ip ranks info 01. Ranks and fame You rise in rank as you improve your martial fame and business reputation. New military ranks are reached by increasing your renown, which rises as you complete tasks and achieve victories on the field of battle. The larger and harder are your fights, the shorter is your path to glory. As for your business acumen, it is judged best by the jingle of coins: your status increases with your cash reserves, with the amount of trade goods in your warehouses, with the manufactories and plantations you own, and with the cargo capacity of your fleet.^^Normally, you start as a mere sailor. As such, you can only recruit armed civilians such as colonists and hunters, and purchase boat-sized vessels. As you rise in status, so do your opportunities. New military ranks allow you to hire better soldiers and purchase more powerful warships. An increase in business reputation opens access to larger trade vessels and allows to build more manufactories. Famous warriors and influential traders are permitted to outfit their fleets with heavier naval artillery, can purchase letters of marquee and eventually can be invited to join one of the European powers - or the Brethren of the Coast.
ip military ranks info 02. Military ranks Midshipman:^Can hire colonial soldiers.^Can purchase light ships.^^Lieutenant:^Can purchase medium ships, up to rank 2.^Can have 1 letter of marquee.^Can purchase 12-pounder naval artillery.^Can upgrade vessels.^Can join a faction.^^Captain Lieutenant:^Can hire regular soldiers.^Can purchase warships, up to rank 2.^Can purchase 16-pounder naval artillery.^Can attack and plunder cities.^^Captain:^Can purchase field guns.^Can purchase warships, up to rank 3.^Can have up to 2 letters of marquee.^Can purchase 24-pounder naval artillery.^Can conquer cities for his faction.^^Commodore:^Can hire elite soldiers.^Can purchase warships, up to rank 4.^Can have up to 3 letters of marquee.^Can purchase 32-pounder naval artillery.^Can be granted governorship over a city by his faction.^^Admiral:^Can purchase warships of any rank.^Can purchase 42-pounder naval artillery.
ip trader ranks info 03. Business reputation Shopkeeper:^Can build mines and plantations.^Can own 1 enterprise per town, up to 5 total.^Can purchase light ships.^^Trader:^Can hire colonial soldiers.^Can own up to 2 enterprises per town, up to 10 total.^Can purchase medium ships, up to rank 2.^Can upgrade vessels.^Can join a faction.^^Merchant:^Can build manufactories.^Can own up to 3 enterprises per town, up to 15 total.^Can have 1 letter of marquee.^Can purchase trade ships, up to rank 2.^Can purchase 12-pounder naval artillery.^^Patrician:^Can hire regular soldiers.^Can own up to 4 enterprises per town, up to 20 total.^Can purchase trade ships, up to rank 3.^Can purchase 16-pounder naval artillery.^Fewer taxes and harbor fees in the cities of his faction.^Councilor:^^Can purchase field guns.^Can own up to 5 enterprises per town, up to 25 total.^Can purchase trade ships, up to rank 4.^Can have up to 2 letters of marquee.^Can purchase 24-pounder naval artillery.^Can be granted governorship over a city by his faction.^Fewer taxes and harbor fees in the cities of his faction.^^Chairman:^Can hire elite soldiers.^Can own up to 10 enterprises per town, up to 100 total.^Can purchase trade ships of any rank.^Can purchase 32- and 42-pounder naval artillery.^Fewer taxes and harbor fees in the cities of his faction.
ip battleplan info 04. Planning a battle At the start of field battle, you can deploy your troops by clicking icons of their branches of service and positioning them where you want your soldiers to take a stand. Within each branch of service, your troopers are combined into up to 4 platoons you can direct separately. You can release control over a platoon and let it fight on its own by releasing its icon over the panel at your right. Three buttons above the platoon panel are used to give orders to the entire army - charge enemy, follow you around the battlefield, or hold position.^^Once the battle is joined, you can call up the planning screen with the Battle Map key ('Backspace' by default). Movement orders are given identically to pre-battle deployment, except that your units now take time reaching their destinations. You can alternate them between 'Move' and 'Attack' movement orders, with the former favoring speed over formation, while the later tells your troops to maintain their fighting cohesion while in transit.
ip sea battle info 05. Naval combat You can steer your ship left and right using the '{s2}' and '{s4}' keys. To raise sails and increase your speed, hold '{s1}', to fold sails and slow down, hold '{s3}'.^^There are several ways to fire at enemy vessels. The easiest is to hit the 'Space' key when an enemy is in range of any of your cannons - all the batteries with hostile ships in range will fire at them. That way you can attack more than one enemy at once, as long as they are targeted by different batteries. Alternately, you can click the gun deck icons at the bottom to discharge the batteries individually.^^Your cannons can use 3 kinds of ammunition. Solid cannonballs used by default do the most damage against hulls, and are perfect to sink enemies quickly. They have superior range as well. Alternately, you can load chainshot to wreck enemy rigging and slow it down, or grapeshot to mow down enemy crew in preparation for boarding.^^When you have enough ammunition, you can drop powder kegs as mines. When a ship collides with such a mine, it will be set aflame. You can also repair some of the damage suffered by your hull and rigging, providing you have enough timber or linen in your hold.^^In order to board an enemy vessel, close down to it until the boarding prompt comes up, and hold the '{s7}' key until the bar is filled.^^With additional ships under your command, you can give them orders via calling up the command bar by clicking on their icons on the left side of the screen. You can order them to lay their own mines, attack specific enemies (select a target by clicking on it), stop and keep out of battle, or become a fireship. Fireships lose control and burn down quickly, but if one manages to collide with another ship, that ship is in mortal danger.
ip cityassault info 06. Attacking cities Assaulting a fortified town is no mean feat. You have to be renowned as a military leader of note in order to convince your soldiers to attempt such a task. And when your ambition is conquest rather than base plunder, you need even more recognition to be able to install a new government.^^When you choose to attack a city on land, your party spends several hours constructing siege ladders. Once the preparations are over, you are deployed a short distance from the fort. You can order your troops to attack, hold position or follow you around. Your objective is to reach the ladders, scale the fortifications and defeat the defenders, all while being bombarded from the walls. Alternately, if you own some artillery pieces, you can try bombarding the fort yourself and make some breaches to ease the assault.^^If you choose to attack a city from the sea instead, up to 3 larger warships in your fleet will join the offensive. You begin the battle aboard your flagship at the roadstead outside the firing range of cannons. Having selected one of your vessels, you can order it to advance and bombard the coastal fort, or fall back to the roadstead if it ends up damaged by return fire. While you are aboard, you can man one of the cannons to bombard the city. Once the fortifications are breached, you can order your soldiers to make a landing on boats on their own, or join them in the assault.
ip slavery info 07. Slavery When you lose a battle, enemies take you prisoner, rob you of all possessions, then sell you into slavery at a mine or plantation nearby. You can try escaping from your confinement alone, but a failure may cost you dearly, resulting in crippling injuries. Your best bet is to talk other prisoners into starting an uprising and breaking out together. If you succeed in overwhelming the guards, some of runaway slaves may choose to join your party.^^If you are leading your own faction, you might try to contact your supporters outside and request their help, but a botched attempt will lead to harsh consequences.
ip faction info 08. Starting a faction When your rank is high enough yet you haven't joined any existing faction, you can conquer a city to rule on your own. Such impudence won't be approved by the colonial powers, of course. As self-proclaimed faction leader, you can appoint your hired captains as governors of newly conquered cities, and even convince the disgruntled pirate lords and nobles of colonial powers to switch sides and join your growing American kingdom. You can order your governors to attack enemy troops and cities by right-clicking on their icons and selecting a lord in the list. You can right-click on a city of your faction to grant it to one of your nobles to govern. Right-click on the lord himself to order him to follow you around.^^As a faction leader, you can hire several ministers to help you running your kingdom. The Treasurer will provide you with access to your financial statistics and will handle remote trading and convoy management, working as both the clerk and the banker who is always around. The Drillmaster will add cohesion to your ragtag army, allowing you to change all kinds of soldiers in your service to those specific to your faction. The Secretary will handle your diplomatic affairs. Finally, the Sutler can order food for your army, solving your supply problems regardless of where you are.
ip construction info 09. Construction Having reached the business reputation of a Shopkeeper, you can begin constructing productive enterprises within towns after hiring a clerk to represent your local interests. At first you are limited to resource production facilities such as iron mines and tobacco plantations, but with further reputation advancement you can access manufactories producing finished goods, such as clothing and furniture. Raw resources are harvested from the countryside around the town, and each city only has access to a limited selection of resources. Manufactories on the other hand can be constructed anywhere, but they require a constant supply of specific resources to run, so it is prudent to build them where a resource in question is in abundance.^^When you gain governorship over a city, you can also construct municipal buildings to increase the town's prosperity, access advanced troops and so on.^^The buildings already constructed in town are displayed as a list of round icons at the top.
ip trading info 10. Bulk trading The 'Bulk Trading' button allows you to puchase the goods produced locally, or sell the contents of your cargo hold, supply train or warehouse. Goods readily available in town tend to fetch a low price, while those in high demand sell at a premium. You can click on the 'Merchant' and 'Your fleet' tabs to switch either panel to display your supply train for heading inland, or your warehouse storing goods locally (the warehouse becomes available once you have hired a clerk). When you have a warehouse in town, the 'Warehouse' button is also displayed, providing you with quick access to move your goods between your fleet and the warehouse. If you don't have a warehouse in a city, ships moored at the dock can serve you as temporary storage space, but their cargo capacity is limited.^^Click and hold on the goods icons and drag the slider left or right with your mouse in order to move the goods between panels, then click on the 'Done' button to confirm transfer.
ip messageboard info 11. Messageboard Messageboard stores a list of jobs offered by town and faction authorities. Their tasks may range from supplying specific goods a town is lacking to pillaging an enemy port. Town jobs are different in each town, while faction-wide jobs are offered in every town belonging to the faction.^^Bands of irregular and colonial soldiers in search of mercenary employment also post their notices on the messageboard.
ip shipyard info 12. Shipyard The shipyard allows you to purchase, upgrade, repair and sell ships. You can switch between buying and selling ships using the 'Buy ships/Manage ships' button at the bottom of the screen. Select individual vessels to buy or sell by clicking the icon at the left, above the panel containing ship attributes.^^While in 'Manage ships' mode, you can replace your cannons by selecting a specific deck using cannon icons in the top right corner, then clicking on cannon icon on the rightside panel to bring up the list of possible replacements. Use the arrows next to this icon to change the amount of cannons if you wish to sell back some. The other two icons at the top right allow you to install ship upgrades and to manage your crew. When buying a new ship, do not forget to restock its ammunition reserves (bottom left) and recruit enough crewmen (bottom right, crew management mode).
ip dock info 13. Dock You can leave some of your vessels moored at the dock, if you deem them unsuitable for your current objectives - it wouldn't be prudent, for instance, to carry along a couple of heavily damaged fluyts when you go pirate-hunting. If you are heading inland, your fleet will likewise stay moored at the dock, and you'll have to pick up the ships upon your return. Ships staying at a dock cost less upkeep than your active fleet.^^In order to move your ships between the dock and the active duty, click on their icons and drag them on the opposite panel.^^When you are leaving your ships in a cove, the interface is identical to the dock.
ip convoy info 14. Convoys When you want to open a business in town, the first thing in order is to hire a clerk to manage your local enterprise. You can order a clerk or your treasurer to send a convoy from any city where you have some ships moored at the dock to any other city, providing you have clerks hired at both. First, select the starting town from among cities with your ships docked inside. Then choose the destination town and drag the ships you want to assign to the convoy from left panel to the right. On next screen, add the goods you want to transfer either from the market or from your warehouse. Note that this transaction will be paid from your bank account, and you need sufficient funds in the bank to complete the order.
ip banking info 15. Banking Another person of interest residing in the town hall is a banker. You can use his services to transfer money to your bank account, where your fortunes will be safe from any mishaps that might happen to you on the road. All business expenses are paid from your bank account rather than your cash reserves.^^Bankers can provide you with detailed information on your expenses, including upkeep paid for army, ships and businesses, along with the tax revenues from the cities you govern. You can switch between displaying total expenses and individual expenditure per town. If you have productive enterprises in one of these towns, you can use checkboxes to allow or forbid them to purchase resources on local market, or to sell their production there.
ip gambling info 16. Gambling The taverns in the Caribbean host many professional gamblers making their living by playing cards. They sport different levels of skill, and bet accordingly. Rich and famous players are unwilling to waste their time on newbies, so an aspiring newcomer to the gambling stage will have to make a name for himself playing lesser competitors until he gains better recognition.^^The game of choice in the Caribbean taverns is a Blackjack variant. Both players strive to reach a score closest to 21 points without going bust. An ace is worth 11 points and face cards are worth 10. Upon dealing your first two cards, you have an option to hit (take another card) or stand (keep your hand). Whoever ends up with more points without going over 21, wins the pot. In case of push (draw) both players keep their coins.^^While dealing, you can attempt to rig your hand and deal yourself better cards. Your ability to do so unnoticed depends on your Gambling skill. If your attempt at cheating is spotted, the entire tavern will rise against you in a huge brawl.
ip cove info 17. Landing in a cove Sometimes you may want to make a landing outside nearby towns, which might be controlled by your enemies. The coves allow you to leave your fleet behind and head inland without having to deal with authorities. Upon landing, you can talk to your fleet's quartermaster to moor your vessels and to offload your goods to supply train.
ip smuggling info 18. Smugglers When you land in a port owned by a colonial power with a hold full of goods, tax collectors descend on you like a flock of vultures. Sometimes, the only way to profit from a difficult journey is to offload your wares to smugglers operating in the waters around the town. Representatives of criminal world often found in taverns can spill the beans on where you might find these smugglers at any given moment. When you want to attempt contacting them, right-click on the town icon and choose the 'Look for smugglers' option. Take care, though, for the customs officials are always on the lookout for illicit trading, and their patrol might intercept you during your search. If this happens, you may try your luck outrunning them or hiding your goods in the hold, but if you fail, a battle is imminent.