Introduction

Captaining Your Ship

You don’t have to wait long before getting the Morrigan. It’s a wonderful vessel with so much upgrade potential that it will one day put men-o’-wars to shame!

Many of the controls for your ship are intuitive and have already been explained in this chapter and are shown in the game. Remember to push up to Travel Speed when you have to move quickly or explore over great distances. Reduce speed heavily when you have to maneuver or stay aggressive with your attacks. The more you can turn, the easier it is to keep your guns on your target.

The best way to get an advantage over your enemies in naval battles is to upgrade the Morrigan, use multiple weapons during battle, and avoid downtime. All of the weapons you use at sea have a reloading time, but that’s not a shared feature. Thus, you can fire one weapon after the other as quickly as you can mentally switch between them.

Broadside cannon, mortar, Puckle gun, and broadside cannon are a classic example of this. You can fire all of these guns in the same amount of time that you can fire the two broadside cannon attacks. Because of this, aggressive weapon use adds dramatic amounts of damage to your gameplay.

Practice switching between your normal cannon aiming, mortar systems, and the Puckle gun. Do this even while your ship is sailing around outside of battle to get a feel for the controls. You don’t have to actually shoot the guns; you can target things and switch controls without pulling the trigger (to save on mortar ammo).

Another critical naval skill is the ability to shift directions quickly. The best fights occur when you have broadside angles on your target and they don’t have them against you. Stay at a 45-degree angle to your target as best you can, and use enough speed to stay ahead of them while also turning to maintain your advantage. This isn’t easy, but it’s a goal to strive toward.