Sloops for n00bs! - You get a better chick, with a Brig ...

[Longasc]

... of War of course!


Really, I got many recommendations about using Royal Sloops. They are great. No doubt about that, they are fast, small, powerful guns and many crewmen...

But have you ever tried a fully upgraded Brig of War?

These ships make warships and about those fish trawlers called Sloops.

But with a good ol' Brig, you get a

 

[bigchief]

Too bad you will never get a shot at me in my Royal Sloop because I would just dance around your big lumbering boat, staying either in front of you or behind you, and constantly pounding you with my meager 20 guns.

Down at the 'Ole Blue Parrot Tavern the boys usually talk about big boats and compensating in the same sentence.

 

[Longasc]

oh bigchief, those talk usually about Ships of the Line!

 

[handy900]

Brig of War is a very good boat, but I prefer the speed of the Royal Sloop and it's ability to make speed into the wind.

I try to win sea battles without taking or giving any damage so my undamaged captured cargo ships can make it to port faster.

 

[Smidlee]

I first like brigs and frigate but I agree Royal Sloop is the ship for me. It a lot easyer and faster going from Vera Cruz to Trindad (anywhere eastward) in a sloop especially when i'm running down someone.

 

[warpstorm]

I have to agree with Longasc. The Brig of War fully upgraded rocks. It's fairly fast and manueverable (although not as fast as a sloop) I can often dodge shots with it. In addition, it packs 32 guns!

 

[Civrules]

I love the Brigs (of War) because there's this charm to them. However, they are not as fast as the regular Frigate. The only other advantage the Brig of War has over the Frigate is its turning raduis.


Also, what do you guys think. If you are short on money, and had a Large Frigate and a Royal Sloop, would you sale the Large Frigate and keep the Royal Sloop or would you rather keep the LF?
I love both, but I think the RS just cannot replace the firepower of a LF.

 

[Longasc]

If you could tell me where to find a Ship of the Line, I would sell the Large Frigate.

 

[Civrules]

I'm not exactly sure where most of them come from since I got my first one... But if I had to guess, it is near the stronger Dutch cities.

Once I intercepted 6 Dutch Frigates in a row! After that, the SOTL came along...

I don't think the Dutch were very happy about 7 of their most powerful ships being captured or sacked in less than a month.

 

[Civrules]

And here's a comparison between two of my favorite ships (1660):

(Brig of War and SOTL)

 

[bigchief]

And here's a comparison between two of my favorite ships (1660)

That's probably a good comparison, but not totally in proportion. I have noticed that your flagship is always a little larger on the screen. When I have a regular sloop as my flagship it appears larger than the sloop of war that is trailing, and a royal sloop as the flagship appears almost as large as a trailing galleon.

I am sure I am prejudiced in my opinion, but I have been trying a larger ship in my current game, to see what everybody sees in them. I had a hard time finding a royal sloop, so I started using Morgan's large frigate as my flagship. It is very nice when battling the larger ships, but I was unable to take two sloops in battle. One was a sloop of war and the other was a royal sloop. Both were a good distance away when the battle started, and they simply ran away from the fight, and I was unable to catch them. I now have a fully loaded royal sloop in my fleet, and I am about to divide the plunder. It is a shame to loose the the frigate, but I am going back to the royal sloop.

 

[Rheinmetall]

At first I was using a Royal Sloop and was doing fine with it Also with a Brig o War when I finally got one. Then I got me self sunk in a RS because of poor wind conditions coupled with two big spanish galleons. I just couldn't dodge them. So after that I started using a Frigate and haven't got a problem since. Yes you can't dodge every shot in frigate but you don't have to. It can take the pounding. Also I mostly take on larger ships like Galleons and merchantmen so I can always outmanouver them (They rarely hit me). And smaller ships aren't a problem if you know how to sail. The frigate is surprisingly nimble with reefed sails. Only ship type I've had problems with is the war canoe . What's also good with the frigate is that it can carry more men than any sloop. So if you loose a few you still got plenty and can attack that city even after taking some pounding from a suicidical pirate hunter. At one time I i had a frigate and a sloop so I could choose the best ship for given situation but since I noticed there wasn't a situation I couldn't handle with a frigate I sold the sloop.

 

[handy900]

I've changed my opinion after a few games. Bigger is better at higher levels IMHO. I now prefer a frigate for the crew and cargo capacity. I've yet to see a Ship of the Line.

 

[bigchief]

I've changed my opinion after a few games. Bigger is better at higher levels IMHO. I now prefer a frigate for the crew and cargo capacity. I've yet to see a Ship of the Line.

I have changed my mind as well. I played with Morgan's large frigate to see what the fuss was all about. Well after a couple of games of doing that, I'm not going back to the small boat. It is nice to be able to beat the other ships into submission, and be able to avoid the duel.

There are still some drawbacks to using such a powerful ship. It is hard to hit a Sloop class ship. The shot pattern is so wide that most of it misses them, especially if they are coming straight at you. Then there is the fact that you damage the target boat so badly that it's not worth sailing it back to port, if a friendly port is not nearby. The worst is sinking your target ship by accident. Those treasure galleons sometimes have 40 guns, so you have to hit her hard, or take a beating yourself, but they are awful fragile. I have sunk them with the first volley.

Even with those drawbacks, I now prefer the big ship.

 

[Stora]

I always try to get one of each of the warships for my fleet. The biggest in the class if possible. In my current game I have three SotL, one Frigate, one Mailrunner, one Royal sloop and one Brig of War. The SotLs are doing most of the fighting, but I use all of them. The Brig of War is perfect when you face those pirate hunters in sloops. They might be able to outrun me, but they sure wont outmanouver a brig with reefed sails. Playing defensive with a Brig of War against sloops is very easy, typically you can get their sail damage to 100% with one or two volleys. The dense volleys from the Brigs are great against small ships. A Mailrunner is perfect for capturing smugglers in sloops or pinnaces or to stop those indian war canoes from reaching friendly cities. The Royal sloop is not used very often, but it's good to have if I need speed and winds are too weak for the SotL or in the wrong direction. Kind of Ironic since I used a fleet of 8 Royal sloops in my first two games at Apprentice to Adventurer. They could handle any situation easily at those levels. But you tend to take more hits on higher levels for more damage each, and your own cannons do less damage.

A tip for using the Frigate line: Gain speed at the start of the battle by running before the wind, or running broad reach. It will be much easier to turn this way, even into the wind. Frigates gain speed slowly, but lose it slowly too (they are heavy).

The downside to mixing ships like this is lower fleet speed. But it's not that bad at all with navigation skill and I no longer bother with chasing Raymondo or Montalban to Vera Cruz. I am finished with both of them at the age of 31 without going out of my way to find them, I just make sure I spawn them again as soon as I kill them if I need more map pieces, sooner or later they will come to you. Installing English govenors in Vera Cruz, Villa Hermosa and Campeche helped too

The biggest advantage with a mixed fleet is that it's much more fun to play around with different ship types than sticking to just one.

 

[Squirrelking]

I personnaly just like bigger stuff. but you need to upgrade it to be any good.
I only have got a Ship of the line once but I lost it right away . i only had roundshot, it had like forty people, the hull was at like 60%, and it got outmaneuvered. I lost to a royal sloop pirate hunter though. i am ashamed

 

[Little Raven]

Frigates are fun. I've never had a SOTL but I'm sure they are fun too. And BoW are nice boats as well.

But I just love my Royal Sloop. I'm playing on Swashbuckler, and enemy ships HURT. A Frigate can take the pounding, true, but then you're stuck in a damaged ship that you have to limp back to port with. In a RS, they never touch you....

But yes, you do have to be very careful about taking on multiple ships. And always, always pay attention to the wind. One bad salvo can kill you good.

 

[Wolfwood]

Also, what do you guys think. If you are short on money, and had a Large Frigate and a Royal Sloop, would you sale the Large Frigate and keep the Royal Sloop or would you rather keep the LF?
I love both, but I think the RS just cannot replace the firepower of a LF.

I for one would sell the frigate, large frigate or SOTL in any situation if I had a royal sloop in my hands...

 

[Silica_Pathways]

I use spanish war galleon 'Clara' with 32 guns and 300 men aboard It's a really impressive ship, it can take out some of smaller ships with one shot (when shooting with all guns, of course)

 

[steviejay]

so whats the general agreement here? do people prefer larger ships with more ranks of guns or the more manuverable smaller ships with smaller guns, but can probably reload quicker?

In my first game I ended up with a bad ass Frigate or something similar in size, 40 guns, 300 max crew, the 'Monitor A' (the previous 'Monitor' being lost in an accidental dividing of the loot) but when I restarted I found that going up against larger ships with the initial ship is quite easy because instead of having one large broadside attack, you can fire smaller barrages more often, and move in and out of danger easier than you could with larger ships.

I wish I had the time to actually try that out again, but I think i'm starting to prefer the smaller ships