When the Governor's daughter gives you the hand signal, select the button for the hand movement just after she gives you the signal. You will do a special dancing move which will get her heart up very fast, if you do it many times in a row. If her heart is big enough when the mini game is over, instead of kissing her hand, you will spin her around and she will then kiss you. Afterwards she will likely give you a present or extremely valuable information.
Alternate dialogue
Set the system date to September 19th to have everyone's dialogue sound like a pirate.
Avoiding battles while escorting ships
Sometimes when you meet a Governor at a town, settlement (most often), or monastery, the Governor or Monk may require you to escort ship for various purposes (sending immigrants, ultimatums, seeds, transporting a new Governor, etc.). The ships will almost always be intercepted by three opposing enemies (other nations or pirates), prompting a "sea battle" on the main political sea map. To avoid this, attack the ship you are escorting. When you enter the combat screen, sail away from the ship to flee. Most likely the other ship will sail in the opposite direction. After you exit the combat screen, the escort ship will have sailed quite a long distance. If you are close to the target destination, the ship you are escorting should arrive automatically and complete its mission. Note: This may not very well if the target destination is still far away.
City characteristics
The following are the different types of cities and their characteristics. Note: Poor defenses and weak defenses are different. Poor defenses are worse than weak defenses.
Capital Cities: Large and wealthy with strong defenses.
Colonies: Large and poor with weak defenses.
Outposts: Small and poor with poor defenses.
Port Cities: Large and wealthy city with weak defenses.
Strongholds: Small and poor with strong defenses.
Towns: Large and poor with strong defenses.
Trading Posts: Small and wealthy with strong defenses.
Villages: Small and wealthy with poor defenses.
Dance flourish
To do a flourish during dance sequences, press the key for the correct direction when the girl nods her head at you.
Easy land battles
Land battles are difficult to win, even if you have more soldiers than the enemy. The key strategy to remember is to hide in the trees. The soldiers attacking your troops in the trees will have less than a 20% chance of inflicting critical damage, and all damage is divided in half. Also watch your morale. If your troop's morale gets low enough, they may run away from battle. Always enter battle with about one quarter moor troops than the city guards. You can also weaken enemy ports and cities by alerting Pirate Havens and Indian Villages. The Indians or pirates will assault the town, making the town lose guards, whether or not they win the battle. This also makes the city lose wealth, however. If the city was once "Prosperous" it may go down to "Poor" or "Modest". If this happens too much, alert the missionaries in the Missionary Camps. Tell them to travel to the city you want to become wealthier, then attack the city. You must attack cities at the correct moment. Waiting too long after sending in missionaries may result in more guards accumulating than before. You should wait only two to five days. Get your buccaneers to the front lines whether in the trees or not. It does not matter if you have a significantly greater force. Then, have your pirates and officers get into position for flanking. The best way to do this is to send more than one group of pirates against one enemy in case the enemy moves. Before you attack the soldiers with your pirates, attack them with your buccaneers by holding [Shift] then selecting the "Next Turn" button on the control panel. This should either kill or significantly weaken the soldiers. Also, make sure you search for a hill to flank the enemy from. If you use this strategy, you can easily defeat an enemy that is only five or more soldiers weaker than yourself.
Easy money
Reach the rank of Count with any or all nations. Then, go into ship battles with any desired ship. Damage it a lot, but not to the point where it explodes. Keep the ship and go to a port where you are at the rank of Count or higher. Talk to the shipwright. You will get free repairs. You can repair a damaged ship for free and sell it for a lot more.
If you have more than one boat and are sailing and your crew says that they are taking one of your boats, just follow them and take it over. You will get it back, plus more money as it gives that boat's plundered money.
Easy sea battles
When battling other ships, get in front of them. Have them chase you, and when your guns are fully loaded, turn, fire, and straighten again. Repeat this until you wish to board or their sail falls and they surrender. It is best done when you use grape shot or chain shot.
Easy specialists
Attacking and boarding a smuggler's vessel usually yields a specialist (for example, Carpenter, Sailmaker, etc.).
Gaining rank
One of the most important features is "Caribbean Politics", which you can view on your personal status sheet. This shows which countries are at war with each other. The best way to make use of this is to wage war (pirate attacks) against the country that has the most enemies. For example, if you notice the Spanish are at war with the French and the Dutch, is politically easier for you to gain military rank if you fight the Spanish than if you fight the French and the Dutch. Fighting more ships and plundering more cities also provide you with more "acre" bonuses each time you gain rank. Note that this tactic depends on the situation of Caribbean politics and economics. Using the same example, if the French and the Dutch have better and more cities or towns (wealthier), it might be better to wage war against them instead; they have more ships sailing than a country that has weak and less cities or towns. If you want to wage war against a country, remember not to always plunder a city to the brink of poverty. This will mean less ships to attack. Try changing the political powers of certain Caribbean regions by capturing cities and giving them to nations that do not have a city or town in that region. For example, in eastern seas (around Martinique), the Spanish do not have a town. The closest is Trinidad (south) and San Juan (north) but none in the middle. Providing a city or town for the Spanish in that area may prove beneficial for future political wars.
Keeping a happy crew
Food, luxuries, goods, spices, or sugar can keep a crew happy, but it is difficult to keep a good amount of them on hand. Get a good ship upgraded then get a treasure ship. You will hear about treasure ships from bar maids or can find them randomly. They carry a lot of cargo. Keep two ships permanently. Sell the others. Keep a battle/fun ship and your big ship to carry supplies for long voyages. Certain special items decrease the unhappiness of your shipmates. Items such as musical instruments are invaluable for long sea voyages. Obtain these items from the Mysterious Traveler at the pub or from Governor's daughters. Recruit mates with specialties. There are many person(s) in the Caribbean which will decrease the unhappiness of your shipmates. Among others, the cook will provide better meals, the quartermaster will enforce discipline, etc. To obtain these special mates, ask the local barmaid for further information on the ship carrying them and try to capture those ships. Just because they are unhappy does not mean you have to retire soon. You can push the crew to the limit even though their status is "unhappy". However when they are "mutinous" you will be in trouble. Always balance your cash reserves with your crew size. By doing this, you can sail for more than two or three years without having to "divide the plunder".
No Easter Eggs message
Open the Piratopedia and search for the "St. Eustatius" entry. Early in the entry, the word "Eastern" is used but only the "Easter" part of it is a hyperlink. Click it to access a hidden page that denies the existence of any Easter Eggs in the game.
Ships
The following ships will appear under the following conditions.
Brig Of War (Brig class)
Often seen as Military Payroll carriers, or Troop Transports. They attack as normal, but beware of large amounts of enemy crew.
Large Frigate
Henry Morgan has a Large Frigate. Boarding his ship leads to a fairly easy sword fight, even under the Rogue difficulty.
Mail Runner (Pinnace class)
Offer to escort a war declaration or peace offering from a colony, then attack the courier once out of port.
Royal Sloop (Sloop class)
Often seen as a Pirate Hunter out of Spanish ports. Attack shipping around a Spanish port and one may come out to attack.
Ship Of The Line (Frigate class)
Relentlessly attack shipping of the English, French, or Dutch and keep watch for a "New Warship" (Ship Of The Line) sailing around.
Sid Meier reference
On rare occasions, the Mysterious Traveler at the back of the tavern will instead be Sid Meier. He will lack the usual beard of the other Mysterious Travelers, but acts the same as them.
Sword fighting style
At the beginning when you are a young swashbuckler, doing quick strikes with the cutlass is an easy way to win sword fights. Later in the game as you get older and have slower moves, start fighting more defensively or stack the odds in your favor by using grape shot on the opposing crew before entering hand-to-hand combat.
Trick the enemy during a duel
You can trick your opponent when in a duel. When you go to attack the enemy in any way, quickly press in the opposite direction. For example, if you press up, quickly press down or left, etc.
