Knights of Saint George

The sloop. As the easiest ship to crew and run, as well as the cheapest, it enjoys widespread use. It’s the pirate’s first ship on Y!PP and during the Golden Age of Piracy was the pirate ship par excellence, being fast, easy to handle and to hide.

This short tutorial is meant to complete the Sloop pillaging guide http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Sloop_pillaging_guide by presenting some less known aspects about pillaging on this lovely vessel.

Choosing an archipelago

The majority of players buy sloops ported in the Gull Archipelago (Admiral Island) and chart them to sail in those waters. The Gull is actually a bad place to pillage for three reasons: 1) high risk of being engaged in a pvp battle; 2) low booty routes; 3) it can be hard to port when an emergency occurs because of the high frequency of engagements.

The best archipelagos to pillage on a sloop for beginners and medium skilled officers are Stork (Scrimshaw) and Ibis (Caravanserai), while advanced pillagers might enjoy harder routes such as those in Osprey (Scurvy Reef) and Puffin (Hoarfrost).

	Gull	Stork	Ibis	Pelican	Osprey	Puffin	Dodo	Tern
Access	***	**	*	*
Frequency of spawn	***	**	**
Restocking ports	***	***	**	***	*
Chart availability	***	***	**	***
Morphology	***	***	*	***	*
Prices	***	**	**	**
PvP free		**	***	**	**	***	***	***
Emergency porting	*	***	**	***	***	***	***	***
Booty		**	**	*	***	**	**	**

For the geography of the Ocean, please refer to: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Template:Map:Sage_Ocean

Stocking

The amount of stock varies mainly depending on length of the trip, size of the crew, class of the opponents’ ship. Bear into your mind that a sloop shoots about 20 balls per battle (30 in case of fighting longship, baghalhs and warbrig).

	crew	time	battles	targets	route	units of rum	cannon balls
Solo	4	60’-90’	3-4	sloops	8 leagues	20	100
Basic	5-6	90’	3-5	sloops	8 leagues	30	120
Basic+	5-6	90’	3-5	miscellaneous	8 leagues	30	150
Medium	5-6	120’	6-7	miscellaneous	14 leagues	40	150
Premium	5-6	180’	8-10	miscellaneous	20 leagues	60	220
BK hunt	5-7	120’	5-6	mb to wb	14 leagues	40	250

Crew

The crew and their skills inflences not only the performance of the ship but also the ship spawn. Ship spawn refers to the brigand ships that will try to engage you.

The golden rule of sloop pillage is NEVER SAIL WITH A CREW OF 7 (unless you deliberately want to be attacked by big ships): if you have 7 pirates on board, you will in facts start getting baglahs, longships and war brigs.

6-crew pillage
Difficulty: *

The normal sloop pillage is run with a crew of 6: 2 sailors, 1 carpenter, 1 bilger, 1 gunner and the bnaver. Sailors and gunner should be at least Master, but one of the two sailors can have a lower standing is the other one is Grand-Master or above. Give priority to sail and gun when you assign stations: if a pirate is Ultimate bilger and Renowned sailor and it’s the best sailor you have on board, ask him to sail!

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
2 (Master)	1	1	1 (Master)	you

5-crew pillage

The 5-crew pillage can be very fun. Opponents spawned are generally sloops, cutters and dhows; attacking red merchant brigs there is a good chance to get a BK. It can be run in two ways: like a 6-crew pillage without a gunner (the bnaver guns) or with a single sailor provided that he’s at least Grand-Master.

5-crew pillage with unskilled sailor
Difficulty: ***

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
2 (Master)	1	1	you	you

5-crew pillage with skilled sailor
Difficulty: **

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
1 (Grand-Master)	1	1	1	you

Undermanned pillages

Below 5, there is the great family of undermanned pillages. While beginners are advised against running such kind of pillages, advanced bnavers can particularly enjoy them.

The basic undermanned pillage is run with a man on every station while the bnaver is on double duty (bnav and guns). The sailor must be Grand-Master or above.

4-crew pillage with skilled sailor
Difficulty: ***

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
1 (Grand-Master)	1	1	you	you

If the sailor is less skilled, you should renounce to the carpenter and move 2 on sails during the battle, while when the battle is over you can move the second sailor back to carpentry. This is the typical example of solo pillage. Bots are in facts Able sailors and you need two of them to generate sailing tokens.

4-crew pillage with unskilled sailor (including solo pillage)
Difficulty: ****

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
2	0	1	you	you

7-crew pillage
Difficulty: ***

If you are running exclusively a BK hunt or want to attack big ships, you may want to sail with 7 men. Since you can get much damage, a good alternative to having 3 sailors is having 2 carpenters.

Sailing	Carpentry	Bilging	Gunning	Bnaving
2-3	1-2	1	1	1

Screening jobbers

Don’t just job anybody, take first into account the information above in accordance with the pillage you want to run (i.e. look for a GM+ sailor if you want to sail in 5) and note that the stats of the pirates onboard affect also the booty you are going to plunder from brigands!

The gunner must be Master or above. On a sloop, only one person can gun at a time and if that gunner is doing poorly, the offensive capabilities of that ship will be drastically hindered. The initial speed of pieces whenever a player enters the puzzle is based directly on that player's standings in gunnery: the pieces of a gunner who is below Master move too slowly to gun effectively on a pillage!

Where to put pirates

For recommendations on where to have your staff while you are at sea under various conditions, see: http://yppedia.puzzlepirates.com/Sloop_pillaging_guide#Where_to_put_pirates

Conclusions

Never sail in 7.

Find a Master+ gunner.

Sailing is a critical station, assign it carefully.

You don’t need 2 bilgers unless you have got water on board.

You don’t need 2 carpenters unless you are 7, have got high damage or you are in a sinking environment.

If you are undermanned the only station you can neglect during the battle is carpentry.

Booty

The booty you plunder from brigands is affected by the strength of the opponents you spawn and fight, which is in turn affected by the route, the number and the standings of the pirates on board.

Best booties are plundered sailing by elite (Grand-Master or above) pirates on red routes sailing in 6.