Ships of the Line - how to get one?

[Longasc]

Simple Question, see title.

I already have a Large Frigate with all bells and whistles, but I want a Ship of the Line...

But how to get one? I am sooo nasty towards the English, making the whole coast that I made English French right now (Duke of all 4 nations), that they really should send a squadron of those Juggernauts.

It is January 1679... do SOTLS not appear before 1680 perhaps?

 

[Kenta'arka]

I found this in the forum at addictedtopirates.com:

You can capture a Ship of the Line by looking for english, french and dutch ship with NEW WARSHIP (tag) (higher the difficulty setting better the chance) this is the rarest of all ship sometimes only seen once or twice in an entire game.
To maximize your chance, just blocade a non spanish town, attack all non spanish ship going in or out of the town, shoot at the enemy town (using space bar, shoot until the town start shooting back)
You get increasing chance to find a SOL in late era, 1680 best chance to see one SOL, 1660, 1640, 1620. 1600 least chance to one SOL..

 

[Quentin]

Ah so I see I've been doing it wrong. The whole of my last game I've been attacking attacking the Spanish hoping for a SOL and all I got were Fast Galleons.

 

[Longasc]

I am bombarding and sinking every french and english city, there are only french and english cities left on the spanish main (lower south half), and still, I had once a Large Frigate but not more.

I am Duke of all 4 nations, and the spaniards are still the no. 1 haters of mine. I need to destroy more English shipping, and I really hope that I will get a SOTL by now!

This guy Civrules already got a second, grr...

 

[man o' war]

In my current game (started today) I found a SOTL in the first couple of months, on easiest difficuty!! (how lucky am I!!) Now i've just started cranking it up difficulty levels top maximise points - life isnt to hard on any level withj a SOTL . Only difficulty was capturing it in the first place with a sloop of war

 

[Longasc]

It is really not that difficult to survive without a SOTL, btw...

What is really disgusting is that everyone who got a SOTL by sheer luck needs to tell me of his luck. Stop that, I hate you all.

 

[The Omega]

What is really disgusting is that everyone who got a SOTL by sheer luck needs to tell me of his luck. Stop that, I hate you all.

Would you prefer to hear how i found a SOTL, captured it without taking a hit using a royal sloop, and was about to immeadiantly put it in my fleet and make it my flagship only to find that my fleet was full?

 

[bigchief]

I had never had any luck getting one either. I don't ususally pick on the Dutch, English, or French too much. I have played well over 20 complete games and had only ever seen one. It was Dutch, and I wasn't fast enough to get there before it went into St. Martin. The last couple of games I have been hammering the Dutch hard trying to get one to spawn. In my current game (1680), I managed to build up a 54,000 Dutch bounty in my first year of playing, but didn't get a SotL. I finally gave up and went about doing my quests. I had just read this thread, and went back to play the game. I got promoted to Spanish Duke, and was just about to start my non-stop attacks on Spanish shipping. I normally base out of Curaco, and sail up and down the Spanish Main. I had just left Curaco (this was 10 years after the start and the Dutch had finally forgiven me), and spotted the Spanish Treasure Fleet, and wheeled around to give chase, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a New Warship leave Curaco. Sure enough, it was my long awaited Ship of the Line. I am now the proud captain of the Ship of the Line "Pirate Hunt This".

 

[Longasc]

bigchief, this is a really inspiring story. I guess I will get one at the end of my career...

 

[Longasc]

I was lucky!

While I was testing new sail mods, suddenly a Ship of the Line passed by...

I lost a month of gametime, but decided not to pass this opportunity!

Take at look at this beauty and what she does to a French Merchantman:

 

[Longasc]

Well, that was one salvo, even without bronze cannons quite impressive!

 

[Longasc]

One more shot, just for fun...

 

[bigchief]

I've been playing with mine for a bit now. I usually use the large frigate, so it's not a whole lot different. Sometimes I can get by with one less volley of shot. Now that I have done it, I probably wouldn't go out of my way to get one, if I already had a fully upgraded large frigate.

Once you hammer a ship with all those guns, it's pretty much worthless, and you will will really have problems if you try and sail it back to a port, especially if there is not a friendly one real close. It is the same with the large frigate. Since I know I won't be keeping the target ship, I use chain shot and make the ship surrender. Then you can board without a fight, take what you want, and sink her. You also don't run the risk of accidently sinking your target. So, if you haven't tried the chain shot out yet, I would suggest it. It usually only takes one volley from 40 or 48 guns to get the ship to surrender.

Edit Congrats on getting your first one. I hope you didn't get it late last night like I did. I was so wound up after that, that it took me forever to go to sleep.

 

[Longasc]

I think it will be a short relationship, I still keep my old LF around... I am in failing health and I need to hurry up to find 2 more relatives and 2 more lost cities.

 

[Flixtonslick]

well, i also found my SOTL by luck, i didint even look for it ^^, i was trying to raid some spanish towns, but on the way there i saw a boat that i thought was a frigate and it attacked a spanish war galleon, i decided to wait for them to finish and attack the winner and of course it was the "frigate", but then when i attacked i realized it was a SOTL
but is it possible to keep more then one ship when u divide the plunder ?

 

[Taé Shala]

but is it possible to keep more then one ship when u divide the plunder ?

No, it isn´t.

 

[Volum]

I captured two French Ship of the line yesterday with like 5 min apart!

 

[Longasc]

by all means, keep the SOTL. You can get Sloop Types any day.

 

[bigchief]

I am playing a new game (1680's). This time I started as the Spanish for the first time ever. I started in Santo Domingo. The Spanish were at war with everyone. I sailed towards Petit Goave. I attacked a French smuggler brigantine, then a French frigate. I sailed into Santiago, and sold the brigantine and the stupid, fast galleon (oxymoron) that they gave me to start with. I sailed out of Santiago, and the first ship I saw was a French ship of the line. I was soon commanding a SotL within 3 months of starting the game.

This is going to be rough, if I remain true to the Spanish, but having to attack the French and Brittish sure seemed to help in spawing the SotL quickly.

 

[Longasc]

bigchief, perhaps also the timeframe -> late 17th century.

I wonder if you can get a SOTL in 1600/1620 at all.

You could not even get Frigates or Sloops before 1640, at least with the Frigates I am absolutely sure, in the original Pirates.