Pirate Hideout

[TangoBravo]

Is there a way to defeat a pirate hideout or are those towers invincible on purpose?

[Draconyx]

The cannon armed towers are defeatable - you just need to steer in a circle - if it works then you can avoid getting hit at all. I have managed multiple towers at the same time after practice. The wind direction is a factor as well.

[TangoBravo]

I have hit the tower a hundred times and it still stands without a scratch. I wonder whether it will suddenly implode on the one hundred and first shot or whether that means I have to steer around this thing for some hours, which really would not be worth it.

[AlP]

After a while the tower starts smoking, then a small fire appears, and a few hits later it is destroyed.

If it's just a bombard tower (the short one), it falls fast enough even if you use a snaikka. The cannon tower (the tall one) isn't worth attacking with anything but a cog.

[TangoBravo]

Thanks, that is good to know... seems I wasn't even close to getting the tower down then. I guess I should just cancel that mission.

[AlP]

Sounds like you didn't bring enough firepower. Although how did you kill all the ships inside then?

[TangoBravo]

Six level 3 hulks fully armed with cannons. The four ships vanished in no time, but still they were no match for one single tower.

[AlP]

Four ships? For me it's usually 20+.

Yeah, next time bring a couple of cogs with cannons. The second one just in case the first gets damaged, park it with no sails out of tower range. When the tower fires a shot, turn the ship slightly, and it will miss.

[TangoBravo]

The whole idea of avoiding the cannon shots probably works better with cogs.

This seems to be a major game design flaw: one has to pick a worse ship in order to exploit a weakness and to carry on doing that for several hours to have some effect. The problem isn't even that it is difficult, but that it is repetitive and pointless within the context of the reality the games wants to create. Sid Meier's Pirates did a much better job with the sea battles years before this game.

[AlP]

Cogs simply have a higher turn rate. You can do it with hulks too, but you need to move faster with them to compensate.

You can also gather a large enough fleet and use auto-combat.

[Draconyx]

The auto combat generally results in the loss of one or more ships and too much damage. Manual control allows a vastly reduced damage in comparison.

[TangoBravo]

Well, I doubled the number of ships and solved it via auto combat. Manually it was just too tedious for me. It is kind of a design flaw, when the best way to win is to take a single weaker ship and exploit the limits of the AI instead of using the most powerful vessel, like they would have done it in real life.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Those towers are hard to take down. You often have to pick at them for a while as you avoid getting shot up. Don't bother using anything smaller than a cog cuz you'll literally be there forever. Oh and use cannons not the catapults or scorpions. Even with cannons and a cog though it'll take a while. PS, the towers will start smoking first, then it'll smoke heavier, and THEN it goes boom :)

[TheMaster1]

Lol i can SOLO 3 lvl 2 towers with 1 ship xD It's a matter of knowing how the tower shoots. It will shoot in the direction you are going. Use it to your advantage, wait until the last second facing somewhere you are not going, and as soon as it shoots go towards the tower.

[TheMaster1]

Bring 3 ships, all armed with 1 slot-cannons. Depending on the wind, if theres a lot and nice direction too, you can use the hulk. If not go for cog or crayer

[Draconyx]

I prefer crayers for it but cogs are good - hulks are situational depending on wind but get it done fastest.