War Canoe

The War Canoe is a Ship Type available in Sid Meier's Pirates!. It is the smallest Ship Type in the game, and is also the smallest variant in the Pinnace Class family of ships. It is an extremely fast and agile boat, capable of weaving between cannonballs and sailing easily upwind. Its firepower and crew capacity are negligible. War Canoes spawn out of Indian Villages, and will never be seen in the employ of any of the four nations. Counterintuitively, the War Canoe is considered one of the best ships in the entire game, although it requires an extremely good understanding of the game, as well as excellent Fencing skills, in order to utilize it properly.

In Sid Meier's Pirates!, the War Canoe (also known as the Indian War Canoe, Tartane in the manual) is the name of a Ship Type belonging to the Pinnace Class family of ships. It is the Smallest variant of that class, and indeed the smallest ship model in the entire game.

The War Canoe is extremely fast and extremely agile. It can turn on a dime, and will gain speed very quickly.

The War Canoe carries up to 8 Cannons into battle, and can hold a Crew of up to 50 men. With less than 6 men available, the War Canoe becomes sluggish and difficult to use. With at least 30 men and 8 cannons on board, the War Canoe is at its maximum fighting efficiency.

A War Canoe can carry up to 20 tons of cargo (including Cannon) - barely enough to feed its entire crew for more than a few months, let alone carry any extra cargo. Even with a full fleet of War Canoes, maximum cargo capacity is only 160 tons, only 20 tons more than a single East Indiaman or Treasure Galleon.

When sold, a War Canoe yields, plus for each upgrade installed on the ship. This assumes that the ship is at 100% condition, otherwise it is sold for less (down to if either sails or hull are all but gone).

Upgrades for a War Canoe cost each. Once the rank of Admiral has been attained, War Canoe upgrades will only cost each.

In the Player's Hands
The War Canoe has what can only be described as a "cult" of worshippers - players who believe that it is in fact the best ship in the entire game.

The reasons for this lie with the Canoe's exceptional maneuverability and tiny size. It can easily dodge cannonballs, and can very quickly close with an enemy ship for a Boarding. Players who are exceptionally good at Fencing find that the War Canoe removes all necessity for gunnery, and therefore remove all guns from their ship as they just take up valuable space.

Strategically, the War Canoe is also the fastest ship sailing on the World Map. It can also sail eastwards faster than any other ship. These are very valuable properties, as time is always slipping away. This is the reason having at least one War Canoe in any fleet composition is recommended.

In addition, it is reasonably simple to find any number of War Canoes, just by visiting an Indian Village. This means that a Canoe can be acquired very early in the game, which speeds the player's progress considerably.

Roles and Nationality
In terms of appearances in the game, the War Canoe is unique in three ways:


 * It is the only ship sailed by the Indian faction.


 * It is only ever sailed by Indians (or the player, once one is caught). None of the other factions will field a War Canoe at any given time during the game.


 * As a result, it is the only ship that ever fills the role of "Indian War Canoe", a specific kind of ship activity somewhat similar to that of "Pirate Raiders". The difference is that a successful Pirate raid on a port severely reduces the wealth of a port, while an Indian raid leaves wealth intact, but reduces the population, which can possibly improve the wealth of the port.

War Canoes will randomly spawn out of Indian Villages every once in a while, in a group of 3 ships, heading towards a nearby Port. While sailing, it is possible to assault them - if you are quick enough to catch them before they get away or reach their destination.

It is also possible to cause War Canoes to spawn by design. To do this, visit an Indian Village and talk to the Village Chieftain. He will tell you of a planned raid against a nearby Port, and will subsequently spawn 3 War Canoes heading towards that port. You may attack these Canoes as you would normally.

In Combat
As repeated several times above, the War Canoe is the single most agile ship in the entire game.

The Canoe's Fore-And-Aft Rigging, basically no more than a couple of triangular sails, coupled with its tiny hull, will turn the ship around almost on the spot. This allows the Canoe to make extremely tight (and unexpected!) turns.

In addition, this type of rigging also allows the Canoe to sail extremely quickly in awkward directions, such as Broad Beam Reach (its Best Sailing Point) and clock a couple of leagues even Into The Eye of the wind! In fact, it is the only ship type that can consistently maintain proper sailing velocity (5 leagues and upwards) when sailing upwind. This, as explained by the game guide, is because it actually carries oars for the crew to use. Oars are carried by all Pinnace Class and Sloop Class ships, but increase in effectiveness as ships get smaller.

Coupled together, these features allow the Canoe to outmaneuver any other ship in the game - potentially even other Pinnace-Class ships. Furthermore, due to the Canoe's tiny size, it can not only avoid enemy cannonfire (by turning quickly after the enemy has unleashed a broadside), but can potentially weave in between cannonballs. This is, of course, absolutely crucial, as the Canoe's Durability is abysmal, and it will not survive more than a few cannonball strikes before sinking.

Experienced Canoe captains regard loading the Canoe with cannons superfluous. 8 Cannons (its maximum loadout) are barely enough to cause any serious damage to other ships. For this reason such captains unload all their cannons to begin with, hence going into combat unarmed. Instead, they seek to outmaneuver the enemy ship and close in for a Boarding while avoiding enemy cannonfire. Once the boarding has commenced, the captain then only relies on his skill with Fencing to defeat the enemy ship. Even with the Canoe's small crew complement of 50 men (75 with Triple Hammocks), it is quite possible to defeat enemy ships loaded with hundreds of sailors this way.

The result of this is that the Canoe is used simply as a boarding platform - nullifying the enemy ship's firepower superiority, and hopefully also its manpower superiority. Therefore the Canoe can easily engage even the largest, most dangerous ships.

Still the War Canoe is a capable ship which can hunt down and take on any ship in the game in playing in Swashbuckler experience. So it is advisable to have one in your fleet at any time not only for travelling or boarding reasons.

Attacking an Enemy Canoe

 * The difficulty associated with combating a ship that can easily escape into the wind (and cannot be chased by anything larger than another Canoe) should be obvious. Good strategies for such an encounter involve attacking from up-wind, so that the Canoe has no choice but to flee in a more manageable direction. However, it is still imperative to try and hit the Canoe, preferably with Chain-Shot, before it can open up the distance and escape - in any direction.


 * Note: If you manage to make contact with an enemy War Canoe, it will immediately surrender. It is likely that this was cut from the game alongside the additional Indian mechanics, as happened with the Indian special items. On making contact, the game will display a unique boarding message relating to dropped morale, and will proceed to the looting phase.

Attacking with a War Canoe

 * No enemy ship is able to get away from the Canoe. In fact the most ships don't even consider not taking her on. This makes her the best ship to hunt down even highest threat level ships like the Ship of the Line. The basic idea is to switch to chain-shots, go for the sails, and grape-shot the crew to hell. This is easily done with some practice for any ship in 3 phases, and 8 cannons are totally sufficient for it as you go for the weakpoint of all ships. Although taking on multiple ships (pirate-hunter fleets or merchants with escorts) is way more difficult but it works basically the same way - make sure to concentrate on the flagship first before it escapes or the battle will definitely end.


 * An upgraded War Canoe with Chain-Shots is mandatory. Upgrades like Grape-Shots (massive crew damage), Fine-Grain Powder (increased firing range) Copper (agility), Cotton Sails (speed), Bronze Cannons (precision) and Triple-Hammocks (75 max crew) will be helpful as well.


 * Phase 1 - Positioning and weaken the sails: Always initiate attack with the wind in at least Broad Reach position. Switch to chain-shots and go for mid-range. Then constantly turn in a circle (making a 0). This is to prevent any enemy fire ever hitting you. Every time the ship's broadside is aligned you fire and destroy the enemy ship sails, the weakest part on any ship, bit by bit. While doing this, you keep on circling all the time. Keep the distance mid-ranged, if necessary perform an 8 to get closer or farer away from your target ship. Also keep the wind in the back, this will prevent frigates and galleons from closing in fast on you for quick-boardings.


 * Phase 2 - Destroy the sails: As the sails get weaker on bigger ships they get very sluggish. This will give the War Canoe the possibility to go into the blind spot behind the enemy ship. Making things much quicker. As soon as the sails are falling completely, the enemy ship is done for as it will definitely cease fire because AI is programmed to do so. You now can go on with phase 3 by reefing your sails and go for a an optimal broad side firing position, or switch to another target if necessary by rins and repeating phase 1 and 2.


 * Phase 3 - Kill the crew or sink the ship: The decision is yours, sink it with Round-Shots or force it to surrender for profit by switching to Grape-shots (if not available continue using Chain-shots) - both will ensure you don't sink the ship accidentally. Enjoy decimating the enemy crew down to their captain (1 crew left). Consider to collect some poor mislead souls out of the water to strengthen your total crew numbers. But watch your distance to avoid accidentally boarding the enemy ship too soon. While decimating the crew the ship will most lkely surrender instantly if you are closer to the ship and no quest captain is on board. Else just board it with 1 crew member left and one-hit the quest captain to win the battle and debase him by underestimating a tiny War Canoe.

This basic tactic works also quite well with an upgraded Royal Sloop - a rare sloop with 20 cannons used by the Spanish nation. The sails will fall much quicker due to the 250% more firepower. The downside is a slightly decreased speed and agility. Be sure to maintain a bigger distance to the enemy ships while circling or you will occasionally get hit by graze shots.