JBryan314
US Army Combat Vet and Intelligence Agent
So, I was told a while back to simply ignore the British ships, since it isn't necessary to do away with them. It's only necessary to defeat the land forces. So, I eventually finally won a few games that way. It worked ok sometimes, but I still had a lot of issues once the landing forces landed and I usually got beaten badly. I've since developed a different strategy...
I play on a huge Western Hemisphere map with a lot of tribes. I send out my explorers and end up making tons of money. well over 100,000 gold just off of treasure. Not to mention I make a killing selling the natives goods and good money selling to England. Easily enough to buy a couple galleons to transport the gold tax free. I can also easily buy many ships of the line. By the time I declare independence, the English usually have 12-16 Man-O-War ships. But I usually have bought 20-25 ships of the line. In the games I've played, the ships of the line have roughly a 2-1 attrition rate against the English ships. By the time the English finally land, I've lost my entire fleet, but also have already sunk all but 4 or 5 of their ships. This dramatically weakens their landing forces. They normally land with roughly 10 regulars, 6 dragoons and 4 artillery. With all the money I made, I've got 900 guns and 900 horses in my settlements (I usually only have two or three settlements). I also have merchantmen ships waiting in the coastal settlement with extra guns and horses. I turn any citizens I can afford to spare into soldiers and dragoons. I attack the enemy when they're in open land, then retreat into hills, woods and swamps. I also normally have defensive pacts with every tribe by that time because of all the trading I've done with them.
This may seem a very common strategy, but I just remember being told a long time ago to ignore the English ships because it wasn't a requirement to win and they were too strong. But the key to this strategy is attacking their ships with 2-1 numbers and greatly weaken their landing forces. Otherwise, I'd have a very hard time ever winning. So I was wondering if anyone else uses naval attacks early on to gain an advantage.
I play on a huge Western Hemisphere map with a lot of tribes. I send out my explorers and end up making tons of money. well over 100,000 gold just off of treasure. Not to mention I make a killing selling the natives goods and good money selling to England. Easily enough to buy a couple galleons to transport the gold tax free. I can also easily buy many ships of the line. By the time I declare independence, the English usually have 12-16 Man-O-War ships. But I usually have bought 20-25 ships of the line. In the games I've played, the ships of the line have roughly a 2-1 attrition rate against the English ships. By the time the English finally land, I've lost my entire fleet, but also have already sunk all but 4 or 5 of their ships. This dramatically weakens their landing forces. They normally land with roughly 10 regulars, 6 dragoons and 4 artillery. With all the money I made, I've got 900 guns and 900 horses in my settlements (I usually only have two or three settlements). I also have merchantmen ships waiting in the coastal settlement with extra guns and horses. I turn any citizens I can afford to spare into soldiers and dragoons. I attack the enemy when they're in open land, then retreat into hills, woods and swamps. I also normally have defensive pacts with every tribe by that time because of all the trading I've done with them.
This may seem a very common strategy, but I just remember being told a long time ago to ignore the English ships because it wasn't a requirement to win and they were too strong. But the key to this strategy is attacking their ships with 2-1 numbers and greatly weaken their landing forces. Otherwise, I'd have a very hard time ever winning. So I was wondering if anyone else uses naval attacks early on to gain an advantage.