Horrible, horrible naval battles...
I thought they were getting better, I though I had learnt to beat the AI at equal odds. I even beat 3 or four inferior ships with a single galleon or fifth rate.
But now I'm up against the unbeatable Dhow of DOOM! A pirate fleet attacks me in the straits of madagascar. I have one Galleon in mint condition and a surprisingly useless Indiaman. They have one galleon, but it only has about 20 guns and it's horribly damaged. Two admirals' fifth rate, both also have few cannon, one of them has 9! When I glance at the pre-battle thingie, I disregard the presence of a pathetic 1 cannon Dhow crewed by 7 men. The odds are not in my favour, but as damaged as the AIs' fleet is, and as kick ass as my Galleon is, I can handle this.
But alas. As soon as the battle commences, the Dhow reads as "Boarding" on mouse over. It goes straight for my galleon and the 7 men somehow manage to make my warship stop entirely, and as a bonus, now it cannot fire it's 60 guns! Added bonus!! Now the battered enemy ships are free to cross the T as much as they want!!! I go insane at the bullshit this game can pull on you. There's no way in hell that little cannoe would go side to side with a ship sporting 30 guns to either side. It's also completely unbelievable that they don't rout or lose more than 1 man when shot upon twice as they close the distance... ARRRRGH ye scurvy landlubbers. As soon as the Dhow routs or surrenders, the next ship in line on the AI's suicide squad boards with the odds in extreme disfavour and eventually I've taken enough broadsides to my stern for my ship to surrender.
Add in the extremely clunky mechanism of boarding, and you sometimes get your ship locked up in a boarding action although the crews are not actually fighting, and the ships aren't actually connected, but you still cannot just disregard that Dhow because it has started boarding you and you better sit there and wait for it to board. The stupidity of it all is just mind-numbing.
Bookmarks