Moving crew between ships

[boring2004]

Is there a way to keep your crew together when you buy a new ship? I've got a "level 3" crew in an unrated sloop and want them to form at least the nucleus of a crew on a new ship. Granted an influx of new sailors would lower their "level", but losing them completely if I sell the sloop seems like a lot of wasted skill.

[pandakraut]

You can set the crew of your old ship to 0. The crew will go into your reserves. Then you can select the new ship, check the reserves box, and put the experienced crew onto the new ship with no stat loss.

However, when you move crew into your reserve pool their stats are averaged with any men already in that pool. So if you want to preserve their stats completely you need to make sure the pool is empty to start.

[Flavalicious]

^^

Additionally the officer dismiss command puts them into the reserve pool, where you can transfer them over to the ship of your choice. Lining up officer skills with the required positions is pretty damned important in this game lol. You'll also want to try and keep a mental record of whos elite and who isnt during ground combat. Probably a bad idea to charge in your best officers and their men if theres other alternatives