Colonists captured by Privateer

[dalgo]

I was escorting an empty Merchantman with my Privateer when an enemy Caravel showed up. When I attacked it the Caravel escaped but the event log said 'colonists captured'. I looked at my Privateer, but of course it cannot carry units. However when I went to move my merchant the two captured colonists were aboard that.

 

[Crime Doesn't Pay]

Odd glitch. I will try this out. Were you running any mods or anything?

 

[Supr49er]

Welcome to the Forums ExtraCrispy.

 

[kaibayashi]

I was escorting an empty Merchantman with my Privateer when an enemy Caravel showed up. When I attacked it the Caravel escaped but the event log said 'colonists captured'. I looked at my Privateer, but of course it cannot carry units. However when I went to move my merchant the two captured colonists were aboard that.

Did you have both ships selected when you attacked the caravel, or did you attack only with the Privateer?

 

[dalgo]

I was playing vanilla and the two ships were not linked. The Privateer attacked on its own so the two ships were on separate tiles after the battle.

 

[Wheldrake]

I was playing vanilla and the two ships were not linked. The Privateer attacked on its own so the two ships were on separate tiles after the battle.

Here's my theory:
1) You can capture colonists, but in practice never do, since the privateer cannot carry them.
2) Your privateer and merchant ship were in the same square prior to the attack.
3) Combat results are calculated before the privateer is actually moved to the new square.
4) The captured colonists were created in the square with the privateer before it was moved to the new square. Since the merchant shi^p *can* carry them, they were not simply destroyed as usual.

A very cool "feature"!

Cheers, --- Wheldrake

 

[dalgo]

That sounds logical. It would make a good strategy then to pair a raiding privateer with a merchantship. If you attack with just a lone privateer you often get no goods - maybe there were colonists available for capture on those occasions. Another advantage of having a merchantship tag along is that you can transfer captured goods from the privateer to the merchant by docking in a coastal indian settlement, and then the privateer is available for another attack.

 

[kaibayashi]

That sounds logical. It would make a good strategy then to pair a raiding privateer with a merchantship. If you attack with just a lone privateer you often get no goods - maybe there were colonists available for capture on those occasions. Another advantage of having a merchantship tag along is that you can transfer captured goods from the privateer to the merchant by docking in a coastal indian settlement, and then the privateer is available for another attack.

Is this possible? I didn't realise! If so that's very useful. It's a shame you can't just transfer goods at sea

 

[dalgo]

Yes you can move goods between ships in a village, or onto a wagon train. As ships can carry wagons this is a good method of trading with inland colonies.