@JKobski
i do not wonder the scarce answers :D
Most pirates are worse at ship maneuvering and many PvPers reduce it to boarding and FPS gameplay only.
Also Arena does not teach you the map, the surrounding and with 5 ships of the same size in a small space battling there is a lot to miss about Ship combat in general and in Adventure mode.
Arena maneuvering is not completely different, but it is different for sure.
All ships same size, more ships involved in a battle than usually in adventure were mostly 2 ships of different size battle and nobody else is around and a lot of more space to fight.
I consider myself an average helmsman and i maneuver the ships most of the time if i play in a crew and if not i often get asked to do in a PvP situation.
Maybe because i'm a bad boarder :D
I can assure you my maneuvering skills often lead to battles where boarding wasnt even neccessary because i managed to get us in the better position and sunk them without boarding needed, good cannoneers and some ccb's assuming.
But what i can say is not in any way the way to go, maybe others have better tips and tactics and say i'm wrong.
It's for sure different depending on the ship you sail.
I try to give some general tips from "my logic" as a helmsmann.
First of all learn this:
This is a galleone iirc, know your cannon range for the Ship you are sailing.
Know that turning your ship is faster when sails are up.
For the Gallone middle Sails are the main sails, so raise them first.
Then rear sail and maybe even front, but to turn faster in a galleone not using an anchor turn you raise mid then rear and last front sail or at best all 3 at the same time if you have full working crew. In case of someone is already boarding or dead or whatever you know now to prioritize.
For the Brigg its rear and then front of course.
Sloop... eh not that much of a choice :D
The turn radius of a Sloop is pretty small and fastest.
You can stay in a blind spot behind a Galleone shoot them and they cannot shoot you if you manage it to keep in the right angle. A Galleone often cannot turn fast enough to get you in the right angle for their cannons.
You can use your harpoon to do great maneuvers like to stay in that angle.
I had a video about this, but cannot find it sorry.
If you pass another ship to exchange broadside harpoon them in their back to get behind them. While you can continue firing they cannot hit you.
If done right you have a harpoon vortex created for you to fire and them not beeing able to fire back.
Some things that spontaneous come to my mind.
Fear the Galleones broadside, if in a Sloop or Brig you better should got for a better angle/ position that to exchange broadsides with a ship of more firepower.
If you have CCB's use them wise.
For example: shoot some normal cannonballs, if in a good position anchorball, then something that diables the crew like sleeping or dancing. Grog- ,venom- and cripleball are disturbances, but the crew can still repair, steer etc. , but they cannot while sleeping or dancing.
Peaceballs are great if you exchange broadsides and last but not least the ballastball helps immensely to sink galleones as many dont care for holes in the middle deck.
But if they have lot of holes there and you shoot a ballastball, they sink as fast as a rock.
Very often it is good to stay where you are and just turn your ship , especially at forts. Use the additional firepower of the turrets. Let Skeletons additionally shoot at attackers or use them by yourself if the ship is in a bad angle for you to fire.
Many things are situationally. A good helmsman has ideas regarding the wind, the rocks and islands around, he know where is a sandbank others may not know and get themself in a bad position.
So try to lure others into bad positions around rocks and make use of your vessels advantages and try to not get caught on the wrong foot regarding your disadvantages of your ship.
for example:
Galleone great firepower, bad turning speed.
So dont fear to exchange broadsides with smaller ships, you do more damage you have one more pirate to board or repair.
But if you get caught on the wrong foot in a bad angle for you but good for them, you maybe get sunk, because you can't do much, but repair and try to get out of that bad spot.
In a Sloop use the better maneuverability and if fighting against a larger crew try to disable them, keep them busy. Shoot at their deck to kill them, you cannot do a lot of pressure with cannonshots only except you are in a sweet spot and them not able to get off.
I once sailed with a new crew and we were not able to get out of a harpoon vortex of a Sloop. with one person managing the sloop alone and constant shooting, also of CCBS and one boarding, the galleone stood no chance because they - and that is the next tip - allways shot the same spot - try repairing a hole that gets constantly shot.
You will pushed back, the hole will become bigger and it's hard to impossible to fix it until the other one is shooting at this same spot. Their Boarder was just good and timed to get on the ship while we were dancing and couldn't protect our ladders.
So try to shoot same spots on ships to make bigger holes and to prevent repair.
Shoot the Deck to kill their canoneers.
Shoot their helmsman with cannon or sniper.
Shoot their crows nest for possibly stored powderkegs.
Use chainballs, board and drop anchor, use rigging and helm balls when others need to maneuver because of rocks or islands and force them to crash.
btw if chasing never get too close and never sail in the straight line behind them.
1st they can drop a keg and you cannot react if too close and straight behind them
2nd its more easy for them to send a boarder and try to drop your anchor.
The next thing others may see different, but in my experience is right: sending a boarder makes sense the most when the other ship is under pressure.
Sending a boarder to only kill someone or drop their anchor doesnt make them sink.
It also depends a lot on if you are defending or attacking, because sure a boarder to drop their anchor is allways good for defense and also some offense to get yourself into a better position, but sending off a boarder is also allways a risk and one guy less shooting cannonballs, repairing and managing sails, can be the fatal error that make you sink.
For Arena boarding is the meta.
Many will maybe say so for Adventur too and yes boarding is very much important, but from my little experience in Arena its about boarding from the first second as you get points for kills etc. and in the end its about the points and not if you sink someone else. sinking another ship cost them points but you dont gain points.
So for example the priorization is different if you fight a low points ship it makes more sense to board and kill them to get points for yourself rather then them losing points, because that dont give you an advantage if you have already more points than them. therefore people use it to gain points, spawnkill and even repair ships to be able to fire more canonsballs to get points.
So you board them as sinking is not the best for you in this situation.
You just dont need them losing points, you need points for yourself.
In Adventure this situation isn't existent! You want to sink the other ship, no matter what, no points tactics, but sinking ships tactics are to prioritize!
So boarding is allways strong, but imho in adventure the right time to do it is more important than in Arena.
Because Arena is about points, Adventure PvP is about sinking the ship.
the Ship is their respawn beacon, you want to sink it as a no. 1 priority!
I often end up with "battlesails" (half or third) to the front, no matter what ship, as in the heat of the battle you dont have time to constantly turn sails in the best position, BUT....
if you have the time you should do it!!! Also heavily depending of the ship.
Easy for the sloop, hard to do for the galleone, what makes it even harder maneuverable as a crew. In a Sloop one or two man need to coordinate, in a galleone its 4 and one not working properly can cause you to lose!
Galleones and Brigs are harder to coordinate, especially in battles when it is about time and fast and right decisions to make.
If the helmsman says anchor turn or rais sails and the crew isn't listening or prioritizing other things you wont be successfull.
In the beginning i had someone with boarding syndrome, we often lost because he allways wanted to board asap. When he missed the other ship i was alone on my sloop and had to manage the stuff i want and need him to manage.
When he stopped boarding immediatley and knew when is the right time to do it we became way more successfull.
Good crew working like a clockwork allways knew when to do this and that and when not.
Prioritizing what to do and knowing each other is key!!!!
So for example, if the sails are in a bad position, but you have also to steer and you are the helmsman, dont go adjusting sails, because the helm is more important to not override the wheel and have to correct it turning to slowly or too far etc.
You need to know what and when - this comes from experience and you will learn to prioritize better and so need your crew and the more crewmembers the more you need to sync and communicate.
Thats just some rough thoughts i had.
Nothing sorted or with any gurantee of beeing complete.
Maybe others have some more tips for you.
edit: ramming imho is a bad tactic and many ships who tried to ram and board sunk very quickly, assuming you are prepared.
but this also depends a lot on crew size of course.
So a galleone ramming a sloop and sending 3 or even 4 boarders will kill you often if you let that happen.
You just rarely will be able to kill them all while not dying yourself.
the Gallone needs longer to get filled up with water and they need not care that much about the damage from ramming.
But if you are prepared and equipped, you can shoot an anchorball before they ram, they maybe then miss to board and even one or two fell of the ship anchored in a bad position - front to you, not able to fire while you can.
Kegs are also a dangerous weapon, but a keg alone does nothing against a viable crew .We even saved galleones from sinking that got doublekegged and even megakegged.
A viable tactic is to baord with a keg, lit it up place it below deck and survive hiding and then defend the holes you made.
This keeps them at least busy a lot.
the trick is not to die by yourself.
If they shoot you, they mostly will die too and that is an opportunity for a second pirate to board a damaged ship with less pirates alife.
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