Still I will give your strategy a shot and try to wait with Brigs till East Indiamen show up. See how it works for me.
Tell later how it turns out
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Tell later how it turns out
They are valid for the patch but I wrote them many weeks ago and I don't really play that way any more. I guess it's time for someone to put up a new guide.
If not, I will read through that and try to update it with my new power-playing methods.
EDIT: Oh well, I started reading it... and ended up rewriting the whole thing. It should be much better now, 1.06 compatible and written with two weeks of experience on hard/simulation rather than medium which I was playing when writing it for the first time. Feel free to bash it though, I want to learn even more about this game.
If not, I will read through that and try to update it with my new power-playing methods.
EDIT: Oh well, I started reading it... and ended up rewriting the whole thing. It should be much better now, 1.06 compatible and written with two weeks of experience on hard/simulation rather than medium which I was playing when writing it for the first time. Feel free to bash it though, I want to learn even more about this game.
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I am still early in the game (my 4th attempt) and i only use schooners and frigates , i am starting to think that most of the ships ( save for xebecs since they count as warships and later indiaman) are not needed at all .
Yes, indeed, Frigate is a bit overpowered compared to pre-1630 ships but that was the case in the history so there's little that can be done about that.
Still, I like to have a variety of ships in fleets since it doesn't feel right to use just one model.
So I like to use Brigs pre-1630 for boarding operations (many more marines and sailors compared to Xebec) and trading with smaller stuff like Porcelain. I also like to have a fleet of Galleons+Flutes before East Indiamen unlock. Sloops and Cutters are useful only in 1607 when you have nothing else to pirate AI factions with, quickly obsolete in this task when you get Xebecs. Galleons are priceless for port attacks and convoy leadership.
Still, I like to have a variety of ships in fleets since it doesn't feel right to use just one model.
So I like to use Brigs pre-1630 for boarding operations (many more marines and sailors compared to Xebec) and trading with smaller stuff like Porcelain. I also like to have a fleet of Galleons+Flutes before East Indiamen unlock. Sloops and Cutters are useful only in 1607 when you have nothing else to pirate AI factions with, quickly obsolete in this task when you get Xebecs. Galleons are priceless for port attacks and convoy leadership.
I thought in your first post on this thread you mentioned you were playing Denmark?
Would that be the same post where he says never to build a shipyard in the colonies?
It seems like he's not taking his own medicine.
Yeah funny guy, feel free write a better guide if you don't like mine.
1. The first version was for Portugal since I thought being closer to India helps. But i doesn't help at all since you have little chance of timing your convoys the way that they arrive when goods are at 1800t in India when they are cheapest. On Hard I prefer to be as far from India as possible hence Denmark/Sweden.
2. I rewrote the first post yesterday.
3. About shipyards, I usually have a level 1 shipyard in Mozambique and that's where I repair ships that hunt pirates and also convoys on their way to/from India. The advice early on is to prevent people from paying for a lvl4 shipyard or even a few of them which isn't uncommon on this forum.
1. The first version was for Portugal since I thought being closer to India helps. But i doesn't help at all since you have little chance of timing your convoys the way that they arrive when goods are at 1800t in India when they are cheapest. On Hard I prefer to be as far from India as possible hence Denmark/Sweden.
2. I rewrote the first post yesterday.
3. About shipyards, I usually have a level 1 shipyard in Mozambique and that's where I repair ships that hunt pirates and also convoys on their way to/from India. The advice early on is to prevent people from paying for a lvl4 shipyard or even a few of them which isn't uncommon on this forum.
Delra...
I want to thank you for all the informative posts you have made. They really helped to flatten my learning curve a lot. Although I've found some tactics that work a little better for my play style, your posts were instrumental in my enjoyment of the game.
Thanks so much for your time and efforts.
I want to thank you for all the informative posts you have made. They really helped to flatten my learning curve a lot. Although I've found some tactics that work a little better for my play style, your posts were instrumental in my enjoyment of the game.
Thanks so much for your time and efforts.
Started with an easy game(choose in the beginning)I have develope a strategy that I always win.to make things simple.I do not occupy many ports,not as much as I will destroy.start with only 1 gradually to 4 with each Indian port produce a different merchandise.later I may occupy 2 of each(except those produce porcelain.After the last mission that require them,I will abandon them altogether just keep the others.My way to defeat all the others is to invade and destroy everything inside their port and leave(abandon them)so I don't have to pay for any up keep.I need to save money for next step.If they return to retake the port I destroyed,I will go in again and destroy it.the 2nd time is easy because they have no time to build up defense.repeating to destroy everyone's ports,leave them all very weak.Nothing to fight you back they may try again and again,usually with smaller and weaker ships.make sure I have enough fleets to supply goods and money for me to build more advance fleets.I always play Portugal..only play portugal I can take the final step.when I get to be rich enough to build many fleets(usually never more than 10 fleets.8 to trade and make money 2 to invade and destroy to keep all others weak.)by the end of the game after 1700,I will be the only one able to have ship of the line 90 guns.Even before that I will be the only one with Ship of the line 46 guns.and no one else have any port! I would have destroy them all.I occupy none of them except my 6 ports. 2 of each that produce spice tea and silk.after the last mission that require Porcelain,I abandon them too.all the rest of the ports,I invaded and destroy all and everyting inside.and no one else have any port.now I will station ship of the line-90 guns(no one else have any ship of the line at all but me).By then no one else even have a frigate.because they all so poor..withouit a single port.If my enermies are France and Spain,I will position 2 ship of the line-90 guns at the entrance of the mediterranean.with angry mode(agressive behavior-dark red color) that will attack anything within range. If my enermies are all others(England,neatherland,Empire,Sweden or denmark)I will position 3 or 4 ship of the line-90 guns on the english chanal.all in angry mode(aggresive behavior-in dark red)innitially my ships will have to bring back to repair(not often because by then all they have will be Cutters..schooners,brigs and fluts.They can hardly defeat your ship of the line.Watch they gradually have no more ships.when their money are gone into minus territory a while they will abandon.In time you will win by defeating them all that way.To hasten that..they will ask you for peace and pay you.I always accept their payment so they lost their money faster,as soon I accept their payment I go back and declare war on them again.
That strategy you always win.Try it. remember never occupy more ports then you need in India to supply yourself with goods and money,always have enough ships to trade your goods,never wast money to upkeep unnecessary ports.Just invade and destroy everything inside any other ports anyone may have(without port to trade they will all be weakened.Don't wast money to occupy,just destroy so no one else can have any but you.
another interesting thing I discover is when you are weak even same strength as a pirate who attack you.Don't fight,just run.even you win you still have repairs to make that cost you money.even you run and flee,if you are never hurt you will still receive abilities.
That strategy you always win.Try it. remember never occupy more ports then you need in India to supply yourself with goods and money,always have enough ships to trade your goods,never wast money to upkeep unnecessary ports.Just invade and destroy everything inside any other ports anyone may have(without port to trade they will all be weakened.Don't wast money to occupy,just destroy so no one else can have any but you.
another interesting thing I discover is when you are weak even same strength as a pirate who attack you.Don't fight,just run.even you win you still have repairs to make that cost you money.even you run and flee,if you are never hurt you will still receive abilities.
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I play on "normal", and I found some of the other posts in this thread to be very helpful, but I'll add my own thoughts.
The early game is about reinvesting your income without running out of money. Your cash level fluctuates hugely at the start, so you might think you are rich until your fleet gets to India and you discover that you don't have enough money to fill your ships with stuff. So go slow and don't build more than one ship at a time unless you have a solid understanding of your near-term cash needs.
At the very beginning of the game, the time to build ships is when all of your ships are on their way back from India. That is the time when you are pretty sure that you are going to have more money in the near future rather than less.
A question arises as to whether it's better to make 5-ship fleets or more smaller ones at the beginning of the game. Before pirates happen I would think it would be better to get ships moving rather than having them sit in port, waiting to combine with other fleets.
I put fleets on automatic and try to add to the on the fly. Schooners are a good first ship, since they are fast and can carry quite a bit. The progression from there is as I see it Flytes, then East Indiamen.
I have one fleet harvesting every kind of resource, including the ones in Africa. Prices crater but I can't see what you can do about this so I ignore it.
Once pirates happened, I did what it took to capture Xebecs. I believe I did this with galleon port-capturing fleets, then started using Xebecs to capture more Xebecs. Xebecs are very fast and have good hull strength. Regardless of whether they are the best small ship, they are absolutely adequate for pirate-killing in the early game, and a 5-stack of experience Xebecs is great for killing any stack of small ships.
It is hard to lose a fleet to pirates; you just run away. The reason to pirate-kill is to improve your merchant captains. I spend talents like this:
Lv 1: Navigation (20% faster)
Lv 2: Organization (20% more stuff)
Lv 3: Haggler and Salesman (better prices).
If you get a < 30 year-old captain at level 0, and kill pirates (or run away from pirates) until he's level 3, he can be put in charge of a merchant fleet and be very good immediately. If you do this for all your merchant fleets, money stops being an issue.
When you capture a port, you need to build up the trading post very quickly, to further increase the amount you earn from that port, which helps keep expansion proceeding smoothly.
I did not find port maintenance fees to be so terrible that I needed to delete improvements. The improvements are nice. When you can support it, one port in India should be pretty solidly upgraded so you can repair, build ships, recruit marines, and store significant stuff in the warehouse, rather than having to run fleets or individual ships back and forth.
When you can make frigates, it's good to have a few kill-stacks that you can use to destroy everyone. At this point, you can probably declare war on the whole world and win, just improve a North Africa port and base out of it, and kill everything coming back from India.
Against the AI on normal I would think that any gamer who has experience with other games of this basic genre could master it very quickly.
The early game is about reinvesting your income without running out of money. Your cash level fluctuates hugely at the start, so you might think you are rich until your fleet gets to India and you discover that you don't have enough money to fill your ships with stuff. So go slow and don't build more than one ship at a time unless you have a solid understanding of your near-term cash needs.
At the very beginning of the game, the time to build ships is when all of your ships are on their way back from India. That is the time when you are pretty sure that you are going to have more money in the near future rather than less.
A question arises as to whether it's better to make 5-ship fleets or more smaller ones at the beginning of the game. Before pirates happen I would think it would be better to get ships moving rather than having them sit in port, waiting to combine with other fleets.
I put fleets on automatic and try to add to the on the fly. Schooners are a good first ship, since they are fast and can carry quite a bit. The progression from there is as I see it Flytes, then East Indiamen.
I have one fleet harvesting every kind of resource, including the ones in Africa. Prices crater but I can't see what you can do about this so I ignore it.
Once pirates happened, I did what it took to capture Xebecs. I believe I did this with galleon port-capturing fleets, then started using Xebecs to capture more Xebecs. Xebecs are very fast and have good hull strength. Regardless of whether they are the best small ship, they are absolutely adequate for pirate-killing in the early game, and a 5-stack of experience Xebecs is great for killing any stack of small ships.
It is hard to lose a fleet to pirates; you just run away. The reason to pirate-kill is to improve your merchant captains. I spend talents like this:
Lv 1: Navigation (20% faster)
Lv 2: Organization (20% more stuff)
Lv 3: Haggler and Salesman (better prices).
If you get a < 30 year-old captain at level 0, and kill pirates (or run away from pirates) until he's level 3, he can be put in charge of a merchant fleet and be very good immediately. If you do this for all your merchant fleets, money stops being an issue.
When you capture a port, you need to build up the trading post very quickly, to further increase the amount you earn from that port, which helps keep expansion proceeding smoothly.
I did not find port maintenance fees to be so terrible that I needed to delete improvements. The improvements are nice. When you can support it, one port in India should be pretty solidly upgraded so you can repair, build ships, recruit marines, and store significant stuff in the warehouse, rather than having to run fleets or individual ships back and forth.
When you can make frigates, it's good to have a few kill-stacks that you can use to destroy everyone. At this point, you can probably declare war on the whole world and win, just improve a North Africa port and base out of it, and kill everything coming back from India.
Against the AI on normal I would think that any gamer who has experience with other games of this basic genre could master it very quickly.
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Yeah funny guy, feel free write a better guide if you don't like mine.
1. The first version was for Portugal since I thought being closer to India helps. But i doesn't help at all since you have little chance of timing your convoys the way that they arrive when goods are at 1800t in India when they are cheapest. On Hard I prefer to be as far from India as possible hence Denmark/Sweden.
2. I rewrote the first post yesterday.
3. About shipyards, I usually have a level 1 shipyard in Mozambique and that's where I repair ships that hunt pirates and also convoys on their way to/from India. The advice early on is to prevent people from paying for a lvl4 shipyard or even a few of them which isn't uncommon on this forum.
Your original post was good and helped me, even if there are matters of taste upon which people can disagree.
For sea combat, I've been using one fleet with my most experienced captain to patrol a circle around Madagascar. That's where the hunting seems to be the best. When I'm much further along in the game and am looking to squeeze out competition, I'll add another combat fleet that patrols between Lisbon and the Canaries or perhaps a little further around Africa. About that time, I've also shifted my Madagascar fleet to the southern tip of India - Calcutta range. This is to protect the ports in that area, which are the most vital in the game. That doesn't seem to work as well in terms of attacking the enemy, but I think it does keep the attacks on ports down.
Well, here's what I've done to win fast on hard/simulation in the free campaign.
Start: go to India with cutter, build cutter #2. Upon returnning, start attacking right away until you are hostile with everyone. Very fast you have a full fleet or 2 of captured ships and everyone else is bankrupt or down to a single ship. You can then wipe them all out or play the 'long' game and build your first galeon fleet and start invading India. Either way, you should win before 1625 if you're slow. I haven't tried on the normal campaign but might give it a go, I just think the preset missions make it too easy with their big reward payoffs.
Start: go to India with cutter, build cutter #2. Upon returnning, start attacking right away until you are hostile with everyone. Very fast you have a full fleet or 2 of captured ships and everyone else is bankrupt or down to a single ship. You can then wipe them all out or play the 'long' game and build your first galeon fleet and start invading India. Either way, you should win before 1625 if you're slow. I haven't tried on the normal campaign but might give it a go, I just think the preset missions make it too easy with their big reward payoffs.
brucemo said:
Errrm. The time to build ships is when all your major fleets are loaded and coming FROM India. This way you can clearly see how much cash you have left and can invest. This is how I build Galleons in 1615s, wait till everyone's loaded and then purchase new ships.
brucemo said:
I wrote my OP for Hard where there are two major differences compared to normal:
- You can't really trade with Africa, prices go down a lot after 2-3 runs and your fleet starts trading Stone and such no longer earning its upkeep.
- You can't survive without having your all major captains as Salesmen so it must be the first skill you pick.
edgewise said:
I usually sign peace when I see they are close to dying and move on the another company. Don't want to have the game over too fast.
Strategy
Well I bought EIC few months ago when it released in Australia, but must admit I haven't played it till now. I dont have much of a strategy yet but from reading some of the others listed here I'd have to say it makes EIC sound a little boring.
Just buy scooners and Galleons? Gold and Diamonds dont take up space?
sorry to be negative but that sounds a little simple and unrealistic. All items take up space, you cannot store infinite amounts of anything, including air. Really hoping they fix these things cause I bought EIC being a fan of Port Royale/Patrician. I didn't expect exactly the same experience but I did expect more realism than what I am currently reading and seeing.
One other point is, why can I not have more than one destination for my auto trade? Also one point about price drop off, dont towns increase in population thus increasing the amount of goods that can be transported there for profit? Shouldn't prices be calculated as I buy and sell? I guess these are all things I am used to in Port Royale but I would of thought a serious trading game would of had these items included.
Anyway enough of the negative I am enjoying EIC to a point and hoping things will improve with patches, add-ons and perhaps a sequel. Oh and sorry that wasn't exactly on topic but just my comments on strategies from others.
Well I bought EIC few months ago when it released in Australia, but must admit I haven't played it till now. I dont have much of a strategy yet but from reading some of the others listed here I'd have to say it makes EIC sound a little boring.
Just buy scooners and Galleons? Gold and Diamonds dont take up space?
sorry to be negative but that sounds a little simple and unrealistic. All items take up space, you cannot store infinite amounts of anything, including air. Really hoping they fix these things cause I bought EIC being a fan of Port Royale/Patrician. I didn't expect exactly the same experience but I did expect more realism than what I am currently reading and seeing.
One other point is, why can I not have more than one destination for my auto trade? Also one point about price drop off, dont towns increase in population thus increasing the amount of goods that can be transported there for profit? Shouldn't prices be calculated as I buy and sell? I guess these are all things I am used to in Port Royale but I would of thought a serious trading game would of had these items included.
Anyway enough of the negative I am enjoying EIC to a point and hoping things will improve with patches, add-ons and perhaps a sequel. Oh and sorry that wasn't exactly on topic but just my comments on strategies from others.
Thanks for the strategies, I'm going to try it again and see if I can get more fun out of the game, some of the strategies on the first page of this thread sound quite fun. The first and last time that I played, I found making money so easy that it didn't bother me one little bit to have Galleons as my trading fleet, regardless if they came back empty or with only a small amount of cargo for a trip or two.
Hi, i bought this game last week and this is my 3th attempt.
I started a free campaign playing as Denmark and i'm doing pretty good, i have over 5 million in cash and own 3 ports in the year 1640.The problem is that almost all the other ports are occupied by other countrys and i can't attack them and i can't set an automatic trading route with them either.
That's a bit weird because i owned a port earlier in the game and it was taken by the Brittish.So...the AI may attack my ports but not the other way around, that dosn't make sence to me.
I have read that you can sell ports to the AI.How do i do that...trough diplomacy?
I have more questions later on i think.
I started a free campaign playing as Denmark and i'm doing pretty good, i have over 5 million in cash and own 3 ports in the year 1640.The problem is that almost all the other ports are occupied by other countrys and i can't attack them and i can't set an automatic trading route with them either.
That's a bit weird because i owned a port earlier in the game and it was taken by the Brittish.So...the AI may attack my ports but not the other way around, that dosn't make sence to me.
I have read that you can sell ports to the AI.How do i do that...trough diplomacy?
I have more questions later on i think.
I've traded ports to get one I needed. You may also want to build a Navy and go after it. To build a Navy, buy 5 of the biggest ships you can, fill them with Marines and hire the most experienced Captain you can.