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=== During the game === | === During the game === | ||
Once the game begins, the number one thing to do is '''find Montalban'''. You only have so many years before you get old (especially before you've found the longevity items) and Montalban is an extremely tough opponent. Once your health is "poor" (which happens when you hit 34 if you have both longevity items and your special skill is not Medicine), you can probably forget about beating him. (Do remember that you'll regain some health if you purchase a longevity item, so hope is not lost if you hit poor health but don't have the items yet.) Once you've beaten Montalban at his hideout, it's all downhill from there. | |||
A good way to get a lead on Montalban is to find and defeat Raymondo and repeat until you can rescue a family member. The family member will tell you where Montalban's ship is, and from there, barkeeps will usually keep you informed of his location if he's anywhere nearby. (Once you've defeated Montalban at his hideout, further family members will give you Lost City map pieces instead.) | A good way to get a lead on Montalban is to find and defeat Raymondo and repeat until you can rescue a family member. The family member will tell you where Montalban's ship is, and from there, barkeeps will usually keep you informed of his location if he's anywhere nearby. (Once you've defeated Montalban at his hideout, further family members will give you Lost City map pieces instead.) | ||
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Pirate hunters can be troublesome, so how do you avoid them? The easiest way is not to get in fights with national ships at all. It sounds crazy and runs directly against the common wisdom of plundering the plentiful Spanish ships, but it's perfectly viable to simply never attack a national ship (Raymondo/Montalban excepted) in the early game and it won't damage your chances of a perfect score at all. Enemy pirate ships are fair game since they don't spawn pirate hunters. One trick you can do if you're not coming across enough pirates is to go to a Pirate Town and encourage them to attack a city. They will send out a ship that you yourself can attack. If you wait a bit before you do this, one to three Pirate Privateers should show up as well. (This is because the game thinks it's an escort mission, and escorting a ship always causes privateers to spawn. These Pirate Privateers won't do anything, though.) The Pirate Privateers might not be carrying much gold, but you might find their ships useful, and the reputation you gain for beating them all is quite useful. In fact, pirates make great targets exactly because you can advance your standing with all four nations at once. You can find lots of Pirate Towns (and usually a few named pirates) along the coast of Central America and Mexico if you're looking for action and promotions. As your rank advances, the nations will forgive you for taking the occasional potshots at their treasure and payroll ships, though obviously this will reduce your chances for promotions/land grants. | Pirate hunters can be troublesome, so how do you avoid them? The easiest way is not to get in fights with national ships at all. It sounds crazy and runs directly against the common wisdom of plundering the plentiful Spanish ships, but it's perfectly viable to simply never attack a national ship (Raymondo/Montalban excepted) in the early game and it won't damage your chances of a perfect score at all. Enemy pirate ships are fair game since they don't spawn pirate hunters. One trick you can do if you're not coming across enough pirates is to go to a Pirate Town and encourage them to attack a city. They will send out a ship that you yourself can attack. If you wait a bit before you do this, one to three Pirate Privateers should show up as well. (This is because the game thinks it's an escort mission, and escorting a ship always causes privateers to spawn. These Pirate Privateers won't do anything, though.) The Pirate Privateers might not be carrying much gold, but you might find their ships useful, and the reputation you gain for beating them all is quite useful. In fact, pirates make great targets exactly because you can advance your standing with all four nations at once. You can find lots of Pirate Towns (and usually a few named pirates) along the coast of Central America and Mexico if you're looking for action and promotions. As your rank advances, the nations will forgive you for taking the occasional potshots at their treasure and payroll ships, though obviously this will reduce your chances for promotions/land grants. | ||
At the start of the game, you may want to divide the plunder as soon as you have the opportunity to do so, so long as your crew will "eagerly" take their share (each pirate gets 50 gold or more). This will make recruiting much easier and, if you're ''very'' lucky, you can go without dividing ever again thanks to gold from named pirates, buried treasure, lost cities, and Montalban. When you try to divide, if they merely "gladly", "willingly", etc. take their share, cancel and go earn a bit more money or simply lose some crew in a battle (either a sea battle or land battle will do). Don't do something like take out Henry Morgan, because you'll get way more money than you need before dividing. It'll be more useful after dividing and help your next crew last. | |||
Once you've divided the plunder once, you'll want to divide as infrequently as possible, possibly never at all, because it removes you from action for six game months, causing your character to age. However, don't fanatically avoid dividing the plunder either. You will need at least 200 (preferably 250 or more) to face Montalban at his hideout, and it makes sense to divide if you will be fighting Montalban soon but don't think you'll be able to maintain a large enough crew. Mutinies are also headaches, especially when they start stealing ships and taking some of your hard-earned gold with them. You can sell off all ships but one to avoid mutinies, but then you will be very vulnerable against powerful opponents like Raymondo and especially Montalban. It's best to always keep at least one spare ship and instead lose some crew through battle to avoid mutinies (since a mutiny is always caused by crew size — or hunger, but this is rarely a problem if you're careful), or divide if your crew is already too small to allow this. | |||
== Swordfighting == | == Swordfighting == |