Sailing Styles and What Players Prefer

[Davy]

Here are the list of Sailing Styles, and a rating from 1-10 of what players prefer.


Circle Style: Circle the enemy, shoot with broadsides when they reload, and let your crew fire cannons. Crew rating: 4/10. Since cannons are difficult to shoot while moving forward or turning, circle style is not good for crews. The cannons will curve, making it difficult for gunners to get a shot in, let alone and accurate shot to the weak spot of a ship.


Sloop Style: Line your ship up sideways with the enemy ship, broadside it, turn around, fire the other broadside, and repeat. Crew rating: 3/10. Since the crew has to fire in a shot while your ship is moving (which is already very hard in itself), Sloop style already gets a low rating. Even after all that, the crew has to keep switching sides! So, Sloop style is the best for sailing alone, but with a crew, Sloop style is not a favorite.


Frigate Style: Frigate style can only be done with frigates and with at least 2 crew members. Line the front of your ship up with the enemy ship and let your gunners shoot the front cannons to the other ship. When it gets close, put your ship in reverse - just make sure you don't back up into an enemy ship or an island! Crew rating: 7/10. The crew doesn't love front guns only, especially large crews. Only 4 people can shoot a cannon at a time! For small crews, this is the safest and most appreciated sailing style - the only problem is that Frigates hold 3 less cargo. But with the speed of Frigates, you should make up for it quickly.


Galleon Style: This can be done with any type of ship, most effectively with Galleons or Frigates. Line the enemy ship up with the side of your ship and let the crew fire. Throw in a broadside or two once it is in range. Crew rating: 9/10. The only negative is with this style you have to line up very far away from powerful ships. Unless they have Thunderbolt shot, the lower level gunners don't love this style, but once it is in range it is the perfect maneuver for crews. With the Galleons' amount of cargo, you can keep crews happy with tons of gold.


Island-Hopping: When you are going from island to island and decide to pick up some gold on the way, use the Island-Hopping style of sailing. Sail straight toward your island, but when you pass a weak ship, fire a broadside and let your crew fire. Crew rating: 1/10. Because you don't get many ships with this style, crews don't love only getting 100-200 reps per run. If you're going sailing with a crew, they all want at least 500 points per trip. With not much plunder and lots of danger, crews are unhappy when they only get 100 points and 100 gold out of their 10 minutes.



My style: Galleon style. I like to get broadsides in so I get some reps on sailing, and crews also get lots of reps in if they only use round shot.



Your styles: Pick your style or post your current style here and I will put your tally on here.


Circle Style: I
Sloop Style: I
Frigate Style: II
Galleon Style: III



I won't count the island-hopping style because that is just a suggestion of how to sink a couple on your way to a wild island.