WhiteRobber
Twinkle twinkle Wunderbar
Pirates of the Caribbean
To join, pick a name, nationality and profession. Nationality can be English, Dutch, French or Spanish (or any other existing nationality if you choose to be a Pirate). Your nationality determines your starting city , your starting allegiance (can be changed later) and your relations with other nations.
Map of Seazones and Pirate Hideouts.
Spoiler :
Map of Towns and Colonies.
Spoiler :
Profession can be Trader, Corsair, Pirate Hunter or Pirate. Each profession has it’s own goals. Profession can be changed later but at a great cost.
See the Special Bonuses at the end of the rule set for perfect combinations.
How to win the game with each profession:
Traders gain Trade Influence in each city they trade in, and their goal is to gain a total of 100.000 Trade Influence . Trading goods of higher value nets more Trade Influence. Trade influence in each city is capped at 2500 (5000 for each of the 4 capitals)
Corsairs must complete missions for their nation to gain Prestige. Missions range from routing pirates to relieve trade to conquering enemy cities in the name of your nation. The harder the mission, the bigger the Prestige gained. A Corsair wins the game by acquiring 100.000 Prestige.
Pirate Hunters live to hunt pirates. Their nationality and flag are irrelevant, as they are allowed to enter every town; they are hunting pirates, the scourge of the seas, after all, doing a service to the entire Caribbean Sea. A Pirate Hunter wins the game once he gains 100.000 Victory Points, gained by defeating Pirates. This is arguably the hardest profession to begin as, but also a good one to use to stop others from reaching their goals later on.
Pirates are pirates. Their gain Infamy with every crime they commit. They cannot enter Ports ( but can attack and pillage them) , and instead , they use Pirate Hideouts to re-supply or escape pursuers. A Pirate wins the game once he gains 100.000 Infamy. Since Pirates are lawless thieves, Pirates encountering other Pirates will engage in battle.
Turns roughly equal weeks in this game. Each week, each player takes up to 3 actions. Actions can be:
1) moving to a nearby sea zone (allowed only once per turn),
2) entering a city/hideout (in which you can sell loot, restock with men and goods and repair your ship, or you can attack a town/hideout), or asking for a mission (corsair only)( can enter 2 different cities per week)
3)greet/attack other ships in the seazone (greeting other ships may give different news, depending on their allegiance and relations with you.) (can greet/attack up to 3 times a week)
Upon entering a new seazone, you will see what other ships are nearby (I will tell them in mini-mid-updates) and only then you will chose your next action. If you have actions left but you don’t want to do anything ( or if you have none left), mention “END TURN” in your post. You cannot enter a city/colony if your relation with the nation owning it is too low ( on a scale from -100 to 100, having above -5 relations allows you to enter. If you’ve got under -5 and enter, your ships will be destroyed by the city’s defensive cannons.)
You start out with a ship of the Brig type. This is a list of ships and their stats:
Ship type - max crew - attack - health - cargo capacity - selling price at 100% health (in Gold) - Buying price
Schooner - 8 - 2 -10 - 10 - 1000 - 1250
Sloop - 12 - 3- 14 - 16 - 1500 - 1875
Brig - 30 - 7 - 25 - 40 - 2500 - 3125
Barque - 40 - 7 - 30 - 40 - 3500 - 4375
Flute Ship (Fluyt for Dutch) - 28 - 5 - 35 - 180 - 5000 - 6000
Frigate - 50 - 10 - 45 - 100 - 7500 - 9375
Caravel - 60 - 12 - 45 - 90 - 8000 - 10000
Carrack - 100 - 15 - 70 - 140 - 10000 - 12500
Military Frigate - 150 - 15 - 80 - 150 - 12500 - cannot be bought
Trade Flute Ship (Handelsfluyt for Dutch) - 80 - 10 - 85 - 400 - 14000 - cannot be bought
Galleon - 160 - 17 - 100 - 200 - 17500 - cannot be bought
Ship of the Line - 200 - 20 - 125 - 350 - 25000 - cannot be bought
As your ships fights battles, they can capture enemy ships (happens randomly) , but can also take damage, which must be repaired in a friendly port/hideout. As your ships are damaged, your crew can also be killed in battles (casualties are calculated randomly actually) If the number of your crew goes under certain values, the attack of your ships is lowered ( and also their ability to defend themselves against enemies) . Visiting ports/hideouts will instantly replenish your crew to max for free. Your crew can also die of starvation and different diseases, it’s number constantly lowering while at sea. Your ships can also get sunk, and cannot be recovered.
Naming a Flagship is useful but not necessary. It is done automatically, but you can name a different flagship is you so desire . Your flagship is the ship on which you Ship’s Captain will stay. If your Flagship is sunk, all your other ships will desert and you will lose them, so choose a strong ship as Flagship. Your Flagship also gains +1 to Attack and it’s crew will not die outside of battle.
Cargo capacity serves as a max threshold of goods that can be carried by one ship. There are four kinds of goods:
-Cheap goods (can be bought/sold at prices ranging from 5 to 10 Gold per unit.)
-Normal goods (can be bought/sold at prices ranging from 15 to 25 Gold per unit)
-Expensive goods (can be bought/sold at prices ranging from 50 to 75 Gold per unit)
-Illegal goods ( can be bought/sold at prices ranging from 20 to 100 Gold per unit)
Having Illegal goods on board is a risk: every time you enter a port you have a 25% chance of getting caught by the port authorities, which will confiscate ALL the goods in your possession and will fine you 200 Gold per Illegal good owned (the fine will appear as a debt with 10% interest rate per month). To avoid getting caught, you can just dump the Illegal goods in the sea if you wish. Pirates are never caught with them, as all they do is Illegal and their Hideouts allow selling and buying Illegal goods.
Prices of goods change weekly in all ports. This is the base of trade and the way Traders will gain their Influence ( and a good source of income for everyone else). Players cannot know the price of goods in town they are not currently into, but can get hints from the news they receive when greeting other ships. For example, there will sometimes be a famine or pirate raid in a certain city/colony, meaning that more income will be made by selling them Normal goods and Expensive goods. Knowing that a city has a Good Economy mean that they sell Expensive goods at lower prices, but they buy Cheap Goods for lower prices and sell for higher. If your orders contain greeting ships in your seazone, the news you will receive will be sent by PM, so make sure your inbox has free space.
Other news may be about the Spanish Treasure Fleet (chasing it down and destroying it is tedious and dangerous, but extremely rewarding) , the actions of infamous NPC Pirates, war declarations between the 4 nations in the Caribbean, the English Royal Fleet (defeating it is the only way to obtain the Ship of the Line ship type )
As you fight enemies, you gain experience. Once you reach 100 experience, you will level up . There are 10 Levels which , besides a very small attack bonus, are not very important, except maybe for Corsairs and Pirates. Corsairs have a small bonus on Prestige gained as they increase in level and Pirates unlock more Hideouts as they level up ( they start out with only one. The numbers on the map near the hideouts are the levels at which the hideout is unlocked. Some levels unlock two hideouts. Map number -1 = the level at which the hideout is unlocked.
Note that the last Hideout is far to the north , where more dangerous ship convoys pass by (which can have up to 25 Galleons or even Ship of the Line.) .
Your experience level also helps if you are ever defeated in sea battles. If Your Flagship is sunk/captured ,your captain and a few men will escape in a small rescue boat. You will no longer be able to encounter other ships until you reach a port, you will lose all ships , goods and money, and your relations with other nations will be reset to 0 if they are negative, but you can sail into a nearby port where you will be given a free ship depending on your level:
Levels 1-3: Brig
Levels 4-6: Barque
Levels 7-9: Frigate
Level 10: Galleon (only if you owned a Galleon before, otherwise Frigate )
If you’re pursuing a Pirate in an area where there is a Pirate Hideout, you will lose track of him ( unless you’re a Pirate Hunter or a Pirate who knows the Hideout).
Also, make sure you always have under 15 ships. Having 14 is still manageable but having 15 or more for more than a month will cause desertions and your crew will consume Normal and Illegal goods on board. Your men will leave or betray you or even steal ships, even your Flagship.
The last part of this game is Wars. From time to time, the four faction in the game will declare war on one another. If you’re on friendly terms with one of them, you can further increase relations with them without lowering relations with the other by buying a Letter of Marque from one, which allows you to attack the other one’s ships as long as the war lasts without any downside. You can even buy letters of marque from BOTH so you can attack both without fearing consequences. Pirates cannot buy Letters of marque and are always on bad relations with all nations in the game. A letter of Marque costs 10.000 Gold.
Now, for special bonuses:
English Corsairs gain a 10% bonus to Ship Health.
Dutch Traders have 20% more Cargo Capacity
Dutch Pirate Hunters have 20% Attack bonus against English ships
French Corsairs have a 10% Attack bonus when fighting Pirates
English Traders cannot have their Flagship sunk; they will retreat the battle instead of losing the Flagship.
Spanish Pirate Hunters sell Cheap goods at double price and have only 10% chance to get caught when having Illegal goods of board.
All English Captains can buy a Ship of the Line from English Port 4 (EP4) for 100.000 Gold if they are level 8 or above. (except Pirate Captains) Also all English Captains ( including English Pirates) know where the English Royal Navy is.
All French Captains gain 1000 Gold extra for each ship sold. (including French Pirate Captains) except Schooner ships.
All Dutch Captains greet all ships and convoys in the seazone they’re in if the player chooses to Greet others in the area. (incl. Dutch pirates)
All Spanish Captains know where the Spanish Treasure Fleet and the Caribbean Spanish Armada are. All the time.
French Pirates have a 10% Attack bonus against English Pirates.
