How the heck do you enslave enemy ships?

[morchuflex]

Hello.

Reading another thread, I've just discovered (after dozens of games! Many thanks to the idiot who didn't mention it in the civilopaedia) that English Men-O-War had enslavement capacity. However, after battling many enemy ships, I still can't figure how to capture them: I see no relevant icon among the buttons.
Maybe you are restricted as for the kind of ships you can capture?

 

[Billy Rubin]

Well - usually enslavement comes into play when you just attack another unit with a unit that has enslavement capacity - if the unit is victorious, there is a chance that the enslaved unit will appear. No need for any special commands...

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

It all comes down to luck of the draw. Try attacking with many Man-o-Wars. IIRC, there is a 1 in 3 chance of enslavement. Eventually you should enslave the ship.

 

[tomart109]

It should work just like the Mayan Javelin Thrower - when it defeats a unit, there's a 1/3 chance that instead of killing it, a new unit is created: a (free, half-speed) worker.
In the case of English MoW, a new MoW is created. I especially enjoyed one time I made one out of a barbarian boat! I thought i'd saved a jpg of that, but can't find it now.

 

[Wolfwood]

I always hunt with my Man-o-wars near to places where barbarian camps are next to water. They tend to build ships that I in turn enslave into more Man-o-wars. (I even protect barbarian ships from being sunk by other nations until I get to my Man-o-wars...). Even with only 1/3 chance you can build up a decent fleet, eventually.

 

[morchuflex]

Are you sure it's 33% chances? I've already attacked and sunk about 20 ships in my current game, and so far, no luck.

 

[Pfeffersack]

The chance is defintly 1/3...20 without would be a case of really huge bad luck.No idea what could have went wrong.

 

[Wolfwood]

Are you absolutely certain that you are playing Conquests and not Vanilla or PTW?