I will be putting tips and tricks to bnavving here from time to time, but for the moment let's start with the basic game documentation located on the Yppedia Bnav Page. There's a lot of good information there that a bnavver must know, like the damage charts for cbs and bumps for each vessel. Knowing your damage vs the enemy is essential as it will allow you to know whether it's best to disengage to avoid losing a battle or to go ahead and initiate grapple to take your chances.

There are videos out there, but three that are a must see are the Scarymuffin bnav tutorials:

Beginner Bnav

Advanced Bnav #1

Advanced Bnav #2

Now these videos are very good, but the tactics he uses in them may not always be applicable. The artificial intelligence (AI) changes from time to time when the developers add updates to keep the battles from becoming too predictable. I tend to use a combination of last second moves (lsm) and move cycling. As Scarymuffin states, lsm are only good for one turn, and can never be used twice in a row, so make sure when you use them that you have a clean escape route in mind for your next turn when you have to put in moves to take them out of revenge mode or chances are they will hit you. By move cycling, what I do is immediately put in a set of moves that I don't really plan to make to try to have the other ship anticipate I'll be where I won't be and wait for the other ship to enter its moves. Then I take those false moves out, and then when the enemy changes its moves, I put them back in. When it changes it's moves for the second time, I'll take those false moves back out, , wait for the other ship to change, and then finally put in my real moves. This seems to work when I put a grapple move in a few times, but then move to somewhere else where I can get a shot in on them when they anticipate where I'll be for the grapple. Currently on hard routes, like interarches, I usually run to stay out of their firing range for the first 3 to 4 turns and have them exhaust their moves, then I move in to start taking shots at them.


Advanced tips:

1) The goal of sea battle is board control so you start the next turn in the most advantageous position you can be in over the other ship. Try to lead the opponent ship to and area where you are able to maneuver cleanly without them taking advantage of the special tiles (wind and whirlpools). This is especially important when fighting bigger ships that can do more damage to you than you can do to them on a shot, such as longships. You are attempting to try to have the other ship in firing range of three squares when their helm or stern are to your broadsides, instead of the other way around. Avoid being in a square that they are able to occupy that's within firing range when you would be positioned with your helm or stern to their broaside.

2) Whirlpools: These are either your friend if you know the mechanics behind them or your worst nightmare if you don't. Knowing them comes with lots of practice. Check out Lordkalvan's Whirlpool tutorial and use the Whirly Math Laboratory to figure it out. I did.

3) Collision mechanics are also a must. Knowing how these work can help you avoid an early grapple.

More tactics and tips will come later, but this is enough to get you going.

After reading all this, if ye have any specific questions you'd like answered, please post them here.

Fair winds and lots of booty filled battles,
Pete

People have asked me about bnav scoring and what does it take to get on the list. There are lots of theories, but the truth is that I have no idea. YPP has never released the scoring mechanism behind bnavving, so it remains a mystery to all of us. Here's a thread on community forums that deals with Bnav Scoring.

I pretty much believe as Foil does about the following factors he wrote on that thread:

Quote:

1. Strength of Brigand/Barb (Not all Imps are created equal) 2. Shot ratio (Be on the side with more hits given than recieved) 3. Time it took to get to said ratio and grapple (The faster the better) 4. Who initiated the grapple. (I've always believed that if they do, it's not as good a score as when you initiate the grapple from behind or front. Simultaneous grapples count as them grappling)

Strength of the Brigand/Barb is definitely a huge factor, which is why I stick to interarches. Whenever I did an intraarch for a crew pilly, even if all the battles were perfect, I'd fall right off the list the next day.

Shot ratio needs no explanation.

Though time of battle to grapple is probably a factor, I don't think it's weighted as much as the others. I definitely take my time. I only tend to rush the grapple when I have a ship full of tired mates or folks announcing they need to leave. Even more important than bnav rating for me is to keep my jobbers happy and coming back for more.

I try to initiate grapple without giving them a chance to grapple me at same time, except for longships. Those are the worst and they always seem to have that one extra move to try to put a double shot in you. So I take grapple with them as soon as I get the opportunity from any angle. And for those of you who have gone out with me, you know I get more long ships than average. Scoring is done on the grapple, so it really doesn't matter whether you win or lose the sf or rumble. But we're out there to make poe, so whether a disengage hurts your rating or not, I will dis and reattack if I receive too much damage and that doesn't seem to affect my rating much. I've been with folks who have won max-max battles on interarches, but when I have more than half damage, I find that we lose the melee more often than not. Believe me, we've lost many a max-0 battle as well, which tells you something about the strength of the ships. One last thing... Don't continue shooting after you maxxed them, because that seems to put the bots in revenge mode in the sf or rumble. Just let your gunner fill your guns, and the other mates get whatever damage you have down, and work your way into the grapple.

Hope this helps... Fair winds.

_________________
====Gangrenepete====

"Never conclude your opinion of a person based on his present situation because time has the power to change ordinary coal into a diamond."

Question.. what is the optimal number of jobbers for a regular sloop pillage? I've heard people say 7, 6... even 5.

----Answer----
Good question, Challenger. There is no right answer to this. It depends on the skill levels of your crew mates on how many you need on each position to make the ship function efficiently.

On the interarch, I like to go with six: two sailors (at least one of them legendary), one carp, one bilge, and a gunner. You really need at least one skilled person on sails, because that is the station that gets you move tokens. The more bilge you build up, the less efficient the sailors are. Anyone can keep the bilge down on an undamaged ship just by pulling 'fine' on the DR which is what a bot gives ya. And if you don't get hit much, any carper can usually clear minor damage fast enough to keep bilge from filling.

Some people prefer 5, but that makes it necessary that you have a very strong sailor. I never take 7 on the interarch, because that will bring in bigger ships. It's not really the number of people but the 'might' of the mates on your ship. If you have strongly skilled pirates, you'll attract stronger foes.

I recommend all bnavvers read the Sloop Pillaging Guide on yppedia. There's lots of good stuff in there which saves me repeating it here.

I hope that answers your question.

--Pete