Annoying Civs without a home - use a privateer!

[Babble-on]

Ever attacked a civilization with the express goal of eradicating them from the face of the planet? Well, when I wage war - which is rare, this is my goal - to obliterate them.

Well, the last time I tried to do this, the enemy civ escaped on a Galley with one settler and a spearman and began an endless roaming of the seas. Unfortunately, I couldn't find them, and my civ was getting extremely war weary, so I had to make a peace treaty with them.

Years, and I mean thousands of years went by and they wouldn't turn up anywhere. All land was claimed by other civs and this one rogue civ was still wandering in their galley somewhere. They still appeared in the diplomacy screen (pissed off by the way) and were creating a lot of problems with other countries by signing MPPs. So I found a way to eliminate them once I found them.

Privateers - that's right, the much misunderstood and seldom used unit.

Since they fly under the skull and crossbones and not your country's flag, they can basically raise hell and you get away with it. So I sent a privateer out to sink the galley once I found it and they were finally eradicated from the planet. Suddenly, everyone on the planet liked my civ again and diplomacy was a breeze.

Just a great suggestion for using privateers. I am sure they can also be used to blockade another civ's harbor without you getting blamed but I have yet to try it.

Any feedback on dealing with "wandering civs?"

 

[Rabid Pop Tart]

yeah...i've used privateers to put over the fish squares. I took a population from 4 to 2, and since they didn't have a navy at the time, i had it fortified on the square for at least 10 turns.

the only thing i don't like about privateers...when i put one one square out of my city, ships come from nowhere after it. i had a german ironclad and a french battleship come after it, and they were NOT in sight of my little ship.

but privateers are not completely worthless!

~ Brendan

 

[MadHatter]

That's right, Babble-on, more important than their so-called anonymous nature with regards to other civs, they allow the player to attack the enemy A.I. without actually declaring war!

I never thought of them that way, that's interesting.

 

[Shabbaman]

It's an ingenious solution, I never thought of that myself! Can't remember if it ever came up in a privateer thread either...
But then again, I tend to turn AI respawn off.

 

[greenie]

I'm a great fan of Privateers as I mentioned in a previous post - not only can they attack the left over settler in a galley but you can raid other civs in the middle ages and get rid of Galleys, Caravels, and in larger numbers, Frigates and galleons. I have found to never underestimate a group of 4-6 Privateers taking on wooden AI ships.

I recommend everyone to try it sometime.

(edit: sp of "rid" )

 

[ACR]

I have enjoyed the use of priviteers. Maretime interdiction in preparation for war, cut off enemy supplys while you build up for the actual war. Another devious thing, sink your allies!

I wanted a specific Russian city, mostly for intelligence purposes, it was a perverbial Gibralter, a small island but two Persian ports had to send all their ships right past it - anyway the Zulus who where my allies, sent a couple of loaded galleys to take this island. My gallon was still 5 moves away so I used my privateer to sink my ally's galleys and thus give me the island and preserve our alliance.

Another use, the perverbial "Russian Fishing Trawler." You don't have to park that menacing warship off the coast park a privateer and the opposition won't complain to you.

 

[Frithiof]

I don't use Privateers too much (but after getting some ideas off of this thread, I may use them more), but I do use them to explore the coasts when other civs have boundaries on the shore. I also use them to take out ships carrying settlers to build on land that I want for myself. That way I can damper the expansion of my opponents without having to start a war.

 

[Hygro]

They A.I. won't declare war on you, but they still get mad at you for using privateers on them (Nations often have suspicions about a pirate's loyalty).

I saw that fact on some thread or another, and, when I once modded my game to my them too good, everyone had lots of them and everytime I would sink their privateer, or pirate one of their ships they would get steadily madder at me.

 

[looper]

I have never tried this, but I have seen my friends doing this:

all over the international ocean, there were his distroyers or battleships 3- 4 tiles away from each others. the basic idea is to creat the "privateer carriers". see when you park your privateers in the same tile as your warships, at peace time, rivals cant attack them.

So he went ahead and parked stacks of privateers at those spots covered by his warships in the international sea, and whenever he sees a bypassing boats, especially the wooden boats, or transports, these stacks of privateers would jump them one by one. that was beautiful, no ware awareness. and the injured privateers were moved from one "privateer carrier" to another, and eventually back to his habor for repair. he controls the ocean in this way!

 

[Hygro]

that is a pretty good plan. Another thing is to protect the pirvateers blocking fish and whales with galleys, or other units so the other guy can't stop you.

 

[Djurre]

I once used the 'privateer carriers' too. The strange thing was that the AI attacked my battleship that was guarding my privateers and somehow after that action we were still at peace. As if my battleship was a privateer itself. This happened while I was playing the unpatched version of vanilla civ3, before I found out about this forum and the patches available. I guess this was fixed in the later patches.