Pirates Scenario Discussion

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

I haven't come across any thread of this kind, so I decided to create one.
We could post our impressions and thoughts about the scenario here, as well as strategies and guides (for example, how much gold different sources give).

First - my impressions (after like 5 games played, the last of which I won!):
As for me, I like the new scenario. It is history based and takes place in a pre-modern era, which is cool. I like the art. I like discovering treasure. It is pretty fun to play it in multiplayer. So is the Red Death. Firaxis did a great job. I had been playing only normal single player games until recently. First I finally decided to give the Red Death (Season 2) a try, and now I'm enjoying playing and getting better at Pirates! What I like about both scenarios is they are quick games and competitive (the power of multiplayer!). The Red Death seems more dynamic, which is I think because of its Battle Royale gameplay.

Now - some of my thoughts and observations:
1. I don't understand why icons "war declared" and "peace made" appear - they seem of no importance to me and could easily be omitted in the interface to avoid icon overload.
2. I guess it's getting much easier to play when you get bonuses like "additional attack" and "movement possible after attacking", so those bonuses might get balanced better.
3. For convenience, in future updates a mark or a number could be added to a ship icon to show that it has some crew.
4. Is the Hoarder overpowered?..

 

[Laurana Kanan]

It'd be nice if maybe a mod could merge these four threads into a master Pirates Scenario Discussion so all the info is in a single thread instead of all over.
Pirates
Taking Cities in the Pirates Scenario
Pirates Scenario: Which would be the "hardest" difficulty?
Pirates Scenario Discussion

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

імені 2

• KyivanRusCivPlease
• Oct 31, 2020

I like referring to this screen to remind me what to do in the scenario)

 

[Laurana Kanan]

I like referring to this screen to remind me what to do in the scenario

Sadly all this information is worthless in single player play since there's no competition from the AI. All that matters is EXP for promotions, gold for maintenance, policies for amplifying your ships' abilities/gold acquisition, and crew for capturing ships.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

Sadly all this information is worthless in single player play since there's no competition from the AI. All that matters is EXP for promotions, gold for maintenance, policies for amplifying your ships' abilities/gold acquisition, and crew for capturing ships.

But in a multiplayer match it gets real tough)

 

[SuperFly47]

You should have the option that you can capture cities and after x turns the game turns into a regular civilization game. The AI becomes a regular civilizations and so do you. You keep the fancy ship.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

You should have the option that you can capture cities and after x turns the game turns into a regular civilization game. The AI becomes a regular civilizations and so do you. You keep the fancy ship.

Me, I like the scenario without cities) It is more dynamic and faster this way. There are far less game machanics than in a regular game, but all of them are important. It is great for a change.

 

[AsH2]

..
1. I don't understand why icons "war declared" and "peace made" appear - they seem of no importance to me and could easily be omitted in the interface to avoid icon overload.
2. I guess it's getting much easier to play when you get bonuses like "additional attack" and "movement possible after attacking", so those bonuses might get balanced better.

1. I think it should matter for the Privateer "Bring Her Home" unit action, but it doesn't so I'm roleplaying as it would.
2. Yes, but for me that's not much as an issue compared to "Treasure Located" on a "City Center" and tiles you can "Disembark a Crew onto land." but then the "Shore Party" can't "Embark" back.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

2. Yes, but for me that's not much as an issue compared to "Treasure Located" on a "City Center" and tiles you can "Disembark a Crew onto land." but then the "Shore Party" can't "Embark" back.

Could you rephrase please? P.S.: A Shore Party CAN embark back onto a ship.

 

[AsH2]

Could you rephrase please? P.S.: A Shore Party CAN embark back onto a ship.

There are some tiles where you just can't embark back - eg around Guadeloupe (in southeast) and south of Gibraltar (in south) on Caribbean Islands map.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

There are some tiles where you just can't embark back - eg around Guadeloupe (in southeast) and south of Gibraltar (in south) on Caribbean Islands map.

I didn't know that. Must be a bug...

 

[efurstie]

I primarily play Red Death, but have given Pirates a try a handful of times. I find it monotonous. There is no compelling reason to interact with the other human players - in fact, if you can carve out your little zone and cycle through pillaging and sinking that which is in your zone, you never need to seek out the humans. Humans bring unnecessary risk.

I have a solution...around turn 40 (make it randomly vary +/- 3 turns) have all the colonials make peace with each other and introduce armadas from all four corners simultaneously (a dozen or two strong ships), one colonial power for each corner. Send them on "treasure convoy" type routes toward the center of the board. This should have the effect of flushing the human players toward each other, for an end game with AI and humans at each others throats. Sure, historical accuracy might suffer, but it does reproduce the rush of the endgame in Red Death.

If that mechanic is hard to implement, make the colonials make peace with each other and give production in every city a huge boost so that every city can crank out a ship every turn or two. All the sudden, the board would be awash with danger.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

After reading @efurstie's post, at least one reason came to my mind for the icons "war declared" and "peace made" between colonial powers:
for a human player to understand who is likely to attack whom, when there are lots of ships from different empires in a given region of the map.
Anyway, in practice I don't use that information.

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

If someone's interested, here's a reference for how much gold different actions provide (and movement they take):
- plundering floating treasure/a treasure chest - 200 gold (consumes 3 movement points)
- plundering a trade route - 50 gold (consumes all movement)
- clearing a buccaneer camp - 60+25 (85) gold (consumes 3 movement points and remaining movement)
- sacking a port - 500 gold (consumes 1 attack)
- sinking a treasure ship - 300 gold (consumes 1 attack)

p.s.: I will be updating as I get more info.

 

[AsH2]

I think those precious Crews come with no downside.
Should there be a Crew limit per ship - 1 (extra) on Sloop , 2 (extra) on Brigantine , 3 (extra) on Galleon?
Should (extra) Crew and Shore Party also have a cost?

 

[AsH2]

What do you think is missing?
Pirates Scenario - Fixes/Changes/Additions

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

Ships seen here are graphically incorrect.
1. Sloop could be reperesented with base game Privateer
2. Galleon should be De Zeven Provincien
3. Brigantine should have the look of Frigate.
4. Merchant ship should always be De Zeven Provincien
5. What are logics that Galleon is melee ship and Sloop is short ranged?

Also how may I get Shore Party assets? (or graphical assets that can be 'rehab'ed)

 

[KyivanRusCivPlease]

Ships seen here are graphically incorrect.
1. Sloop could be reperesented with base game Privateer
2. Galleon should be De Zeven Provincien
3. Brigantine should have the look of Frigate.
4. Merchant ship should always be De Zeven Provincien
5. What are logics that Galleon is melee ship and Sloop is short ranged?

Also how may I get Shore Party assets? (or graphical assets that can be 'rehab'ed)

I already got used to the graphics of the ships)

 

[Mesix]

I do not have the Pirates scenario listed in the available scenarios to play. I checked the Steam store page and I have all the DLC available (including the Frontier Pack which is the latest). What am I missing?

 

[pokiehl]

I do not have the Pirates scenario listed in the available scenarios to play. I checked the Steam store page and I have all the DLC available (including the Frontier Pack which is the latest). What am I missing?

Multiplayer only.