Sea Battle

Sea Battles The test of any Pirate Crew is in Sea Battles, where the Duty Puzzle skills and Sword fighting prowess comes to the fore. Selecting a Target Sea Battles are initiated and controlled by a commanding Officer, often the Navigator but sometimes an Officer assigned to the Crow's Nest to look out for likely targets. Might and ye coloured rings The cumulative Sea Battle ratings of all those on-board a vessel is known as the 'Might' of the vessel. Ships are displayed with a coloured ring based on their Might relative to that of your vessel:

The compared Might is ordered as follows, from Dark Blue (much weaker than your vessel) to Dark Red (much stronger):

Green ships are those who are close to yours in Might, and therefore usually good targets. Beware the Black Ship There be a legend that a Black Ship stalks the Oceans, taking vengeance upon those who pick on fish too small for 'em. The Black Ship is terrifying and, it is thought, invincible. In short, if ye attacks a Blue ship — anything more blue than green, e.g. cyan, is dangerous — then ye stands a chance of meeting the Black Ship. The chance is much higher if you attack player vessels. If ye are unfortunate enough to meet the Black Ship it will only take the place of yer opponent when you move to the Sea Battle, so ye has a chance to disengage quickly if ye realises that your intended prey is a little too blue. The black ship cares not whether ye be at war or peace, friend or fiend. Only that ye be attackin' a far weaker foe. Consider yerselves warned!

The Chart-Table 'Radar' Black Ships aside, never let it be said that there be no magic on the Ocean waves. By a strange enchantment placed on every charting table it is possible to see the vessels nearby:

Use the zoom button to move in close enough to see the ships properly. They are coloured by their relative Might, so you can pick out juicy targets. Sea Routes and their Difficulty There are established routes between the islands of each Archipelago and over the long distances between Archipelagoes. Brigands tend to keep within an Archipelagoe. More Brigands can be found in settled Archipelagoes than in the rustic wilds. Each route between islands has an rumored difficulty. The harder Brigands prefer the more difficult routes, and are more likely to pillage weaker vessels on a difficult route. These difficult routes tend to go to islands with valuable and rare commodities, but we leave ye to determine just what they might be. Engaging the Enemy A Battle commences when the Navigator sights a ship that looks like a likely prize. Clicking on the ship and signalling 'Attack!' begins the chase.

The Chase! Before the cannon-play can begin, the attacker must chase down their Prize. If necessary the attacking ship will turn about and begin chasing the the fleeing vessel. During this time it is critical that the Sailors put on a healthy burst of speed! Note that it's not possible to begin Chasing a vessel when either your ship or theirs is at a league-point. The Sea Battle Should the Chase be successful, the two ships move into Sea Battle! The display will change to the Battling interface for the Navigator, with the other Crew members being shown a smaller version of the action whilst they Puzzle.

You can scroll around the sea battle view using the left mouse button (which returns the view to show your vessel) or the right mouse button (which leaves the view in place).

The Helm and Battling from Within a Puzzle The Officer in control of the Sea Battle will be the last one to 'take the Helm'. Usually this means the player Navigating, but it is possible for another Officer to take the Helm directly from the Wheel during a battle. Should you have the Helm you can move to any Puzzle and control the Sea Battle from within the Puzzle. This is challenging. Sea Battle Objective The objective of the Sea Battle for the attacker is to close in on the prize, grapple them, and begin boarding, preferably after scoring a few cannon hits in order to soften up the opposition. For the defending ship they may choose to either flee the attacker, or fight back with cannons. Should the defender manage to damage the attacker significantly more than themselves, or achieve at least ten game turns without being either shot with cannon or boarded, they can choose to end the Battle and escape. Movement and Firing Tokens The diligent Navigator will note that on the bottom left of their Battle screen they have a set of different Tokens to move Forward, turn Left and Right, and Fire their cannons. By each type of Token is a number indicating the number of Tokens the Navigator has to play with. The endeavours of the Sailors on board your vessel earn Tokens to move Forward and turn Left and Right, whilst the Gunners accumulate Firing tokens by loading full cannons. In addition there is a Grapple button for grappling.

In order to make use of these Tokens the crafty Navigator drags the token from their hand to the slots. It is also possible to drag Tokens back out of the slots, if you decide to revise a move. You can also click the empty spaces to place a token there. Clicking again cycles to the next token type (<, ^, >). Cannons may be fired from the port and starboard sides of the vessel (that's left and right, fer landlubbers), and larger ships may fire cannons twice on either side.

Note that the large ships have a 'spacer' that prevents them moving four times in a turn. This spacer moves when you place movement tokens over it, or can be dragged itself. Turn Execution When the sands of the hourglass run through then the turn is executed. Each Turn the Tokens are executed in order: both sides move, then any wind or whirlpool takes effect, then both sides fire. Cannons and their Consequences Cannons fire straight out from either side of the vessel.

Should your vessel be hit by a cannon it will be damaged — depending on the size of the cannon. Damaged vessels take on more bilge and therefore become harder to sail, making it difficult to accumulate more tokens with which to pursue or evade the opponent. Diligent carpentry will repair a damaged vessel. When a Sea Battle reaches boarding, crews who have sustained damage (and not repaired it) during the Sea Battle begin the boarding swordfight with stacks of Black Blocks proportional to the damage. Such Black Blocks cannot be destroyed, essentially limiting the size of the board for those poor wretches afflicted, and making their swordplay that much more challenging. Thus the twofold advantage of cannons.

Hazards: Wind, Whirlpools, and Rocks

A number of Hazards can be seen on the Battle map: •

Wind will push your vessel in a direction, regardless of which way the ship faces.

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Whirlpools will swirl your vessel around. They are predictable, but tricksy.

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Rocks will stop a vessel dead in its tracks, causing it a little damage.

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The edge of the board also acts like rocks, causing damage.

Wind and whirlpools can be used by the skilled navigator to the player's advantage, adding extra speed to the vessel. Note that whirlpools do their whirling and winds their winding after the player's movement turn, but before the fire of cannons. Ramming other Vessels If you collide with another ship both ships will be damaged, but larger ships inflict much greater damage on smaller ships; indeed, they can even push them out of the way. Vessels can even be sunk by ramming, so be careful! Escape Should the defenders succeed in evading their attacker for a number of turns they will have the opportunity to end the Battle and flee. Note that in the bottom corner of the Battle panel you can see if there are three or less turns remaining before the defender can disengage. Grappling To Board the other vessel you must bring your ship alongside your quarry, in adjacent spaces, and play a Grapple token in the correct direction. Grapple tokens can be played at any time, and do not need to be accumulated like other tokens, but you cannot fire and grapple from the same side of the ship at the same time. Any cannonfire from your opponent will, however, strike while you cast your hook.

Boarding Once one side successfuly grapples the other, then Boarding occurs.

In boarding the attacking Crew swings across to the defending ship and a pitched Sword fight takes place between the two Crews. The two Crews face each other over the board. You will be assigned a random opponent, but can select another enemy by clicking on them; that Pirate will then receive your sword-blows. Beside each Pirate you can see dots that indicate how many enemies have targeted that Pirate. Note that it's not usually a good idea for more than 3 or 4 Pirates to gang up on a single individual. In large battles with more than eight Pirates on a side there appear two buttons to move up and down the list of Pirates. In addition the [ and ] keys can be used to adjust your target up and down. As Pirates are defeated they are shuffled to the bottom of the list on either side. The Crew with the last Pirates standing is declared the winner.

Loot! When a Brigand vessel is pillaged the victorious pirates receive a handsome settlement of Gold, along with a share of any commodities the Brigands might have aboard (doubtless pillaged from other hapless souls). Should a Pirate vessel manned by players be defeated the commodities and gold in the Hold and Booty will be pillaged by the victorious crew, with more taken from the Booty than the Hold. In addition any personal wealth in the pockets of the Pirates on board will be pilfered, to the same extent as the Hold. Note that no pesonal inventory (items in yer pirate's booty panel) will be taken. Only coin on hand and ship goods. Cooling-off after the Battle For a lengthy period of time after a battle the defeated Pirates may not be attacked by the same crew. They may, however, attempt to attack the victors and revenge themselves. In addition it is not possible to attack either party from another battle for two minutes afterwards. Hot Pirate on Pirate Pillaging Action In addition ye may try to chase down and pillage yer fellow Pirates and traders! Ye will receive a share of whatsoever gold and commodities lie in their hold. Beware! Real Pirates may make for much harder foes than lillylivered Brigands. Sinking Battles If the flags of the two crews in battle are at war with one another then the sea battle between them will be a sinking battle! Ships with whom you are at war can be discerned in the sea view by their red outlines. In such a battle if a vessel is hit by cannons, rocks, or the edge such that it becomes fully damaged then it will sink! The ship is forever lost to Davy Jones with all its contents, and the poor crew washes up on the shore of their last port. Some may have lost an eye (for a patch), a leg (for a pegleg) or a hand (for a hook)! Arr, the rigours of war!