Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!mcsun!ukc!edcastle!hwcs!adrian From: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games Subject: Re: Pirates! How do you score? Message-ID: <2558@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> Date: 18 Mar 91 11:40:40 GMT References: <24389@frog.UUCP> <64726@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> <1991Mar13.174318.1799@motaus.sps.mot.com> <24535@frog.UUCP> Sender: news@cs.hw.ac.uk Reply-To: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt) Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland Lines: 67 In article <24535@frog.UUCP> jcc@frog.UUCP (Jim Chagnon) writes: >In article <1991Mar13.174318.1799@motaus.sps.mot.com> skipper@motaus.sps.mot.com (Skipper Smith) writes: > >>How do you reliably "take" a town? > > Your best bet is to have 2:1 odds ( at apprentice level ), before the >fight starts. There is leeway at the begining of the game: your ship is >faster, your guns are more accurate, and you can take a town with less >people, but as the game goes on, this evens out. Your chances of taking a town seem to depend more on its civilian population than on its garrison. It is easier to take a town with a small civilian populace (e.g. Margarita, which I often take shortly after starting the game) than one with a large populace (e.g. Panama, even after previous attacks had left it with virtually no garrison). The only reason your ship is faster at the beginning of the game is, you start with only a sloop, which is a fast ship. If you capture and use larger vessels, you will be slowed down, as they are slower than sloops. If you get rid of all captured ships, and stick to using only sloops, then you will be as fast as when you started. (But with fewer men and cannon available for attacks, and less cargo space, than if you keep a bigger ship.) As the game progresses, town populations increase. They also decrease if the town gets sick. I see no reason why your guns should get less accurate, unless you're using a large, unmanouevrable ship and can't aim as easily. > Every time you attempt an attack, the number of soldiers goes up by 20. >In a game I had already screwed up, I decided to see if I could take Santa >Marta in a ship assault. The winds were wrong, and by trying to dodge >cannon balls, I wound up either out to sea, or too far down the beach for >the assault to take place. > ... And since I had to beat a hasty retreat, for the rest of the game >the sleepy little hamlet of Santa Marta had a standing army of 500. In other words, you failed to attack Santa Marta 24 times in a row?! If you have a decent sized force, don't attack by sea. Attack by land. If your army outnumbers the town garrison, you go straight to the duel with the commander. If not, you have to move your troops around a map of the nearby land, while the enemy sends out troops to intercept you. My favourite tactic in this case is to lure the enemy force into a swamp, then run round them. If you must attack by sea, make sure the wind is in your direction before you commence the attack. The wind direction as seen on the large, navigation map will be the same as the wind direction when when you attack. You should attack only if the wind is blowing into the town, or perhaps across your path into town. A crosswind like this is acceptable if you're using a sloop or barque. I never have much luck evading enemy fire, so my tactic here is just to raise full sail, head straight for the fort, and hope the first shot misses, because if my speed is at least 5 he won't get a second shot. But I prefer to attack by land anyway, because that way I can use all my men in the attack. A quick victory may help you capture the town; it will definitely help you loot it, because the inhabitants haven't had as long to hide their gold. Having said that, I've never had the "Most of their gold has been hidden" message when I hit Panama. Perhaps they aren't expecting to be attacked, being the biggest and strongest town and being inaccessible by sea, so they don't know how to hide it, or maybe there's just too much to hide. I often get over 100,000 gold pieces in one raid from that place, better than any Inca treasure! One of these days, I'm going to catch both the treasure fleet and the silver train in Panama, and then we'll see some real looting. "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott Adrian Hurt | JANET: adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian | ARPA: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk