Use Prizes to Get Expensive Units

Arr pirates!! I've seen a lot of discussion and fights over Prizes, but I want to propose to ye to think of Prizes in a different way. Consider Prizes as an exchange service, just like ye exchange many things in life like giving out a lot of resources for one very expensive thing, similarly fer the Prizes ye can use our dearest Bonnie's Beauties and Marauders, being cheap and easy to train units, to attack targets and get Booty like the one shown below of 8 Juggernauts, which be a very expensive unit taking a long time to train, so this be the same as exchanging Bonnies/Marauders into Juggernauts packaged into a feature called Prizes.

I've also gotten 20-40 Bombardiers and 100+ Cuirassiers which I also show on the picture below this one. And I must say I prefer the rewards of the defensive Prizes over the offensive ones since offensive ones only seem to be giving the offensive units + resources rather than both offensive and defensive units.

So I suggest ye be considering Prizes as an exchange service, albeit one that is not very much in yer favor, that is, the troops ye lose usually cost more than the troops ye gain, but ye must also consider that perhaps ye don't even have the Discoveries and Buildings to train those expensive units and also it takes a long time to train them while this way ye can get them instantly.

Also if ye combine yer Prizing adventures together with the Global Missions then ye be cutting yer losses and maybe even be making a profit since ye get also rewards from the Global Mission on top of the reward from the Prize itself. In the stats I have so far, and I be probably making a separate post on this topic, the average number of Prizes to raid before getting a reward is 8.

Catching Yer Enemy’s Mistakes

Arr pirates!! Fighting a war with one or more Havens be not the most easy of things, but to increase yer chances of success, to increase the chances of yer pirates obliterating the enemy forces and sending them somewhere where they cannot find any Rum to drink means checking up on yer enemy more often then ye check on yer own mother :)

If ye check on their Haven often ye might find them making a mistake of leaving their offensive troops out in the open, which often happens when captains send out raids but are not at home when the raid comes back or are distracted by one of million things which is not yer problem, so if ye see their troops sitting drinking Rum strike fast and strike hard.

Ye see on the picture below how I destroy a massive amount of me enemy's offensive power gained 408 experience and lost only 8 Bombardiers. I was very pleased by this result and declared several hours of Rum drinking on me Haven as a celebration of crushing me enemy's forces! :)

Scouting Tips: 1 Dutchmen = 1 Relic

Arr pirates!! I know it be annoying to be losing our dearest Flying Dutchmen, which is why some of ye might be giving up and sending yer raids blindly, but there be some good news out of that big disaster, actually 3 in particular that I can give ye right now:

1) Ye got yer Deeds Most Fowle that needs to be collected and with a lot of scouting ye can get both yer medals and yer rewards!

2) Ye might be able to raid blindly for some time, but if only one time ye fall into a trap or an ambush then ye can lose A LOT more than ALL yer previous raids put together.

3) Relics! Aye! This be why I started this post in the first place. Ye can get relics fer yer scouting efforts, no matter if ye be losing or winning and below picture be the proof!

Best Defense is Give No Resources

Arr pirates!! Have ye had the problem of a stronger pirate attacking you and wonder what ye can do about it? Well anyone can be a pain in the Rum barrel no matter how strong an opponent it is.

First of all, the reason for this post, is the main and best defense against anyone, especially a stronger attacker is to give them nothing. Hide all the troops, use all the resources on buildings, discoveries and training or send them over to Brotherhood members or Shipmates or, if it comes to that, throw them away completely (send to nearest inactive haven) - everything is better than to give anything to the pirate raiding ye.

Ye see below an example from my own Haven where I put out the Dark Corsairs together with my static "free" defense and actually got 2 out of the 300 Juggernauts destroyed while he got practically nothing. A couple of such attacks and they will stop very quickly because nobody wants to waste their raid attempts and, moreover, nobody be wanting to lose their expensive units for nothing.

Other than this ye can always be a major annoyance if ye liberate the blockades of yer enemy. This is extra annoying because he would have to re-blockade them, but, more than that, he might lose those blockades completely if either allied or enemy Brotherhood members blockade them before he manages to re-block.

Emergency Raiding with Defensive Units

Arr pirates!! Have ye ever seen a very sweet target but all yer army is out raiding and pillaging somewhere and ye just don't have the troops to raid this juicy nice Haven that ye found? Well, there are 2 choices ye can make from this:

1) Ye can sit and wait for yer offensive troops to come back to yer Haven so that ye can send them out to this new target.
But remember the longer you wait the more chance some other pirate will raid and take all those resources.

2) Take a risk and send yer DEFENSIVE pirates to quickly grab those resources!
But here also, remember that this be super risky undertaking and ye should do this when y'ar relatively sure that there be no defense out there.
How can ye be sure?
Well, if it is a target ye raided many times before and there is a good history - is one indicator. If the target be close to yer Haven so that ye get in and out quick with yer army is another indication.
But nobody can give ye a 100% guarantee - this is a risky action which best be taken with a barrel of Rum emptied all by yer-self.

Check below picture for an example me scouted a sweet target with ~19k resources and sent a whole heap of defensive units and grabbed a very nice chunk of gold and lumber and Rum. All my Haven celebrated into the morning, at least half of that Rum was drunk :)

Learn the Pattern of Yer Enemy

Arr pirates!! Ye got to work hard in thinking about the patterns of yer enemy! Yes, me know how hard this can be when y'arr down the bottom of a barrel of Rum but ye got to sober up sometimes fer the good of yer Haven and study and remember the patterns of attack of yer enemy!

What do I mean ye say? Well here I show ye an example of what strategy me be speaking of:

I had an enemy Haven captain sending me insults and threats and long story short it was clear we not gonna be drinking no Rum together so I started taking notes on me enemy and what I realized is:

1) He be sending a raid on me often being fake - with just 1 pirate.

2) He be treasuring his blockades a lot (so here I did a massive good job and liberating as many Havens as I saw he blockaded)

and last, but not at all the least ( 3 ) He be scouting me Haven with a large number of Flying Dutchmen (around 100) as well as the Dread Fleet unit called Airship which be giving a scouting boost of +400 fer 20 supporting Flying Dutchmen and the sort.

So regarding that last point I prepared my fleet of ~200 Flying Dutchmen and while his raid was coming to me Haven I put them out waiting fer his scouting army. I decided to wait even until the last moment until his raid arrives and then hide in the Harbor and, again, immediately after the raid, put them out again as me could not know when they be arriving, but based on his pattern they had to be coming at some point! And me observation of me enemy paid off in a fantastic way as ye can see on the picture below - obliteration of his entire scouting fleet as well as the Dread Unit Airship!

Inactive Haven Wakes up Suddenly

Arr pirates!! Ye gotta be ready and strong to receive absolutely unexpected bad news anytime when playing Pirates Tides of Fortune! Why ye say I be saying such a thing? Well, ye see on the below picture what a terrible loss I had attacking this Haven - this Haven was completely inactive and me army raided it a number of times in the past and there be never any defense there. I was 100% sure there be no defense and just 1 time I sent out a raid on it without scouting as I had good history raiding without any trouble with this Haven and BAM! - all of a sudden he be waking up and putting out all the defense he probably had hidden away in the Harbor exactly on the day when I did not scout - bad luck!

But can happen with anyone anytime - so be ready for accidents and be ready fer rebuilding what ye lost!

High Levels Send Million+ Raids

Arr pirates!! Have ye ever been wondering what kind of offensive power the higher level players have? Well I am here to show ye that with an example! Here be a level 61 player from one of the top Brotherhoods sending a raid on me Haven. We have no quarrel, this was just a random raid he sent one time without scouting or anything, but it be interesting for me to look and see the sort of an army that such high level players have and raid with. And as I show ye on the below picture he be raiding with 1 million + offense points, again, no scouting was done. I also know that some of the most top people easily can send 3 million offense points on a raid. So if ye be struggling with few thousands to begin with ye can know that in the future ye be dealing in millions!

Army Caught Upon Returning Home

Arr pirates!! Sometimes we got to talk about sad things as well. Here me lost 1000+ of me dear army unfortunately and I be sharing with ye me grief but also giving ye tips!

Ye see THE most dangerous thing in Pirates Tides of Fortune is having yer army caught when ye be not online to manage things. This applies to both offense and defense. It even matters not how much ye got, if yer enemy organizes an attack and ye be not online then ye can't ask yer Brotherhood or Shipmates fer help because ye be not there!

This way ye can lose a lot, ye can lose yer offense, ye can lose yer defense. There be 2 ways to prevent this. 1 way be the easiest - hide yer army in the Harbor, but this way ye can say "bye bye" to yer 25% resource production from yer cannon and ye be not able to have lots of resources sitting outside. 2nd way is to be full force out in the open and aggressively punish anyone who looks at ye. This 2nd way is not fer all pirates - it be fer the most organized strong ones.

But even if we be pirates, we be humans and here ye see I was not online to hide this raid returning home and a random enemy got lucky in destroying them, which be very sad for me on that day. So have a look at the picture below and say in the comments if this happen to ye as well.

Try Keep Rum Production Near Zero

Arr pirates!! As pirates I bet ye know all there is about Rum! Well ye don't! :)
Rum production is actually a very good indicator which shows ye if y'arr doing good or not. Ye see if yer Rum production is for example +3000 then this means ye got room for 3000 more pirates!! That's huge! What that tells ye is that y'arr not managing yer Haven well. The only time this is not yer fault (or maybe it is) is when the enemy attacks and destroys yer army then this is how ye see all those Havens with no gold or lumber and 50,000+ Rum. It means they don't have an army.

So back to what I want to teach ye and this is that ye got to try and keep yer Rum production near zero! Actually, if y'arr doing really good then ye probably have a little bit negative Rum production.

And by the way all of the above is while you are constantly building and upgrading yer Rum distilleries!!

So what's the logic ye say?

The logic or the purpose is to have yer Haven absolutely full of pirates / army up to the maximum limit. Have no barrel of Rum wasted at all! Otherwise ye be too fat for yer size. However, if ye keep on training troops and upgrading yer Rum distilleries and have a Rum production near to zero then ye be very strong for yer size and less people will want to fight with ye!

And don't be afraid to be having negative Rum production either. 100 negative means ye just gotta have 2,400 Rum extra to pay fer the day, which is super easy. Feel free to have 20,000+ Rum on ye and go all the negative ye want - Rum is the easiest resource to plunder and if ye be in a good Brotherhood people be giving ye Rum fer free as much as ye want.

How to Trade fer the Sketch ye Need

Arr pirates!! Ye gotta be a little bit smart if ye wanna get all the sketches ye need! A lot of the times the one ye need be not available in the market - so what do ye do? Give up? No way! Ye can trade 2-ways or 3-ways or even more complex to get what ye need and I give ye an example below of a 3-way trade that I did so ye can learn and get smarter with yer Discoveries!

So what happened was I had 2 times Sketch number 2 fer Dragon Eye in me Haven. This be never good cause ye don't want to be stuck with any sketches actually. Gotta use all ye get and have nothing left - that be the best way!

So I had to trade me Sketch #2 but there was no pirate trading what I needed, so I had to get smarter and this be also what I suggest ye do. Below ye see - what ye gotta do is work backwards. Look what ye can get fer the one ye have, then look for all the other options and see if ye can make a combination. So here I traded me #2 fer #5, then, at the same time, I send me own #5 fer a #3 and I also, at the same time, sent me #3 Sketch fer the #6 - the one I needed.

What happened was I "lost" #2, #5 and #3 and then I received after about 5 hours #5 (same), #3 (same) and #6 - the Sketch I needed! Masterfully done :) and now ye know the trick ye can do the same - I wish ye success in yer Discoveries! (Did ye already know this trick? write in the comments)

Defense Misdirection Warning

Arr pirates!! Here I be warning ye to be careful of the new game changes where it be showing ye the attack and defense values of all the units. First of all I think the change is very nice and it looks good, but be warned! - have a look at the picture below of the Grenadier's defenses - ye see that the new interface or the patch update is showing the Grenadier with a defense of 170 which actually be his top defense rating versus Mercenaries and Fleet, but the Grenadier be having a defense rating of 130 points versus Pirates and Armada, so be careful with the 170 displayed value - it be seriously misleading information if ye not 100% wise about the game.

And here below me show ye as well the information on our dear Bonnie's Beauties and the Skirmisher - ye see the displayed defense values are 20 and 30 but actually against fleet and armada they be much lower especially for Skirmisher at 16 points which is half of the displayed 30.

So to conclude I think the new interface is very nice and maybe they should not change anything but ye must be careful not to psychologically fall into the trap of miscalculating the defense points as it might lead to a lot more then ye losing a couple of barrels of Rum!

100k+ Resources - My Record Find

Arr pirates!! Remember I be telling ye to scout aggressively with yer Flying Dutchmen looking fer some juicy targets to raid in between of yer enjoyment of drinking barrels of Rum? Well here be my victorious day as I found my record fat and juicy full of gold and lumber and Rum resources Haven and I want to share this with ye to give ye inspiration to look harder and find good targets for yer pirate crew to raid!

Ye Raid Based on Yer Imagination

Arr pirates!! Ye may be thinking I put a strange topic "Raiding based on yer Imagination" but this be true I bet ye 10 barrels of Rum on it.

Ye see when ye start out ye be super happy raiding small Havens and getting 1000-2000 resources without any fight. Ye can even grow big doing that 10 times per day, but here I am to tell ye that ye better grow yer imagination because there is a lot more out there to raid than 1000-2000 size Havens!

And to prove it to ye I be putting below just some examples from me recent scouting and ye know what? I am even sure there are targets a lot better than these!

(by the way I don't always scout with 7 Flying Dutchmen, I did just this time and i felt like 7 was a good number as I was ready to plunder and raid these :P)

In Manufactory 1 Hour is Most Efficient

Arr pirates!! When ye get yer Manufactory building ye will be able to manufacture GEARS which are used to train very evil pirates like the Duellist which is the first unit available in the Manufactory after ye research Code of Honor.

Anyways, here ye see on the picture I have analyzed for ye lazy Rum drinking bums which option in the Manufactory be the most efficient in the production of gears and the answer is the 1 hour option is the most effective since ye can build up to 12,000 gear per day with this option and all the others are producing less per day, so if ye be an active pirate ye be wanting to make use of the 1 hour if gears be yer target!

Be Aggressive in All Actions in PTOF

Arr pirates!! Here ye be reminded or given confidence to put some ARRRR in yer actions! Be strong, be confident and be a true Pirate!! Arrr!!

Send lots of scouts, yer Flying Dutchmen got no use sitting and blowing hot air. Send those rascals out and let em die if need be.

Do ye see a blockade belonging to yer enemy? Don't be lazy - liberate that Haven, every slap ye can give to yer enemy is a slap worth a barrel of Rum!

Do ye see a shipmate in danger? Send yer defense and give em a hand. They be helping when ye be looking into a thousand cannons pointed yer way!

And raid, raid and then raid some more. Gold, Lumber and Rum are not going to appear magically in yer Haven, ye gotta take it with force!

Increase Galleon Capacity by 20%

Arr pirates!! Fer those Rum drinking traders who haven't yet taken advantage of this, here I be explaining ye how to increase yer trading galleon's carrying capacity by 20% and more using idols.

Ido-what?? Ya, me know, me also knew nothing of idols when me started pirating and drinking Rum, but here be the secret fer ye:

1) Ye need Idols. These ye can get in the global missions which we regularly have. Here fer example the one that finished just at end of March was giving the rewards:

So ye see, fer gathering 80 of those Monk's Habits for the Global Mission ye get the reward of 100 Idols and the good news be that anyone almost can achieve this.

Now that ye know where to get Idols we go to the next step:

2) Ye go to the Smuggler's Den and on the menu, on the top right side there be a button "IDOLS" - click that and ye be taken to a sort of a shopping window where you can spend yer hard earned pirated idols.

3) Ye select GALLEONS and purchase 2 times for 100 Idols to increase yer galleon capacity by 10% and then again 10%, which be actually more than the 20% i said.

Now ye see that there be other choices as well, for example fer the Duelist ye need to spend 100 idols for the sketch, but there be no point in getting that if ye are not advanced enough to be training them. So in the beginning invest in yer trading capacity and later earn more Idols to spend more!