Pirates! Strategy and Tips
Written by Duke Bloodbath, the bloodiest pirate of all!
Pillage and plunder, let the blood wash over the decks!
I am not affiliated with anything having to do with the computer video game industry, I just like Pirates!. All Hail Sid Meier!
Starting strategy:
You can choose to do many things in this game; however, you must get started the same way each time. There is an easy way to begin and a hard way. I talk about the easy way. Myself and my crew like to plunder and kill, we don’t waste time.
You start with a boat, some food and a bunch of mangy low-lifes. Hopefully you made the choice of choosing fencing as your requisite skill in life – fencing is important. I’ve found that the best nationality for the beginning levels can be Dutch. But hey, it’s your preference. English and French are a close second. Spanish works, but the starting point of the game can land you deep in Spanish territory, without any enemies to fight. Just go Dutch.
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The best way to get the booty:
You can sail around the New World, killing and pillaging until you collect all the very useful game items, or, you can get them in a short period of time by obtaining your Letter of Marque, getting promoted, heading to ports that have the same nationality as your Letter of Marque and recruiting a crew of 150 to 200 pirates. Once you have a small army, find a small (poor) port to take over again and again (this is the illustrious “Duke of all Nations” strategy). Make sure that you follow a pattern of replacing governors like this:
Replace your English governor with a Spanish governor, then a Dutch governor and then a French governor (just make sure you replace a warring nation with another warring nation). Dance with the governor’s daughter each and every time you change the leadership of the port. If you dance well, she’ll give you items each time. Also, after you change the port’s leadership, visit the tavern and talk to the mysterious traveler, he’ll sell you items. After sacking and sacking and sacking, your crew will start to get mad and leave, jerks! Take a break if you need to and capture some of the ships the barmaids tell you about in the tavern. Take over the same port 32-35 times and you will be a duke with all the nations. This means free upgrades and free repairs for your ship(s). Also, if you take over a few ships in between, you should have enough cash to buy any items not given to you by the governor’s daughters and have them all by the time you are finished.
One other important thing about this strategy is that each time you take over a city and replace the governor with one from a nation at war from the previous one, they start to fork over free land like madmen. The last time I did this, I had 55,000 acres of land when I was through. This satisfies all the wealth points for the game. Thanks governor!
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Dancing:
Once you have played through your first game, it becomes easy. Dancing gets a bit tiring, doing it over and over. The items help. You can mess up on the lower levels and still be okay most of the time. After you get all the items, you are sent out to find a bunch of dastardly characters in various ports. If you sit through the boring dance sequences where the daughters laugh at you over and over, you will soon find that there is some jerk in every town you sack or visit that will provide you with some cash. Most of the time, it is not worth it. I am not a bounty hunter, I am a bloodthirsty pirate. If I have to fence Mr. A-Z Connery one more time, I’m going to go crazy. 5,000 gold is not worth the trouble most of the time.
Some people skip dancing altogether. You can, but it means longer time acquiring the items in the game. The time it takes to do the “Duke of all Nations” thing is much shorter than waiting for the mysterious traveler to sell you the items for outlandish amounts of money.
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Pimp my ship:
Next, ditch the crappy sloop you start out with and get a Frigate (the 80 ton kind). Keep building your men until you have about 350 and then start sacking cities until you have 50,000 or so in cash (sack 5-8 cities). This will keep your crew happy for a while and buy you time to seek out a lost relative, a villain or some booty.
I have read many people’s opinions about ships. Blah. Blah blah. Get a frigate, they can go upwards of 16 knots and take a beating. Brigs are a waste, they are difficult to fire from. Sloops are good as a second ship, but they are pretty weak in fire-power and crew compliment, but they sail fast as you head from city to city. Head for English territory and you’ll find a Frigate fast. You might want to have an Indian War canoe or a Mail Carrier for higher levels of the game, but a good frigate can’t be beat. All the ship of the line stuff matters little, I have yet to see one and I’ve played three games through.
A really quick method of getting a good ship is to just locate Blackbeard and take his Frigate, it’s a good ship and will do you good. Stay away from the big Spanish ships, they’re like sailing dump trucks. Barques are not as bad as people make out. Fluyts, Merchantmen and Grain Transports are a waste.
The other pirate ships in the game are pretty weak. Captain Kidd’s ship is just as good as Blackbeard’s. Wait as long as you can to kill the other pirates in the game, though. They will have more money later on. Make those jerks work for you.
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What to do now?
Once you’ve got a small fleet of fast ships, a few hundred thousand in cash (plunder the cities, make the masses kneel before you!) a big crew and a lot of food, the world is your oyster.
Here are some ideas when you get bored with dancing and taking over ships:
1. You can follow the prescribed plot of the game and track down Ramondo and find your family, start a romance with a governor’s daughter and then kill Montalban. This is pretty boring to focus on the entire time.
Or,
2. Sack towns and place the control of neighboring towns under the control of competing nations. This will turn the New World into a virtual war zone and allow you to make progress faster in the game. Then go out and finish the tasks of the game. Creating chaos in the game will benefit you. Don’t be stupid and make all the cities French, this will just limit your possibilities.
Or,
3. Do what I do. Kill anyone that gets in your way. It is a simple strategy and will earn you a nasty reputation. Let the wind take you where it will. Usually the wind will surprisingly take you to Montalban and Raymondo anyway. Splatter the decks of enemy ships with the blood of those who stand in your way. Start your own bloody bloodbath! N’yarrr! You can also follow the directions in option “2”, this will help you in finding Montalban and Raymondo.
Or,
4. Do your own thing. Even Sid Meier says he designed the game so that you can do pretty much whatever you want. If you played the game on the old Commodore 64’, you probably did your own thing anyway. I put about two summers of my life into Pirates! In between basketball games and camping trips and only once did I follow the story line and find my family.
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Tips
Town-sacking tips:
Towns have more money than ships. Period. Take for example the famed pirate Henry Morgan. Henry Morgan had a contract to share all the wealth he made from taking enemy ships with his benefactor. His contract did not stipulate anything about sacking towns. So, he went around sacking towns and quickly became quite rich. Take a look at the top ten pirates on the status screen. Henry is at the top.
Watch out for the cavalry. Those nice-looking little horsies will take their toll on your crew. Draw them into the jungle areas by retreating backwards. Then, pummel them with waiting officers in a flank attack. The first time the little horsies kill off two or three groups of your crew, it can make you afraid of them, don’t be. Traditionally, horse-mounted troops have served as effective defenders and good attackers. Think of the 14th century Samurai warriors, they were devastatingly wicked. Don’t fear the little horsies, shoot them. Think of how hard it is to ride a horse through dense jungle, do you feel a little less nervous now?
The Indian Scouts and archers seem to develop low moral when they are shot at a few times. They are more likely to give up the fight than the infantry and guards. Maybe because they have a feeling that all those white guys want to do more than just trade.
The game’s AI seems to pick up on your first troop movement of each turn. If you try to sneak a pack of mangy pirates to the city gate, move them last and use the cover of the jungle as you go. Or, make the defenders split themselves in half by using your first move to head in an opposite direction as the rest of your troops. Stupid AI. When will it ever learn?
If you place all your troops in a horizontal line, you are asking to get slaughtered. This will work in your favor if you want to quickly shrink your crew (like just before you divide the plunder). The best way to move your troops forward is in a square formation of 3x3 or 2x3 with the buccaneers at the end of the line of attack. Keep your officers behind a group of pirates, save them for the last of the battle, unless you have to kill the cavalry troops. Other people say that the buccaneers do just as much damage from far away as they do up close. I disagree. They do slightly more the closer they get. It takes about three to four consecutive shots to make the enemy flee when they are in the cover of the jungle squares and two to three shots when they are in the open. Of course, this is when you are evenly matched against the enemy. It’s fun to have a group of 99 buccaneers unload on a group of guards. Face the firing squad suckers!
Lastly, drawing the enemy into the jungle where you are waiting is always good when you are outnumbered, and even better when you aren’t. You can even fire off a few shots as they approach from the cover of the jungle. Use flank attacks and slaughter the enemy as they step into the jungle. It is easy to be outnumbered 2 to 1 and still lay waste to the entire defense force if you draw them in one at a time. When you are outnumbered 3 to 1, you might want to consider a suicide mission to reach the city gates. If you do, try to head left, right and straight, making the enemy split itself up. It’s not impossible to slaughter the enemy when they have three times as many troops, but it is going to be really trough. Ask yourself this, would a man suffering from scurvy, who hasn’t left his ship in months patiently wait with his crew, or is he going to look out for good old number one?
One more thing. You will probably lose troops in a battle. So, after you have sacked a town, sack it again until you can change the governor. Change the governor to the nationality you signed up with (if you can remember) and then visit the tavern AFTER talking to the new governor. If you sacked a wealthy town, there will probably be enough men to make up for the troops you lost in the battle. Poor towns sometimes yield no extra crew.
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Naval Combat tips:
Always try and approach your enemies with the wind behind your back BEFORE pressing the button to engage them in combat. Only shoot at your opponent if you have to lower the amount of crew on board the enemy’s ship. Otherwise, settle things in a duel like a man! If you have all the items, fencing becomes an easy task. Take the ship and sell it in the next port. Don’t let the enemy turn you in circles and keep firing, this will only result in more damage to your ship and more lost crew. Go sack a town if you need cash.
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Fencing:
Thrust, thrust and thrust on the lower levels. Learn how to block when you go to higher levels. Use the rapier on lower levels. Depending on your skill, you might want to use the cutlass on the higher levels (defense). Don’t get hit. Try to get hit only once a year if you want your pirate to last. Supposedly dividing the plunder helps to improve your health, I don’t know about this.
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Food, luxuries and other stuff in the hold:
Food and guns, food and guns. Everything else is not worth it unless you really need the money. After all, are you a merchant, or a bloodthirsty pirate bent on getting booty? A crew of 450 eats about 35 tons every two minutes of game play without specialists to help make the food last. Those fat bastards!
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Crew happiness:
A happy crew is one with a lot of money and more money coming in at a constant rate. Who wants to sail with some poor guy? If they get mad, and stay mad then divide the plunder, build up your men as soon as you start again and make a tremendous amount of money sacking all the cities you can. Pirates like blood and money, if you are playing the game because you like to trade goods at various ports, you are missing out on the fun that can be had massacring poorly defended towns. There is infinitely more money in sacking cities and ports than in taking ships. Just get that small group of pirates to that city gate!
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Montalban’s hideout:
Keep your buccaneers at a distance and pick off the scouts and archers as they approach. Compared to other people’s experiences with this, I have found this battle very easy. Where is Tattoo?
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Raymondo:
Boring quest. Little reward. Necessary task. Hunting for the Baron is like paying the bills, you don’t want to do it, but you gotta. Just figure out where he is, head there, head to where you suddenly find out he is on his way to and fence him. DO NOT spend your time trying to pummel his ship with cannon fire. He is too good of a sailor. Head straight for him and duel it out. Then collect your scrap of a map and chase him down again and again.
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Pirate treasure:
Find it, dig it up. And then do not be tempted to fight the pirate when he comes looking for his loot. Wait. The longer you wait, the bigger the booty. Keep talking to the mysterious traveler even though he will just tell you about cities you have been to most of the time. My experience with the traveler is that he gives you a new map after two or three visits to him in different taverns AFTER you find the buried treasure. Be patient. What makes this guy so mysterious anyway? He just hangs out in a bar. He does change his clothes a lot though.
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Fame points:
You will easily be at or near 50 points if you follow the “Duke of all Nations” strategy. Then, just let the points accumulate.
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Wealth points:
Follow the “Duke of all Nations” strategy and if you keep replacing the governor with a governor whose nation is at war with the previous one, you will have maxed out on the wealth points by the time you are done.
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Romance:
Boring. Do it when you have time. DO NOT let the suitor hit you in the fencing match. What a lame wedding, where is the bachelor party?
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Lost relatives:
If they are all alone in the abandoned cabin, why haven’t they escaped yet? Face it, your relatives are lazy people. All they do is sleep. Did they contract malaria? They can’t even find their way home. Just keep chasing Ramondo, but don’t sacrifice plundering for the lost relatives quests.
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On becoming the most notorious pirate:
You will become the most notorious pirate. Be patient. In the meantime, you have to earn that reputation by plundering and hacking some fools to death with your sword. Sometimes you’ve just got to spill some blood to make a name for yourself.
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Places to hang out and terrorize:
I like the area around Havana, and the Florida Keys, and anything else around there. It’s quiet, the weather is nice and its fun to change the political structure of the area by making every other port at war with the other. I stay away from most of the ports on the right side of the map, it’s a fun place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
The Spanish Main is fun to sack on a dreary day. I like to change the politics of this area too. Make sure that if you decide to focus on pillaging this area that you utilize the Indian villages. The humiliating scene where you talk to the village chief is insulting, but try to look beyond this to the benefit of the locals in weakening the forces of the garrison you want to slaughter.
It seems the game’s AI likes to place Raymondo at ports that lie in between the places you spend the most time. It might be easier to track down the Baron by choosing ports in the farthest places in the game to frequent.
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Other random advice:
If you start to find the battles boring, divide the plunder and raise the difficulty level of the game. It’s easy to get good quickly.
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09.01.2007 - 
