Bnav tutorial

= Introduction =

Battle navigating, or sea battle, is all about prediction. If you can predict what the other ship is going to do, you can move your ship so that you can shoot them. However, computer ships do not do the same thing every time, making it hard to teach a set way of bnaving. So the key to being a good bnaver is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!! It's a good idea to bnav with the navy until you are respected or master before you take out your own ship. This is because you are provided with at least one bot who is a decent gunner, and you don't have to pay for the cannonballs so shoot shoot shoot! Another plus to the navy is you don't have to worry about people leaving in battle or causing trouble, which is often a big problem. In this tutorial I will try to teach you some of the basics of bnaving and some of the common strategies. However, everyone has a different bnav strategy and bots are sometimes very unpredictable, so the strategies in this tutorial will not work every time. Again, the only way to get better at bnav is PRACTICE!

= LSM =

An LSM, or a last second move, is where the bnaver places move tokens right before the timer runs out. The easiest way to do this is to click on the space you want to place the move in.
 * 1 left click = left
 * 2 left clicks = straight
 * 3 left clicks = right
 * 4 left clicks = empty
 * 1 right click = right
 * 2 right clicks = straight
 * 3 right clicks = left
 * 4 right clicks = empty
 * 1 click in gun space = shoot (if there are filled cannons, otherwise this will grapple)
 * 2* clicks in gun space = grapple
 * 3* clicks in gun space = empty

* : On double-shot ships (Longship, Baghlah, brig and frigate class vessels), two clicks on the gun space fires two shots from that side (if there are enough cannons loaded), three clicks engages the grapple and four clicks is empty. In flotillas and blockades there is no grapple.

LSMs are especially useful in PvP (player-vs.-player) sea battles because it gives your opponent very little time to react once they know how many moves you are going to use. However, the use of LSMs in normal brigand or barbarian battles is debated because of the bot's increased reaction time. Some bnavers believe in a "revenge mode" where if you use 2 LSMs in a row the brigand will automatically know your move and end up shooting you. Other bnavers will argue that there is no such "revenge mode." Whether you choose to believe in it or not is up to you but personally I think LSMs are unnesessary when fighting computers.

= Whirlpools = Yay! Wheeeee I'm spppiiiiiiinnnniiiing! Tehe don't you just LOVE whirlpools??!! Ok... chances are you don't and probably find them very annoying. Well, this is just an example of how a whirlpool works for all of you who hate them out of IGNORANCE! *shakes head sadly*

When you enter a whirlpool you are going to move in the direction of the little curly ends of the whirlpool, and your ship will rotate 90 degrees every time it moves half way around the whirlpool.
 * NOTE : the order of moves goes like this:
 * 1) Move
 * 2) Wind or whirlpool movement
 * 3) Shoot or grapple

So, you will turn on the SAME move you enter the whirlpool and you will shoot or grapple AFTER you turn.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/whirlpool3.jpg http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/whirlpool4.jpg http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/whirlpool.jpg http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/whirlpool2.jpg

= Tips = Woohoo! Now I'm actually going to try to give you tips, so pay attention! :P http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/2a.jpg Don't move http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/5a.jpg You might want to get out of the way :) Just look at this >.< http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/insta.jpg http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/10a.jpg
 * If the NPP can grapple you where you are on the first of the four movements in a turn, it will try.
 * Wait for the ship to come to you! Look at the starting board and figure out if it is possible for them to shoot you or grapple you. If not, don't move! Let them waste their moves so that you can hit them easily later. :)
 * Shoot a lot, especially if you are with the navy. The more you shoot the more chance you are going to hit them. ^^
 * Always try to max, although if you are fighing a green ship maxing usually is not required unless you are hit. For example, a 4-0 score in a sloop vs. sloop is good enough to grapple. But on bigger ships it is better to max. See ship for a list of what the max score is for each ship type and also how to calculate damage.
 * Keep track of the score! This is important, you don't want to think that you've maxed a longship and then grapple to find out you've only half-maxed them!
 * Don't get discouraged if you don't predict something right or if you lose a battle. Bots have random spurts of genius, and also random spurts of stupidity. If you miss a shot because they turned into a rock, point and laugh! Also, don't think it's your fault if you lose a battle, sometimes the bots are really good at swordfighting.
 * Study the board at the beginning of each turn and look for areas or squares where the bot is MOST LIKELY to be at some point that turn. Then position yourself so that you can shoot into these areas.

The circled red region is where the bot is likely to move into, and the two squares that are scribbled on are where it is ALMOST DEFINITELY going to be that turn. Do you understand how I figured this out? (Hint: trace your finger over the different ways the bot could move towards the player ship)


 * Don't panic! Just don't, panic clouds your thinking and clouded thinking leads to getting shot. Stay calm, think through your moves, you have more time than you realize.
 * Bigger ships will run out of moves faster, so stay out of the way while you wait for them to run out of moves. When they stop moving come up behind them and shoot shoot shoot!
 * Sloops and cutters move a lot, this is where the real prediction comes in. They tend not to run out of moves until you hit them. So once you hit them a couple times, the rest is easy. ^^
 * Big ships = big cannonballs so WATCH OUT! You don't want to get hit by medium or large cannonballs on a sloop, so STAY OUT OF THE WAY until they run out of moves. :)
 * Most people come on a pillage to have fun. So unless you are a super-awesome bnaver leading an elite pillage, making sure your crew is having fun should be your #1 goal. So don't get mad or discouraged if you lose, just stay positive and everyone will have a great time.
 * Don't give up! If you lose your first battle, don't port, stick with it and you WILL WIN!

= Practice = This section is to help you work on spotting regions where bots will be and just to work on prediction in general. Go through these and decide how you would move (take as long as you want, this is practice ^^), then scroll down to see how I moved. (And whether it was the right move or not lol.)


 * 1) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/11.jpg
 * 2) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/17.jpg
 * 3) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/23.jpg
 * 4) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/24.jpg
 * 5) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/25.jpg
 * 6) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/16.jpg
 * 7) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/26.jpg
 * 8) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/27.jpg
 * 9) http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/6.jpg

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/11a.jpg
 * What I did, what the bot did, and what I should have done that I didn't ^^

1) The red line is where the bot went and the green line is where I went. If the cannons had been loaded I would have shot on the fist turn. I moved out of the way because it is a bad idea to be hit with medium cannonballs. ^^

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/17a.jpg

2) The bot ended up going to the right, so I missed. But oh well, 50/50 chance. ^^

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/23a.jpg

3) The red lines were where I thought the bot was going to go and the green line was where it actually went. So I guess I should have gone left straight straight (shoot) shoot.

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/24a.jpg

4) Again, the red lines are where I thought the bot was going to do and the green line is what it did. The scribbled red area is that area where the bot is MOST LIKELY going to be at some point, so I moved so that I could shoot into that area. I hit the bot once on the first turn and was able to max and grapple a few turns later. (8)

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/25a.jpg

5) Red is where the bot could have gone, orange is where it went, and green is where I went. I missed. :P

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/16a.jpg

6) The scribbled red square (on the wind piece) is where I figured the bot would most likely end up, and it did lol. So I probably should have gone right left and then shot on the fourth turn. >.<

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/26a.jpg

7) Green is where the bot went so I did in fact hit it once and ended up in a perfect position to grapple the next turn. (8)

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/27a.jpg

8) Grapple turn! They didn't move lol. ^^

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii120/wddc/6a.jpg

9) The red is what they did, I hit them both times but then got rammed into the green space. I should have shot all 4 times but I hadn't figured out yet that "Feisty Lawson" was a MUCH better gunner than "Smiley Smith", so I was still conserving cannonballs. :P