Posted May 06, 2020
Pinnace (War Canoe, Pinnace, Mail Runner)
These ships let you have maximum overworld movement speed, and let you force the sword fighting game in ship combat - The War Canoe and Pinnace have only (75) and (90) crew with triple hammocks, so they are not allowed to do capture and raid cities unless you have multiple ships, which slows you down (even if the follower ships are also war canoes) War Canoe and Pinnace are both extremely easy to find, although they are slightly hard to fight and capture if you aren't already using a Sloop or lower because of how easily they flee battles. - If you think of your crew as a timer, the sword fighting game is shorter with them than any other ship, but it's still long enough in most cases - As far as I can tell, Most normal ships and even the Famous pirates only have the baseline fencing AI - I think only Treasure Fleet ships and Marquis Montblan have the stronger fencing AI.
Sloop (Sloop, Sloop of War, Royal Sloop)
All Three Sloops get over 100 crew with triple hammocks, so they can capture smaller cities. They can fight very well if you weave away to dodge enemy cannonballs, but are still very good at forcing a boarding battle, which they should do on anything stronger than a Brigantine, due to them being a little tedious to kill this way.
Sloop of War has all the good qualities and is easy to get. Royal Sloop is easy to forcespawn if you read a guide or wait till you find the famous pirate with it, but the upgrade is mostly letting you carry more food and have slightly more people for city battles (which you probbably aren't focusing on anyway if you are using them)
Brig (Brigantine, Brig, Brig of War)
These are my favorite ships - If you want to Cannonball down enemies, but still have an easy ability to dodge, these are a go too ship. The Brig of War can think about capturing ANY city with Triple Hammocks, although if you seriously want to go through the entire map you will want 2 of them (this goes for the bigger ships too, generally I think 300=any city in multiple battles and about 450=any city in usually only one battle.)You can also get them quite quickly on a new savefile. A player Controlled Brig of War should win Fights against War Galleons and Frigates, but is perhaps the only ship in the game that actually wants the Round Shot (Anti-sail) upgrade, because these will usually try to forcefully board you, and Cotton-Sail upgraded ones like the plot villians will use their higher top speed to do it against you.
War Galleon (Fast Galleon, War Galleon, Flag Galleon)
The Spanish exclusive combat ships are quite strong because a player will learn to try to start combat on the Right side of ships in the overworld, which lets you use their pretty good straight line-speed under wind. They have the best availability of large ships, because even if the player doesn't pick on Spain, the spreadoutness of their territory usually gurantees that the other famous pirates and countries will, and some of them will just spawn early on specific ship missions. Finally the Plot villians will use them and respawn for a long time (until you have every piece of all the maps). If you want to capture them this way - Barmundo's War Galleon is easy to get just by fighting him, but Montblanc's Flag Galleon is quite hard - you might want to wait till you can afford ship repairs (or have free) and just tear him down to 1 Crew in ship combat first. For Map movement they can get a good top speed if you are ONLY going left - They are so common and replacable that you might even think about capturing one on the far right, going on a rampage, and then just selling it to get a War Canoe/Pinnacle on the way back - Note that while they still have a good top-speed in combat, the distance you want to move is never long enough for the slow accleration to reach it, which is the most signigant disadvantage they have compared to the Frigates (the slight crew/gun differences don't really matter)
Frigate (Frigate, Large Frigate, Ship of the Line)
The Biggest ship for the other 3 countires don't spawn as often - Most of the spawns happen for the same mission types as Brig of War, but only if the threat level is high enough - usually to the point of requiring the player to personally go berserk on their ships or even capture a couple of their cities. These ships are a little unique in basically being the only ones to make use of the Reefed Sails mechanic, but even without this are pretty easy to use. They also have a great top speed that only works when going left, but unlike the War Galleons, their accleration lets them reach it both in short (battle) distances and long (map) distances. The Ship of the Line gets all the attention, but in Player Control, any of these 3 ships can dominate basically every battle.
Barque (Coastal Barque, Barque, Oceanic Barque)
The best turning trade ships - This is good because you might want to Roleplay as them due to being a starting ship in France 1620. It's reasonably functional for a playthrough with essentially the maneuvarbility of a Brigantine + Cannon maximum / Durability of a Sloop. This isn't a big enough downgrade to really stop a human player from winning the same fights they can in a Sloop using a Barque. - As follower ships, they are semi-attractive to boost your crew/cargo numbers for capturing cities without losing too much travel speed, although Brigantines have about the same numbers for both, and you can find them anywhere instead of mostly the North East (French territory).
Only the French use Barques for "regular" trading, but All Nations will use them for specific labeled ship missions (eg Grain Transport) Spain willl sometimes use them for some Governors and Millitary Payroll ships.
Fluyt (Fluyt, Large Fluyt, West Indiaman)
The Fluyt family is also frail, but unlike the Barques, they have BAD turning and speed instead of medium. The West Indiaman technically uses the Fluyt model, but has Merchantman esque stats. - All three are found in Dutch areas. Roleplaying with the Fluyt starting ship in Dutch 1600 is NOT reccomended.
Merchantman (Merchantman,Large Merchantman, East Indiaman)
These ships have the same number of Guns as the various Sloops, but have a decent left-only top speed. They are slow to acclerate to it in Combat but can manage it on the map. Some people like them (probbably DoS Pirates! nostalgia) - but I feel like trading becomes obsoltete in 2004 Pirates! quite quickly, so I'm not a fan. You do get one as a Player Starting ship in 1600 and they have a richer history to draw on for RP than the other trade ships. They are used by BOTH English and French.
Trade Galleon (Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon, Treasure Galleon)
Most player will beat these up a lot. They have the worst turning in the game, and their map speed is awful. their good qualities are Armor and Number of Cannons, but they are too frustating to suggest to use for humans. Unlike the other Trade ships, their is no incentive to roleplay with them due to not having a Player start. You might use Treasure Galleon for 1 battle after capturing it just to see what it's armor is like. You would be crazy if you found it fun enough not to switch back.
My ratings
Best Practicably available ships (1-4)
War Canoe, Pinnacle, Sloop of War, Brig of War
Best Impractically available ships (5-7)
Mail Runner, Royal Sloop, Ship of the Line
The Easy to get big ships. (8-10)
War Galleon, Flag Galleon, Large Frigate
Ships that are fine but are so easy to upgrade past that you might not use at all. (11-15)
Sloop, Brigantine, Brig, Fast Galleon, Frigate
Bad but have some novelty use (16-18)
Barque, Ocean Barque, Treasure Galleon
Worst Ships (19-27)
Fluyt, Large Fluyt, West Indiaman, Coastal Barque, Merchantman, Large Merchantman, East Indiaman, Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon
For Follower ships - I think the War Gelleon is actually the most functinal if you just want to raise crew numbers enough to capture multiple (or all) of a country's cities. Using 2 Brigs of War would work as well. Using Large numbers of small ships - 6 War-Canoes (etc) has always seemed silly to me. ---
These ships let you have maximum overworld movement speed, and let you force the sword fighting game in ship combat - The War Canoe and Pinnace have only (75) and (90) crew with triple hammocks, so they are not allowed to do capture and raid cities unless you have multiple ships, which slows you down (even if the follower ships are also war canoes) War Canoe and Pinnace are both extremely easy to find, although they are slightly hard to fight and capture if you aren't already using a Sloop or lower because of how easily they flee battles. - If you think of your crew as a timer, the sword fighting game is shorter with them than any other ship, but it's still long enough in most cases - As far as I can tell, Most normal ships and even the Famous pirates only have the baseline fencing AI - I think only Treasure Fleet ships and Marquis Montblan have the stronger fencing AI.
Sloop (Sloop, Sloop of War, Royal Sloop)
All Three Sloops get over 100 crew with triple hammocks, so they can capture smaller cities. They can fight very well if you weave away to dodge enemy cannonballs, but are still very good at forcing a boarding battle, which they should do on anything stronger than a Brigantine, due to them being a little tedious to kill this way.
Sloop of War has all the good qualities and is easy to get. Royal Sloop is easy to forcespawn if you read a guide or wait till you find the famous pirate with it, but the upgrade is mostly letting you carry more food and have slightly more people for city battles (which you probbably aren't focusing on anyway if you are using them)
Brig (Brigantine, Brig, Brig of War)
These are my favorite ships - If you want to Cannonball down enemies, but still have an easy ability to dodge, these are a go too ship. The Brig of War can think about capturing ANY city with Triple Hammocks, although if you seriously want to go through the entire map you will want 2 of them (this goes for the bigger ships too, generally I think 300=any city in multiple battles and about 450=any city in usually only one battle.)You can also get them quite quickly on a new savefile. A player Controlled Brig of War should win Fights against War Galleons and Frigates, but is perhaps the only ship in the game that actually wants the Round Shot (Anti-sail) upgrade, because these will usually try to forcefully board you, and Cotton-Sail upgraded ones like the plot villians will use their higher top speed to do it against you.
War Galleon (Fast Galleon, War Galleon, Flag Galleon)
The Spanish exclusive combat ships are quite strong because a player will learn to try to start combat on the Right side of ships in the overworld, which lets you use their pretty good straight line-speed under wind. They have the best availability of large ships, because even if the player doesn't pick on Spain, the spreadoutness of their territory usually gurantees that the other famous pirates and countries will, and some of them will just spawn early on specific ship missions. Finally the Plot villians will use them and respawn for a long time (until you have every piece of all the maps). If you want to capture them this way - Barmundo's War Galleon is easy to get just by fighting him, but Montblanc's Flag Galleon is quite hard - you might want to wait till you can afford ship repairs (or have free) and just tear him down to 1 Crew in ship combat first. For Map movement they can get a good top speed if you are ONLY going left - They are so common and replacable that you might even think about capturing one on the far right, going on a rampage, and then just selling it to get a War Canoe/Pinnacle on the way back - Note that while they still have a good top-speed in combat, the distance you want to move is never long enough for the slow accleration to reach it, which is the most signigant disadvantage they have compared to the Frigates (the slight crew/gun differences don't really matter)
Frigate (Frigate, Large Frigate, Ship of the Line)
The Biggest ship for the other 3 countires don't spawn as often - Most of the spawns happen for the same mission types as Brig of War, but only if the threat level is high enough - usually to the point of requiring the player to personally go berserk on their ships or even capture a couple of their cities. These ships are a little unique in basically being the only ones to make use of the Reefed Sails mechanic, but even without this are pretty easy to use. They also have a great top speed that only works when going left, but unlike the War Galleons, their accleration lets them reach it both in short (battle) distances and long (map) distances. The Ship of the Line gets all the attention, but in Player Control, any of these 3 ships can dominate basically every battle.
Barque (Coastal Barque, Barque, Oceanic Barque)
The best turning trade ships - This is good because you might want to Roleplay as them due to being a starting ship in France 1620. It's reasonably functional for a playthrough with essentially the maneuvarbility of a Brigantine + Cannon maximum / Durability of a Sloop. This isn't a big enough downgrade to really stop a human player from winning the same fights they can in a Sloop using a Barque. - As follower ships, they are semi-attractive to boost your crew/cargo numbers for capturing cities without losing too much travel speed, although Brigantines have about the same numbers for both, and you can find them anywhere instead of mostly the North East (French territory).
Only the French use Barques for "regular" trading, but All Nations will use them for specific labeled ship missions (eg Grain Transport) Spain willl sometimes use them for some Governors and Millitary Payroll ships.
Fluyt (Fluyt, Large Fluyt, West Indiaman)
The Fluyt family is also frail, but unlike the Barques, they have BAD turning and speed instead of medium. The West Indiaman technically uses the Fluyt model, but has Merchantman esque stats. - All three are found in Dutch areas. Roleplaying with the Fluyt starting ship in Dutch 1600 is NOT reccomended.
Merchantman (Merchantman,Large Merchantman, East Indiaman)
These ships have the same number of Guns as the various Sloops, but have a decent left-only top speed. They are slow to acclerate to it in Combat but can manage it on the map. Some people like them (probbably DoS Pirates! nostalgia) - but I feel like trading becomes obsoltete in 2004 Pirates! quite quickly, so I'm not a fan. You do get one as a Player Starting ship in 1600 and they have a richer history to draw on for RP than the other trade ships. They are used by BOTH English and French.
Trade Galleon (Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon, Treasure Galleon)
Most player will beat these up a lot. They have the worst turning in the game, and their map speed is awful. their good qualities are Armor and Number of Cannons, but they are too frustating to suggest to use for humans. Unlike the other Trade ships, their is no incentive to roleplay with them due to not having a Player start. You might use Treasure Galleon for 1 battle after capturing it just to see what it's armor is like. You would be crazy if you found it fun enough not to switch back.
My ratings
Best Practicably available ships (1-4)
War Canoe, Pinnacle, Sloop of War, Brig of War
Best Impractically available ships (5-7)
Mail Runner, Royal Sloop, Ship of the Line
The Easy to get big ships. (8-10)
War Galleon, Flag Galleon, Large Frigate
Ships that are fine but are so easy to upgrade past that you might not use at all. (11-15)
Sloop, Brigantine, Brig, Fast Galleon, Frigate
Bad but have some novelty use (16-18)
Barque, Ocean Barque, Treasure Galleon
Worst Ships (19-27)
Fluyt, Large Fluyt, West Indiaman, Coastal Barque, Merchantman, Large Merchantman, East Indiaman, Trade Galleon, Royal Galleon
For Follower ships - I think the War Gelleon is actually the most functinal if you just want to raise crew numbers enough to capture multiple (or all) of a country's cities. Using 2 Brigs of War would work as well. Using Large numbers of small ships - 6 War-Canoes (etc) has always seemed silly to me. ---
