Lagos; your winning tactics…

[Fisherking]

Look I have come close to winning this, but just close. When I last tried to board a ship that had been raked and had a tiny crew…my ship‘s morale broke and my last two ships were in worse shape than that one.

I am not having luck with this battle. I have tried a number of things that should have worked, but they didn‘t.

I have heard so many time „I won that and did such and such next“. Well I didn‘t win it and I thought I knew how to fight ships.

So share all those brilliant wins you have had and tell me how you did it.

[A Very Super Market]

I just made a battle line and damaged the first fleet greatly, and just wiped up afterwards. You have more guns, so it was easy, and I lost 0 ships.

My first time, I thought that everything was manual, and I just couldn't click the broadside button fast enough to win. Its a bit underpowered, too.

[crazyviking03]

Yeah, my first try at it i attempted to manually order each ship and give targets, and I ended up bunched in a ball while the French wrapped around my fleet and it was ugly. 2nd try, i just let them do their thing, and won without loosing a ship lol.

[Fisherking]

I just made a battle line and damaged the first fleet greatly, and just wiped up afterwards. You have more guns, so it was easy, and I lost 0 ships.

My first time, I thought that everything was manual, and I just couldn't click the broadside button fast enough to win. Its a bit underpowered, too.

That is so odd.

See, I sent my whole line past the lead French ship and Raked it 6 time with broad sides. It didn’t sink! I engaged the other ships at long range. My shots didn’t tell but theirs did.

I tried double lines and that didn’t work any better. Even hitting them from two sides was costing me more damage than it was them.

I am at a loss. My first and second rate don’t seem to be a match for their 3rd rates and my 4th rates are just crap. I had one sunk with a single broad side.

If this is normal settings…you won’t catch me trying anything harder.

[A Very Super Market]

I didn't bother with broadsides. I used a combination of chain shot and grape, the first-rate and second-rate immobilized them, and the smaller ones just ran up and destroyed their crew.

[Emperor of Graal]

I T'ed ships.
It totally owns every ship.
The French won first time, after that I Won a Close Victory

[hoom]

I have played 3 times, lost terribly on first & 3rd but won the 2nd easily with no loss.

That 2nd time I just grouped all ships & sent them down along the French line shooting standard shot on auto.
The first of the french ships was sunk as she turned to starboard by the last of mine.
I dove between the last & 2nd to last french ships with my lead ship, raking both on the way past.
The rest of my squadron rounded the rear of the french line, by which time the middle two french ships had surrendered & my lead ships were engaging the 2nd line.
Things got a bit messy there & I failed to board one of the french with my lead ship because it surrendered before my guys could get onboard.
Shortly after that there was only the one french ship in the battle, the rest having surrendered.
So I selected all, changed to chain shot & sent them on intercept courses.
My lead ship actually got off an excellent long range broadside & took down the foremast of the escaping french ship, allowing my squadron to close in & the ship surrendered before I could get my lead ship close enough to board.

[Mailman653]

I say take no prisoners and sink em all, not like your gonna go into a campaign map to rejoice in your spoils. I only played once so far, manually targed each ship except for the ones far from the battle, I saved the last two ships in my line for those. Eventually the French went round my fleet and as my ships turned they lost the weather gage, I was sure to get slaughtered but somehow I manged to pull a close victory, I suspect it might of had something to do with one or two of my ships sinking their lead ship.

[peacemaker]

ugh. just right clicking on the enemy ship never works, I have to go and manually command each ship to move around and rotate and fire. I finally won after several attempts, boarding a few ships in the process

[PanzerJaeger]

I've won each time. My biggest win was the first time when I just let the ships sail on their own just to look at the graphics. I didn't loose a ship. However, each subsequent time as I have become more and more involved in moving the ships around and changing different things I have come closer and closer to losing outright - only having one very damaged ship left after my last try... not sure what to draw from that.

This is particularly interesting to me as it pertains to mp. Are there viable strategies - ie, heavy/light ship mix, speed variables, etc.; or is it just kind of random how it turns out?

[Discoman]

I lost the first 3 times because I really didn't know what was effective and what wasn't. The 4th time I split my fleet into 3 groups. One went behind , one went in front of, and the other stayed to the side of the French. After that it became a battle of micromanagement and I put the game on slow-mo. Also telling my boats to target certain ships didn't really work for me.

[Beskar]

I only controlled Admiral, with the other ships ordered to attack different ships.

I won without losing a single ship.

[Thermal]

I didn't lose a ship, fisherking, don't over complicate things, just line your ships in a row and when you fire manually do it accurately, don't let them surround you by keeping structure in your line, and pick off there first lot of ships before the others slowly come down, once there at a number dis advantage its easy to win, trying hard to board there ships is more hassle than its worth.

[Mailman653]

I think the ships do pretty well taking care of them selves once you give them an order, I'm starting see how its possible to command a larger squadron.

[ekKstRa]

i shot all them except 1 for my admiral to board
the end =D

[Wausser]

I lost the first 2 times, but the third time I won

I halted all my ships and turned them with broadside to the French ships, and just used broadside shots a lot, lost 2 smaller ships, captured one ship and sunk the rest....

[Elmar Bijlsma]

Here is what I found to work best:
(pardon for the crude drawing. Alt Tabbing out for illustrative screenshots wasn't well liked by ETW)




I
Group all your ships together and use the line formation for every move. Immediately turn to port by 20-30 degrees so your lead ship can get it's broadside on target ASAP. Then, as your line moves past the enemy will try to turn and exchange fire. At best they get 2-3 ships firing against most if not all of your line, and you should be able to get the first shots in too, so it's pretty one sided. Keep turning the lead ship to starboard to keep it's guns in play as your battle line moves past the French fleet. You are doing badly if you don't sink one.

II
Avoid straying in to range of the second French fleet. However, you might want to try and pummel the rear ship so stay close and steer in to range when you move past the 2nd ships LOF. Circle behind it as it slows down from the pummelling it receives. Chances are good you can sink it. Meanwhile, the two French fleets are almost sure to get intermingled and slowed down.
Whether you choose to avoid the last ship or not, straighten out your line as the confused mess of French ships at X sorts itself out. They'll be coming at your straightened line in ones and twos and should be no match for your massed guns.

III
Start closing in to max gunrange of the remaining French fleet and pummel them to pieces. At this point there will most likely be 3-4 ships left. Maximize your firepower by slowly steer your lead ship (Namur) starboard to keep it's broadside in action.

IV
With about 2-3 French ships left, and all likely to be in poor shape, switch to chain shot and tighten the circle ever closer. You want to get really close to them fairly soon. Dismasted and outnumbered, your nearby presence will persuade the survivors to strike their colours.


The results screen should look something like this:


Fours ships sunk, three taken. No significant damage.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I
Group all your ships together and use the line formation for every move. Immediately turn to port by 20-30 degrees so your lead ship can get it's broadside on target ASAP. Then, as your line moves past the enemy will try to turn and exchange fire. At best they get 2-3 ships firing against most if not all of your line, and you should be able to get the first shots in too, so it's pretty one sided. Keep turning the lead ship to starboard to keep it's guns in play as your battle line moves past the French fleet. You are doing badly if you don't sink one.

Being completely useless at naval tactics (having never studied or tried them before in any other game of the time period), I gave your opening a whirl, by keeping my ships in a line and working around the front. I didn't board any (mainly because I'm not so good at that yet), but I managed to sink all the French ships with the cost of only one of my own, so thank you.

[Zatoichi]

It's taken me 6 tries before I finally won - I guess I'll just have to accept I'm no Nelson!

I still haven't figured out the best way of approaching this - if I let my ships do their own thing I seemed to lose, if I tried to micromanage them individually I seemed to lose... Still, I've enjoyed each battle, and I guess my fumblings are getting me somewhere - when I finally won, I only lost one ship. I think I did pretty much what Elmar sketched out, but in a far more messy and chaotic way! I did successfully board a ship though, which was nice.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying these out for real in the campaign - I don't suppose I'll want to try a 20 v 20 engagement for some time though.

[IlDuce]

I kept all my ships in a line and then turned right so that my fleet was parallel with the first French fleet and the two fleets were heading in opposite directions. You vastly outgun the enemy at this point so you should come off better. Then as soon as the head ship reached the end of the line I turned left, to head towards the incoming fleet. Passed by them on the right and fired at them. Then looped round as I reached the end of that line but staying on the same side as I was before. By this point the first french fleet had started to merge with the second. They were pretty bunched so I used chain shot to immobilise them. At this point they were a confused mass of crippled/cumbersome ships so I kept looping round them pumping them with cannon. Lost a 4th rate and a 2nd rate. All enemy ships sunk.

[Miracle]

I think the reason why Auto works well is because you eventually end up in a disorganised bunch (provided the enemy uses the standard "snake encirclement" tactic). This has the effect of exposing both sides of your hull equally to enemy fire as well as allowing both sides to fire. Using a pure line formation to manually do "snake encirclement" exposes one side of your hull to fire and allows only one side to fire.

But as we've seen in Elmar's case, the latter could work with great results. I guess it just requires good timing, direction, choice of shots, etc.

[Obadiah]

I played it about 4 times (before reading this thread). I've concluded:
1- Trying to manually target is tons of fun, but you get slaughtered.
2- Keeping the fleet in a line is very hard. I group the ships, try to 'steer' only from the lead ship, and things still get loopy, at which point you're *&^'d.
3- If you give any following ship the slightest direction, it somehow break's the 'follow the leader' command, and you're *&^'d.
4- I haven't tried not giving the fleet ANY direction, but assume they'd sit still and get slaughtered, so not sure how "do less micromanaging" will work.
5- Its still tons of fun. Much, much harder to win than I'd have imagined!

[Zoring]

I just lined my ships up facing their sides towards the enemy fleet and didn't even move. Won without losing a ship.

Only tactical move during the battle was to hide one of my ships behind another when it was damaged, and persue a fleeing french ship firing chain shot to demast it.

[Ibrahim]

well, I don't know if this be a win or loss, but here is the result:

my side: 3 ships damaged, one of which was on fire.

french: 3 crippled, 1 burning, and 2 others just damaged

left the battle though before it concluded-RL isues

[Polemists]

First one I lost, second one I won.

The key is four things I think.

One as others stated, don't use broad sides. Just click on where and who you want your ships to attack.

Two, your ships are best when it's 2 v 1 because they seem to know to both pick a different side. Anything beyond that and you are in trouble.


Three, friendly fire is not your friend. If your ships get in the way of your other ships firing pattern you will get shredded. So just make sure everyone has a clear target.

Four, as others mentioned, control your admiral. The enemy seems to like to go at him, and he is the first ship in your formation when you start. He does have biggest ship but usually takes most damage.

[Hengist]

Hi!

I experienced the same a sPanzerJaeger. First 3 times I hardly did anything exept clicking attack and watching the show.

The French Fleet always sailed around me, much like Elmar advises us to do in his nice pictures, but my ships just sank them.

Won each time with 0, 0 and 1 lost ships.

Then i started to tryout things and got closer victories and defeats. I basically Learned 2 things:

1. Dont board a healthy ship, I tried to immediatly board the leading french ship with the Namur and lost horrible.

2. Dont fire broadsides when "capping the T" (thats passing infront of the enemy battle line). Most shots will go lef and right of the eneym ship(s).

[Elmar Bijlsma]

I played it about 4 times (before reading this thread). I've concluded:
1- Trying to manually target is tons of fun, but you get slaughtered.
2- Keeping the fleet in a line is very hard. I group the ships, try to 'steer' only from the lead ship, and things still get loopy, at which point you're *&^'d.
3- If you give any following ship the slightest direction, it somehow break's the 'follow the leader' command, and you're *&^'d.
4- I haven't tried not giving the fleet ANY direction, but assume they'd sit still and get slaughtered, so not sure how "do less micromanaging" will work.
5- Its still tons of fun. Much, much harder to win than I'd have imagined!

On point 2 and 3, I am not sure you are using the group order correctly. While ordering line formation they will follow the lead ship, but you'll have to select all ships when giving any order. They'll stay in line and shouldn't need any additional direction. The worst that happens is that a faster ship might get a little too close to a slower ship. Leave it alone and they'll sort themselves out with no great disruption.
In the battle I described above, I probably hadn't given 20 orders in total.

My 'secret' is letting the enemy come to you. As exciting as firing both sides of the ship at the same time seems, it's hard to beat firing your broadside (not the broadside order, it's too fiddly) in to an approaching ship, as during it's approach it'll only get to fire it's bow chasers. Firing 40 odd guns v 2 or 4 can only produce one winner. By the time they do manoeuvre to fire their own broadsides they suffered so much damage and have so many guns knocked out that their reply is feeble. And at that point your line should have advanced far enough that about 3-4 ships of yours are firing at the approaching French vessel so the exchange will go VERY badly for the French.

[antisocialmunky]

In my last game, one of my ships before accidentally ramming the enemy was set on fire by one of them. The enemy ship that set it on fire caught on fire due to ramming. That ship's sails then quickly burst into flames. The ship then exploded.

That was pretty neat.

[Ituralde]

I was soundly defeated at my first go. Managing to escape with one ship though. While in the end the French managed to somehow all take on water and sink. In the end the enemy was left with only three ships.

My second battle, which I just finished went slightly better. I lost only one ship and sunk all of the enemies except for one, which had a white flag above it, but didn't move. I couldn't board it either though.

I'm still not used to the controls though. I tried letting all my ships take the 'line' formation and then after the first passage wanted to turn my flight around by just ordering my flagship. Well, only my flagship turned around while the rest continued towards the horizon. Then I just manually steered my flaship and had the rest use the 'line' formation. It all went well until I sank some French ships slightly in the path of my formation, which screwed up my line pretty badly. It got quite confusing until I decided to just have my complete line turn about 180 degrees, with the last ship now being the first, I just sailed alongside the French and pounded them so smitherns.

I still get confused by the hull damage indicator and always seem to think it shows the damage of the other side. It's also quite hard to estimate the amount of damage needed for a ship to sink. I didn't even notice I had lost one of my own ships until the battle was over and one ship was missing.

I enjoy the naval battles, but they are mighty confusing. I hope I get used to them eventually though.

[batemonkey]

I got smashed 3 times in a row, gave up, read this thread (esp about manual broadsides) now i'm doing much better.

Really like it now, just need to chill out a bit more let the ships captains do there thing!