This section covers campaign episodes 5-6, some increasingly difficult scenarios.
Episode 5 - Jamaican Rum
Start Date:
Mar. 1657
End Date:
Mar. 1665
Resources:
2000 gold, 10 lumber
Goals:
Achieve a minimum hoard size of 1,000 gold pieces over a period of 8 years.
Bronze:
Hoard size >=1000.
Silver:
Hoard size >=2000.
Gold:
Hoard size >=3000.
Notes: This episode is the first one that really gives you a feel for the full game play and it lasts a full eight years whether you do well
or poorly, so enjoy it! Due to the fixed time duration, time is less critical in this one, but to maximize your hoard, you will need to get your shipping
up and running quickly. Your first priority is to place a sea ration factory. Put it at the end of the road from the dock and make sure the doorway faces the
road for best efficiency (rotate it one time from default). Put a construction tent nearby. Your second priority is lumber. Extend the road by the sawmill
to the northeast a good distance and build a timber camp next to the sawmill. Build another farther up the road where the trees are denser also. Make sure
your sawmill and one timber camp are fully staffed and build another construction tent if you have extra workers.
Once your lumber starts to come in, build two more corn farms in the field across from the palace. When you have 20 lumber, build a second sawmill
by the second timber camp. Make sure your sea ration factory is staffed as soon as it is complete by firing any female construction workers and increasing hiring priority if necessary.
Keep an eye on your ship and as soon as the rations are up to at least 3 or 4, send it off on a raid settlement mission. Raid once or twice more
until most of your buildings are staffed. Then kidnap a skilled cook to speed up ration production and a skilled server to unlock your entertainment options. Don't
go wild on kidnapping though as you will need all the money you have. You should also do some exploring in the adjoining areas to discover trade routes and settlements. See tips below for exploring.
Now you must decide whether to go with the standard iron industry for weapons or to follow the advice of Mercator and TJ at the forum and use a
black market to supply weapons. My preference to get cruising quickly is the black market, but I also recommend building an iron production chain later on
to replenish lost weapons. If you do use the black market, build it now, otherwise build an iron mine or two to get the iron rolling in. Be sure that you have
at least $336 left in the treasury when your black market is complete so you can buy your first set of cutlasses ($48 x 7).
If you are ready to start cruising, make sure you build the pirate cave first and set it to Stash Maximum to maximize your hoard. You should also be
building your boatyard and a second dock by about this time. Your second sawmill should be pumping in lots of lumber by now so you can afford to build all these buildings.
If you are really conservative with your money, you may be able to build your first ship before you start cruising, but likely you will have to wait for your first
haul. Before you cruise, go to the strategy map and set your ship to cruise in Panama. Also make sure you set your ship to Miserly to keep the maximum money for yourself, do a Quicksave and send her off.
Hopefully you will get a good haul the first time out and be able to start building a sloop.
From here on it gets easy. Build some entertainment buildings to reward your pirates for their first successful cruise. Build a graveyard to ensure any
pirates killed on cruises can be resurrected. Kidnap a skilled farmer and build some specialty farms. Kidnap a tobacconist and distiller to allow cigars and rum to be produced.
Build a third dock and recruit Francis L'Ollonais once you build your third ship. When you can afford it, a fourth dock and ship are good insurance in case you lose a ship.
Now just keep cruising and raking in the plunder until your eight years are up. Build more entertainment buildings and anarchy/defence decor to keep your pirates satisfied
and appropriate fear/order decor to keep your captives resigned. You should be able to achieve a hoard of over $10,000 if you have followed all these tips.
Tips: On hiring priorities: This episode starts with limited cash, so you must use it wisely. If you set
any buildings to medium or high priority to get workers, set them to low again once they are staffed to avoid the payout to overseers. This is a good strategy
at any time but can cost some production efficiency since you won't have overseers speeding up your workers, so you need to decide which is more important.
On exploring: Cruising in Panama is fairly lucrative and you can just do it there for the whole game if you want to. But eventually the great powers will start sending their
military in to try to catch you. So you should do some exploring to look for other settlements and trade routes nearby. This is a good early task for your first or second
ship since your pirates will be fairly content and won't mind repeated trips to sea. To achieve full knowledge of a sector and discover all settlements and trade routes, you will need to send your ship to an unexplored area three times.
The first time brings it from "Unexplored" to "Well Surveyed" or "Thoroughly Charted". The second to "Very Familiar Seas" and finally the third to the maximum "Like the Back or Our Hand".
I won't spoil it for you by telling you where all the choice locations are. If you want to, you can use one game to only explore, note the best locations and then go back to
a saved game. Or you can really cheat and look at the text file. But the best way is to just explore the surrounding areas as you have time and cruise in any areas with new trade routes or settlements.
On maximizing income: There are other ways besides cruising to increase your hoard. Make sure you set some of your entertainment buildings to Middling or Gouge 'Em
to increase their income and also increase your wealthy captive's ransom. If you have enough entertainment spots, let some of your wealthy captives stay around until their ransom
is over 200, otherwise, ransom them right away to leave room for your pirates. You may also want to try an edict like Rig Gambling Against to increase your income, but be careful
you don't do it at the expense of too much pirate happiness.
Achieve harmonious relations with France or Spain, build hoard size to at least 1500 gold.
Bronze:
Complete within 6 years.
Silver:
Complete within 4 years, 9.5 months.
Gold:
Complete within 3 years, 10 months.
Notes: This episode is your first introduction to diplomacy with the Great Powers of the game: England, France and Spain. Most of the information on the status of the great powers
is found at the bottom left in the strategy map (click on the silver telescope). You can find out here what your relationship status is with each power, how much plunder and how many captives you have taken from each power,
who has discovered the location of your secret island and who is at war with whom. This will all be important information for this episode.
You have two choices for winning this episode: go for the gold to achieve your goals as quickly as possible, or use all available time to maximize your hoard and thus your treasury for the next episode.
The only difference is when you start cultivating relationships with the great powers. I'll assume you want to go for the gold and deal with any differences later. In that case, time is of the essence, so you will have to move
quickly at the start. Pause the game as soon as it starts and have a look around your island. Click on your pirate cave and set it to Stash Maximum so you don't forget later. Build a construction tent beside or near the chuck tent
and a sea ration factory beside that. You will notice that trees are fairly scarce in this episode but that should not be a problem since it is fairly short. Build a timber camp beside the sawmill and another one up the road from the corn farm
where trees are denser. Now you can unpause to start the game.
You will get a notice regarding diplomacy right away. To choose who you want to at peace with, go to the strategy map and see which power has a settlement near your island. If it is Spain, you will want to choose France, if France, then choose
Spain. Otherwise you will not be able to raid for captives at that settlement. Click the edicts icon and click the farthest right icon for International Diplomacy. Choose the Announce Peace Policy edict for the nation you have chosen and pass the edict.
Then click the Cruise Orders edict button (the middle one) and choose the Prohibit Victims edict for the nation you are at peace with. This will start you towards the required harmonious relations, which takes at least two years. If you are trying to
maximize your hoard and not going for the gold, you can put this off until later, but do it at least 3 years before the end or you may not have time to win. Also, it would be a good idea to prohibit victims from the start from the nation you will be at
peace with or they may be quite angry with you after a few years of cruising.
You will also get a notice soon after this about an English spy you left behind in Jamaica who offers to reveal information about a number of English trade routes for 1500 gold. This is certainly a tempting offer and as long as you have
enough cash in your treasury, you should do it. These trade routes cannot be discovered by exploring since only your spy has the information. To enact the edict, go to the Cruise Orders edict menu and click on the Spy on Settlement edict to enact it.
You will get an immediate notice for three English trade route locations that will increase your cruising plunder.
Now back to your island. Build two more corn farms on the road up from the first corn farm as soon as you have enough lumber. Then wait until you have 20 lumber and build a second sawmill beside the second timber camp.
In the meantime, keep an eye on your ship and as soon as it has at least 3-4 rations, send it out on a raiding mission. Also kidnap a shipwright early on to allow you to build a boatyard. Keep on raiding as captives are fairly scarce in this episode. When you
have 10 lumber, build a boatyard and then a dock. You will not need the bigger ships for this episode unless you are going for the maximum hoard strategy. As soon as your dock is finished and you have 20 lumber, start building a snow just for raiding and
kidnapping. If you have lots of cash in your treasury, don't bother with the iron industry at all, just build a black market next.
You should be ready to start cruising about a year into the scenario. Build a graveyard and stock up your schooner with cutlasses from your black market. Cruise first in the Virgin Islands and then the Lower Antilles or even the other areas with trade routes. Now build a brewery
and some other entertainment buildings to satisfy your edgy pirates. Keep raiding with your snow to get enough captives to staff them and fire females from other jobs as needed to get servers.
When you have a few entertainment buildings completed, build a third dock and a schooner and recruit another captain and start cruising with that ship. I was surprised to find that a sloop cannot travel as far as the two distant English trade routes, so a schooner is the better choice here.
A fourth dock and captain are the next order of business. Keep cruising and make sure you ransom wealthy captives as they come in and you should have 1500 gold in your hoard by the start of the third year. Now you just have to work on getting your relationship with your
peaceful great power up to harmonious. Try enacting edicts to free captives or betray pirates of that nation. Even if you have zero captives of that nation, passing the Free Captives edict will improve relations. The Betray Pirates edict may work the same way.
After this it is just a matter of time until your relations become harmonious and you will achieve victory!
Tips: Sea ration production: Here's a little trick to get your sea ration production going sooner. As soon as the game starts, pause the game and fire the hauler from the one existing chuck tent and shift-click
to block out the position. He/she will still deliver the first load but will leave some corn at your corn farm for the sea ration factory once it is built. This can shave weeks or even months off the time it takes to start sailing. Just remember to open it up again once the sea rations
factory starts production.
Great Power Relationships : For your reference, the sequence of relationships with the great powers in order from lowest to highest is as follows: Hostile, Cool, Neutral, Cordial and Harmonious.
