuit missionary speak on your behalf, whatever it takes to regain that nation's
favor.

5 . V I L L I A N S , N A T I V E S , A N D R I VA L P I R A T E S
The Carribean of this era is full of villians and pirates, even the most ruthless pirates to sail and harass European nations of their days are in this game. When you start hearing rumors of their last known location,
you can track them down and find their ship. From there, the sea battle begin. Even though the ship can
surrender, you'll still have to defeat that named pirate or villian--yes, even the evil Baron himself--in an act of
swordplay.
Sometimes, you can blow apart pirate raiders or raiding native canoe boats to make the European colony
holdings happy..
It's best to have the best possible upgrades for your ship and for your fighting when you face villians and
pirates. Depending on your style and tastes, you'll also want a good ship, like a good Brig, or a Frigate, or
maybe a Galleon that you captured off the Baron's command.
While most villians and evil men sail in Spanish warships, pirates and natives sail in their own.
And all of Europe and their Carribean colonists will feel relieved and pleased when they hear a pirate ship
go down.

6. TREASURE MAPS
You can purchase a piece of a map off a traveling smuggler, defeat your adversaries, or get one from governor's daughters. When you do get a complete map or you get a good idea of where the "X" is, you can then
sail to the landmark, then anchor off by the shore and lead a land expedition to the spot. When you find
where "X" marks the spot, your crew will start digging until you find the treasure.
The procedures are the same whenever you're looking for your family, finding a villian's hideout, or searching lost cities with plenty of gold to be found.
Find a family member = you're reunited with that one Find a villain's hideout = Storm the walls in a land
battle or sneak your way in tofind the villian Find a lost city = Find yourself and your crew a fortune

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7. D AU G H T E R S O F G O V E R N O R S
It takes much more than rank and looks to woo a governor's daughter, it takes wit with sword to beat down
rivals in your way to her heart, and good deftness with your dancing feet to woo her. These daughters' appearance can be plain, attractive, or beautiful. The more beautiful they are, the tougher they are to woo.
Most of these beautiful women, from recent gaming experience, tend to be Spanish, but there has been
cases where you can find beautiful French, English, or a bit more "modest" beautiful Dutch women.
Nonetheless, the benefits are useful. You may get valuable information, receive an upgrade as a gift, even
map pieces of lost cities, if you woo her alot in the ballroom.
Given your options, you may have to do the following:
* Impress her with your dancing
* Give her a ruby ring or a diamond necklace
* Beat her fiancee in a sword duel
* Rescue her from her abductor - same procedure as fighting a villain or top pirate on the seas
Find clothes that enhances your apperance and she'll see you more often when you're in port. Impress her
really well, and the task of winning her heart becomes much easier.
-- Dancing This is where many pirates have trouble. Here are a few good tips:
* Know the dance patterns of a song: The harder the difficulty, the more complex the dance will be. If you
can coordinate the right moves that the daughter gives you with the beat of the music, you won't slip, and
you may even do a flourish that can really woo her or help you recover fast from mistakes.
* Calfskin boots and dancing slippers are good items to have, especially if your main skill is Wit &
Dance. Then if you slip up, you'll likely recover quickly enough to not stumble and miss a beat.
* Most of all, practice, practice, practice.
Sometimes, it's nice to practice getting the dancing down as correctly as you can with plain and attractive
daughters, then carry that over to the more beautiful ones.
When you do hear that your lovely governor's daughter is abducted and you do rescue her and bring her
back home, she will you ask you an important question the next time you are in port to visit her.
"My charming rogue, will you marry me?"

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8 . R E A DY T O R E T I R E ?
The ranking is simple when you retire, or health concerns forces you to retire from your pirating ways. The
more fame you have, the higher the rank. The game gives you a ranking as well as a summary of your adventures and achievements. If you score high enough, your pirate is entered into the hall of fame, never to be
used again. Then you're off to a new game.

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Gamestar.de-Tipps
Tipp 1:
Fr maximalen Spielspa empfehlen wir zu Beginn den mittleren Schwierigkeitsgrad, eine Spezialisierung
im Navigieren oder Fechten und die Epoche um 1660. Als Nationalitt whlen Sie alles auer den Spaniern
die sind Ihr Hauptfeind.

Tipp 2:
Was tun als frischgebackener Pirat? Zunchst holen Sie sich von allen vier Nationen Kaperbriefe, indem Sie
die Gouverneure besuchen. Dann besorgen Sie sich eine Frachtflotte: Kapern Sie zwei bis drei Handelsschiffe einer verfeindeten Nation. Beschieen Sie die Schiffe mglichst gar nicht oder wenn, dann nur mit
Hagelmunition, sonst mssen Sie die Schden fr teures Geld reparieren lassen. Die Ladung wird im
nchsten Hafen verscherbelt, die Schiffe dienen fortan als Lagerraum. Nicht vergessen, Matrosen anzuheuern, denn die Khne brauchen eine Mannschaft!

Tipp 3:
Fr Ihr Flaggschiff, das Sie in Kmpfe fhren, gibt es zwei Taktik-Varianten: Entweder klein und wendig oder gro und schwerfllig. Freunde flotter Flitzer steigen von der Schaluppe auf eine Brigg um die ist ein
guter Kompromiss aus Tempo, Kanonenzahl und Mannschaftsstrke. Wer richtig Druck machen will, erkmpft sich eine englische Fregatte, eine spanische Kriegsgaleone oder sogar eine Flagg-Galeone. Mit denen
macht Ausweichen keinen Sinn mehr, aber die groen Ptte stecken Treffer locker weg. Und sie schieen
mit bis zu 40 Kanonen zurck! Zudem gewinnt die Crew bei Vollbesetzung jede Enterschlacht.

Tipp 4:
Sollten Sie ein Schiff mit einer Menge Kanonen an Bord (bis zu 25 Stck) Ihr Eigen nennen, gibt es einen
kleinen Trick, wie Sie dem Gegner noch strker zusetzen knnen: Warten Sie whrend eines Gefechts, bis
alle Geschtze geladen sind und whlen Sie die Kettenmunition aus. Feuern Sie nun auf den Gegner und
selektieren Sie unmittelbar danach die normalen Kanonenkugeln. Dies fhrt dazu, dass gleich nachdem die
erste Ladung abgefeuert wurde, eine zweite Salve folgt, also eine Art superstarke Combo-Attacke.

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Tipp 5:
Whrend der hektischen Tanzeinlagen sollten Sie die Pause-Taste nach jeder Bewegungsanweisung drcken.
Somit haben Sie genug Zeit, die richtige Taste fr den nchsten Schritt zu suchen.

Tipp 6:
Als Pirat liegt Ihnen in der Regel nichts daran, Schiffe kaputt zu schieen, denn das bedeutet einen Wertverlust beim Verkauf. Setzen Sie dagegen auf Hagelmunition, die gegnerische Matrosen schnell ausschaltet,
ohne groen Schaden an Rumpf und Segel anzurichten.

Tipp 7:
Wie finde ich Hinweise auf meine Familie? Legen Sie in jeder Stadt an, die auf Ihrer Reiseroute liegt, egal
ob Freund oder Feind, und besuchen Sie die Taverne. Je fter Sie Barmann und Schankmdchen ausquetschen, desto schneller bekommen Sie Fingerzeige. Zudem hat der Schwarzhndler hufig Kartenteile im
Angebot. brigens: Je hher der Schwierigkeitsgrad, desto seltener sind Hinweise.

Tipp 8:
Es lohnt sich, Ihre Heimatstadt gezielt zu strken. Fahren Sie dazu in nahe Siedlungen, eskortieren den
neuen Gouverneur und holen Sie in den Missionarsposten Einwandererschiffe ab. So wird die Stadt Ihrer
Wahl grer und reicher. Vorteil: Der Hndler hat wesentlich mehr Geld in der Kasse, Sie knnen also
mehr Waren verkaufen. Zudem wird Ihnen der Gouverneur dankbar sein es hagelt Befrderungen. brigens: Wenn Sie auf Ihren Fahrten Schiffen mit einer Invasionsstreitmacht begegnen sollten, achten Sie
auf das Ziel der Fregatte. Ist es eine Stadt Ihrer Nation, dann fangen Sie das Schiff ab!

Tipp 9:
Fechtkmpfe gewinnen Sie spter nur noch mit Taktik. Die ist jedoch relativ simpel: Warten Sie, bis der
Gegner zum Schlag ausholt. Dann parieren Sie durch die entsprechende Abwehr und legen sofort nach, am
besten mit dem schnellen Stich (Taste 4). Paraden sind wichtig, weil sie die Moral des Gegners senken. Wer
nur draufhaut, kommt schnell ins Hintertreffen und verliert schlielich den Kampf.

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Tipp 10:
Bereiten Sie sich vor, bevor Sie weit nach Osten segeln, vor allem wenn es entlang der Kste von Sdamerika gehen soll. Zum einen gibts dort fast nur spanische Stdte wenn die Spanier schlecht auf Sie zu sprechen sind, knnen Sie keine neuen Matrosen anwerben und Nahrungsnachschub nur durch Kapern von
Schiffen bekommen. Ihre Lager und Hngematten sollten also von vornherein gut gefllt sein. Zum anderen segeln Sie bei der Rckkehr gegen den Wind, die Reise dauert deswegen zwei- bis dreimal solange wie
beider Hinfahrt. Das mssen Sie einkalkulieren. Wenn die Mannschaft bereits unzufrieden sein sollte, machen Ostfahrten keinen Sinn mehr. Wagen Sie so ein Abenteuer nur mit einer frischen Crew.

Tipp 12:
Setzen Sie sich vor Beginn einer Partie ein bergeordnetes Laufbahnziel, wie zum Beispiel der am meisten
gefrchteten Pirat der Karibik zu werden oder alle verschollenen Familienmitglieder ausfindig zu machen.
Sind diese Lebenswerke vollbracht, hagelt es meist Ruhmespunkte und Belohnungen. Auerdem macht es
weitaus mehr Spa, ein Ziel vor Augen zu haben und nicht blo in den Tag hineinzukapern.

Tipp 13:
Heben Sie den Schatz eines berchtigten Piraten besser erst, wenn Sie bereits seinen Platz unter den Top
Ten eingenommen haben. Wenn ein Neuling Blackbeards Schatz hebt und diesem dann ber den Weg segelt, blht dem Schatzdieb furchtbare Rache.

Tipp 14:
Wenn Sie eine stark befestigte Stadt berfallen wollen, in deren Nhe sich ein freundlich gesinntes Indianerdorf oder eine Piratenenklave befindet, sprechen Sie zuerst mit dem ansssigen Huptling oder Kapitn
und stiften Sie ihn zu einem berfall auf Ihr Ziel an. Das schwcht die Verteidigung der Stadt, mindert aber auch die Beute.

Tipp 15:
Wenn Sie Montalban, Raymondo oder einen anderen berchtigten Piraten jagen, lassen Sie sich nicht zu
sehr durch andere Aufgaben ablenken. Sind Sie trotzdem zu spt, um die Schurken zu stellen, besuchen Sie
die Schenke der nchsten Stadt. Der Schankwirt wei oft, wo die Gesuchten zuletzt gesichtet wurden. Auch

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Gouverneurstchter rcken gern mit wichtigen Informationen zu Aufenthaltsorten heraus, wenn sie gebhrend beim Tanz beeindruckt wurden.

Tipp 16:
Vermeiden Sie es auf jeden Fall, auf der Suche nach Personen monatelang blo die Karibik zu durchschippern. Das drckt die Moral der Crew. Auf dem Weg ein Schiff zu kapern kostet kaum Zeit und hebt je nach
Beute die Laune der Mannschaft.

Tipp 17:
Zur Navigation auf der Reisekarte empfiehlt es sich, ein kleines oder mittleres Schiff zum Flagschiff zu machen, da es die Gesamtgeschwindigkeit Ihrer Flotte vorgibt. Vor Schlachten gegen grere Schiffe knnen
Sie im Popup-Fenster schnell zu besseren Kampfschiffen wechseln.

Tipp 18:
Achten Sie beim Navigieren auf die Windrichtung und Art Ihrer Segel. Quadratische Grosegel bringen
fantastische Geschwindigkeiten, wenn Sie genau im Wind segeln. Dreieckige Segel bringen mangels Flche
weniger Geschwindigkeit, sind jedoch schrg am Wind schneller als Grosegel. Wenn Ihre Segel zu flattern
beginnen, segeln Sie vor dem Wind und verlangsamen auf wenige Knoten. Schnell beidrehen!

Tipp 19:
Fhren Sie ruhig ein Handelschiff mit groem Laderaum in Ihrer Flotte mit. Kleine Schaluppen oder vor
Kanonen starrende Galeonen haben oft zu wenig Platz, um Beutegut zu lagern. Aus Seeschlachten sollte
man diese Lagerschiffe natrlich tunlichst heraushalten.

Tipp 20:
Die Position zum feindlichen Segler, die Ihr Schiff vor einer Seeschlacht innehat, wird zu Beginn des Kampfes vom Spiel bernommen. Wenn Sie also mglichst schnell entern wollen, achten Sie unbedingt darauf,
den Wind beim Angriff im Rcken zu haben, um sich schnell nhern zu knnen. Um in Schlachten Ihren
Wendekreis zu verkleinern, reffen Sie Ihr Segel einfach vor dem Abdrehen.

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Tipp 21:
Grokampfschiffe sollten nur gegen andere Grokampfschiffe in der Schlacht eingesetzt werden, da sie von
mittleren Schiffen leicht ausmanvriert werden und Ihnen kleine Kanus oder Schaluppen bei gnstigem
Wind einfach wegfahren. Wenn Sie mit mittelschweren Schiffen wie der Brigg gegen Grokampfschiffe
vorgehen wollen, setzen Sie auf Wendigkeit. Zerstren Sie zuerst aus der Ferne die Geschtze mit Kanonenkugeln und weichen Sie den gegnerischen Salven aus. Gehen Sie dann auf Tuchfhlung und dnnen Sie
die meist groen Mannschaften der schweren Ptte mit Hagelmunition aus, bevor Sie diese rammen und
entern. Je grer die bermacht einer Mannschaft, desto schneller gibt sich der gegnerische Kapitn im
Fechtduell geschlagen.

Tipp 22:
Wenn Sie als Besitzer der deutschen Pirates!-Version das Spiel mit den Originaltexten spielen mchten, ndern Sie vor dem Programmstart ber die Systemsteuerung einfach Ihre Lndereinstellung in Englisch. Das
Programm erkennt dies automatisch und ldt die entsprechenden Texte. Achtung: deutsche Savegames werden nicht erkannt, wenn das Spiel im englischen Modus luft.

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Headrocks Guide
If you're an avid "Sid Meier's Pirates!" fan, and have either read Sashanan's FAQ, spent some time in the
manual or pirateopedia, or have otherwise heard rumors about the Ship of the Line and have wondered
about it, this would be a good read for you.
This FAQ details, among other things, mostly everything you need to know about acquiring and sailing the
fearsome Ship of the Line, from the basics to the most advanced concepts.

BEFORE READING:
I apologize beforehand, but throughout this FAQ, I am going to use several expressions to illustrate several
concepts in the game. Some of these may be commonly accepted, some may be my own, so first I'll try to
define most of them, to make your reading easier.
* From here on, I will occasionally use the acronym "SOL" to signify a Ship of the Line. In forums and other
FAQs it may sometimes be referred to as a "SotL", but I think "SOL" sounds much cooler. Not my idea,
though.
* Since SOLs (look, I used it right there) are basically big, nasty Frigates, most of what is written here about
sailing and combat may also apply to Frigates and Large Frigates. Not everything, though, so pay attention.
* When I say "Frigates", I mean either the specific ship type called "Frigate" in the game, or the whole family
of ships consisting of the Frigate, Large Frigate, and Ship of the Line. Again, this can be discerned by context, but isn't always obvious. I'll try using the term "Frigate-class" if I'm talking about the whole family, but
I'm not promising anything.
* "Galleons", in the game, break into two families of three ship-types each. For ease of referance, the slower,
"fatter" galleons are called "Merchant Galleons", and include the Trade Galleon, Treasure Galleon, and Royal Galleon used by the spanish to haul cargo and big fat money around. The other three Galleon types available are more battle-designed (Although badly), and so will be referred to as "Combat Galleons". This
includes the Fast Galleon, War Galleon, and Flag Galleon. Confusing? Well, you know, this FAQ ain't about Galleons anyway.
* Though I'll often use the common wind directions to describe sailing angles (the same listed in the manual and on quick referance sheets, like "Close Hauled" or "Beam Reach" and the likes), sometimes I'll be using
other various ways to describe wind directions and aspects. Basically, upwind means "in the direction that

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wind is COMING from", and downwind means "The direction towards which the wind is blowing". If that's
hard to follow, just remember that the "red arrow" wind indicator keeps pointing DOWNWIND. I'll sometimes say "Off to the side", meaning perpendicular (90 degrees) to this arrow's direction, but it really doesn't
matter to which side.
* For all you non-sailors out there (Oh wait, I'm not a sailor either, am I?), Port means "left" and Starboard
means "right", when referring to things in regards to your ship's heading. The Bow is the front of the ship,
and stern is the back. Something that's off the starboard and to the stern is somewhere behind and to the
right of your ship.
* I can't really guage distances in ship battles as exact values, sorry. The game doesn't help with that (and I
don't really think it should!), but as an alternate way to measure how far two ships are from one another, is
to use Round-shot, Chain-shot and Grape-shot ranges as indicators of distance. If you can fire roundshot at
your enemy, you're within "Roundshot distance", and in you can fire Grape-shot, you're in "Grape-shot distance" of the enemy (Of course, you're also within HIS distance for that particular type of ammo, eh?). With
experience you learn to be able to tell how far you are from the enemy in regard to different ammo ranges,
even without actually switching to them to see if you're in range. However, a good point to be cleared now:
Since there is a big difference between said ranges when you're using Fine Grain powder and when you're
not, I'll say right off that this FAQ presumes the distances discussed are FINE-GRAIN ranges, and not otherwise. Just to standardize things.
* All battle maneuvers listed here do not actually mention the wind direction, because that can change. If
you're playing Apprectice level, the wind is always going west. In harder difficulty levels, wind can even go
South and North, and change radically throughout both sailing and combat PAY ATTENTION TO THE WIND. If it shifts against you, failure to respond can leave you in a very tight
spot.

"It was a long week in port at St. Eustatius. Repairs on the Royal Sloop "Revenge" lasted for nearly 5 days,
and now it was finally ready to go back out to sea. The governor reported much English activity has been
spotted around the Island, and has requested of you to hunt down the foul enemy to its last man. You take
this mission happily - the English have been a thorn in your side for almost a year now, their pirate hunters
getting bolder and bolder by the month, and now sailing ever larger Brigs and Frigates to capture you for
that lucrative 50,000 gold pieces on your head. But you'll be damned if you let them stop you, their fat

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Merchantmen and East Indiamen are ripe for the picking, and the Shipwright here at St. Eustatius has
promised to buy any larger frigates you can catch off your hands at very tempting prices.
So, with a cheery heart, your 100 men board the vessel and set sail out to the Big Blue Sea.
As the Sloop weaves its way out of port, it passes a Dutch Brig sailing off towards San Juan on a raiding mission. The captain hollers towards you that he had just gotten news of two escorted English Merchantmen
sailing south across the Lesser Antilles towards Barbados, and wishes you good hunting. Your ship breaks
off to the south, quickly zipping out of the bay, heading south on its war patrol.
After two days of fast sailing, with the winds helping with every bit, the watchman in the crow's nest reports
having spotted the first merchantman escorted by a Sloop of War. With cheers and eager battlecries, your
sloop quickly maneuvers to a better position, and charges at the Merchantman with complete surprise to
board and overtake the ship before the escort even has time to figure out what is happening. The escort is
next, with a fierce battle taking place on board, swords slashing and guns blazing.
Finally, the battle is over. The merchantman is quickly sunk, its prize hauled first on board your vessel, the
enemy Sloop captured and added to your fleet. Without further ado, you raise the sails and continue
southwards, your mind set on capturing the other merchantman as well before it can reach Barbados.
In the west, you can now see the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, enemy territory. As the night draws closer,
you spot an enemy warship closing in on your position. A pirate-hunter, no doubt, a Brig of War, coming to
claim the bounty on your head. Elusively, you steer the ships downwind and quickly evade the enemy vessel.
By morning it has disappeared.
Passing by Antigua, you decide to taunt the English further by sailing closer to their sea-side fort. The enemy men, quickly identifying your flag waving above your notorious sloop, they man their positions in a
panicked bustle and begin firing their cannons your way. What fools, you think to yourself. Your ships, aided by the strong southwesterly winds, evade the shots easily, returning several volley as you pass. The English have been pursuing you ever since you sacked Eleuthera in the north, and you have returned to them in
kind by plundering and sinking any ship of theirs that happens to cross paths with you. The people of Antigua are particularily annoyed - aside from your hobby of bombarding their forts whenever you sail across
these islands, they remember clearly that you have sunk every merchant ship that came in from Barbados
for the past year, depriving their city of much-needed luxuries and spices.
As your ships finally clear Antigua, their fortress disappearing behind a mountain, your crew relaxes and
begins readjusting the sails. Then, suddenly, the cry bellows from the crow's nest:

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"FRIGATE OFF THE BOW!"

The crew scramble back to their positions as you whip out your spyglass and peer into the horizon. The
square rigs on the enemy are hard to mistake, it is a Frigate, alright, flying the red cross of England atop its
tallest mast. This battle will be hard to avoid, you decide, and declare that the enemy will not stop you from
your task, and must be dealt with, promptly.
However, as the two ships close, it dawns on you that this might be the largest Frigate you've ever seen in
your long time in the Caribbean.
The enemy, however, seems to be on some sort of a different agenda, sailing at a very slow speed in the general direction of Nevis. Once they spot your ship, however, their attitude seems to change. Their massive
ship seems to pivot gracefully sideways, displaying its broadside to your eyes. It is then that you finally realize
the extent of the encounter. This is no ordinary Large Frigate, but in fact the Dreaded Ship of the Line, and
its 48 cannons are pointed directly at you.
Before you can utter another command, the enemy ship suddenly opens fire with everything it has! You
quickly shout your orders, your ship creaking as it turns to avoid the incoming fire. The wind is with you, as
you turn your sails flutter and fight against it, but finally you manage to maneuver sideways to dodge the
volley altogether. But those cannonballs seem so numerous. The first few splash down port-wise and off to
the stern, the next fly over your top mast, one of them tearing a small hole in the sail.
The last four cannonballs shriek right by your heads, and one smacks into your hull, smashing a hole the
size of a grown man into the top deck.
"FIRE!", you shout at once, and release a flaming broadside of 16 cannons at the enemy, so far away off to
the south. 'At least', you think, 'we shall repay him in kind'.
But the Frigate suddenly lowers its sails, and veers off with good speed away to the south. Its sailors struggle
and finally raise the sails again, and the ship seems to be whizzing away at a very good speed. As you watch,
your cannonfire splashes short of the enemy, well off its stern, leaving no mark on the enemy juggernaught.
Frustrated, you order the sails to be raised, turning to pursue.
The enemy captain, encouraged by his successful dodge, lowers his sails once again, and turns his ship with
surprising speed to bring its broadside your way again. It fires another deadly volley, but this time your ship
has gained some good speed, and you decide to pass underneath the cannonballs, struggling to close the
distance. If the enemy wishes to bombard you, they can now do so at leisure, but if only you can get close
enough...

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The enemy ship shows no intention to run. It releases another volley, and this time, despite your speed, you
are hit by several shots, some roundshot crashing through your decks, some chainshot ripping through the
sail, and little pellets of Grapeshot rip through your crew, decimating your men left and right. But by now
you are close enough. You tack to port, sliding out of the enemy's line of fire, and quickly pull starboard to
sail next to the enemy warship, now looming above your tiny vessel, a huge menace of the seas.
With a crash, your ships collide, and hooks are thrown high into the air to catch the top deck of the enemy
ship. Pirates scramble up the ropes, some falling off into the sea, slain by bullets fired from enemy pistols the enemy ship is literally packed with enemy soldiers, all intent on placing every last one of your
crewmembers in Davy Jones' Locker. Swords flash as your remaining pirates scramble over their side, and
quickly the sound of battle is everywhere. You hop over the side and into the fray, just as an English officer,
an Admiral it seems, storms angrily out of his cabin towards you, a shiny Rapier in his hand..."

[1] BASIC DEFINITION OF THE TERM "SHIP OF

THE LINE"
The Ship of the Line is in fact the largest kind of Frigate-class ship available in the game. As you would probably know if you've read the manual or have played the game a bit, there are several "Classes", sort of like
"Families" of ships, from the tiny "Pinnace-class" to the hulking "Galleon-class". These classes differ from one
another in all variables, from crew size to speed and maneuverability. Each family has a different model for
its ships, and they are quite easily distinguished from one another also on the main sailing map. The different classes are also used for different purposes by different nations, and some nations will change the kind
of ship they use when you select a different era of gameplay.
Each "Class" of ships has three variants - a small, medium and large variant of the same ship-type, kinda like
brothers who resemble one another in many aspects, but one's big, the other small, and the last one's somewhere in the middle. In the case of the Brig class, for example, you may encounter a Brigantine (The
small variant), a Brig (medium variant) or a Brig of War (the Large variant).
The difference between the three variants of any class lies is in these six factors. The bigger the variant, the
higher these values grow:
A) The Maximum number of Crewmmbers you can carry on the ship.
B) The Minimum number of Crew needed to sail the ship at its normal speed.

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C) The Maximum number of Cannons that the ship can use in combat (not the limit of cannons you can
have in the cargo hold).
D) Amount of space in the Cargo Hold for storing food, commodities, and cannons.
E) The actual size of the ship model (All ships of the same class have the same model, just bigger or smaller
depending on the actual variant)
F) And finally, the amount of damage the ship can take to its hull and sails (Bigger variants can survive more hits)
Other variables, like the ship's speed and turn rate, stay constant across all three variants (except for the War
Canoe, the "small" variant of the Pinnace family, which appears to be faster and more agile than its bigger
siblings, although this is under debate).
The Ship of the Line is the largest variant of the Frigate class, and therefore surpasses the other Frigates
(known in game as the "Frigate" and "Large Frigate" types) in all the aforementioned categories.
The Ship of the Line is a "Large" warship. Like the other Frigate-class variants, it is built both to be a powerful, gun-totting vessel, as well as being fast enough to do combat with most other kinds of ships without
being seriously outmaneuvered.

[ 1 .1 ] S O M E F A C T S A B O U T T H E S O L
*The SOL carries aboard a maximum of 300 men. Once Triple-hammocks have been upgraded on a SOL, it
can carry 450 men, a whopping big number.
* The SOL carries 48 cannons on board, the same number a Flag Galleon possesses. However, the SOL is
much much faster and more maneuverable than any Galleon. In fact, in the right winds, any Frigate type
can sail faster than any other ship. Of course, wind conditions are variable, and you won't often encounter
such situations where you have an overwhelming wind advantage, but Frigates are still faster than any of the
merchants or the galleon class ships in any kind of wind.
* A SOL's minimum crew requirement stands at 24 men (whew, so few!), and it can be sailed at maximum
efficiency (fastest reloading and sail-management) with only 168 men, which is still less than a fully-packed
Royal Sloop with Hammock upgrades.
* SOLs can carry 100 tons of cargo on board, almost as much as a Small Merchantman. They sell for 1800
gold when they are fully upgraded, too.

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* The damage capacity of a SOL is incredible. It can take an awful lot of damage before sinking, although
taking enough sail damage can easily hurt a SOL enough to render it virtually useless for most conflicts, just
like any other ship.
* As far as sailing itself goes, any Frigate seems to be fastest when going directly downwind or a bit off to
one side. This is the Frigate's "Best Point of Sailing". When fighting inside a storm, with winds going at 20
knots, a SOL can easily clock20 and above just by turning downwind, making it the ship with highest speed
potential in the Caribbean. Still, like I've just said, this is only POTENTIAL, and not a guarantee. These
supreme speeds can only be attained at low and average levels of difficulty. After that, speed penalties apply
to your ship, while enemy ships become faster.

[2]WHY IS THE SHIP OF THE LINE CONSIDERED

S U C H A H A R D C ATC H ?
The SOL has often been called "Elusive", and this definitely has good reason.
Some people have finished several games without seeing ONE, let alone capturing one. But why? Why is
this single ship type so much rarer than others?
Aside from the most obvious reasons (like, hey man that's a pretty powerful ship), the Ship of the Line also
follows some technical rules that prevent it from appearing as often as any other ship. Let's take a brief overview on the various reasons why different ship types often appear in the open Caribbean:
*Merchantmen, Large Merchantmen, Cargo Fluyts and Large cargo Fluyts, Barques and Coastal Barques,
and of course Trade Galleons, are all "Merchant" ship types. You will very often see them sailing out of a
port and headed to another city, with cargo on board and possibly a good amount of gold. They are generated frequently, much more frequently than any other ship, and most cities will send one or two of those in a
single month, as well as receive about two or three! The largest variants of the various Merchant ship families, I.E. the West Indiaman, East Indiaman and Treasure Galleon are rarer, appearing mostly when a nation sends out a "Treasure ship". This still happens much more often than SOL spawning. In any case capturing one for the purpose of using it in combat is a silly practice since they can't sail to save their grandmothers.
*Sloops and Brigs, of all size variants, occur mostly as escorts (sent automatically in a convoy with merchant
ships to provide them escort in places where a lot of combat has recently occurred, or by nations with
whom you are not on speaking terms). You'll often see them as Pirate-Hunters when you've upset a nation -

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this is a very common occurance - they come out of their cities, shouting at you to stand and fight. It is also
very common to meet Brig or Sloop raiders, privateers, pirates and famous-pirates, so these are probably as
common as the basic merchant ships in terms of general appearance ratios. The Royal Sloop is somewhat of
an exception, because in some eras it will be much more rare. However one of the named-pirates (Roc Brasiliano) sails one, and I believe that Royal Sloops can be "persuaded" to enter the water in any era with some
triggering event or another. Shouldn't be too hard to get one, although you can bet that it is quite a good
ship.
Try it sometime if you haven't already (I bet you already have).
*Pinnaces are common in some eras and uncommon in others, sometimes used by the Spanish and sometimes by the non-Spaniards, they most often appear as smugglers. The smallest variant, the Infamous Indian
"War Canoe", will often be sailing out of Indian Villages in a group of three canoes, headed to raid a port
somewhere. You can also enter the village and convince the chieftain to send out his canoes to attack an
enemy city, so War Canoes are in no way "rare". Mail Runners, the largest of this type, are probably the second most rare ship in the caribbean, and are often seen only when dispatching amnesty missions or treaty
missions, but may occur in different situations too.
*The larger "Combat Class Galleons" (Not to be confused with the Merchant Galleons described earlier) are
strictly Spanish, more often seen as "Military Payroll", "Troop Transport" and "Invasion Force" ships sailing
off from Spanish ports, and sometimes released by the spaniards as "Pirate Hunters" and "Escorts" once
you've upset Spain enough. However, since the three Evil Spaniards used in the game's "quests" (namely
Raymondo, Montalban and Mendoza) sail the three variants of the Combat Galleon class, all you need to
be able to get one is to have one of these Spaniards "at large", I.E. sailing around in the Caribbean, waiting
for you to ambush him. This sort of spawning easily triggered in many ways, including Dancing with Governors' Daughters and visiting Jesuit Missionaries. Tracking down the spaniards can be frustrating, it is far
less frustrating than trying to find a SOL.

This leaves us with the Frigate class.

[ 2 .1 ] W H E N D O F R I G A T E - C L A S S S H I P S S PAW N ?
Frigates and Large Frigates (the small and medium variants of the family, respectively) can sail only out of
non-spanish cities, as Escorts to Merchant ships or as Pirate-Hunters sent out to capture you for the bounty

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on your head. You will also see them as Raiders and Invasion forces sent by non-spanish nations. In all
cases, the Frigates will start popping up usually when the enemy is pretty upset, or if shipping in the area of
a city has been hurt repeatedly. The Large Frigates seem to sail only out of "Prosperous" or "Wealthy" cities,
while the "regular" frigates can sail out of any city if it has been annoyed enough. And if you don't want to
upset anyone, you can try going after the #1 pirate of the Caribbean, Henry Morgan, who sails a Large Frigate, or #2, namely Blackbeard, who sails a "regular" frigate.

However, the Ship of the Line does not fit into ANY of the above categories.
In fact, the only kind of SOL you will see in the game will be categorized as a "New Warship" - you'll see this
caption over the SOL when it appears on your main sailing view. New Warships are not limited to SOL
class, they can be Royal Sloops, Brigs of War, sometimes Sloops of War, Frigates and Large Frigates, and for
the Spanish they'll be any kind of Combat Galleon. But while the other ship types can be seen performing
roles other than "New Warship", the SOL will ONLY ONLY ONLY appear as a New Warship.
New Warships are released from cities in what at first may appear to be completely random chance. A
common frequency to see one is about one per every 4-8 months, and even when one is released there is
certainly no guarantee that it will be a Ship of the Line. You'll sometimes even see a Sloop of War "Escort"
tugging a Sloop of War "New Warship" behind it. Rather silly. However, once you've tried the strategies and
pointers suggested in this FAQ, you'll see how the chance of having a SOL spawn out can be increased.
Don't expect the sea to be crawling with them though. While many affecting factors have been discovered,
there is still a great mystery on the exact number and magnitude of factors make them come out. So far, even with special strategies used, frequency doesn't increase to staggering proportions, just maybe one SOL
in a year or two.

[ 2 . 2 ] H OW H A R D I S I T T O S U B D U E A S O L , O N C E
I ' V E C AU G H T U P W I T H I T ?
Battlewise, combating a ship with 48 cannons is always dangerous, but while a Flag Galleon can be a menace simply because it's so heavily armed, the SOL is both much faster and more agile and is therefore several
fold more risky to attack. There are several ways to catch a SOL using different tactics designed for different
ships. However, it is generally and strongly advised that you do not go after a SOL with any of the following:
A) Merchant ships, like the Merchantman, Fluyt, Barque, etc.

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They're too slow and poorly armed. The SOL can outmaneuver any of them, and plant a 48-gun broadside
on you, crippling you further.
B) ANY kind of galleon
Again, way too slow. You might be able to hit the SOL with a broadside of your own, but by then you've
probably taken a hit as well, and the SOL can still maneuver better than you.
C) A small combat vessel with sail or hull damage.
With small ships, you'll often want to board as quickly as possible to avoid having to exchange cannonfire
with a ship three times your gun capacity. If you're already wounded, that both reduces your ability to approach quickly, and increases the chance that at a very short range the SOL will land a good number of
shots on you and either sink or horribly cripple you to a point where you can no longer close the distance
without taking more and more volleys (Until such a point where you sink).

[ 2 . 3 ] H OW G O O D A R E M Y C H A N C E S T O S P O T A
S O L AT A L L ?
When speaking about chance to locate one at sea in the first place, the chances are very very slim. Like I've
mentioned earlier, you may not even encounter the SOL in an ENTIRE single game. It depends on a whole
lot of factors, from the era you're playing in to the level of discontent you've caused a European power, to
the economic prowess of cities belonging to said upset nation. Even in the "Sol Capture Walkthrough"
described in a later chapter, where you spend most of your time "engineering" conditions for a SOL to appear, you may not see them more frequently than once per game year, and sometimes even if you see one
you won't be able to catch it before it goes into port.
Many people have seen one only to lose it. The SOLs is not a Pirate-Hunter ship, and so does not appear for
the purpose of chasing you around. Its agenda is to leave one city and arrive at another, like merchant ships
do, so you're going to have to chase it. Sometimes they'll be sailing from one port to another just outside
your viewing range and your ships may never cross paths. Vigilance therefore is key, but more often than
not it is no guarantee that you'll ever see a SOL at all.

[ 3 ] H OW U S E F U L I S T H E S O L ?
Ahhh, now we're getting to the fun part.

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The Frigate class of ships were designed to serve as the answer to the ubiquitous Spanish Galleon. The Galleons are huge, heavy boats, totting a very large number of cannon, moseying along in the Caribbean with
large sums of money or cargo on board. The foreign powers, especially the English, used Frigates to match
the Galleon's firepower while maintaining far more maneuverability in combat.
If you've ever sailed a Frigate, you probably know how powerful it can be. A single 32-cannon volley from a
Frigate can do horrible things to the enemy from very long ranges, and a full hit with 32 chain-shot cannonballs will often be enough to break the mast on most enemy ships.
The Large Frigate holds 40 guns on board, while the SOL carries a whopping 48 guns - that makes for some
serious damage. On top of this, when used by a skilled captain, a Frigate-class can maintain long-range firing
distance, blasting the enemy to surrender, while actually being able to avoid enemy cannonfire in a manner
similar to the way the Brig-, Sloop- and Pinnace-class ships often do - and this even though the SOL is
MUCH MUCH larger, and therefore a potentially easier target than a pinnace. When the frigate has good
speed, it turns very well, rivaling even an upgraded sloop. And then some - even if the enemy managed to
smack a cannonball or two on to your deck, the damages taken are often minimal - you can probably suffer
upwards of 20 cannon hits before you need to consider running away.
Frigate-class ships are probably the most powerful against Galleons and against any kind of Merchant ship.
Their speed and maneuverability is supreme in such cases, and the best advantage is that you can often blast
the enemy to a swift surrender from what is basically safe distance. With 48 cannons, this takes far less time
than with 16, and since a larger volley is often "wider", it is more likely to hit partially than miss completely,
so Frigates can afford bombarding from far away, able to dodge enemy blows and keep pounding until the
enemy is docile or weak enough to approach for a boarding, a kill, or a de-mast. A risky downside to this is
that hitting something with 48 roundshot cannonballs more than once will often sink it (... And that sometimes once is enough).
While Frigates are not as useful against the smallest ships (Pinnace and Sloop class), careful consideration of
the winds allows you to control a battle in such a way that the enemy cannot effectively escape - it either has
to turn towards you (allowing you to board or at least to fire roundshot and chainshot to slow him down) or
turn away into a direction where the Frigate can use its superior speed to catch up quickly with the enemy.
This is explained further in the Combat section, below.
Also, carrying 450 men aboard makes you into a portable invasion force, capable of assaulting well-protected cities instead of wasting your time chasing merchants and dragging their wounded hulls back to port to

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sell them and their cargo. A single raid on an enemy city can often produce as much as 4 to 6 (and more!)
merchant ships would have yielded, costing you 7 days of game time, but saving you the time it takes to chase down enemy ships, seek a port that buys high, and sail in for 7 days to sell cargo and ship to the locals.
Combined, the SOL's resistance to damage, low crew-minimums, and high cargo capacity, effectively cuts
down the number of times you would have to visit a port to make repairs, replace crew, and sell cargo.

[ 4 ] H OW D O I C AT C H A S H I P O F T H E L I N E ?
// Note that this section deals with the actual process of capturing the SOL, as well as the basic conditions
that are needed to spot one out at sea. To get detailed information on how to maximize your chances of locating a Ship of the Line, read the last section in this FAQ.

[ 4 .1 ] W H A T C A N I D O T O M A K E A S O L C O M E
OUT?
While battle against a SOL can be difficult and highly dangerous if not handled properly, the most difficult
part is actually getting one to show up.
In order for this to happen, lets sum up the most known factors and conditions that must occur for an enemy SOL to be spawned.
** SOLs are only spawned by NON-SPANISH nations. In fact, the Spaniards will NEVER spawn a Frigate
of any kind.
** SOLs spawn only when any one non-spanish nation has placed a bounty on your head, of what APPEARS to be no less than 30,000 gold pieces. You may see different SOLs belonging to more than one nonspanish nation in a single game. Also, the importance of Bounty has not been entirely proven.
** SOLs, like all other "New Warships", spawn to protect a certain shipping line that has been terrorized by
enemies, including mostly yourself.
** SOLs spawn in this way from the city of origin for that particular trade route, so hitting merchants going
from city A to city B will eventually spawn a New Warship going also from city A to city B (but there's no
guarantee it'll be a SOL). This is not related to the Pirate-Hunters, which will spawn if you attack friendly
shipping in the area regardless of destination or origin.

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** SOLs will ONLY spawn from a "Wealthy" city, and no less. It seems like city population is also an important factor, as well as "national" prowess, I.E. a stronger nation seems to send out more SOLs, but since
the game provides no hard data on this, there is no way to accurately confirm this.
** SOLs seem to come more frequently if you are playing in 1680, averagely in 1660, and much less often in
1640. So far, there have been no sightings of one in neither 1600 nor 1620, but it is unknown if they can
actually spawn in those eras or not.
** SOLs are NOT sent out to meet you like Pirate-Hunters, they're simply sent out from one city to another,
so they're not going to chase you down, and you have to be present in the area to spot them and chase them
down instead.

Studying these points can give us a fairly obvious set of guidelines we need to use to encourage SOL spawning. The simplest way seems to be just getting a non-spanish city angry, and simply placing it under naval
siege, sinking every merchant that comes out of the city, while allowing "improvement" ships like "New Governor" and "Immigrant" transports to enter so that the city remains Wealthy. This is the most basic strategy
you can employ, and reportedly it works best with cities like Barbados which tend to stay wealthy if not directly assaulted.
Sinking merchants repeatedly (as well as the pirate-hunters that come out to play) raises the bounty on your
head, increasing the level of discontent for that city. However, you need to stay out at sea for as long as possible, or set up a nearby friendly port (by conquest or politics) where you can stop for repairs and restock otherwise you might spend one day too many away from the city you're besieging, and might actually miss a
SOL sailing out of there.
If you wish to MAXIMIZE potential, you can do this by rearranging the political map in a single area so you
can ambush several cities at once in this way, increasing the chance of seeing a SOL. More on this is explained in the last chapter.

[ 4 . 2 ] H OW D O I D E F E AT A S O L I N S E A - C O M B AT ?
Sea combat against a SOL can be handled in different ways, depending mostly on both your stronger points
in naval combat as well as the type of ship you're sailing. A smaller ship will generally want to dart in as fast
as possible, using superior maneuverability to close the distance and board, while a larger vessel may actually

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carry out a contest of gunnery and navigation against the SOL to whittle down its cannon or otherwise prepare it for easier boarding.

[ 4 . 2 .1 ] H O W D O I U S E A S L O O P, P I N N A C E , O R
WA R C A N O E A G A I N S T A S O L ?
When you fight a SOL with a very small vessel, like a Sloop, Pinnace or War Canoe, you are seriously, seriously, outgunned. Causing enough damage to the SOL to bring it to its knees from long-range can take a
long time, and is often very ineffective as well as dangerous. Your most important factor in this battle would
be the wind. You'll need to utilize it to your advantage so you can weave in between volleys and board the
enemy as fast as possible.
Start the battle upwind of the enemy, or otherwise align the ships so that the enemy is situated in your "best
direction of sailing". For a Sloop that would be somewhere between beam reach and broad beam reach (about 45 degrees or less off the wind direction). For a War canoe, it will be exactly perpendicular (90 degrees
off) to the wind direction.
First, you'll need to dodge a volley or two of cannonfire before you can actually close the distance. Don't get
hit! Any damage to your sails can slow your ship enough so that when you try to close in for a boarding
you'll get hit by another volley and may either sink or be unable to sail faster than the SOL, in which case it
will maneuver around and blast you to bits. You need to avoid, avoid, avoid. Close in to Chain-shot range if
you can. A sloop, at this point, can attempt to fire a volley of Chain-shot to make the SOL a bit slower, but
this doesn't always do enough damage to the enemy, so it is often best avoided.
Once you're ready at a mediocre distance from the SOL, with it placed directly in your "best sailing" direction, wait for the last volley, and then dart in as quickly as possible. Trying to approach from a different direction may be very tough, since the SOL can turn quickly and fire at you, and you would be going at less
than optimal speed. If you're at your best sailing direction, you'll be approaching the enemy as fast as possible, thus shortening the time the enemy has to reload and fire again. If the winds aren't strong enough, your
ship may actually take one of those volleys, but by now it will probably still have enough sails to close the
distance and board. For war canoes, however, getting hit by one broadside can mean death, so it would have
to be a pretty damn good rush if you want to survive.
Remember that facing a SOL with a ship that carries 40 men can be hazardous to your health. Your crew
may get chopped to bits if you're not a good fencer, so take this into consideration before assaulting.

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[ 4 . 2 . 2 ] H OW D O I U S E A B R I G AGA I N S T A S O L ?
Brigs, I believe, have more trouble assaulting a SOL without taking damage, since they are slower than
Sloops and will therefore be more open to incoming fire when they try to dart in for a boarding. Also, since
the Brig is physically bigger than a Sloop, it is a larger and easier target to hit, and therefore may suffer many
more hits when fired upon by a SOL broadside.
However, a Brig can take much more punishment than a Sloop, and so it might be worth the risk. The larger "Brig of War" can sometimes actually gunfight the SOL, but it would require some damn good maneuvering to avoid incoming fire, as the SOL is every bit as maneuverable as a Brig if it has copper plating and/
or cotton sail upgrades. If the brig sustains some damage to the sails, it might not be able to close the distance fast enough before the SOL lands another volley on you, and by then you've probably lost the fight
already.

[ 4 . 2 . 3 ] H O W D O I U S E A N Y K I N D O F F R I G A T E AGAINST A SOL?
Theoretically, this is the simplest vessel with which to take a SOL. Being equally maneuverable, and carrying
similar amounts of crew and cannon, a Frigate can afford to gunfight the SOL at long firing range. Whittle
its cannons down (DON'T SINK IT!!!) until they no longer pose a serious threat (16 cannons are not a serious threat to a frigate), then close in and either chain-shot them a few times or charge and board. With a
frigate, you can probably afford to sustain several cannon hits (unless you get 48 cannon hits to your ship,
in which case you'll probably be too slow to win).
Another tactic, which is often my favourite when taking a SOL with another Frigate (or my own SOL!)
would be to charge right in on them from upwind and board them as quickly as possible (like smaller ships
do, just simpler).
Start upwind from them, and sail directly with the wind right at them, you'll reach them soon enough). The
difference between this tactic and the one explained above for smaller ships is that your frigate can take the
damage and keep sailing. Since choosing not to gun-fight them from long range probably means you'd be
taking damage anyway, it's obviously better to close the distance while you're taking it.
An accomplished captain with a Large Frigate or SOL can possibly even make the SOL surrender by breaking its main mast. This requires either great skill or great planning, but it is very much possible. Don't expect to stay unscathed, though. The enemy is DANGEROUS whichever way you look at it.

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[ 4 . 2 . 4 ] H O W D O I U S E A C O M B A T- G A L L E O N AGAINST A SOL?
Don't. It outmaneuvers you easily, and you can't avoid its gunfire effectively.

[ 4 . 2 . 5 ] H O W D O I U S E A M E R C H A N T S H I P AGAINST A SOL?
Please, please don't. Just don't. If you really have to, try running circles around the SOL, blasting at it with
your numerous guns, and taking it before you do too much damage to its sails. No, seriously, please don't
attack a SOL with a merchant unless you're VERY, VERY, VERY good. VERY.

[ 4 . 2 . 6 ] W H A T S H O U L D I D O I F T H E S O L I S ES C O RT E D ?
Although I've taken on a SOL escorted by a Large Frigate (You can imagine what that's like), it has only
happened to me twice, and therefore considered VERY rare. Most of the ships escorting a SOL would be
Sloops, sometimes Brigs, and sometimes the SOL isn't escorted at all.
When attacking a SOL with an escort, you have to remember that the escort is at the same time both unimportant, and a serious liability. Your main goal would be to either avoid the escort altogether (possible
only with a fast small ship, or with a very good starting position and wind conditions in a big ship) or to
board and sink the escort as soon as possible (Best if you've got a Frigate-class). Don't let the escort stay alive
or engage you in cannon-play, because the SOL will keep bombarding you as you fight, and your maneuvering will either be insane or impossible.

[ 4 . 2 . 7 ] F I N A L W O R D S O N S O L - C A T C H I N G C O MB AT TAC T I C S
All this said, you've probably got a good idea of what you're going up against. Picking the right flag-ship to
do the job, as well as pre-battle maneuvering and correct wind assessment are every bit as important as your
sailing skills. To me, SOL captures are among the most interesting battles you can attempt.

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[ 5 ] I G O T S M E A S O L ! N OW H OW D O I U S E T H I S
THING?
//NOTE: While this chapter holds true with any kind of Frigate, the differences between having 32 and 48
cannons is immense, as well as having 450 vs. 300 men on board, and other distingishing factors between a
SOL and its smaller siblings. A Large Frigate can often double as a second ship to a SOL, but you will notice the difference in gunnery performance very quickly, from the width of your volleys to the damage you
can safely take. However, as far as handling and maneuverability goes, the SOL is much the same as a Frigate or Large Frigate, and the same tactics can be used for all three ship-types, as long as you allow for some
adjustments to compensate for less cannons, men, and survivability.

[ 5 .1 ] H O W S H O U L D I H A N D L E M Y O V E R A L L
S T R AT E GY ?
The first thing you need to know about the SOL is that it is the fastest ship in the Caribbean when sailing
from East to West, mainly because its top speed is achieved when sailing directly with the wind, and most of
the time (especially in lower difficulty levels) the wind is going West. However, sailing against the wind, as
with anything larger than a Sloop, can be slow and tedious. To balance this out, you will be constantly applying pressure to the political map of the caribbean to allow you to stay in the same area for a lengthy period, eliminating the need to sail east and west too often. This is one of the main reasons why siding with the
Spaniards gives best results for SOL users - Besides the fact that in order to get a SOL you'll be fighting against someone non-spanish, the Spanish have cities everywhere on the map so returning to port never takes much more than a week or two. This strategy is further explained below.
If you HAVE to sail directly east, either hope for the wind to change drastically north or south (Only possible in high difficulty levels) or instead zig-zag northeast-to-southeast across the caribbean in order to maintain
"OK" speeds. It takes a while to master, but will seriously shorten the time it takes to sail from Vera Cruz to
Barbados from 8 months (or more) to about 4 or 5. Also make use of storms, as they can really boost your
speed.
The SOL can chase down ships at leisure, especially if equipped with Cotton Sails. However, the best part
about a SOL is that ship-to-ship combat quickly becomes redundant, and you will be much better off using
the huge 450-man crew to storm cities and plunder them for all they've got. While this can be performed
with a fleet of smaller ships, having a lone flag-ship often proves to give much faster sailing time across the

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open-sea map, whereas a fleet will constantly slow down to accomodate the varying speeds of its member
ships. Because the SOL is so powerful, enemy ships are ALL considered easy prey, so Pirate-Hunters, Evil
Spaniards, and the top Named Pirates (namely Henry Morgan and Blackbeard) cease to be dangerous conflicts. With 450 men on board, you'll find that fencing is also much less dangerous as you're very unlikely to
run out of crew, and that large enemy crews that used to defend themselves against your boardings will now
surrender to you without a fight simply because you vastly outnumber them in manpower.
Your ship is a veritable terror on the seas, and it should be used accordingly. Sailing westwards is easy, but
coming back takes a long time, so the best strategy is to stay in the same area for a long period of time. To
this end, you will use the SOL's immense power to restructure regions of the Caribbean, placing friendly
cities in the midst of enemy concentrations, or actually MAKING enemy concentrations near your friendly
ports. Most "Buried Treasure" maps point to locations in close proximity to where you bought your first
map piece of a set, so making excursions from the same city to find different treasures will make sure you
don't stray too far when pursuing them. Pay attention to the locations of Evil Spaniards and try to ambush
them when they come close to your current location, otherwise you might end up chasing them all the way
to Puerto Bello, forcing you to spend months trying to get back to the Lesser Antilles in the east. In general,
basing yourself around Santiago gives you the best options, but not the best yield. On the other hand, basing yourself in St. Kitts or Trinidad gives you the best yield, but any out-of-area sailing you need to do will
probably be westwards, again a big problem. But since your ship is big and mighty, you'll find it rather easy
to base yourself pretty much anywhere, changing friendly and enemy cities to maximize yield in a certain
area that you find is easily accesible to you (Like making Maracaibo and Margarita into English cities so you
can raid the spaniards on the Main more easily, etc.).
Money is a serious matter of consideration, because you will need LOTS of it to keep such a large crew
happy. This isn't very hard to do, because you'll be making lots of money from your plunderings and warmongering pretty soon.
However, more often than not you will need some starting capital to prevent your crew morale from deteriorating. There are several things you can do to help yourself with this.
First of all, when you're sailing a SOL (And in my opinion, in any game you play), do not fill it up with 450
men right away - this will make morale deteriorate badly if you can't get lots of gold fast enough. You can
keep somewhere around 200 men (The minimum for best combat performance is 168), and increase crew
size gradually when your capital grows to about 200,000.

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The easiest way to get all this money is to find all the Lost Cities, and possibly also Montalban's Hideout. To
keep a crew of 450 men happy indefinitely, you need somewhere along the lines of 1,000,000 gold, which is
almost an impossible amount. However, keeping crew and gold proportional during your career will often
keep the crew content for at least 6-10 years.
Keep in mind that marrying a girl in St. Eustatius or Nevis or Martinique is pretty damn silly. Your best reward for marrying a Beautiful Daughter is that she can provide you with all the Lost City maps you'll need,
but after finding each city you will have to visit your wife again for more map pieces.
Since all Lost Cities are in Mexico and Central America, having to sail all the way east after finding each
treasure will make your time run out like a chicken on fire. Your first priority once you've acquired a SOL
would probably be to sell all your other ships and make your way, as soon as possible, to Puerto Bello. You
should enter, in this order or otherwise, Santa Marta, Cartagena, Nombre de Dios, Puerto Bello, Santa Catalina (if it exists), Port Royale (if exists), Havana, and Florida Keys. If you can't enter one, consider sneaking
in, or even capturing it. What you're looking for is a potential marriage with a beautiful daughter. Since these cities are close to Central America, sailing between your wife and the lost cities will take much less time.
Once you've located and begun courting your new wife, take the time to visit Campeche, Veracruz, and Villahermosa. You need to conquer all of them, and pass them from Spanish rule to another nation. This will
prevent the Evil Spaniards from spawning so far to the west. If you're partial to the Spanish, you'll need to
appease them later by sinking enemy ships or visiting a nearby monastery to get an Amnesty escort mission.
It may also be advisable to take St. Augustine for the same reason. Sometimes you can't get them all, but
getting a few helps alot. Also remember that while sailing up the coast of Central America you will probably
run into several Named Pirates, and this would be a good chance to take them out. If you happen to know
the location of Montalban's hideout - so much the better.
Assault his hidden fortress as quickly as possible, as the 100,000 gold reward is very very important to you.

If you're not much of a Land-Battles person (And most people aren't, mainly because land battles are so incredibly slow and tedious), you'll be wanting to make ship-capturing raids. In theory, SOL raids should be
very ineffective because you'll probably be doing ALOT of damage to the enemy ships before capturing
them, thus rendering them worthless. However, once you get the rank of Count with a foreign power, damage is no longer a factor in ship value as long as you sell the damaged ship at a port belonging to said
foreign power.

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If you're going to go out for repeated capture-raids, make sure you first engineer friendly ports in the area
that can provide this service for you - taking demasted ships to a far away port to sell them for full value can
take a long time. Just make sure to sink small vessels and capture only the bigger ones (like combat galleons
and frigates), which are worth much more in gold.
There's an 8-ship limit, after all.

[ 5 . 2 ] H OW D O I U S E T H E S H I P O F T H E L I N E I N
C O M B AT ?
With a ship so heavily armed and comparably so dangerously maneuverable, the SOL basically fears nothing
out in the open seas. While it employs slightly different "starting" tactics against different kinds of ships, the
basics will usually stay the same for most battles - Bombardment from afar. You're not quick enough to just
dart in and board without taking damage, but you are quick enough to avoid cannonfire at long ranges, and
pack enough guns yourself to cripple anything at said ranges with impunity.
Most of your attacks should have you starting downwind from the enemy. During battles against formidable
enemies, your first task would be to bombard them with roundshot to whittle down their cannon, while
staying a good enough distance away that you will have time to avoid incoming fire. Because the enemy is
upwind from you, turning AWAY from the enemy quickly gives you enough speed to regain good distance
and resume firing. There are several downsides to this, as will be explained, but this general tactic is useful
against MOST enemy ships, including Merchants and anything larger than a Sloop.
In the case of smaller ships, however, they are far more likely to try and escape. If you really have to capture
a small ship (there aren't many reasons, but it can happen), the conditions change. You will need to start
UPWIND from them so that you can quickly gain speed and close the distance enough to smack them with
either roundshot or chainshot, slowing them down enough to enable you to continue normally. If you start
downwind like with other ships, the enemy can turn into the wind and sail away faster than you can follow.
The first thing you'll need to know is how to gauge an enemy's hull strength.
Enemy cannon numbers and crew size are displayed clearly on the battle screen, but determining exactly
how much damage the enemy has sustained, and how much more it can take, is a matter of learning with
experience, and will eventually prove a crucial point in SOL combat. In some careers, you'll find that you
actually have no need to board and capture, so sinking the enemy is no issue, but there are plenty of cases
where capturing the enemy is worth the time spent to carefully neutralize it instead of blowing it clear out of

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the water. With 48 cannons on board, your ship can sometimes sink a Sloop or a Brig with a single hit, so
extra care must be taken against any of the smaller ships. Only time and practice will be able to teach you to
tell how many more times you can hit the enemy without sinking it, but there are a few pointers you can
take heed of:
* Smaller enemy ships can obviously take less damage than large enemy ships.
* Iron Scantling upgrades on enemy ships keeps them in the water longer, but is no guarantee that you
won't sink them with the first volley.
* Whether you cause damage to enemy hull, sail, or cannon (And exactly how much damage you will cause
with each cannonball hit) is randomal, so don't count on the enemy's Remaining Guns number to tell you
how close the enemy is to sinking. You can sink a ship without destroying 1/4 of its cannons, sometimes,
and you can destroy all cannons without damaging the ship much at other times.
* Hull damage is displayed as smoke bellowing out of the enemy's hull. The smoke's color and consistency
changes as the ship becomes more damaged, but it can sometimes be hard to guage exactly how bad the enemy is hurt just by looking at the smoke. Also, a lightly-smoldering ship can sometimes sink completely if
you hit it with enough cannonballs in a single volley.

Whenever you get the opportunity to fire Chain-shot instead of roundshot, DO SO. Trying to get the enemy's gun count to 0 is risky, since you can't always do this without first sinking the enemy ship. However
a single 48-cannon volley of well-placed chain-shot will often get the enemy to raise its white flag, thus effectively making it harmless without risking sinking it altogether. This doesn't work with enemy Escort ships
(or any ship that comes in at slot #2 when you enter ship-to-ship combat), as they will keep firing even when
demasted. These are often better to sink anyway, if you're not risking hitting the #1 ship as well.
Grape shot is often useless, since you've probably got a much larger crew than they do anyway. Besides, if
you can demast the enemy with chain-shot, there's no reason not to do it! (They surrender, hence no more
fighting).
Unless of course you're trying to keep the enemy ship intact. Keep in mind that Grape-shot as well as
Round-Shot has a certain chance of hitting enemy sails too, so you might damage enemy sails anyway. Grape-shot is useful against an enemy #2 ship, because it will never surrender, and sometimes you don't have
enough time and maneuvering space in a battle to actually sink them - so it's better to kill some crew before
they try to board you.

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Maneuvering in Ship-to-ship combat for the Frigate-class is of the utmost importance. In a Sloop this may
seem trivial, especially since the ship remains greatly maneuverable even at slow speeds. With Frigates, the
unexperienced user can often make the mistake of assuming that they are highly UNmaneuverable, and
therefore attempt to perform as few tricks as possible, accepting the occasional hit from enemy gunfire. This
is, in fact a mistake. A Frigate can become a very agile weapon in the hands of a skilled user, enabling the
captain to minimize (or even eliminate) damage taken in combat. The key here is to know when and how to
change sailing direction, and obviously to avoid sailing into the wind if there is nothing exceptional to be
gained by doing so.

[ 5 . 2 .1 ] W H A T S H O U L D I D O O N C E C O M B A T
S TA RT S ?
When a battle begins, the SOL's first priority is to gain speed (And maybe launch a broadside if the situation allows). All ships enter battle at 4 knots of speed. A War Canoe can put this up to 15 or 16 in a split second, while for a Frigate, especially if ill-aligned before combat, will take much more than this. However,
once turning away from the wind, a Frigate can quickly reach high speeds, approximately 12 to 13 knots in a
mild wind, which is basically enough to begin maneuvering. Smaller vessels lose speed much faster when
they turn away from their best sailing point. A Frigate takes time to lose speed, and can therefore afford the
larger turn radius because it maintains most of its original maneuverability even after a few seconds of offwind sailing.
ALWAYS REMEMBER: The stronger the winds, the more powerful your SOL becomes.
At winds going 18-20 knots, a Frigate can turn very very fast, and lose very little speed while doing so. The
use of sail-reefing (The "2", or "Down" key on your keypad) becomes unneccesary, as the ship is at its maximum possible maneuverability. You may find that you can sail a Frigate as though you'd have sailed a Sloop
in such powerful winds. However, since such conditions are rare, some tactics below include detailed instructions on reefing and raising sails. This is a skill you would need to master if you wish to become truly
innvincible at sea.
If you have little experience with Frigates, your best option would be to continue on to a maneuver I call the
"Snaking Chase", which at lower levels does not neccesarily require reefing and raising sails. You will need to
start downwind of your enemy to do this. Once reaching good speeds going downwind, away from your enemy, you turn sideways (perpendicular to the wind), fire a volley (waiting until all cannons have fired), and

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pivot back downwind to regain speed. Alternate your turns to either side so you don't end up drifting too
far off, or you'll quickly find that the wind is no longer aiding you. Make sure to spend some time regaining
speed if the enemy is getting too close. Otherwise, they might be able to turn sideways and fire a broadside
at you unexpectedly, and at short distances you may not be able to avoid all incoming fire effectively, especially if you don't know how to reef sails in the proper manner.
As your shells smack into the enemy, he will slowly lose cannon and sails. If his sails are damaged enough,
you can begin maneuvering more freely, taking time to aim correctly and readjust your position relative to
the enemy. If his cannons drop below a certain "safe" level, you may begin a slow "turn-around" to facilitate
closer combat.

[ 5 . 2 . 2 ] O K , I ' V E DA M AG E D T H E E N E M Y A N D
C L O S E D I N T O C H A I N - S H O T R A N G E . N OW
W H AT ?
Closer combat with an enemy ship is recommended only when you have crippled the enemy enough to be
able to assault it without fear. An enemy with 10 cannons or less on board is considered DOCILE when
you're sailing a SOL, perhaps 8 or less when you're sailing a Frigate. Basically, the enemy can't possibly make
too much damage to your ship even with 16 guns, but when sailing a Frigate your main task is to remain
unscathed out at sea for as long as possible, to keep you from going into port for repairs. An enemy is also
considered DOCILE when its sails have been damaged considerably, since it loses a lot of maneuverability
in this way. Careful weaving on your part can put you in a position where you can circle an enemy ship, not
enabling it to fire back at all.
The best way to close in to Chain-Shot range from the "Snaking Chase" position described above is to simply make a 3/4 circle off to one side.
Start this when you're facing downwind. You will lose speed due to both the turning and the fact that at
some point you'll be sailing into the wind, so make sure not to start closing until your ship is sailing with
ample speed in the first place.
After the first half-circle, you'd have lost about 4 or 5 knots, but will regain 1 or 2 as you turn sideways again
(the last 1/4 of the turn). Do not switch the direction of the turn, always do the whole 3/4th circle in the
same direction, otherwise it may leave you for too long facing the wind, in which case you'll lose more speed
and may become highly unmaneuverable. Once the 3/4ths are complete, you are sailing perpendicular to

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the wind, with your broadside aimed at the enemy. Since you turned towards the enemy and still haven't
sped away, you are also now closer to the enemy, possibly within Chain-shot Range. Be wary - the enemy
may very well attempt to turn sideways to fire at you. If the enemy's sails are still in good condition, it may
take you some pretty good aiming to actually hit him with Chain-Shot.

[5.2.3] THE ENEMY'S IN BAD SHAPE, AND I'M

C L O S I N G I N T O G R A P E - S H O T R A N G E . H OW D O I
END IT?
In a SOL, entering Grape-shot range is seriously risky. The only true reason to enter this range is either if
you're in a bad spot and are trying to gain speed, or if you've already subdued the enemy (0 cannons, or white-flag raised) and have no fear of being shot. Otherwise, it is best to stay at a longer range so you can avoid
incoming fire.
To close in from Chain-shot Range to Grape-shot range, the best tactic involves changing the aspect of battle, I.E. your ship's position relative to the enemy and to the wind. So far, if you've followed the previous explanations, you have been trying to stay downwind of the enemy so he can't catch up with you. Now, however, you will be trying to maneuver your ship so that the ENEMY is relatively downwind of you, for that
moment when you turn downwind and pounce. A skilled captain can dart at an enemy ship in this way similar to what War Canoe captains do when they're facing a powerful enemy (Which is basically any enemy.
War Canoes are fragile).
Bringing your ship around the enemy can be tricky, since it almost always involves sailing directly into the
wind. The moves themselves are pretty simple - turn your ship perpendicular to the wind direction (90 degrees off), and then some. Keep an eye on the speed gauge, to make sure you're not dropping below 7 knots.
The enemy will either turn to chase or turn to fire, in either case they will be aiding your maneuver by either playing along with it (sailing further downwind) or chasing you and losing speed. If your speed drops
too far, turn slightly back downwind (no more than 30 degrees), then tack back. Eventually, you should reach a situation where a line drawn from your ship to the enemy ship is at about 60 degrees off the wind direction.
Now would be a good time to glance back at your speed gauge. If you're doing less than 7-8 knots, tacking
directly in the wind at this point will slow you down considerably. However, if your distance from the enemy is also long enough (about chain-shot distance), you can afford to slow down, as you will very soon

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pick up speed again. Tack into the wind (or AWAY from the wind, if that seems better at the present conditions) to finally bring your ship in a straight collision course with the enemy. This is pretty much where battle ends, because you're going to gain enough speed to be free to do whatever you want. Be wary of incoming
fire, although mostly you should be able to evade it without doing anything spectacular.
A note on Grapeshooting - With a SOL, grapeshooting the enemy is often futile. You would be better off
chain-shooting them to take their sails down - this, at least, ensures surrender. When you're confident enough, you can just sail downwind and smack into the enemy.

[ 5 . 2 . 4 ] W H AT S H O U L D I D O W H E N AT TAC K I N G
S M A L L S H I P S T H A T A R E F A S T E N O U G H T O ESCAPE?
The problem with SOLs attacking a smaller vessel is obvious - the enemy is far more maneuverable than you
are, and can probably avoid cannonfire at long ranges with ease. Moreover, an enemy not bent on your destruction (Like a smuggler or a Treaty ship) is more likely to use wind to its advantage and just run away,
instead of fighting. If your starting moves are not precise and quick, you'll quickly lose sight of the enemy.
When attacking smaller vessels, pre-battle positioning is KEY. You will need to assess wind conditions first,
and position your ship accordingly. The best position to start a SOL vs. SMALL battle is upwind of the enemy instead of downwind. There are several reasons for this:
* The SOL sails fastest downwind, and loses speed very quickly when sailing upwind.
* A small boat, on the contrary, sails fast in slightly-off-wind conditions, but has no trouble clocking a few
good knots when sailing upwind.
* Frigates are the fastest ships in the Caribbean, but ONLY when they are sailing at their "best point". Otherwise, they are no faster than any other ship.
* Sloops, Pinnaces and War Canoes gain speed quickly, but their maximums, even at good wind conditions,
are not as high as a Frigate's.
A small enemy is, by definition, not powerful enough to pose any serious threat to you. Therefore your first
interest is to close the distance as soon as possible to maximize the chance of landing cannonballs on the
swift enemy, or at least convincing it to make the mistake of turning to fire at you.
Therefore, when a battle starts, your first move should be pointing yourself downwind, straight at your enemy (or do this before combat!). You will steadily begin to gain speed. The enemy, at this point might turn

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to fire, but since you're gaining speed in this phase, the shots will probably pass over your ship and splash
behind you. If the enemy turns downwind, you are sure to overtake it (though if you surpass its speed, the
A.I. will probably decide it's better to turn and fire). If the enemy turns perpendicular to the wind (like War
Canoes), you can adjust your heading slightly to that direction, but rememeber that your top priority is not
to board, but to land a broadside on your enemy.
You must fire that broadside only when you are sure that you've closed as much distance as you're going to
do (if you're very close, you might not need to fire at all). If your firing angle and aiming skills are at their
best, or if you're playing a lower level of difficulty, you can probably try to fire some chainshot along in the
same volley, to increase the chance of sail damage to the enemy.
A good way to increase change of hit is to fire while turning with the sails reefed (see below). Since it takes a
bit of time for the SOL to fire all its cannons, turning the ship while it's firing will send different cannonballs in different directions, creating a "spread". Start firing BEFORE your broadside is aimed directly at the
enemy, then "sweep" across the enemy's path to fire your cannonballs all around his ship. Note that the enemy still has some chance to avoid all them, and that by using this technique, you're increasing the chance
of a hit while reducing the damage given to the enemy, so more often than not, you will not do enough
damage to slow him down.
Once the enemy has been injured enough to prevent its escape, you may now attempt to board it. Make sure
you don't sink the enemy if you're trying to board, and watch out - some of the bigger "small ships", like
Royal Sloops, carry 20 guns on board. Not enough to cause you any major damage, but enough to hurt you
and your men. Be wary even when you're winning.

[ 5 . 3 ] H OW D O E S P L AY I N G W I T H T H E S A I L S H E L P
M E U S E M Y S O L I N C O M B AT ?
Pressing the "2" key on your keypad, during both map sailing and combat sailing, will lower your sails. The
term "Reef the sails" is more accurate, since they are actually pulled upwards. In this state, the ship will go
slower, develop and lose speed slower, but will have increased turning speed.
Pressing the "8" key will "raise" the sails back to full state, increasing speed and reducing turn rate.
Handling a ship's sails can be awkward, especially if you haven't had much experience sailing in combat even without tinkering with sail states.

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However, once you can master the technique, you'll find that dodging cannonballs with a huge ship like the
SOL becomes simple!
The reefing/raising technique is best used in the "Snaking Chase" maneuver, where you lure the enemy into
trying to chase you while maintaining long firing distance from it (see sections above). By reefing the sails,
you will be able to suddenly change direction, fire at the enemy, and quickly turn back into the wind to gain
speed, thus escaping incoming fire.
The maneuver itself is rather simple, although getting the hang of it can be difficult.
Once you've gained good speed in combat, going downwind as my earlier tactics instruct, hit the "Reef Sails"
button (2). Immediately begin turning sideways to aim your broadside. As you align your guns and begin
firing a volley, a good idea would be to raise the sails again (8) to start gaining back speed, however this is
not always neccesary. Once firing has been all but completed, reef the sails again, and turn back downwind,
raising the sails at the end of the turn to begin regaining speed and distance. You'll eventually also learn
how to reef your sails at just the right moment to bring your broadside towards the enemy just as your cannons are fully loaded, thus minimizing the time you spend with your sails down (not gaining speed).
When dodging cannonfire, you need to reef the sails as soon as the enemy releases its volley. Begin turning
away from the volley (or if you were headed away from it in the first place - turn sideways from the incoming
cannonball's heading). You will need to eventually make a 90 degree turn.
Once you've turned about 60 degrees, raise the sails and continue turning until the 90 degrees are complete.
When you make such a quick turn and hasty acceleration, much like a car "whipping its tail" in a tight curve, the cannonballs will land where you were supposed to be, however you have strayed from that position
already, and shouldn't get hit at all.
Note that you will need at least 168 men on board to reef/raise your sails at optimal speed. Also notice that
reefing takes much less time than raising, and that while you're switching sail modes, cannon-reloading pauses until the sails are set.
At closer ranges (Chain-shot range), whipping your ship around may not provide the best results, but it will
often help you turn what would otherwise be a complete hit across the side of your ship to slight damage by
only a few of the cannonballs. It will be best if you do the maneuver when the reefing will put you at bestsailing-point AFTER the 90-degree turn (You'll speed away from the cannonball impact zone much faster).
At Grape-shot range, forget the reefing maneuver altogether. If you've come this close, it's better to board
quickly rather than keep playing with an enemy that fires back. Remember that once you've smacked into

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the enemy (the game shows you a close-up of both ships right before boarding), no further damage is recorded, so if the enemy has fired a large broadside at you, this is a good way to minimize the effect of what
would otherwise be a devastating hit.
Another important thing to remember (And this is a VERY important strategy for SOL sailing) - fighting in
the middle of a storm, or otherwise when the winds reach 19-20 knots, your ship becomes so fast you don't
need to reef the sails at all.
And last, but not least - if your turn is going to bring you "into the eye of the wind" (Sailing AGAINST the
red arrow), do NOT reef the sails. You will lose so much speed that the turning rate is not increased at all.
Better keep those sails up so you can quickly regain speed as you turn away from the wind's eye.

[ 5 . 4 ] S U M M A RY O N S O L C O M B AT
While the SOL seems like a big, ungainly tub in the water, it is in fact very fast and very maneuverable. It is
clearly no match for the maneuverability of a Sloop, Pinnace, or War Canoe, but using it correctly can help
you maintain an advantage over any other ship. Using reefed sails tactics you can do combat without injury
to your ship at all, and as long as you maintain good distance, you can probably sink any other ship with
ease. Wind direction is a very important factor, so both pre-battle positioning and constant attention to
changes in wind direction can both make or break a triumph.

[ 6 ] H OW D O I M A K E L O T S O F S O L S C O M E O U T ?
So far, I have played three games that were, from the get go, played only for the purpose of getting 8 Ships
of the Line together in a single fleet. They were all successful, although the later two games performed the
task much faster than the first, since I had learned alot in the meantime about the optimal conditions for
SOL spawning and capture. This section details what would possibly be the best strategy for "enticing" SOLs
to sail out with much more frequency. However, do not expect to catch them all in two years. My best game
yet has provided only about one SOL per year, although I have no idea how many SOLs I had missed when
sailing away from "Killing Fields" for repairs.
This startegy can be used to get just one SOL, if you want, or to get a fleet of 8 (Which is obviously more of
a CAREER than a STRATEGY). Fleets are much harder to build since you will need a whole lot of
crewmembers, and once you've captured two SOLs or more, you'll need to avoid dividing the plunder be-

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cause that means dropping all but one ship. The strategy seems a bit pointless for capturing just one, but it
will definitely do the trick if you haven't seen a SOL before, or if you're trying to catch one to continue the
game with it as your flag-ship as soon as possible.
My Strategy is basically to set up a "Killing Field" centered around Montserrat, in the Lesser Antilles (the
"Windward Islands"), which include (from north to south): St. Martin, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Martinque and Barbados.
While the strategy written here is pretty specific, you will probably play it a bit differently than I do. There is
no guarantee that my strategy is absolutely best, but it's the best one I've heard/used so far.
Also note that while the strategy defines the "attacked" nation to be English, you can use any non-spanish
nation instead, as long as you make sure to change the other nations mentioned accordingly.

[ 6 .1 ] W H A T I S A " K I L L I N G F I E L D " ?
The whole SOL capture strategy rests on building a specific area in the Caribbean, hereby referred to as a
"Killing Field", which contains several cities belonging to the same non-Spanish nation. Shipping in this
area will be constantly attacked for a period of several years. The object is to both upset that nation and its
cities considerably, by sinking almost anything that belongs to them, and at the same time maintaining those cities at "Wealthy" status so they can spawn Ships of the Line. Additional cities belonging to the same nation will send in reinforcements and improvement ships, as well as their own merchant shipping (which can
be attacked to make those further cities also likely to spawn SOLs).
Let's have a quick overview on some of the political goals we'll be trying to achieve in the area:
A) Nevis, Monserrat, and Antigua will all need to be English. These are the cities we shall be assaulting.
B) Barbados and Martinique must also be English - these are "support cities" that may also participate in
SOL spawning.
C) Either St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, or St. Eustatius will serve as homebases. Each has its own pros and cons, as
explained. You can also use all three as homebases, though results may vary. "Homebases" will be given to
the Spanish, French, or Dutch, or if you're using more than one, you can give them to different nations. If
one of these seems useless to you as a homebase for this strategy, give it to the English.

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[ 6 . 2 ] W H I C H S TA RT I N G E R A A N D N AT I O N
SHOULD I CHOOSE?
The starting Era of the game will be a very important factor. In 1640, adjusting the political map is often
simple because cities in the Lesser Antilles are weak, and easy to conquer. In 1680, SOL spawning is
MUCH more frequent than 1640, but conquering cities in the area is hard since they are heavily protected.
1660 is an average on all parts, and is the era I usually play for this strategy.
Your starting nation is not important per-se, but I like choosing the English for three reasons. First, you'll
get a sloop, which is pretty much the easiest ship to start with. Second, it gives you the chance to start the
game in St. Kitts (Especially in 1640), which puts you right near the fields.
Third, and most importnat: It's just so highly ironic (since you'll be attacking them constantly for the next
10 years).

[ 6 . 3 ] W H AT D O I D O O N C E I ' V E S TA RT E D T H E
GAME?
Your first and foremost agenda will be to restructure the Lesser Antilles and set up a killing field as described above. This can be approached in several ways, but I'll describe a pretty straightforward one.
Begin by capturing several warships, brigs, sloops, or the occasional Frigate if you see one. Try capturing
warships from different nations, since you don't want to be upsetting anyone in particular at this point, not
even the English. Go around and visit the different cities in the area (including the eastern Spanish Main)
to gather enough troops to later be able to assault well-defended cities.
During this time, you will gain valuable information about the different cities in the Lesser Antilles area, in
regard to troop sizes and available Ship Upgrades. If you've gotten yourself a good warship by now (depends
on your preferance, could be a War Canoe, Brig of War, Royal Sloop, or some kind of Frigate), it would be
wise to upgrade it as soon as possible. If you need money, either hunt down Buried Treasures, or seek out
Named-Pirates. You can also raid the Spanish Main for a while to gain money by selling captured ships at
Curacao.

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[ 6 . 4 ] I ' V E G O T T E N M E N , M O N E Y, A N D A G O O D
S H I P. W H A T D O I D O N E X T ?
Now it's time to do some serious work. Head back to Nevis with at least 350 men. Your first task would be
to conquer EVERYTHING for the English, from St. Martin in the north, to Martinique in the south (it can
be useful to get both Trinidad and Margarita too, or you could go all-out-berserk and get Cumana and Caracas). If you're not good at land-battles, haven't acquired enough men, or aren't looking to capture more
than one SOL, you can settle for Monserrat and Martinique. These are the two most important for the strategy, as long as Nevis, St. Kitts, and Antigua are still English.
The English will be very pleased with you, granting you rank and promotions.
You can probably repair ships free of cost at ports, and possibly also upgrade ships for free. However, do not
be tempted to capture enemy ships at sea, since you'll be switching allegiance pretty soon! Only attack if you
see a ship you'd like to be using (nevermind whose ship it is), so you can get it upgraded now before you
start upsetting the English.
Once this is done, you will need to decide where you're going to put your homebase. There are several factors that come into play, signifying different approaches to the whole strategy.

*St. Eustatius and St. Martin, the Dutch colonies, are often wealthy and easy to protect, so they'll pay good
money for cargo you capture. However sailing towards them makes you leave the Killing Fields for a long
period of time, so it may not be a good idea.
*St. Kitts is very close to Nevis, but sailing to the killing fields takes time (Southeast...) even if it's very closeby. St. Kitts is harder to protect against enemy attacks.
*Guadeloupe is probably the best choice, because when you sail back to it after a long period of EnglishBashing, at maximum zoom-out you can still see what's going on around Monserrat (if you've got a fine telescope, it's even better). Sailing out of Guadeloupe to the Fields is a north-western course, which is often
your fastest approach. However, Guadeloupe is the least defensible, and enemies will often be trying to
conquer it or otherwise hurt its economy, and you'd be too far to protect it from anything coming out of the
south.

A combination of two of these often works best - Guadeloupe in the south and St. Eustatius in the north,
or even putting all three northies (St. Martin, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts) as homebases, or other combinati-

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ons you can think of. You'll be wanting to spend the minimum time possible at sea (without repairs), and
get the maximum price for cargo captured, so balance the two.
Your Homebase(s) should all be conquered to the Spanish. This increases their defensibility and the amount of support they'll receive from other spanish cities in the vicinity. It will also mean that Raymondo,
Montalban and Mendoza may come visit once in a while, so you can capture them without leaving the area
at all.

[ 6 . 5 ] W H E N D O I G E T T O H AV E F U N ?
The fun starts now. Sell every ship in your fleet except your main vessel. If your crew isn't awfully happy, you
might want to consider Dividing the plunder to start fresh with your upgraded flagship. Then sail out, and
head towards Monserrat.
Your strategy is very simple. You will need to sink/capture ALL of the outgoing merchants (Any merchant
that spawns out of English cities is far game). You might also want to sink/capture INCOMING merchants
(from Martinique, Barbados, ETC) to increase the chance that further-away cities may also spawn SOLs. Note that attacking merchants not only upsets cities, but also damages their economic level. For this reason,
you must NEVER attack any "Immigrant" and "New Governor" ships belonging to the English, as they will
help restore the English cities to Wealthy status.
English Pirate-Hunters are fair game, and I would heartily recommend sinking any Indian War Canoes and
Pirates sailing about in the region, since they can easily hurt the English cities as well as your homebases.
Also, "Invasion Force" ships, of any nation, should be promptly sunk, as they endanger the carefully constructed political situation. I'm not sure about Raiders, but I think these can be safely let out. Smugglers are
probably best left alone, unless you need to capture them for money and cargo.
Your sailing should be a simple circle around Monserrat with excursions to catch ships that move through
the area. Monserrat's fort, and possibly also Nevis' WILL eventually begin firing at you, so be wary.
The fluttering of English flags over their cities will provide you with a good indication of how upset they
are. The more vigorous the flutter - the more upset the city. If a city is "Wealthy" and its flag is waving gentler than other cities, you should place it under priority and perhaps even shift your sailing somewhat to that
direction. Don't miss any merchants going out.
With this strategy in effect, the English will despise you more and more with each passing month. I actually
hit 1,000,000 in gold bounty on my head once just from the English. The Spanish will give you enough a-

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cres of land to fully satisfy your "wealth" points (24/24), as long as they're at war with the English. If they
happen to sign a peace-treaty, feel free to conquer all spanish cities you've installed for a different government that IS at war with the English. Soon after you begin your mischief, the English will start sending out
Large Frigates to hunt you. Be sure you have a good enough ship to take those out, otherwise they'll annoy
you by firing at your fleet.
Try staying out at sea as long as possible. If you have two or three ships you can use for combat when the
first ship gets too hurt to fight - so much the better. The moment you leave the Killing Fields could be the
moment a SOL passes through. Even when sailing back to your home port, keep an eye out for any SOL
that may be slipping past. Also I'd warmly recommend getting the fine telescope, as well as zooming out as
far as possible.

[ 6 . 6 ] H OW D O I G E T M O R E T H A N O N E S O L ?
Once you've gotten one, you might want to just keep it, crew it, and go off to complete the rest of your
quests. However, you might feel up to the challenge of catching 8 of them to make a whole fleet of SOLs.
The trick here is of course keeping your crew happy for ten or so years, because once you have 2 SOLs or
more, you can't divide plunder without losing all but your flagship.
So once you have one, you can follow my earlier instructions on how to get the most gold in one pass to the
west. This MAY take a year or so to perform, but it's worth at least 300,000 gold, which is crucial for a crew
of 450, and in no way enough to keep them happy forever. And your crew will need to grow by about 200
men to be able to sail all the other SOLs in your fleet without losing fleet-speed.
By now you're probably powerful enough to be able to turn all cities in the Eastward Region to the English,
except of course all the cities you find neccesary to keep as homebases. This may reduce your negative attitude with the English, but it will eventually increase the chance of seeing more SOLs by a great amount. It
will also provide you with more battle opportunities, which in turn equals more money and more English
agitation, etc. etc...
The biggest problem with trying to get a full fleet of any kind of ship is that you will constantly be reducing
the room in your fleet, so capturing enemy ships becomes less lucrative. However, eventually you'll find that
you're limiting your actual boardings to only merchants, sinking everything else unless you know it to be
carrying lots and lots of gold. Besides, you've got a ship built for sinking enemies, so why the heck not? Just

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make sure that by this time you have enough money to appease your crew that you don't really need to catch
a whole lot more too quickly.

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