How Off-Bow Angles Work and What is the Ideal Off-Bow Angle?

[The Renegade]

Been playing this game for nearly a month now and still trying to get the hang of how the off-bow angle works. What exactly would be the most ideal angle? I'm starting to guess it would be something like 179 / 1 or 1 / 179?

[StormRangerX]

There's a lot of nuance that goes into what kind of off-bow angle you want for each ship, but in terms of how well you can sail against the wind, you want the first number to be low and the second number to be high.

[S.V.V]

Originally posted by StormRangerX:

There's a lot of nuance that goes into what kind of off-bow angle you want for each ship, but in terms of how well you can sail against the wind, you want the first number to be low and the second number to be high.

Totally agree .

[GqM]

Originally posted by The Renegade:

Been playing this game for nearly a month now and still trying to get the hang of how the off-bow angle works. What exactly would be the most ideal angle? I'm starting to guess it would be something like 179 / 1 or 1 / 179?

Just ignore the first number, and look at the second one, which tells you the angle to the wind your ship must sail at to reach her max speed. Anything above that angle value will slow your ship down drastically.

Personally I don't think that there's an ideal angle (though some may argue that 90/90 is ideal), so just get a ship that can fair well against the type of ships you're attacking.
A ship with an off-bow angle of 60/120 would do poorly against class 1 and 2 ships, as it's damn near impossible to outrun them due to the differences in off-bow angles.
If you prefer to attack Polacres, Xebecs, Brigantines etc. then something like that would be great for you.
If you want to prey on East-Indianman galleons, frigates, lineships etc., then a ship with about 100/80 would be wonderful.

179/1 is a very bad off-bow angle lol, as that means you can only sail max 1 degree away from the wind heading, and if you exceed 1 degree then you're pretty much going to be a sitting duck.


EDIT: Having a wider angle to the wind causes your ship to sail slower with the wind. Try sailing the Adeline at 0 degrees to the wind, see how that turns out.

[Simon]

In general the Off-Bow Angle lets you get an idea if the ship is better going into the wind or if it is better going with the wind. 60/119 would mean that you hit your max speed at an angle of 60 degrees going towards the wind. 119/60 would mean that you are much better going with the wind at about 60 degrees relative to the direction of the wind.

The reason why no ship is the fastest going at 0 degrees with the wind is because the sails shadow each other from the wind. So some angle is always better to increase the effective area of the sails. Now square sails are good for going with the wind because they act like a parachute, triangular shaped sails (for example lateen sails) are much better for going against the wind because they will act more like the wing of an airplane. In any case you will most likely not move at all if you head straight into the wind. So you'll always need to tack. If the Off-Bow Angle is 60/119 this lets you tack much steeper into the wind than an Off-Bow Angle of 80/99 would do and this will increase your effective speed against the wind.

So in the end it all depends on what you want to do. In general ships with 60/119 will still do okayish with the wind and will let you catch almost every other ship going against the wind. So you are more independend of the wind. Ships like the Brigantine 62/117 (Level 4) or the Polacre 71/108 (Level 3) are having this characteristics. They are very good for pirates because you can catch pretty much every cargo ship and easily run away from stronger ships while going against the wind. Most of the heavier ships are faster going with the wind so you should not try to escape going with the wind. On the other hand ships like the Brig 117/62 (Level 4) are very fast with the wind but will lose a lot of speed when you try to go against the wind. If you prefer to chase the other ships going with the wind, the Brig will be one of the fastest ships and will be able to catch up with them. It'll handle very similar to the Frigate 121/58 (Level 2) later on in the game.