Treasure Fleet Strategy

[joshdino]

I just completed the optional Treasure Fleet mission for the first time with a strategy I thought up at work. I did the Snatch mission first and captured a few brigs, then converted them into fire ships via the explosive fire ship upgrade. My formation had my 3rd rate at the head of the column to absorb damage and to screen the following brigs.

Each brig peeled off in turn to confront the enemy head on; the first smashed head long into the first frigate and set her on fire; the next slammed into the first third rate and the last swung between the two SOLs that were not on fire; catching one fully aflame and the other only partially.

This left me with a battered frigate and a partially burning SOL to fight with a fully manned 3rd rate; I focused fire on the heavier ship and targeted the bottom portion of her hull and destroyed her pumps. After a few minutes of broadsides and careful maneuvering to keep my stern from being raked I dismasted her and had her sinking. Turning I engaged the frigate for a few broadsides before dismasting her as well before making a break for the merchant vessels.

I positioned myself ahead of them, damaging masts and rudders until I got one, then the other to surrender and then turned to destroy the frigate with no trouble.

Boom, handled!

Let me know if this strategy works for you guys as well! Make sure they're actual brigs / any other fast 7th rate vessel otherwise you'll have to be much more careful with how you manage your fire ships as they'll be far slower and more fragile.

[the evil one]

Tricky mission
one I often have to restart if the first 5 minutes don't go to plan
I use all 4 ships to quickly cap the two enemy 40 gunners
Then I send one 40 gunner armed for grapeshot/cannonades to take out both treasure ships
Normally it doesn't even need to board either, just block one from the front to slow both to a crawl then grapeshot them both into surrender

Arrogante then splits the 3 68 gun sol's by blocking the 2nd ship( lead ship carries on sailing for a while and takes it's time to turn and return to the action)
My flag ship and 2nd boarder easily grapeshot then cap the 3rd sol while Arrogante has by now badly weakened the 2nd sol and boarded it

Then finally all 3 ships turn to face the final sol together, even with reduced crews 3 vs 1 will grape shot the sol's crew to bits in 5 minutes
It's a LOT of pause and micromanage and one wrong move and the plan falls to bits, but with practice you go from no sol's to 4 sol's in those 2 missions
Plus the added bonus of 2 large troop ships


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252367613


Never see the point of fireships unless they are provided free by the mission
I want free ships :)

[Vasya2423]

Originally posted by the evil one:

Tricky mission
one I often have to restart if the first 5 minutes don't go to plan
I use all 4 ships to quickly cap the two enemy 40 gunners
Then I send one 40 gunner armed for grapeshot/cannonades to take out both treasure ships
Normally it doesn't even need to board either, just block one from the front to slow both to a crawl then grapeshot them both into surrender

Arrogante then splits the 3 68 gun sol's by blocking the 2nd ship( lead ship carries on sailing for a while and takes it's time to turn and return to the action)
My flag ship and 2nd boarder easily grapeshot then cap the 3rd sol while Arrogante has by now badly weakened the 2nd sol and boarded it

Then finally all 3 ships turn to face the final sol together, even with reduced crews 3 vs 1 will grape shot the sol's crew to bits in 5 minutes
It's a LOT of pause and micromanage and one wrong move and the plan falls to bits, but with practice you go from no sol's to 4 sol's in those 2 missions
Plus the added bonus of 2 large troop ships

Your flagship at that time is hermione? How do you outfit it and Arrogante?

[the evil one]

Originally posted by Vasya2423:

Originally posted by the evil one:

Tricky mission
one I often have to restart if the first 5 minutes don't go to plan
I use all 4 ships to quickly cap the two enemy 40 gunners
Then I send one 40 gunner armed for grapeshot/cannonades to take out both treasure ships
Normally it doesn't even need to board either, just block one from the front to slow both to a crawl then grapeshot them both into surrender

Arrogante then splits the 3 68 gun sol's by blocking the 2nd ship( lead ship carries on sailing for a while and takes it's time to turn and return to the action)
My flag ship and 2nd boarder easily grapeshot then cap the 3rd sol while Arrogante has by now badly weakened the 2nd sol and boarded it

Then finally all 3 ships turn to face the final sol together, even with reduced crews 3 vs 1 will grape shot the sol's crew to bits in 5 minutes
It's a LOT of pause and micromanage and one wrong move and the plan falls to bits, but with practice you go from no sol's to 4 sol's in those 2 missions
Plus the added bonus of 2 large troop ships

Your flagship at that time is hermione? How do you outfit it and Arrogante?

yep it was the flag, it's a 50-50 call but decided to leave my best officers in the flag as Arrogante is a better ship and can support lesser officers easier

For that one battle I use every cannonade I can get other than the Arro which comes already supplied with decent guns
It's more about keeping the Ai from joining forces, split them up so you have local superiority despite being outnumbered overall

And just one ship to take both treasure ships out, get in front of the lead ship and both drop sails don't try and go broadsides with the AI at this stage of the campaign
Same policy with the 3 sol's block the 2nd and the 3rd will have to drop sail too
while the lead ship will sail on then have to turn and sail back, gives you time to do your job
Ofc though it can all go horribly wrong :)

EDIT:
Btw I have made a big effort in the land battles up to then to get max amount of 3star troops
Then sent them all to the reserves and made them 3 star sailors , makes a massive difference
Not sure if that's so easy to do on the lower settings as there might not be the experience gains and high troop numbers to kill to let you level up so fast

plus I cap every single ship in every early mission , so rep is free flowing

[joshdino]

Originally posted by the evil one:

Tricky mission
one I often have to restart if the first 5 minutes don't go to plan
I use all 4 ships to quickly cap the two enemy 40 gunners
Then I send one 40 gunner armed for grapeshot/cannonades to take out both treasure ships
Normally it doesn't even need to board either, just block one from the front to slow both to a crawl then grapeshot them both into surrender

Arrogante then splits the 3 68 gun sol's by blocking the 2nd ship( lead ship carries on sailing for a while and takes it's time to turn and return to the action)
My flag ship and 2nd boarder easily grapeshot then cap the 3rd sol while Arrogante has by now badly weakened the 2nd sol and boarded it

Then finally all 3 ships turn to face the final sol together, even with reduced crews 3 vs 1 will grape shot the sol's crew to bits in 5 minutes
It's a LOT of pause and micromanage and one wrong move and the plan falls to bits, but with practice you go from no sol's to 4 sol's in those 2 missions
Plus the added bonus of 2 large troop ships


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2252367613


Never see the point of fireships unless they are provided free by the mission
I want free ships :)

Well, the snatch mission essentially provides you with plenty of small, fast vessels that can easily dispatch the enemy's heavier elements with a small investment for a pretty massive pay out. It only takes what, 1-2 rep to get those vessels? You wind up getting 15+ Rep for just finishing the mission, not to mention the 70K+ in prize money and the two merchant vessels you can send back to the admiralty or keep for yourself.

It's a less tricky, more 'head on' approach that requires minimal dedication of manpower...not to mention you can strip off all the guns on said fire ships and sell them off as well for a bit of extra money to help pay the for the fire ship conversion. I'd say my strategy is good for players that are new to the game / in a tight spot when it comes to the sheer weight of their firepower. Not everyone who starts off will have multiple frigates, especially if they're new. Hell, I made that mistake during my first attempt at the campaign.

I will look into your approach however and see how that works!

[the evil one]

No set way to win, as long as it works for you that's all that matters
The game plays so different on the easy/med/hard settings then adaptive or not too
No set way will work with all settings
That's part of the beauty of the naval side of the game

[Krieger Von Klapper]

Fire ships? A waste of three good third rates lol. Honestly though, you can use them as soon as you capture the first one, you'll even the odds up with them even, assuming you've capture Arrogante first, you can roll up their numbers to yours by boarding and using their ships and transferring crews. Third rates are tough to destroy, that way just whittle their numbers down till you can board them. AI are not smart enough to use grape shots. As Sun Tzu said..... Probably: Use their strength and numbers against them.........