How do you train Cannons by yourself?

[Robin Yerloot]

I'd like to train my cannons whenever I need too, but I find it extremely difficult to do so when I'm not on another person's ship, so I was wondering if anyone had ideas or tatics?

[seafox]

I mastered cannons first,,,I gunned on public ships when guildies weren't on,,and learned which captains I liked and what servers they used. Its easier to be in a crew thats fun also. Once I had thunderbolt, I took on big ships alone more...switching from sailing to cannon...its boring but you can level both. Just keep a good distance...take some friends. Go all you can, it adds up.

[J.T.]

Early on I used public ships like seafox said, usually on a higher up ideal server. When I got my cannon lv higher up I usually went solo on my ship, shot down the big ships from a distance past around Padres, Outcast, and Tormenta.
Training cannon I always used round shot, and usually start with shooting sails.

[Tom Sharkwash]

I would go on a ideal server and find a good ship with a good captain. From there on make sure to knock out the sails first and then destroy it with round shot. Get a big crew and you should get around a 100 rep a ship.

[Tiberius Fireskull]

What I would do is take your strongest ship out, park it a ways away from the enemy ship, then leave the wheel and fire at it with your deck cannons. Try to take out the masts, so you arent in danger.

[Isaiah Ropeswine]

I usually just get 2 pirates on. 1 to sail, 1 to cannon. Quiet server, get 75-125 each time.

[Lady Violet]

When I go out on my ship myself I pass by the ship I want to shoot, turn her sideways and park it. Then I start shooting out at the ship and make it come towards me. This lets me get head on shots which are easier than hitting a moving ship that likes to turn turn turn. You can either take out the sails to make it move slower or go for the side of the boat towards the middle till it catches on fire, then hit the fire for maximum damage. It gives you less damage and more time on the water if done right. See photo for examples ..... ITs hard to see but I got over 100 rep points in this 1 ship .....
Of course the bigger the ship the more rep points so sail around Padres and Kingshead.

[just me]

My pirate goes between sailing & cannoning. Usually, I try to park my Galleon & begin to cannon. I then change back to sailing if I am able to sink the enemy. My cannoning is winning out at this point although neither is a very high level at this time. Finally finished off the Pirate Lore ships which was a real relief. Since, I prefer to sail alone, as I do with most of my leveling, I imagine it will take me awhile to raise them both to the level of my cutlass.

[Red Nations]

For me leveling my cannon was very difficult with my first pirate and it was the skill I mastered last with him. I learned early on that accepting those blind friend and crew invites was not a good thing. Just as crewing anyone who showed up demanding to be crewed was a bad thing. The question became how to get crewed aboard a higher level pirates ship in order to find opportunities to level up my cannons and get some good loot in the bargain. I began watching for higher level 20 and above players in port and when I saw one I'd strike up a conversation with them asking things such as, asking if they were getting ready to sail, and if so could they use another gunner in crew. This worked a lot better than accepting those blind crew invites which usually turned out to be newbie pirates with light sloops.

When sailing alone what works for me is keeping the compass open and using it like a radar screen. I'll spot a ship I wish to target and I'll use the compass as a guide to parking my ship at a safe distance from the target. If you park too close the enemy will clobber you before you can take down their sails and render them harmless. Then I'll tag the enemy ship with a hit to get its attention and get it turned and sailing toward my ship. On lower level pirates I use roundshot for this on higher level pirates I use lightening. Once the enemy ship is heading my direction I switch to chainshot and take out all the masts and sails. Once this is done I switch back to roundshot and finish off the enemy ship.

[titanic95594]

Try Padres it the best place for turkey shootin!

[David Redsteel]

Get a sloop and go out and attack ships leave the steering wheel and get on the cannon and sink the ship that way. I say sloops cause there faster and more easy to Navigate around ships.