Vampiresbane
Regular
I've my pride and jack squat, but my pride just left town.
So you've gambled your life savings away, got beat up at the ol' tavern, and then while in your drunken state, got captured by natives who then sold you into slavery (or insert another "Lost it all" story).
You've got nothing. No money. No friends. No ships. No troops.
Not even a hungry, lonely mongrel will hang out with you. Things ain't lookin' too good sunshine.
The Slave
You're thinking you're destined to remain a slave the rest of your life (or out of character you're about to hit that reload or restart button). Don't! (Snowbird games actually made being a slave fun! At least in a video game...that is.)
Hope
You can crawl your way out of this! And then once you're back on your feet, you can prevent this from happening again! (Plus it's really fun to take a character that truly has nothing, absolutely nothing, and conquer the Caribbean, becoming the richest, meanest son o' gun that evah lived... in other words, taking the idea behind the escaped convict and just making it EVEN harder.)
The Build Up
First things first. You're a slave at a mine or a plantation. One problem at a time. You need to escape. It costs 15,000 gold to leave via a bribe. That's not an option... at least this time. You could trying to escape solo, but if you have normal damage to the player on, that's pretty tough for a level 1 character.
The next problem, which we'll deal with at the same time, is if you escape and you do it poorly, you'll be alone and those natives that caught you last time will catch you again (or if it was the Spanish, the Spanish OR natives might catch you this time).
So you need to escape and escape with new friends. We can do this.
On the slavery selection screen, select the option to talk to other slaves. Talk to as many as you can as fast as you can before you get caught. After 6 or 7, the slavemaster will catch you and make you return to your work. A day or so will pass, but then you can talk to other slaves again. Keep doing this. Each time the slave selection screen will pop up showing you how many out of the current working slaves are willing to rebel with you.
DO NOT signal for the uprising until you get EVERY SLAVE willing to help.
Why?
Those rebellious slaves are your potential new crew and the more that rebel, the larger number of them that are willing to join you afterwards. For instance if you're at a plantation with roughly 120 slaves, 80 make it out alive, 30 of so of those 80 will join you. The type of operation also has an effect. Mines are pretty tough to escape from because of the numerous bottlenecks making guards that much more dangerous. If you get out of the mines with a decent group, count yourself lucky.
Also if your rebellion fails, not only do you get sent back to work, but a guard will purposely torture/injure you. This will result in less agility/strength/charisma/intelligence (I think it's just a single stat loss for a single point - which a nun, at a local convent, apparently can heal later, but let's not deal with that if we can prevent it).
The Rebellion
Let's do this.
You're ready. Everyone knows its time. You give the signal. Entire plantation/mine erupts.
Your "weapons" are usually a short ax/mining pick and a long bar. Depending on the situation, different weapons are better. If it's you and others versus a guard, use the long bar. Conserve your hitpoints. You do NOT want to get knocked out. If it's you 1v1 with a guard, block first, get in close, hit him with the ax/pick (make sure to have the ax/pick equipped first).
Initially the single guards are taken out fairly easily. Make sure to grab their swords. The swords have longer reach than the ax/pick (though they hit for less than the pickax) and if you've been fighting lately as a soldier, you're probably more used to it. Plus if you grab a sword, you'll get to keep it once you're free (worth more to sell). I haven't been able to get a gun from the slavemasters, but rumor is if one gets taken out when he still has it equipped, you can pick it and his bullets up.
Follow the slaves. They will run towards the exit. Make sure to take out the guards along the way. Remember, all the slaves that escape are potentially your new crew. They need to live too.
Once you've gotten close to the exit (where the slaves are disappearing), stop, turn around, and make sure no more guards are alive or following the train of escaping slaves. Take them out. Once all is clear, go ahead and leave.
You're free! ...but still broke and shipless
But you do have 3 weapons that you didn't have before and anywhere from 15 to 30 new friends.
You have a couple options at this point. They all involve getting to a city first though:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Hunt Robbers or other land lubbin bandits (natives might a bit too tough unless you outnumbered them 2:1). Whatever your choice, they have to be pretty easy fare and make sure to grab the quests for killing them from the local message board in town for an extra 2000 gold and 15 renown. Do this at multiple towns of different faction held towns that are nearby. I've held 3 quests for killing parties of Robbers at the same time. Robbers typically roam in packs of 3 to 4 members so once I killed them, 6,000 gold and 45 renown was mine. More than enough to outfit myself and buy a low level ship. If you want, continue land battles, but make sure to buy a horse. Mobility via a horse makes all the difference when you want to win the day when the odds are against you in land battles.
[*]If you're a trader, sell most of your stolen weapons to get about 150 in cash. Use that to buy sugarcane, timber, or any other resource for cheap and sells for around 100 gold. Then resell it for a profit (just make sure before buying to check the prices in both towns or you'll lose money). Rinse and repeat until you have enough money for more expensive goods and then you can start making more profit. Eventually you'll have enough money to buy a boat and then you can start using the better sea trade routes.
[*]You can return to gambling if you have points in gambling. This isn't something I'd recommend. At most you have 150 to 160 in cash from selling 3 of your 4 stolen weapons. The max bid first time gamblers are allowed is 100 gold. If you lose that first hand, you then have no money to work with to keep gambling. Then again if you have 5+ in gambling, it might be worth it. Win a couple hands, cheat here and there without getting caught and you'll have a decent starting nest egg of ~1,000 gold. Be careful though, be caught once cheating and if you don't get out the tavern in one piece, both your gear and money will be taken. So make sure after winning a couple hands to take that 'earned' cash and deposit it in the bank. Bring 200 or 300 gold back to the tavern and start gambling again.
[*]Finally there's one more option that while pays really, really well, the quests are really, really tough. You can do some unscrupulous work for the suspicious man found in each tavern (he's in the back right corner). The upside to his difficult contracts is that he provides thugs to help you; your new slave friends can sit on the sidelines and not get hurt or killed. One of the random contracts he gives rewards the player with a sailboat. It's not much, but it's better than what you have now: nada. Pay ranges from 5,000 to 7,000 gold.
[/list]
Option 1 is probably my favorite even when I'm not playing a warrior type. Option 2 is the safest, but takes the longest to make money. Option 3 is risky and doesn't necessarily pay well until you can gamble larger bets. Finally Option 4 is a big risk, high reward type of situation (though I don't think you'll get sold into slavery if you fail).
So now you should have some cash, possibly a sailboat, better weapons/armor for yourself. If you don't, go buy some upgrades and an armed boat for yourself. Further, buy some real soldiers from the local town as well. Slaves can eventually upgrade to decent troops, but even though they're your good buddies, let's face it, they don't live long without proper training.
Map Forward
Your life is looking much better and things are looking up, but you're not quite out of the woods yet. You still need to improve your situation.
However! this time not only are you going to try to get rich and powerful, you're going to plan as if you're going to get captured again. Because life is fickle and you'll probably be sent to slavery again at some point. A single solid shot may set your remaining ship on fire and voila you've lost everything. That dastardly French Lord just spanked your army on the mainland and he's sold you into slavery. Or once again, you just gambled everything, got caught cheating, and the darn natives found you. Again.
What you need:
1. Companions
2. Backup ships in safe harbors
3. Backup cash. Possibly at least 15,000 gold if you feel like leaving slavery instantly next time (but slave uprisings are fun! Oh the decisions).
4. Even better, it'd be handy to have backup gear as well.
You can do this while:
1. Gathering companions
2. Capturing or buying better ships
3. Getting rich
4. Building up your industries
1. Companions are found randomly in taverns. Although an easier way than randomly finding them is to bribe the barkeep. 10 gold will get you a location of a companion. Sail to that location right away and the hirable companion should still be there.
2. You need a better way to leave poverty if you're captured and backup ships not only get you back to your previous standing, but help you move around the map easier on a map that's almost completely dominated by water. I put my best backup ship (ie my latest ship after I've upgraded) in a faction friendly town on the mainland in central America. I put a sailboat or armed boat or small sloop (the lower level ships cost less in upkeep), one each, in the two largest islands (Cuba & Hispaniola). That way, since chances are you'll be placed in slavery in the mainland or one of the two largest islands, you'll have immediate access to an old ship (which you can then use to get to your main backup).
I'll leave the rank 0 ships indefinitely in those island ports unless I get enslaved again and I need to use them. I replace the main backup ship each time I capture or buy a better upgrade ship for my flagship. For example, I had a large sloop, I capture a war brig, I then, instead of selling the large sloop, place it in Belize. Next I capture a 6th rate, I put the war brig in Belize, and THEN sell the large sloop.
3. Backup cash. Make a habit of always putting your riches in the bank whenever you're in town. I keep maybe 2 or 3k of gold on me if I'm a privateer up to 30k if I'm a trader. I never keep more than 1/2 of my entire wealth on me (so only 30k if I have at LEAST 60,000 gold total.) This not only means you'll have money to return to if you need it, but now those slave masters can be paid that pesky 15k bribe AND your army/industry costs will be automatically deducted from your bank account and your troops stay happy.
4. Let's face it, the weapons from being a slave are not top of the line. They're better than nothing, but next when you escape slavery, it'd be a heck of lot better to have an entire set of armor and weapons waiting for you.
There's two ways to handle this:
A. Store your 1st or 2nd best gear on your best companion. I use Juba for this since he's my main warrior.
B. If you're a mayor, (I think) you get a chest at your mansion you can store gear in.
Success
You've made it. You're not dead broke, friendless, shipless, and a slave anymore. On top of that, even if you lose it big, you'll be back to your better self in no time thanks to your prevention and preparation this time around.
Enjoy your riches now ya scurvey dog! (Now where'd that darn pesky parrot get off to?)
