Fostering War

[Sondar]

Hey, I'm new here and have a question:

How do you succed in fostering a War? I went out in Lesser Antiellies with 1 Galleon 2 Frigetes and 2 schooners, with Lesser Antiellies Exploration full and 2 millitary forts, 1 English and 1 French who where the targets and they came back with nothing.

Admittely they wasen't much millitary in the area but a fleet this size..........

I'd like to know what to do next.

[Dark Shinji]

Keep trying.  The foster war missions will bear fruit soon.

[Sondar]

Thanks. Does anyone else have any other suggestions?

[Severous]

I never attempted this when I used to play the game.

Have you noticed if this mission is a fixed length or not ? 

Exploration missions always take four days on station. Check the logs when the ships return.

Maybe foster wars is similar.

That would suggest its not so much fleet size but numbers of missions  Rather than a big ship on such a mission - maybe repeated 'foster wars' in your home sea zone with a small ship would be more efficient.

Leave your big ships in port or kicking butt somewhere else. 

[Sondar]

  I've seen you in other topics Severous with all you know i thought youd play everyday!

[Severous]

i thought youd play everyday!

I did for 7 or 8 months in 2004. 

Moved onto another game in Oct2004 yet pop back here to maintain the score table and help out if any questions are asked.

Did you find out anything on foster war by looking carefully at the ship logs when they return from such a mission ?

[Sondar]

No all it says is i failed. I'm getting quite annoyed with that message .

 Why dont you pick the game up again and start playing?

[Severous]

Why dont you pick the game up again and start playing?

Cos im well into another game and have 4 other new games ive not even loaded up yet. 

[Rebel-Yell]

I was never successful in fostering war.Beside being patient and trying it over and over, are there any factors which improve your chances (traffic in a sea zone, crew skills,...) ?

[Hayreddin Barbarossa]

 

Moved onto another game

Which one?
 

[Severous]

Locomotion......been playing it 5months. 
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=9072.0

I didnt foster war that I remember.  Repeat my advice ....record the dates shown in the returning ships logs. Try to establish if a 'foster war' mission is always a fixed time on station...like explore is (4 days).  If it is then I would tend to favour fostering war with your ship assigned to home waters. Will reduce mission time overall as there wont be any travel time to distant sea zones.

But there remain fair questions.. Enemy density? Crew skills? Ship size? Country relations with each other? 

I always presummed fostering war gradually make one country hate another more and more until eventually they went to war with each other.

[Sondar]

 

Country relations with each other? how can you see that?

As for crew skill my best ship was with them Frigate with 4.7 cannon 4.1 gun and 3.9 sword

[Rebel-Yell]

(...)
I didnt foster war that I remember.  Repeat my advice ....record the dates shown in the returning ships logs. Try to establish if a 'foster war' mission is always a fixed time on station...like explore is (4 days).  If it is then I would tend to favour fostering war with your ship assigned to home waters. Will reduce mission time overall as there wont be any travel time to distant sea zones.
(...)

The time the ship spends with executing the actual mission "fostering war" seems to be always 4 days.So until someone comes up with additonal factors which influence success, it is indeed the best to do it in your home sea zone.

[Sondar]

Oh well i have tried and tried but it hasn't worked has ANYONE made this suceed?

[Clever duck]

 I succeded the second time I tried!   I only tried because I was waiting for ship weapons to be made.  Can't remember who the captain was.

  Once I tried and failed,  and the two nations became hostile.

[Fox]

Again how do you start a war?

[takiye]

Yep! I don't know the reason of fostering war ? What is the result if we'rs sucessful ?

[Coconut Kid]

Let me speculate as a novice player.

From the manual:
The lowest section on the Great Power tab tells if this power is in a war with someone else. If they are in a war, they certainly won't dislike you for plundering their enemy's shipping. If they are your patron, they will be willing to give you Letters of Marque, which will let you plunder the enemy shipping as a legitimate act of war with no harm to any of your relationships.

If all the great powers are at peace, business is slow for pirates, at least if you have any concern about fighting off all their navies at sea and their invasion of your island. So, you pick one to be your "patron" and then make sure that one is always at war with the other two. You get your letters of marque and have a happy friend who lets you plunder and loot someone else.

 

[dehantp]

Apparently one needs to send the ships to an area with either a port or a trade route of at least one of the nations one wants to rile up.

Reason:

I recently started to play Tropico again. I only had my home area explored and there only was a British settlement in it. Nothing else of the map was as yet discovered. When I was pondering whether to send someone on a foster war mission, the edict menue told me I can not try to foster war between France and Spain as I had no knowledge of either of their trade routes or settlements.

Which is a sweet thing because if it really depends on trade routes / ports then one can even decide at which of the two nations one shoots during foster war. E.g. if I want France as a patron and England as my target then I send a ship to shoot at British ports/trade routes.

[Coconut Kid]

From the Strategy Guide:

   Pirates in Tropico 2 may live in their own island world, but that world depends on plunder from the greater world for its existence. Sooner or later, your exploits come to the attention of Spain, France, or England. And depending on the situation, this attention can be very good or very bad. International relations with the Great Powers can be very good if you manage to forge a strong bond with one of the three, gaining protection and perhaps even generous money grants. But if your acts of piracy anger one or more of the powers, your balmy island may face the prospect of a full-fledged invasion.
   In almost all games you can avoid serious trouble (i.e., invasion) from the Great Powers if you are willing to court one of them from the start. Immediately issue the Announce Peace Policy edict with one power, and then follow that up with the Prohibit Victims edict toward that same power. If you really want to knock their socks off, you can even issue the Free All of Nationality edict, choosing to release all captives on your island who are from the country you’re courting.
   These fine gestures may very well foster “Harmonious” relations with that country. If that happens, you can issue the Declare Patron edict to create a special relationship with the friendly nation. A patron country gives you 100% protection from the other two Great Powers. An added lucrative benefit: a patron makes an ideal Smuggler’s Cove customer.

... some excellent advice from Jon Edwards, Frog City programmer and engine-master for Tropico 2:
As I see it, the ultimate achievement is the ability to issue the Raise the Jolly Roger edict and declare independence from all the Great Powers. You can hunt anybody anywhere and fend off any potential invasions. The Jolly Roger dramatically increases your pirates’ security and your captives’ despair. Pirate happiness is maximized (reflected in the pirate happiness score). My image for this level of achievement is the infamous Hell Town of Tortuga.

There's more to read in the Strategy Guide.

From the Manual:

Raise the Jolly Roger edict
You declare the independence of your pirate isle from all powers. This automatically cancels announcements of peace, any patron relationship, and any letters of Marque. Additionally, you are free to attack any ships you wish. It results in a loss of invasion protection, if you had it. You must repeal this edict before issuing an announcement of peace.

Chapter 3: Pirate Missions

Special Missions
Besides cruising for plunder and captives, there are some special missions for your ships to perform. For the most part these missions are relatively safe. You control the missions using the mission menu on the ship detail. Since these special missions are also edicts, you can use the edict options menu to assign missions as well. In this case, the final part of issuing the mission orders is selecting which ship will go on the mission.
Foster a War
A ship assigned to 'Foster a War' will depart for the area in the sea where you assigned it using the strategy map. It will look for ships of one particular nation, raise false colors and then fire upon that ship. It will not press home the attack, but will instead try to escape after shooting. The goal is to make one of the Great Powers angry with the other.

By way of speculation, it seems to me that since the description above does not specify the nation the ship looks for (assumption is that the player is not allowed to set that item), that the selection is randomly set. It may be set on the nation which is most frequent in the designated sea zone regardless of any existing patron relationship. That way it will make contact quickly and frequently. The false colors will be either of the other two powers, perhaps according to relative current diplomatic status. The pirate ship assigned should be fast, carry a full load of cannon, and have a captain with good sailing skills.