Specific to AoD, -avoid- meeting chiefs in coastal cities with land units. Use your ship! This way, there's a chance on getting free XP for your ship from some settlements. On a Huge map, I managed to get my Caravel souped up with all the Nav promotions plus a few strength. While it probably could not handle a pirate attack, that Caravel was nonetheless extremely useful for me in spotting for my SoLs later against the pirates with its visibility and speed to run out of danger, as well as for quick cargo runs to/from my island settlements.
Only works on AoD II since only AoD II lets ships meet chiefs, which is an awesome feature.
Only works on AoD II since only AoD II lets ships meet chiefs, which is an awesome feature.