U.S. vs. Milford

[dcm20]

Any ideas for eliminating the 3rd class Milford and saving the one-masted Minerva? I have the frigate Hancock, Corvette Virginia and four 18-20 gun sloops against Milford and four other small ships. A couple of broadsides from Milford cripples the sloops and the corvette and frigate can't slug it out with Milford. Meanwhile the Minerva is run down and boarded by the little ships before it can exit. What works for you?

[JaM]

best would be using fireship and just burning it down....

[Sooner535{UFIP}]

Personally I used the Corvette to keep in front of the Milford and just absolutely peppered it with chain shots until it couldnt move barely at all. While doing that I let the brits chase down the Minerva and board while I picked off sloops as I could while avoiding the Milfords huge guns (dont touch those, they hurt as it sounds like you know lol). Anyways I ended up boarding the Minerva, and let it sail off again while grape shots ate the crew of the HMS Milford, afterwards she became "The Renegade" and was a fun ship to bring to the future table :). It takes a lot of patience and fiddling, otherwise you may just try to mast the Milford, kill the sloops, and then run. I will note I lost 2 sloops in that fight to get the Milford, but it seemed like a fair trade to me lol

[henry.]

You might want to capture as much as British 5th rate as possible before facing the Milford. Preferably, you would bring 2 frigates with higher number of crew than "optimal", best boarding tool available, and when the Milford appear, save game, and try your best to double board that bad boi. Do it until you get the double board. The Milford should not survive the double board. Of course, you should bring another ship to deal with the smaller British reinforcement.

[Ninjasquirrel]

Unless you upgraded those free ships you got, they're pretty slow so they won't be able to avoid getting hit by the 3rd rate. If you can get them above 13 knots you should be able to stay outside the firing arc. Shoot it up with a bunch of grape till it either surrenders or run out of men. Boarding is a bad idea because a) 3rd rate will get a significant bonus in boarding over your ship due to higher deck and b) you will take a broadside to the face when you try to line up to board, reducing your men's morale right before they have to go in.

But still, best and easiest thing to do is just burn it up like jam said. You don't really need to capture a SOL in American campaign, you can use frigates all the way up to the very end. There will be other opportunities down the road to capture one if you want one, and hopefully you'll have some heavy 5th rates by then.

[dcm20]

Best idea was the fireship. Milford didn't bother to shoot at it even when it ran past its broadside.

[Obelisk]

Get a sloop. You will lose it!!!! Sail it straight at the Milford. When you are about to Ram into it set it ON FIRE! MIlford will catch on fire and sail off till it sinks. Now you can save the other allied ship and capture the other ships you are fighting

[Padre [USMC]]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4DSlYejDAo