1.03 naval AI uses boarding often (observation)

**Slaists** · 07-17-2009, 15:18

Have you noticed that the naval battle AI now uses boarding often? It would be nice, if the AI would have been 'trained' to do it properly (as in: disable the target ship and its guns & have manpower to actually do the boarding). Unfortunately, in most situations those are suicide missions. Since 1.03, I've seen several times how the AI sends a damaged sloop (a fast ship, ok) to board my galleon that has like 4x the crew of the sloop. Frequently the sloop is sunk before the AI gets its people over...

**Hooahguy** · 07-17-2009, 15:23

they board? never seen this happen. can never seem to be able to take down thier sails, and in frustration i switch to normal shot.

**Slaists** · 07-17-2009, 15:56

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

they board? never seen this happen. can never seem to be able to take down thier sails, and in frustration i switch to normal shot.

Yup, they do board. First time, I was taken by surprise. My slow but mighty galleon stopped responding suddenly. Then I noticed that a half-sunk AI sloop has attached itself to the galleon and is trying to board... Of course, the galleon crew routed the pesky boarders.

As to sails: I've been quite successful in 1.03 with taking them down. It does take patience though and several "goes" at it. The biggest 'grab' I had was the whole French fleet consisting of three second rates, four 3rd rates, several 4th rates and a bunch of smaller ships. All I had at the time was some sloops, 3 fluyts, 2 galleons, 2 frigates (5th rates) and 1 second rate.

I had to make several 'rounds' and faint attacks (with sloops) to stretch out their fleet. But in the end, I had demasted them all. I think, only a couple French sloops were sunk. Once they're demasted, it's easy to force the ship to surrender.

The biggest challenge was to maneuver through disabled French vessels and not get caught in their fire (they still can fire while being immobile) while I was trying to demast the remainders of their fleet that still could move.

By the way, the AI demasted my 2nd rate early in the battle so my "tank" was pretty much "out of the game" for most of the battle. Heh, now that I think of it, I regret not recording that battle. It was epic.

**Hooahguy** · 07-17-2009, 15:59

any tips on demasting ships? ive tried so many times but no avail. are broadsides good for that? ive always thoguht that a broadside is the best way to enusure a hit.

**Slaists** · 07-17-2009, 16:50

Originally Posted by Hooahguy

any tips on demasting ships? ive tried so many times but no avail. are broadsides good for that? ive always thoguht that a broadside is the best way to enusure a hit.

It's a lot of micromanagement at least at the beginning (until you get to ships with decent hull strength). So, it depends on the matchup.

Example 1:

A frigate (6th or 5th rate) against a galleon (typical for an early game matchup), of course 5th rate is much better for this due to more 'bang' of its 48 cannons.
I would have to maneuver the frigate a lot in order to stay out of the 30 broadside guns of the galleon. Ironically, it seems, it is easier to do it when the frigate is ahead of the galleon in terms of wind. Something like this:

-- wind --> galleon ----> frigate

The galleon would be in hot pursuit (yet slower than the frigate) with all sails out (important for the chainshot to work well), so the frigate can do a quick turn while staying out of galleon's gun range (galleon is slower to turn too), fire a salvo of chain and turn back into the wind (to run) again. Rinse, repeat until the galleon's sails are down, bringing it to crawl. Once that's done, the frigate can make either make a big loop around the galleon and fire into it's backside or just fire from the front until the galleon surrenders. This is how I built my Dutch fleet in the early game (No shipyards, just enemy captures).

Note, that this might be way harder to pull off on higher battle difficulties (I play on normal) since the AI galleon would have sniper-like accuracy... So, one missed turn and it's good-bye frigate!...

I've pursued similar tactic with a sloop versus a flyut. It's possible, but much harder due to the lower fire-power of the sloop. I've had no problem demasting Indiamen and the like with a sloop though.

Example 2:

SOLs (any are good) versus a fleet. I'd break my fleet into a few groups (of two, three ships in each) and try to circle at the maximum range of chainshot firing the AI's vessels.

You will take damage (from AI's roundshots) this way though (so, there is the "luck" factor), but 3 chain salvos from passing SOLs (even fourth rates) against a ship with all sails out can bring it down to a crawl. The key with this tactic is not to get entangled in battle with the slowed down ships, but to sail away drawing the remaining, healthy AI's ships towards you while the ones with damaged sails remain behind. By the end of the battle I would have a messy battlfield littered with AI's ship trunks still dangerous since they have many cannons and healthy hulls. So I'd sail up to each of them and "finish off the job" from a safe angle.

If both fleets are big (many ships), this can take a long time, so you might need more than an hour for a battle (can be set in the options before entering the battlefield) if you're attacking.

Prize money

It's not uncommon to see prize money in the range of 5000 to 10,000 gold after a big sea battle with many ships captured. Not a small change in the early years of the game...

Battle speed.

Until you've really got the feel of it, I'd recommend switching the battle speed from 'normal' to 'half speed' during the crucial moments. That at least gives you time to react. Those AI ships (with any sails left) can turn darned fast (one of the very unrealistic features of ETW).