How do I take over another island held by an NPC?

[clif9710]

In Anno 2070 I had to destroy the port and the warehouses, then the land would be open to me to develop. How does it work in 1800?

[AJYXQ]

Destroy enough buildings/turrets etc. within a certain time and it will give you an option to take the island.

[Tankfriend]

There's two ways to take over an island:
Either you take the military route as mentioned by J Francesco above, i.e. you keep destroying port buildings until an island's resistance value drops so low you can capture it.

Or you take the economic route, acquire the majority of shares (to of the screen next to the name of the island is a cake diagram you can click) and then pay a certain fee to take over the island.

[vkobe]

Originally posted by clif9710:

In Anno 2070 I had to destroy the port and the warehouses, then the land would be open to me to develop. How does it work in 1800?

destroy over 50% of their building, so the big port and probably the oil port, if they stop to shot at you it mean you going to take the island

just rememeber it is also tricky, when you take island it will add reputation cost, so it mean because you take the island you cant build more ship

[Sir Snuffles]

easier to take islands via money i think compared to military. sometimes the AI build islands like fort knox with flametowers that melt your ships

[Black Ram]

Can you take over an island without being at war? with fx. letter of marque.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by Sir Snuffles:

easier to take islands via money i think compared to military. sometimes the AI build islands like fort knox with flametowers that melt your ships

Flamethrowers are only useful against sail ships and lose most of their firepower against steam ships. Same in reverse goes for armour-piercing gun turrets.
Meanwhile, both are much more expensive than standard cannon turrets.

Originally posted by TooMuChC4 DK:

Can you take over an island without being at war? with fx. letter of marque.

Yes, the economic route does not require you being at war.

[watcherzero]

However the economic route will quickly push you towards war.

[vkobe]

Originally posted by Sir Snuffles:

easier to take islands via money i think compared to military. sometimes the AI build islands like fort knox with flametowers that melt your ships

nah it is mine the most painfull part

[Tankfriend]

Yeah, because you can't just buy all the shares, but have to wait in between share purchase. That gives the AI the opportunity to just buy it back.
What you can do about this is buying multiple islands simultaneously and hope that the AI concentrates on buying back the shares of the islands you *don't* want right now.

[clif9710]

Originally posted by Tankfriend:

There's two ways to take over an island:
Either you take the military route as mentioned by J Francesco above, i.e. you keep destroying port buildings until an island's resistance value drops so low you can capture it.

Or you take the economic route, acquire the majority of shares (to of the screen next to the name of the island is a cake diagram you can click) and then pay a certain fee to take over the island.

When you said "resistance value" does that refer to an actual numeric value that can be checked? I know that on the diplomacy screen it shows bar charts with values, one of them military. Do you mean that value?

[Tankfriend]

No. When you actually attack an island and look at that island during the attack, you will get kind of a "hitpoint bar" at the top of the screen. You need to deal enough damage to push the port's symbol beyond the white flag symbol, and the island will surrender.
The more harbour buildings and especially defense buildings an island has, the harder it will be to take.

If an attack fails or you choose to retreat to repair, you'll get a countdown of a few minutes during which the island will still be considered to be under attack and you can potentially send in the next wave to continue. If the countdown runs out, the attack will officially end, and the owner of the island will be able to repair and rebuild their defenses and buildings.

[clif9710]

OK, I'm learning by doing. I just had my port attacked and defeated. A white flag appeared and I'm told there is a 30 minute cease fire. There is a 10 minute countdown that appears on the shares screen, with the enemy shown as now owning all the shares.

After the 10 minute countdown the cease fire continues and I am still able to control things on the island, the white flag still waving. What option do I have? I can buy a single share but of course the island remains in the possession of the enemy. I don't understand how I still can control things on the island...for example, I can build a cannon tower, but this would only go to the enemy when the ceasefire ends. Am I helpless at this point?

[Tankfriend]

When a player captures an island they get to choose between two options:
1) Destroy the entire island, and take over the port building.
They are now the owner of the island, but have to build it up from nothing.

2) Take over all the shares of the island, but leave the original owner in control.
As share owner, they get passive income off the island without having to do anything for it, but they run the risk that the original owner will try to buy back the shares. On the other hand, keeping control of the shares means they will get the chance to buyout the island, which means getting complete ownership over it with everything on it intact.

In your case, the second option happened. Meaning you still have the opportunity to try and buy back the shares of your island to prevent an economic takeover.

[clif9710]

Originally posted by Tankfriend:

When a player captures an island they get to choose between two options:
1) Destroy the entire island, and take over the port building.
They are now the owner of the island, but have to build it up from nothing.

2) Take over all the shares of the island, but leave the original owner in control.
As share owner, they get passive income off the island without having to do anything for it, but they run the risk that the original owner will try to buy back the shares. On the other hand, keeping control of the shares means they will get the chance to buyout the island, which means getting complete ownership over it with everything on it intact.

In your case, the second option happened. Meaning you still have the opportunity to try and buy back the shares of your island to prevent an economic takeover.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I have my main fighting ships standing by at the port, the enemy ships left after the surrender. It seems to me that as soon as the ceasefire times out, I can immediately attack and take back the island. BTW, I noticed that the port has some firepower all by itself that was unable to hold off the two enemy ships that attacked.

If I can retake the island, my ships have supplies that will allow me to immediately put up a cannon tower...

[Tankfriend]

That only works if the AI does a buyout and takes control over your island.
If they don't and they leave you in control, then you can't take back the shares by force, since the island is still yours.