This page gives you general strategy advice for Age of Piracy, as well as specific tips and tricks. It is a useful tool for Civilization newcomers or anyone who is becoming frustrated about not winning. Veteran civ players may find it more challenging to avoid reading this section until they have played a few games and have the opportunity to discover these tricks on their own.
- Inexperienced players are encouraged to play one of the superpower
civs (Spain, England, France). More experienced players may enjoy
playing a pirate clan. Only highly experienced players should attempt to
play the Portuguese.
- In scenarios with strict and relaxed shallow-water rules, there are
always uncharted deepwater squares. They will look like normal coastal
squares, but if you right-click on them, they will show as "sea" squares
instead of coastal squares.
- Make frequent use of the "e" key to tell a unit to explore on its
own. Sending a Scouting Vessel off with the "e" key is a no-hassle way
to reveal the map.
- When building improvements, look for bargains. Some improvements
have no long-term maintenance costs. Also, be sure to note the cultural
value of an improvement before you build it. The role of culture has
been expanded in this mod pack.
- In order to fully exploit a gold square, build as many cities on and
around that square as you can, then place gold mines in each of those
cities. Don't get caught in the trap of only building one city for each
gold resource square.
- Sea lanes are very important in the Tournament and Bloody Seas
scenarios. Sea lanes are routes through which deep draft vessels can
pass. Discover these sea lanes early and take control of the
chokepoints. If you don't, the AI will.
- Here are some important things to keep in mind when moving ships:
1) Moving ships in a stack is always safer than moving them alone. When a stacked ship is attacked, the strongest unit accompanying that ships get a free shot off at the attacker.
2) Always leave one movement point of your ship free so you can fortify the ship at the end of the turn. This gives you a big advantage if you are attacked on your off turn. The AI makes frequent use of this tactic.
3) Keep your small vessels in shallow water. In scenarios with strict and relaxed shallow water rules, sticking to the shallows can help protect your little ships from big ones.
4) Pirate ships with hidden nationality will be targeted by all the AI civs. And keep in mind that the AI knows where all your ships are at all times! To protect your pirate ships, accompany them with regular vessels. Unless you are at war with a civ, they cannot attack your pirate ship when it is stacked with a legitimate national vessel. You can also hide your pirate ships in port, or in protected bays.
- If you are playing a pirate, you can have great success by raiding
out of one of your port cities. Just keep your pirate ship safe in the
city until someone passes by, then sweep out and destroy them, returning
to port as quickly as possible. If you are conservative in your attacks
(using bombardment instead of boarding, and attacking over several
turns) you can greatly extend the life of your pirate ships. It is not
unusual for a pirate flagship to be able to pick off four or more enemy
flagships using this tactic.
- Another interesting tactic is to identify locations where sea lanes
dead-end. Not all sea lanes connect and AI ships sometimes collect in
these watery cul-de-sacs, where they become easy prey.
- Sometimes your enemies will use a flagship to escort a slower
transport vessel (like a galleon). This is an ideal situation for the
attacker because the flagship will rarely break off from the escort and
must match the slower speed of the transport vessel. You can chase these
flagships over several turns and nip away at them using bombardment
until they sink.
- It is highly recommended that you let the local Governor control
citizen moods in your city. A civil uprising can have very unpleasant
consequences in cities that have slave markets.
- If you have colonized a small island, consider placing units on
every land square. This will prevent any serious invasion of that
island. However, you still need to keep a few units inside the city to
ward off amphibious pirate attacks.
- One nasty trick is to make a right-of-passage agreement with a civ
and then blockade their ports.
- If you are playing a scenario that allows map trading, always trade with the weakest civ first and work your way up to the powerful civs. As you build up your map, a trade will look more attractive to the powerful civs.
