This is for Patrician III

Well, there is a absurdly annoying and weak single crayer pirate that is roaming right in front of my hometown.

I am trying to get rid of him, and I tried EVERYTHING, and I don't even damage him, either in normal or automated combat.

Example of things I tried:

Unloaded crayers made in the best shipyard (except weapons, some with less weapons than normal) with captains with sailing skill 5, chasing the pirate when he is loaded with about 210 of goods.

I still don't catch him... I don't even reach him, ever, it is freaking annoying.

I tried other things (other captains, other loadouts, bigger convoys, smaller convoys...) anyone has any idea on how I get the guy?

The fighting AI is a bit dumb, try this: On the battle map get him to follow you, easy enough usually cause thats what the starting setup leads to anyway. So you sail away, he follows and then you do a little wiggle to one side, enough to fire once. Back to your old direction running away from him. Wiggle to the other side, fire, back. Once cannons reload first side again... Try not to sail off the map but since its you, not him who determines where the two of you are going its usually not hard.

Once he's down to enterable state he should be really slow, try to pay attention on which side he still shoots, often you destroy all cannons on one side. You are attempting a full circle now, to come up behind him to enter. Thats safer if you know he's harmless on one side now, but can be done on armed ships too, might get hit once more. He's probably slow enough not to move much at this point.

That way you can basically win with only one ship against every ship without even getting hit. In theory at least, I often catch one hit while turning and setting up that chase, but against a crayer thats not too damaging.

Afaik sailing skill only works on the big map, use a good fighting captain if you have. Use only one ship, the rest just distracts you and gets in the way, you wont need more fire power against a crayer. Don't use autofight or whatever thats called on the fighting map, it lets both ships circle each other getting both damaged a lot.

If the weather/rocks is not to your liking you could of course flee and attack again, getting randomly new conditions.

Good luck, I enter everything with a single crayer with this technique, others swear on cogs for their superior mobility (turning and such, not speed) and bigger crew.

I am fighting a single shitty crayer, he immediately flees when I enter battle, he never chases.

The reason why I want to defeat him is because he keeps engaging my ships and slowing them down (ie: as they pause to scare him away), and sometimes he do manage to plunder my older ships (the crayers I bought before the shipyard was decent, any little load make them slow, and I don't put full sailors on them to avoid their weight making them more inefficient).

You need a dedicated pirate hunter. Get the best crayer you can find, upgrade it twice, load it with the best weapons you can get and a full crew armed with cutlasses. Assign a captain with the highest speed and boarding combat ratings you can find. Ratings for trading and cargo space don't matter. With a ship like this you can take out almost any single pirate ship. Even hulks, if you're careful, because they can't turn nearly as fast as a crayer.

It can still be frustrating sometimes because if you're unlucky you'll run into a pirate captain who is really good at these exact things. If so, you might have to chase him and fight a few battles where you damage him a little at a time before you catch him.

I find it difficult to control two ships at a time in the battles, and virtually impossible to control more than that.

So he's quite damaged already? Usually those go to their hideouts for repairs, leaving you alone for a long time. (hideout wharves take their cue from Newcastle, if Newcastle has a good, fast wharf so have the pirates) And once he has a full load he should go back too... sometimes pirates forget even the tiny bit of common sense that was programmed into them.

If he likes to plunder your ships prepare a surprise. A crayer with full, happy crew, cutlasses for everyone, fighting captain but no weapons otherwise. Fleeing is decided by percieved threat and that goes by ship weapons mostly or exclusively, such an enter machine should look perfectly harmless... bait it with a few barrels of fur or whatever expensive stuff you have around. Forget the chase tactics and go into enter mode as fast as you can, he should be less shy against an "unarmed" ship.

I suspect AI captains have a bigger range of skill than the 0-5 we can get, there is just no reason a full, damaged ship should be able to escape an empty one of the same type otherwise.

My original post state that I already attempted that.


In the end the only way to defeat him was rather... unorthodox.

I built a new Crayer with the best shipyard, cargo space 350.

Then I DID NOT upgraded it.

Then I put just a little more crew than the enemy pirate had, and a 3/5/5 captain.

Then I chased the guy in capture mode... Since the weight of my crew is very little in a 350 cargo Crayer, I managed to be just a tiny bit faster, and I managed to capture the guy right on the edge of the battle map (he almost escaped).

Any other ways failed...

I have the impression that the percentage of weight affect the speed of a ship, thus a ship with 10 units of cargo that is actually 10 sailors is faster in a 350 crayer than in the first crayer, because 10/350 is very little.

Also I read in another forums that pirates actually can get their sailing and fighting skills to about 7/7, this is why they are so damn annoying to catch... This is obviously for game balance reasons (ie: if pirates could only go to 5/5 players would always easily beat them)

Finally, congrats!

Your post made me wonder if I ever actually tested my assumption that you get some cargo weight for free, that can't influence the ship speed... I never compromised on crew if I needed it, just hoping leaving the rest empty would be enough for the full "empty ship" bonus. Does it make a difference on the battle map only, or on the big one too? Would be so much easier to test if you could simply take the time between Novgorod and London instead of the whole randomized mess.

You will definitely run into some ace pirate captains on occasion. They can be damn nasty.

I really don't understand why you had such trouble defeating him. You stated that he kept attacking you? Just take a Snaikka, upgrade it once, give her some minimal weaponry (like 2 small catapults on each side), load a few barrels of expensive goods, minimal crew and no cutlasses. Let him attack you or attack him, he will try to board you. Just sail away from him, turning left and right, firing at him every time. When you reduce his health to less than 25% he will try to escape, but be terribly slow by then. Just keep firing and sink him, problem solved.

The trick is in letting him thing he is superior, not chase him, but bait him.

Wait, better shipyards make better ships? I thought they just built stuff faster.

Both. More capacity for goods and sailors for the starting models, but if you start 1300ish building any hulks requires a top wharf (they are available with later start dates, but the improvement mechanism still applies) 250 barrels in a snaikka vs 150 early on is nothing to sneeze at. Ofc repair docks can only improve their speed.

PIRATE HUNTER captains on each ship needs at least a *,3,3 rating a *, 4+,4+ are really effective
put fastest best fighting captain in a Crayer with catapults "only". Absolute least amount of weapons for creating a convoy load up on cutlasses 1 per each crew member. More if your a long way from a office.
10 iron goods or something else relatively expensive but light(Barrels). you want to entice the ai not scare it away. you can't see Pirates if you have no goods onboard. don't use beer or *wine as your sailors may drink it on you.

second ship is a cog no weapons or a few catapults a non upgraded ship is fine. as always culasses and a full crew and 10 barrels

if you need a 3rd ship use a crayers same as above. weapon are more use to the leader who will be chased by all if he has the only weapons.but crayer or cog the formula is the same

the Idea is simple get the Pirate to want to attack you. always carry items in each ship 10 iron goods or skins works very well. pirates chase armed ships leaving your others to chase them
Pirates have 1 captain no matter how many ships. he will be on any ship that is left so take out the support ships first he will usually start on the faster ship in the convoy a crayer or a cog and will have more sailors than the others. take out the others first.
since only the main ship has a captain the others don't fight boarding battles well you crayers "31" can take out cogs with 38 sailors without much trouble. keep the leader chasing your ship until all other threats are neutralized. remember the captain of the pirate will move if you defeat his main ship

if you post these fleets where the pirates generate they will almost always attack you because to the ai you look weak. you get free ships and the people love you for taking out pirates. they generate in specific spots you can see some later in alderman missions.

most pirates not all, captains seem to be *, 4+, 3. tavern mission pirates are much weaker. probably - *, 2, 2