I'm curious if anyone else has reached the conclusion that I have. I think the crayer is the best fighting ship in the game. The hulk is better if all your opponents are cogs or hulks, but you can't depend on anyone not to use some smaller ships in their convoys. And it's really difficult to destroy small ships with hulks; they're just too damn agile.

I'd rather fight a hulk with a hulk, but I'd rather fight a crayer with a crayer. And fighting hulks with crayers isn't a problem; it takes a while to wear them down, but on the x5 speed using the x10 consistently, it goes by pretty fast. Meanwhile, fighting crayers with hulks is a problem, and it's a worse problem if you turn the game speed up.

A while ago, I was reading a thread about ship battles that said you should always sail with the wind. I think that's a mistake, and it's the second part of my thinking in preferring crayers. I probably never would have noticed this except that it's a big part of Sid Meier's Pirates (one of my favorite games); small ships handle going against the wind much better than large ships do.

If you're in a crayer fighting larger ships, you should sail directly into the wind. The larger ships will be paralyzed. It's not a dramatic difference, but it gives you an edge. If you're fighting ships in your size class, sail with the wind at your back. That means, in a hulk, you can never take advantage of the wind.

I completely alone in preferring crayers? Has anyone else noticed the difference in how different sized ships handle the wind?

Hi!

Interesting thoughts! Many people mentioned the martial supremacy of hulk and crayer, but not in relation to the wind.
I guess the discribed behaviour depends on a ship's mobility (speed and turning circle).

best regards, Daan

Anybody else come up with the waggle attack? When I'm firing on a ship that I'm not sure I'm going to hit (it's far away, it's small, it's coming directly at me with no broad side visible), I wait till I get the red circle, then I right-click to thrust my rear end toward the target. It spreads the shots out. You won't hit with all of them, but hitting with a few is much better than hitting with none.

Sea battles were discussed sometime ago - check this thread

http://forum.kalypsomedia.com/showthread.php?tid=9049

My opinion is that the smaller the ship the greater manoeuvring ability - and manoeuvering is the key to winning sea battles. Crayers seem best because you get a reasonable firepower to manoeuvring ratio. Once you understand the AI tactic - one ship pretty much gives up and two attempt to "cross the T" - fire into your stern or bow - then by turning into the attack the AI ship moves away giving you a clear shot before you continue your turn and his shot misses astern. The thread explains in more detail.
After several months - sea battles are routine played at 5x speed. BUT I can still only fight with one ship - if I try to attack with a convoy it turns in to a disaster, for me.