Introduction
[Note: This guide is heavily out of date as of 11/11/18. Whilst certain aspects still hold true, remarks upon the effectiveness of ships and the like are out of date. The effectiveness of the Galleon and Sophie for example are almost reversed. I hope in time to update this guide to reflect all that has changed.]
So - you've somehow won the vote for captain. Congratulations! You've now got 15 people relying and trusting in you.
If you're really unlucky, The Alboe Show will be recording for youtube so your first incompetent steps in Blackwake will be there for all to see forever more!
No Pressure!
Let's make sure you don't make an absolute pigs ear of it, shall we?
This guide is intended to provide an effective overview of all things relating to commanding ships in Blackwake.
I do not claim to know it all, nor do I ever expect to. This guide is intended as the distillation of the experience of more than 110 hours of Blackwake gameplay in early alphas. Of that time, I would suggest that up to 70% of those hours have been in command of Galleons and Hoys in deadly action upon the High Seas. I would like to think of myself as highly competent, although a more realistic assessment would likely come from my long suffering crew members.
This guide is not short - unfortunately - but there are so many competing elements to captaincy in Blackwake that it is vital the captain not only be aware of but intimate with.
Command in Blackwake is perhaps one of the most unique roles in all of gaming. Few games provide players a position from which to lead. Still fewer provide positions where a player is voted into that position. Any idiot can press a button in Red Orchestra 2 and become Commander - with the result that the team loses. The team has no say.
There is no game I have come across, apart from Blackwake, where the leader is voted in by their crew and holds such direct control over the course of the battle. A captain physically controls the movement of their ship. They don't play some minigame on the sidelines to call in artillery, they play the game. The situation in Blackwake is dictated, predominantly, by two people. The captains of both ships. This is unique to gaming. And it makes your leadership as captain the most important part of the game.
Success in this role is the most satisfying thing I have ever experienced in any game.
The battlefield of Blackwake is an extremely punishing place. The captain rules the fate of their crew. Fail - and your crew may well have a terrible game and be more than just pissed off at you. They will not hold back - especially come the game's release. Succeed - and you will be responsible for the finest gaming moments in your crew's collective lives.
As a captain you are responsible for the enjoyment of the game for your crew, the only person more responsible than you for their enjoyment are the developers. Do not take this responsibility lightly. Have fun, be silly, but be aware that you are there for your crew. They will fail. They must be forgiven. You might fail. But you won't be forgiven.
Welcome to Blackwake.
Welcome to one of the highest stakes roles in gaming.
Know Your Ship
There are two vessels currently in Blackwake.
These are the Galleon and the Hoy.
They can carry 16 and 8 crew members respectively, although they maybe effectively manned down to almost half their number. The optimum number of crew is debatable, but generally a ship will be fully effective at approximately three quarters of maximum crew.
In multiship fleet battles, care should be taken to ensure more crew man the larger ship to ensure maximum efficiency.
A size comparison of the Galleon (behind) and Hoy (front).
Going up against a Galleon in a Hoy is no picnic, but success, of any kind, is extremely rewarding.
Know Your Hoy
The Hoy is a single masted Sloop, with a single sail aft and a two sails forward.
It carries 8 guns, four either side, as well as two swivel guns (one per side amidships) and two chain shot (anti-sail) firing swivel guns on the forecastle.
The Hoy's chief strengths are speed and maneuverability. It is the best in both counts currently in the game. Unfortunately, this is countered by inferior broadsides, height, and toughness. The Hoy has a much lower freeboard (i.e. height) than the Galleon, and thus boarding is extremely difficult unless the Galleon is low in the water.
The Hoy's floor plan. Note the Captain's wheel at the quarterdeck (aft/rear) and the three guns in the open. The fourth gun on either side is beneath the wheel.
As well as that, its broadside weight, at only 4 shots, is somewhat lacking, and it is easy for Hoy captains to feel powerless against a Galleon.
Do not despair however. A competent Hoy can use its speed and maneuverability to avoid Galleon shots with a little luck, as well as seek out blind spots in the Galleon's broadside. 45 degrees off their ship's sides is very safe and if the Hoy can remain there, whilst pumping shots into the Galleon's sails and hull then the Galleon is in real trouble.
Fighting other Hoys is a challenge in itself. Aiming is difficult, with little in the way of aiming aids for the Hoy captain to use to find shots quickly. The closest to an aiming aid are the floorboards at their feet, but those are a poor substitute for the Galleon's "reticle".
The Hoy's aiming view, note the poor quality of firing aids. By the same token. note the floorboards parallel to the captain's eye view.
Yet the swirling chaos of Hoy battles are some of the most exciting and tense battles that can be played. With the Hoy's speed and maneuverability, the situation, and the initiative, can change extremely rapidly and with its difficult aiming, success is far from assured. A captain who can survive these actions can consider themselves a very competent captain indeed.
An example of effective Hoy captaining:
Know Your Schooner
The Schooner is a twin masted schooner rigged (hence the name) small ship.
It is armed with 5 guns a side, making its broadside the heaviest of the light ship class.
This strength is balanced by it being perhaps the weakest hull of all light ships as well as its low freeboard (i.e. height of the ship above the water) makes it vulnerable to enemy fire especially to boarding. The slope of its hull, however, means that it is difficult for would-be boarders to swim across and attempt to phase up into the ship.
The Schooner is available to both the pirates and the navy in the current fleet and treasure trade mode.
Traditionally, the Schooner is a long range ship. This is an effective way to play. Its 5 guns give it an advantage over all light ships and a serious punch against larger ships as well. Even if both sides miss one gun (for whatever reason) the schooner still comes out ahead in sustained broadsides. I have seen numerous players use the schooner to long range effectively.
However, I must be frank in the belief that such gameplay is an exercise in tedium for the crew, as continuous reloading and firing until someone sinks isn't exactly the most exciting gameplay. More aggressive gameplay, including close-in firing below 300 metres, ramming, boarding and grappling are far more interesting ways to play and usually are critical in turning the tide of a game.
Contrary to what many might think, the schooner is more than capable of mixing it up with any enemy ship it may encounter. The key is to use its 5 gun broadside, switching between port and starboard in rapid succession to ensure the maximum number of hits upon the enemy. A static enemy that only fires one broadside, unless they manage to hit you hard first, will usually be severely punished by your doubled up broadsides.
Aggression is key. Learn to spot when the enemy is on the backfoot and move into punish them. Its very, very hard, even for an experienced crew, to come back from severe damage that is followed by a ram and boarders.
Needless to say, the Schooner does have disadvantages. Most significant is that the nose of the ship remains bugged, meaning any potential boarders end up stuck upon it and more than likely miss out on a boarding. As discussed previously, damage to the schooner hurts it even more than most - meaning you must play very carefully, a poor crew that doesn't repair holes only exacerbates this.
The schooner is a fine ship, able to dish it out to large ships even if the opportunity presents itself. Whilst many play it as a long range ship, I believe that means a tedious game for your crew and the captain missing out on power of five gun broadside in pell-mell mix ups. Whilst hardly a jack of all trades, the schooner is a dangerous ship at any range.
Know Your Junk
The Junk is three masted Junk rigged (see the name - again) vessel with four guns a side and one chaser gun facing front. The feature of a bowchaser makes the Junk unique amongst the small ships and provides it with significant choice in the way it fights enemies.
The Junk is only improved by its possession of the fastest turn rate of any ship currently in the game as well as being the tallest and arguably the toughest of all the small craft in the game. Its concentrated gundeck makes aiming and maintaining broadsides easy. This is tempered to an extent by its inability to cause ram damage (although its lack of a nose allows it to continue moving when other vessels would long have been immobilized).
The junk is something of a fan favourite, with a significant following from aggressive captains who love to close in to wreak havoc upon anything, from the Hoy to the Sophie. Well played, the junk can make the life of any enemy ship short and unpleasant. The most significant contributing factors toward this is its turn rate and its bowchaser. Combined, these weapons allow the junk to run up the rear of any ship afloat, maintain its position behind that ship and then fire roundshot (and grapeshot when it is close enough) up from stern to stem. Grapeshot fired at pointblank range will have devastating effects. I myself have achieved more than ten kills with a single shot. Spicing this up with broadsides from either side of the ship means the enemy is in for an extremely bad day and without help is almost certainly doomed. Needless to say, such fire will do serious damage to an enemy vessel's ability to resist. The loss of pumpers whilst repairing damage in particular can often have fatal results.
The junk's ability at long range is adequate, but to put its advantages properly to use it is recommended to get in close, otherwise one ends up with a larger Hoy which lacks an anti-sail swivel and just isn't particularly exciting. Its unfortunate that so often I see such a fine aggressive ship being held back by veteran captains who are afraid to get their hands dirty (and god forbid - lose!) in a brawl where their superior skill will usually result in victory to them.
Grappling is another area in which the Junk excels. High freeboard (distance from the ship's deck to the water), its front gun, a well placed swivel and its manoeuvrability make it a superb ship for grapples. When everything is going wrong, a string of junk grapples will often turn the game around, I myself - along with others - have done grapple after grapple to get supplies or just to have fun. Ending the game with more tickets than we started with is particularly hilarious.
The ultimate aggressive ship, in good hands the Junk can take on anything - I've even (and against the express wishes of my galleon captain - don't try this at home kids!) managed on more than one occasion to grapple the Sophie with - thanks to my extremely competent crew - great success. Play it like you stole it, but play well, a bad junk is bad news for the entire pirate team. Be smart and recognise when you're outnumbered. It might be exciting to get another grapple into the rear of a Sophie, but discretion - especially when its a schooner firing on you - is the better part of valour.
Know Your Galleon
The Galleon is currently Blackwake's largest ship.
It carries a fearsome firepower and anything that is hit by it knows its been hit.
Commanding a successful broadside from a Galleon is an awesome feeling. You have at your command one of the most deadly weapons in multiplayer gaming.
The Galleon is tough, it carries two pumps, three masts, and has weapons firing forward, to the rear and from both port and starboard.
The quarterdeck of the Galleon and its command centre.
Its main armament is composed of sixteen guns, in sets of eight facing port and starboard of the ship. Of these, six are mounted on the lower gun deck, which are entirely hidden from enemy small arms fire, and two above on the weather deck, this is entirely open to enemy small arms fire.
The deck layout of the galleon. From left - the poop deck, the quarter deck, the weather deck, the forecastle and the bowsprit.
As well as these, the Galleon has two main guns facing forward as bow chasers, mounted on the lower deck, and two anti-sail swivel guns above deck on the forecastle. This is an ideal chase armament and should be used as such. Note that to aim these bow chasers your target will be entirely obscured by your main mast. Listen to your gunners for aiming. To the rear are two stern chasers, which are even harder to aim as they will be obscured by the rise of your poop deck. Listen to your gunners to direct their fire.
The aiming reticle of the Galleon. Although it is not perfect, and in many situations the forward and rear guns of the broadside will be unable to fire simultaneously and hope to hit, it is leaps and bounds ahead of the Hoy.
Your broadside armament is complemented by two solid shot swivel guns, one per side of the ship. Although they used to be quite effective, their only utility currently is as close range guns. At long range these weapons are pointless.
Although the Galleon is strong and tough, its maneuverability is poor compared to its Hoy, and if both are undamaged the Hoy will invariably come out on top so long as the captains are competent. This is more than balanced however by the Galleon's chaser armament, which will punish handily any mistake by the Hoy. And woe betide any Hoy that wanders into a Galleon's main battery kill zone.
A skilled Galleon crew and captain are a fearsome force upon the waves, although they are never invincible, any opponent should expect a tough and bloody fight before a well run galleon sinks beneath the waves.
For new people, I would recommend against the Galleon as your first ship. Although it is arguably easier, with more guns and an easier to aim broadside, there are more crew aboard and in many servers it will be the most important ship afloat. Rage will ensue if you do not perform to a certain standard.
An example of Galleon captaining by yours truly.
Know Your Sophie
The Sophie (sometimes called the "Brig" (its rig), the "Cruizer" (its ship class) and even "Galleon" (because some people can't be stuffed)) is the Navy's shiny new large ship with ten guns a side and a turn rate that a brick would not envy.
The Sophie lacks any chaser armament on either the bow or stern, it is lower than than the galleon but it does have the wildcard of twin rearfacing anti-sail swivels, your only defence from marauding junks.
For the Sophie, teamwork is critical. A bad Sophie, whether because of their support or their crew or captain, will usually result in a loss without extreme heavy lifting from either its Hoy or Schooner. It has the strongest broadside in the game, ten guns a side, but its slow turn rate means it is at the mercy of small ships and will have an extremely bad time in a brawling situation. Playing the Sophie aggressively is difficult, dangerous and without great foresight, situational awareness and sheer good luck it will likely suffer. Of course, there are no rules in Blackwake, even if the Sophie rates as the worst ramming ship in Blackwake by virtue of the aforementioned turnrate and non-existent chaser armament, it is still possible to ram stuff - and even to win such an action!
Despite these problems, at any range - so long as your crew can aim - the Sophie is no joke. Its broadside will devastate any enemy ship in short order. Small ships hit by its guns are doomed unless they can get repairs underway very rapidly. Keep the guns working on the Sophie and you're good for the game. Avoid pursuing enemies that fall back. You can't keep them down and when they lift up they'll be able to outturn you and wreck you before you can even fire upon them. Leave pursuing defeated enemies to little ships. Your job is to shatter the enemy's will to resist with sustained volleys. Sinking them is a bonus. Leave that to your small craft.
Indeed, anything involving turning should be avoided in the Sophie. It can only affect an enemy's turn radius when they are already behind you - and if they are there you are in real trouble. At times the like that, regardless of casualties those rear swivels must be manned.
Although its broadside is powerful, it does have its downside. With ten guns and a maximum of 13 crew, the Sophie is a couple of dead crew or holes from being undermanned, with the result that the effectiveness of your broadside diminishes rapidly, far more rapidly than the galleon's 8 gun broadside.
The Sophie is arguably the hardest ship to do well consistently in - irrespective of the quality of your team or your opponents. So much can go wrong on it - and even when things go right, the gameplay of sitting at range broadsiding isn't exactly the most exciting. Yet those who command the Sophie have at their command the most powerful broadside on the high seas, enjoy.
Know Your Weapons
They are:
Your cannons.
A good gunner can load a gun in approximately 5 seconds if they work fast. It then takes exactly three seconds for it fire after it has been lit by a gunner - so don't swing the ship like you're playing mariocart! It shoots out directly where its pointing, so aim your ship well.
Your crew.
Each crewman has a variety of weapons including grenades, muskets, volleyguns, swords and broken bottles at their disposal. Any of these can give an enemy crew an extremely bad day! A well timed boarding can ruin an enemy's comeback. Make sure the crew knows they're boarding and what they should prioritise. If the enemy is low in the water, an attack upon their pumps and repairers below decks will often seal their doom.
Your bow.
No joke, ramming is highly effective. Just be aware it breaks your bowsprit, immobilising you and leaving you a sitting duck whilst it is repaired. Ramming does cause 4 holes in the enemy ship automatically. It also temporarily slows down the enemy ship, so take the opportunity to jump across. Be quick about it however, as you can be certain they shall be sailing away as fast as they can.
Swivel guns.
The Bow guns are loaded with chain shot/bar shot (aka "Anti-Sail" since the Devs are bleeding landlubbers as well!). These are very effective at taking down enemy sails. The broadside guns are loaded with standard shot - it does no damage to the enemy hull, but flies straight through wood. They are useless at anything but effective musket range.
Know Your Shot
Know your shot!
Roundshot - blows holes in the enemy's hull, deadly to anything nearby. Causes the enemy ship to sink. Sinking = win. Duh. Primary shell type and effective at all ranges. Anyone caught loading grapeshot in a long range duel or, in fact, anything other than an action yardarm to yardarm or with the captain's direct order should be summarily executed (trust me, I'm a Kommissar remember).
Grape shot - Giant shot gun pellet, deadly when fired into the enemy ship at close range. Ruinous to the enemy crew, especially if shot down the length of the ship (raking). At any other range, its a waste of a reload.
Grapples - God knows whose idea it was to fire a grapple out of a cannon, but go figure. Fires a big hook out of the cannon, if it impacts on an enemy ship, the ships are drawn together, all prior damage is ignored as are ticket counters and they are immobilised. The respawn timers is increased by a factor of 6 or so to two minutes - yes you heard me right, two minutes! Matches of CoD end in a shorter time! So stay alive and make sure that the rest of the crew knows it too! To be used in cases of extreme emergency when you need a miracle. The winning team should usually avoid this option like a plagueship. (as well as anyone using it) Seems to only work when the grapple hits an area of the ship that can be damaged by normal shot. You're SOL if you're so low in the water that's all you can hit.
Your gunner's ammunition is resupplied with ammo crates, these are kept in the rear cabins of both the Hoy and the Galleon (For the Galleon, it is on the same level as the stairs to the gun deck). Once your ammunition has been used up, you better be ready to board because you have nothing to shoot with! Note that in conditions of low population, ammunition crates are not required and ammunition is infinite.
Know What Saves You
AKA, repairs.
You can always tell who's been losing most of the past games, because they'll be best at repairing. Use this to your advantage.
Holes
Caused by enemy round shot. Can be repaired by one person. Sinking can be slowed down by manning the pumps. Your ship will only be cleared of water once all holes are fixed and the pumps are operating. The Galleon has two pumps and the Hoy has one. On the Galleon, if only one pump is operating, then the ship's sinking is slowed by 20%, if both are operating, then the ship's sinking is slowed by 40% (at the time of writing). The Hoy's pump always operates at 40% efficiency.
Both ships take damage and sink at a different rate.
As personal view, I would rate the seriousness of damage in each ship as follows.
Hoy 1 hole - No danger, shouldn't interrupt normal operations on board ship and should be repaired when convenient. Try to avoid letting it remain too long, as your ship will see some decrease in performance over time.
2-3 holes - Moderate, danger of ship performance hit. Fixing these should be the job of 1-2 crew members. Try to maintain normal crew operations.
3-5 holes - Serious, consider withdrawing from combat. Situation not truly desperate, but your ship's performance will be impacted severely and your guns may become inoperable due to flooding if these holes are not fixed rapidly. Further holes on top of these are very, very dangerous indeed and carry the risk of turning the situation into a critical one despite being only on 6 holes.
6+ holes - Critical, if not fixed immediately your ship will begin to sink rapidly. Withdrawal is strongly advised. Your guns will become inoperable very soon. You are likely to have heavy casualties, further damaging the effectiveness of your ship. Pumping will reduce your sinking rate as always, but unless rapid repairs are undertaken, your ship will sink very soon. Although dangerous, this is not a hopeless situation and you can come back from them so long as all crew pull their weight. If you do manage to pull it back, use it as a team building exercise. Some of my best crews and comebacks have been off the back of these moments. Do not seek out these moments, but if they do happen and you survive, capitalize upon them to the full.
Galleon
1-3 holes - No danger, shouldn't interrupt normal operations on board ship and should be repaired when convenient. Try to avoid letting it remain too long, as your ship will see some decrease in performance over time.
3-5 holes - Moderate, danger of ship performance hit. Fixing these should be the job of 1-2 crew members. Try to maintain normal crew operations.
6-8 holes - Serious, consider withdrawing from combat. Situation is not truly desperate, but your ship's performance will be impacted severely and your guns may become inoperable due to flooding if these holes are not fixed rapidly. Further holes on top of these are very, very dangerous indeed and carry the risk of turning the situation into a critical one despite being only on 6 holes.
9+ holes - Critical, if not fixed immediately your ship will begin to sink rapidly. Withdrawal is strongly advised. Your guns will become inoperable very soon. You are likely to have heavy casualties, further damaging the effectiveness of your ship. Pumping will reduce your sinking rate as always, but unless rapid repairs are undertaken, your ship will sink very soon. Although dangerous, this is not a hopeless situation and you can come back from them so long as all crew pull their weight. If you do manage to pull it back, use it as a team building exercise. Some of my best crews and comebacks have been off the back of these moments. Do not seek out these moments, but if they do happen and you survive, capitalize upon them to the full.
Music to be played upon surviving a critical situation.
Sail damage
Caused by enemy chain shot ("anti-sail" to cowardly landlubbers). Can only happen if the enemy is facing head on toward you, which probably means you're running away. i.e. Stop running away! Can be repaired by one guy who has to climb the masts reach the sails. Each sail must be repaired individually. (Just wait until we get something like the Cutty Sark where every mast has 4 sails stacked on them). Pay special attention to the rear most (Mizzen to salty seadogs) mast. That one reportedly gives you the strongest turn, turning is vital, so don't let it get damaged.
Fire
Panic! Fire! Fire is a real pain and can even throw matches if the fire spreads to the wrong places (like the captains wheel for example). Arguably its other worst feature is that it can really screw up your sails. Fire can be put out using two ways. The first is the wimpy way of putting it out using buckets. The second is by letting the ship sink. Naturally, the writer prefers the second way. Fire should not be over estimated however, although terrifying, particularly for new players, fire does no long term damage to the ship and does not cause the ship to sink. As far as I can tell as well, after a while fire goes out and slowly recedes, although the ship is likely to be in a bad way anyway.
Know Your Captains
Your fellow captains.
So, there's this new thing called teamwork and multiship battles in Blackwake. And guess what? You're now captain! So now you can be shot by twice the number of enemy guns compared to before. Right? Wrong. If you screw up, then yes, you will be shot to hell, but, who'd have thought it? There is this strange ship which is, shockingly, not hostile! In fact, they get a pretty hefty points demerit if they do shoot you. Therefore, before anything else, make sure you're a) aware which ship(s) are friendly to you and b) keep communicating what is what to your gunners! The number of times I've seen matches thrown already because friendly gunners shoot other friendly gunners is rather depressing.
So what to do with this new friendly ship? This is what that shiny new B key is for, that's for faction! (yes, I know its a B!) Use it to speak to your fellow captain(s) and sort out tactics. As a tip, be a bully, gang up on some poor lone unsuspecting enemy ship that is separated from its other friendly ships (think a David Attenborough nature show, where the lions begin circling the wounded herbivore left behind by the herd). Make sure your fellow captain(s) know whats what and pound that poor sucker into the dust. Ram it, board it, shoot it (preferably in sequence), nothing is more satisfying than ramming the same ship simultaneously! And whatever you do, avoid being seperated (see above metaphor) and keep together.
Whatever else, imagine your two/three ships are just two-three guys on a ship. If thats all there are on a ship then I hope to god you communicate! So communicate with your fellow captains - because there's half a chance I'll be that captain - and you can be sure I will be communicatingwith you!
As something further to note, aim not to use faction chat to speak to your crew. An exception is when you're doing something morale boosting. If you're about to unload on an enemy ship thats been hurting your friend, them knowing a broadside is on the way can be really helpful. Otherwise, keep it to your own ship's channel (although I know I myself make this mistake regularly :/ ).
Know Where To Begin
Where to begin as captain?
You're new to the game. You've played a few matches as crew members (do not ever jump to captaining immediately).
The following is strictly my own opinion and should be treated as such.
A word about myself -
I'm one of the saddos who had too much time on his hands and got excited for this new Blackwake game thing that was doing the rounds on Kickstarter and Youtube.
As such, when Alpha was announced to be impending. I went to the Youtube channels of people like BaronVonGamez, Starsnipe, Bluedrake42, PartiallyRoyal and the like. I watched every video of every battle they fought and I mentally noted what they did right and wrong. How they might've won or lost.
By the end, I was an expert on Blackwake without having played a minute of it. I knew loading procedure, boarding, ramming, everything. Thus when I logged in on Alpha 1 it took one game as crew before I signed up as captain. I was voted in, and won it handily. Over the course of Alpha 1, I would go on to see multiple winstreaks of 3 or even higher.
At that time, 1v1 Galleons were the only thing out there (1v1 Hoys were played only when the servers were truly empty, and that was extremely rare). It was sudden death, you had no back up and no second chances. It was the ideal testing ground for the great captains. Amongst them Pope, Evanovich, Alboe, Reimer, Sack Jarrow and many others whose names sadly escape me.
The arrival of Fleet Battles are a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because the effectiveness of the truly deadly captains are balanced out by them being only part of a formation of 3 ships whose effectiveness may vary wildly. You are now no longer the poor sucker who is target practice for one of the aforementioned great captains. By the same token however, Fleet Battles are a safety net. Using this novel thing called communication, you can call for help, have Galleons and Hoys come to support you if need be with massive broadsides and highly competent crews.
It is difficult therefore to learn the fine art of trying know your enemy captain's ship better than they know it themselves. To watch every shot they make, hit or miss and to guess what effect your ship's fire is having in real time. Nor is it as easy to learn the equally fine art of completely out maneuvering a ship that is equal to your own in every way.
This may sound elitist, but 1v1 ship combat is the most effective way to learn the game in this writer's opinion, unfortunately, 1v1 ship combat is increasingly being relegated to low population time periods where there isn't enough crew to even fill one Galleon.
So, how do we learn to be better captains?
We -
1. Watch Youtube. Consider every move the captain makes, watch what their crew does. Are the captain's commands being acted upon in time? Is the captain communicating effectively? And most importantly, if you were at the wheel, what would you have done?
The Alboe Show is arguably the finest resource for Blackwake gameplay, it is unlikely for there to be any situation that has not appeared upon the programme at some point, nor a single captain currently in Blackwake whose work has not be showcased at some point in the files. It is hardly reasonable to expect anyone to watch all 220 videos, but a look at some of the recurring names should ensure a good overview of some of the better captains.
The full playlist maybe found here.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjSN_i8mXURJYJg2OguWfDYOvs66qFSu
I would also recommend viewing the earlier videos of the aforementioned youtubers. Although the version they played is long out of date, their videos are both highly entertaining and instructive for any player who has truly no idea how to play the game. Their long and bitter road to learning the game is both hilarious and illuminating.
2. Play as crew. Note how your captain plays, could you do a better job? Do they need to communicate more, or less? Play with the great captains as their crew. Try to think about why they're doing so well. It may seem like they have this unworldly sense of being able to aim broadsides and always ensure their crew is loaded when they turn to fire.
How do they marshal the crew and make sure they're coordinated? Listen to how they act when things go wrong. What do they do when the ship is sinking full of holes?
3. Play as captain. It is possible to ignore the other two (it will be filled with blood tears and sweat however). It is impossible to ignore this. Be confident, be brave, be aggressive. Take the fight to the enemy. Remember, ultimately, in the words of the immortal Nelson: "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy."
Make a note of your mistakes. Where did things go to hell? Why did that broadside fail? Were the crew distracted? Killed? Did they not know what they were doing? Was there a failure to communicate? Do not be afraid of these great captains I harp on about. They play the same game. Their ships are made of holes, same as you. They will sink with holes just as you will.
At the same time, make a note of your opponent's failures. You survived what should've killed you, why? What mistakes was made by them? Do you make that mistake? Can it be capitalized upon? In future too?
That's all from me for now. I'd like to write further guides on different subjects, but this shall remain a living document I intend to update as the game progresses and changes (as games do) as well update with as many pictures as possible (it is difficult to get gameplay shots when the alpha isn't actually running). I hope players both old and new have learned something from this and I'd like to welcome the new players come to the game in future alphas and in the coming release. I look forward to commanding and being commanded by you all. If even one player finds they command their craft a little better after reading this guide then its purpose has been fulfilled.
Salute.
Signed, sealed and black spotted.
Kommissar Hedgehog.
At Sea.
13/12/2016.
P.S. Please do not refrain from providing comments and suggestions.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=816247901
More Blackwake guilds
- All Guilds
- How to Aim All Blackwake Ships!
- How to be a pirate
- The Art of Blackwake's Tactics
- Some of pirate jokes
- Blackwake Guide 5
- Blackwake - Useful Tips and Tricks
- Blackwake - How to Aim Your Ship
- Blackwake - Shipshape Guide: From Landlubber to First Mate!
- Blackwake - Beginner's Guide