Sid meirer's Pirates!

[nhbdy]

anyone here play that game? if so what were your favorite ships, tactics or anything fun/unusual that you did?

[Airk]

I love Pirates and I still play occasionally when the urge strikes. (Watching "Feasting on Waves" on the Food Network stirred the bug recently). I always end up playing pretty much the same way, alas.

The runaway best ship is probably the Royal Sloop, but overall any of the Fore-and-Aft rigged ships will do a great job.

Someday, I will force myself to play in a less optimized fashion. ;)

[Saithis Bladewing]

My strategy: hang around France and Britain until I see a Ship of the Line.

Head for it full-speed with my sloop.

Disable said Ship of the Line, with my sloop.

Board said Ship of the Line.

Pwn captain with 1337 swordfighting skills.

Laugh at the newfound ability to sink practically any other ship in one volley.

...What, Ships of the Line are fun!

[Breltar]

I tend to use a sloop of war and get all the upgrades, then another and then another. With three sloops of war you can normally have enough pirates to take over most towns for your faction.

I try to stay on the good side of two factions, usually dutch and english since they seem to fight the least with each other. Starting at a friendly port, I build up my forces then head 2 or 3 towns away and take it over, making it a town of one of the factions I like. This usually builds the coffers fairly well and allows me to purchase any upgrades I need.

I always fight any famous pirate I come across, and track down old Baron Raymondo when I get information on him. I personally hate sailing west of the yucatan as it rarely has strong winds and my crew always goes sour around there.

When fighting on land, be sure you use your buccaneers and hang back your pirates until the enemy is within range of a charge. I always try to flank the enemy and be on the high ground in order to maximize the charge effect, sometimes taking them out in one charge after the buccaneers are done shooting them up.

I always go rapier when swordfighting and stick primarily to jabs as it is pretty much faster than any other attack, even though it isnt very strong.

[Om]

The original I enjoyed immensely. The remake... meh. It does everything right but somehow feels empty. Once you've sailed round the Caribbean a few times its hard to escape the conclusion that there's not much to the game

[Cespenar]

Unfortunately, I only got to play the remake, but I somehow managed to enjoy it. Though I have to admit that there were numerous annoying flaws, the first coming to my mind is the "locked" direction of the wind. How does that make sense at all? Was it that way in the original game?

[Om]

Though I have to admit that there were numerous annoying flaws, the first coming to my mind is the "locked" direction of the wind. How does that make sense at all?That's how prevailing winds work :smallwink:

[Driderman]

As far as I remember, the direction of the wind wasn't completely locked. Except on the lowest difficulty

[Greep]

Generally speaking I play to try and get the most money before retiring, and the ladies man strategy is what I found wins.

Basically, choose medic (hardest diff. of course ;D) and ally every nation except one (spain usually). Beat the crap out of that nation and their pirates, while fooling around with the ladies of the other countries, until you hit highest rank in everywhere. Then... switch gears. Betray em all for the enemy and gain the highest rank in his, and mess around with their women too ;). Take out the pirate leaders at the end, as they gain more money that way.

And try not to get syphilis.

[SolkaTruesilver]

And try not to get syphilis.

That's a good advice, if I ever heard one...

[Breltar]

That's a good advice, if I ever heard one...

Argh mates! Seem te have gotten some barnacles from that sea beast on me mizzen mast.

I find its more profitable to take over the towns rather than play the ally game, though I guess you could do that with the ally game as well.

[Kane]

Never beaten the game or figured out how to take over towns, but I like it anyway. An eight ship fleet of sloop of wars is awesome, as they're light enough to hunt anything down, heavy enough to blow anything out of the water. (with some skill) and heavy enough to make off with plunder. And very agile.

Only bad part is it takes me the better part of a year to get eight of those, if I can at all, and then my crew wants to break up...

[Airk]

Stop being so picky. You don't need 8 sloops of war for anything. You just need -one- sloop of War (Actually, I tend to prefer the Royal sloop, which is rarer. x.x), and whatever vessels will get to your destination without slowing you down too much. If you're headed west, just grab whatever you can get your hands on, when it comes time to work your way back east, either split the plunder and go down to a single, quick, Fore and Aft rigged, or at the least, ditch all your square rigged vessels and cut diagonally. (If you're in the north, head down to the main as you go east, if you're already on the main, set your sights on St. Kitts.)

Sacking towns fits well with any strategy, so long as the war lasts long enough for you to capitalize. ;) But really, you need to split the difference. Sacking towns gets you lots of coin, but if you don't 'play the ally game', you'll never have enough -land- for a decent estate, or titles enough for prestige. Plus, you'll need a good rank with at least on faction to marry a hot chick. :P

Edit: Oh, and as for "original vs new", I have to say that, honestly, if you're making that comparison and coming out in favor of the former, you're wearing the rose colored glasses, because the new version has literally everything the old one did and then several things on top to boot.

[Crow]

I really liked the old version. I was disappointed that there was no option to marry the merchant's daughter anymore. =)

I don't ever try to play for the maximum score, but my goal is to rescue my entire family, marry a beautiful dutch daughter, enslave Montalban, and then retire while still in fine health. By now, I'm usually a governor by default once everything else is taken care of.

My favorite ship is the mail runner. It's the fastest ship in most winds (though frigates can be faster in strong winds), and the most maneuverable. When I need to sack towns, I tow some sacrificial lambs for a little bit. 12 cannon is more than enough to whittle down the enemy when you can't be hit, and the crew compliment is plenty to handle swordfights at Swash.

[RobotPerfomance]

I played this game alot this summer. It was a good game. As far as ship choice goes I liked the Friget. Nothing like having power and speed also way easier than finding a ship of the line.

[Hawriel]

I loved using the royal sloop or the sloop of war. Untill I deside to track down blackbeard for his fast frigate. After that I am all but unstopable untill the character reaches 35. In which case its becomes hard to win duels do to old age.

I also marry a dutch women, but then some times the spanish are hard to pass up.

[A Rainy Knight]

I like Brigs of War myself. Very well rounded, and they pack a punch.

Probably the most interesting thing I've done is become allies with the Dutch and wage total war on anything non-Dutch, including repeatedly sacking towns until I can install a Dutch governor. I made nearly a third of the cities Dutch before I got tired of it.

[Breltar]

I like Brigs of War myself. Very well rounded, and they pack a punch.

Probably the most interesting thing I've done is become allies with the Dutch and wage total war on anything non-Dutch, including repeatedly sacking towns until I can install a Dutch governor. I made nearly a third of the cities Dutch before I got tired of it.

I did that too and while fun, it was hard to keep up after a while because you had less ships to sack and take that were not dutch.

[Talya]

Ship of the Line always as flagship.

The rest of the fleet is spanish Treasure Galleons (huge cargo capacity ftw.)

[pendell]

How does the game compare to Port Royale and PR 2?

I played the original Sid Meier's Pirates! Back in the late 80s. Enjoyed it immensely. Played PR. Enjoyed it as well. Got access to Pirates remake through gametap and didn't even play it through -- it didn't give me anything I hadn't already seen in PR. That I was interested in, anyway. Keep your dancing -- I want to build factories and a trading empire.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Talya]

How does the game compare to Port Royale and PR 2?


Oooh. Something new to try...

[Breltar]

How does the game compare to Port Royale and PR 2?

I played the original Sid Meier's Pirates! Back in the late 80s. Enjoyed it immensely. Played PR. Enjoyed it as well. Got access to Pirates remake through gametap and didn't even play it through -- it didn't give me anything I hadn't already seen in PR. That I was interested in, anyway. Keep your dancing -- I want to build factories and a trading empire.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Really the new 'Sid Meier's Pirates!' is a nice remake of the 'Pirates!' game from the 80s he made. It has updated graphics, a few more options and a lot of new options, but as far as gameplay is similar to that good oldie. I like it because the graphical update is amazing and the user interface is great. Worth getting if you can find it in the discount bin, but unless you are a huge fan of the old 80s game, you might find it a bit simplistic.

[Return of Lanky]

Thankfully, my girlfriend is obsessed with Pirates!, so I've got access to the original and the remake.

I lean towards the remake myself, to be honest. Though either version is kick-ass, nothing is as fun as the animations in the Xbox version. Kicking someone's ass in a fully-3D barroom brawl? Yes.