Captain is an IDIOT?!

[Lord von Games]

Last 2 Captain's have been morons (maybe last 3, but I am still learning). Captain wanted to attack a stronger ship, while our ship was barely afloat. Another Captain wanted to avoid an attack, when our ship was clearly stronger. Captain wants to use chain-shot on the Hull. Captain wanted to attack, but keeps ordering the ship to run away from the enemy.

Only reason we won the last battle is I ignored the Captain's ammo choice, ignored the Captain's target (specific part of the ship), and I chose to follow and close with the enemy ship (actually kept GYBE non-stop, GYBE to actually be smart and close with the enemy, and then GYBE because the Captain demanded it, but then GYBE back because if I didn't the weak enemy would get away, and then GYBE again, because the Captain demanded it, but then GYBE back because if I didn't the weak enemy would get away (rinse and repeat a dozen times) until we finally won.

Captain keeps taking nearly the whole crew to solve his shore-leave problem, leaving inadequate men to rest/refit the ship.

Am I just lucky with dumb Captain(s), and will I eventually lose the game because this is ticking off the Captain, when I keep doing what has to be done, etc?

[Iniour]

Hello,

It is true that the captain can be very frustrating, I know. It is part of the game.
Sometimes, and even often, his choices will overtake you and you will have to contradict them or deal with them.
During battles, when he asks you to use the chain shots on the hull, it's to have more chances to sweep away enemy guns while doing less damage to the hull, allowing you to push him to surrender, and thus avoid sinking him in order to recover more goods.
Sometimes he will want to attack, and after a few enemy salvos, he will be afraid, or even think it is lost.

If you consider that the captain is giving the wrong orders, do not follow them. He will lose trust in you, but victory will give him more! If the enemy flees, he will lose even more trust in you.
When the captain shouts an order and you don't obey it, he will say it again and get angry, trust will suffer crescendo the more the order is repeated. There are 3 levels of repetition, the last one taking away 3 times more trust in you.
To avoid losing too much trust you can voice one of his orders before his repetitions escalate.

Also, you seem to have had no luck. Problems in the city don't happen all the time. You can see his trust in you by the look on his face. The more he looks at the table the less he likes you, the more he looks up the more he likes you.

Also, there are different captain personalities. Some will be more aggressive than others, and some will not attack their pirate brothers, etc.
You can find some information about this in the book of knowledge.

I hope I have helped you.

[Lord von Games]

Thank you! Idiot Captain... but a cool Dev!

[Beowulf]

My book of knowledge suggests I had three kinds of captain personalities so far with my current character.
In the last battle the captain fortunately died (he did not think good of me and tended to make bad ship swap decisions), but not before seemingly with his last breath commanded that we switch AGAIN from a steam ship to a sailboat. I had no contradictions left so my objection went unheard.
The new captain likes me, so hooray!
I like him as well, very reasonable man so far.

As Iniour said you appear to just have been extraordinarily "lucky" with dumb captains, yup.
Also I would not worry much about the captain getting too mad with you. Has not ended a run for me up until now, anyway (never happened to me at all yet, though).

[CasperTheRamKnight]

Originally posted by Lord von Games:

Last 2 Captain's have been morons (maybe last 3, but I am still learning). Captain wanted to attack a stronger ship, while our ship was barely afloat. Another Captain wanted to avoid an attack, when our ship was clearly stronger. Captain wants to use chain-shot on the Hull. Captain wanted to attack, but keeps ordering the ship to run away from the enemy.

Only reason we won the last battle is I ignored the Captain's ammo choice, ignored the Captain's target (specific part of the ship), and I chose to follow and close with the enemy ship (actually kept GYBE non-stop, GYBE to actually be smart and close with the enemy, and then GYBE because the Captain demanded it, but then GYBE back because if I didn't the weak enemy would get away, and then GYBE again, because the Captain demanded it, but then GYBE back because if I didn't the weak enemy would get away (rinse and repeat a dozen times) until we finally won.

Captain keeps taking nearly the whole crew to solve his shore-leave problem, leaving inadequate men to rest/refit the ship.

Am I just lucky with dumb Captain(s), and will I eventually lose the game because this is ticking off the Captain, when I keep doing what has to be done, etc?

Some of them are smart some are Dummies