I've been demolishing Galleons lately with a change to tactics.
Now my opening salvo is a firebomb cannon shot to the captain's quarters and then chainshot strafing in first pass.
This blow has been so devastating that I've basically finished off every Galleon the past 36 hours of game play in under 15 minutes.
Why has this been so good? And what to counter it?
The problem I identified is most Galleons think they are overmanned, often have a dedicated pvper/boarder, who will often try to get to the enemy ship thinking that is the mvp strategy. Also they have always been overconfident in their gunnery but underwhelming in their cannonshot choices (see below)
This doesnt prevent the opening attack (see below) but also hinders the recovery badly.
If you are on fire, it takes one life to raise the back mast, and another life to raise the front mast of a BRIGANTINE.
You have to account for distance traveled when on fire.
So until the fire is put out on a Galleon; You're losing a lot of crewmembers and ship operations to deaths. If you double man the middle mast both of you will die to fire by the time it is raised. Someone else will have ro repair it.
That's your entire 3 men on just topside one mast, and 2 will be at the ferry.
If you fight the fire you'll do better, but the time will still open you to the 2nd strike cannonball strafing.
So I thought, what is the Galleons best over all opener?
I think it is to use Blunderbomb cannon shot. I rarely see it...it is devastating, and it makes a lot of sense.
It makes little sense to an attacking Brigantine or Sloop, because sending them to the ferry but leaving masts and anchor intact is not a win.
Galleons however have the extra man...while one fires firebomb, another one or two on chain shot.
The fourth should be hitting the enemy with blunderbombs.
This would be a devastating win for the Galleon. Which if the blunderbombs hit...will prevent their own demasting and firing...but will allow your Galleon crew to take advantage of any demasting and fire you may set.
The blunder bomber if he hits once or 2x early can definitely go to make a cannon shot or sword lunge boarding depending on the ranges.
So for now. Galleons have become my favorite because they are so fun to watch get demolished.
But for Galleon Crews....it doesnt have to be that way.