Ultimate Admiral Age Of Sail British Campaign

[Donavan Rajawi]

im on my 4th try on the british campaign - i was always stuck on "objects in motion". This time i have a good enough setup. I have a 3rd rate sol, 4th rate razeeclass, 5th rate Dedaigneuse class, 5th rate diana class. In my first try i was able to capture all other ships while distracting the two enemy sols with my sol. Unfortunatly had high casualities on my boardingships.. (maybe rushed it a bit too much) One of my Problems is - i have the feeling the enemies are way to reluctant, and when i#m able to board them, there already so heavy damaged, that they are likley to flood & sink. i usually try to damage sailsm then lower armor (how much?) and then just grapeshot them. After i managed to mostly demast the 2 enemy sols - but there begins the mainproblem. First - is there a trick to where to aim to demast them more reliable? It looks so lucky - and also i ahve the feeling the ai is way more likley to demast me, than i them. Also after demasting them (Having the 3rd or middle amst intact - all other gone) they can still turn nearly as fast as my intact ships?! i cant do anything with my frigates to the sols because they are still way to likley turn and broadside me...so i just tried to hammer them with my own sol - but then run into the problem that the enemy ardentclass was flooding and sunk before i was able to board it..

Go hard at one of their SOL's and double board it, transfer all your men from one of the frigates to the captured SOL, retreat what's left of that frigate from the battle, then go after the 3rd SOL and take that as well.

Realistically you should be able to have 4 SOL's after mission 2.5 (1 from "fireworks", 3 from "treasure fleet") they are the hardest 2 naval missions in the whole campaign. once you have them, the game almost becomes too easy, even on very hard difficulty. You'll almost finish every mission capturing every ship and your hardest factor going forward is going to be upkeep. (as a rule of thumb always go straight for the biggest ship with 2 of yours, don't worry about what the other smaller ships are doing (by all means shoot them as you go past, but don't waste time and engage. Aim at the waterline and look to get lucky and blow them up). Once you have their biggest ship captured, the tables are significantly turned and you can clean up what's left of their fleet.

Another tip if you're finding your frigates don't have enough men to effectively control a captured SOL, is to have a transport with you full of infantry. Its risky cause troops are sitting ducks in the rowboat, but if you get them to the captured SOL you can instantly add 150+ men to the captured ship, even keeping your frigates fighting. Disembark them from the transport right at the onset of combat and get the transport out harms way (transport is too slow but them rowing is at 10 speed and much more manoeuvrable)

- When upgrading crew always go - morale -> rigging -> sea wolves. They offer percentage upgrades. The others that just boost stats don't matter later when your officers are trained up anyway.

-Cannon weight reduction modifications are your best friend for more crew and then I go the boarding mods. Also keep any long guns but look at downsizing any other guns/shifting to carronades to allow for more crew as well (standard guns weigh a lot, even by dropping the weight by 1 or 2 makes a big difference to crew numbers). Sell off your remaining naval guns from the admiralty tab and recoup and offset some of the money.

The campaign is the primary game mode of Ultimate Admiral: Age of Sail, where your job is simple: Rise from a low-ranking officer to admiral of either the British Empire or the fledgling United States of America.

You will receive ample funding and a wide range of ships and equipment to create your fleet and army. The best units of the British Empire are available to you, but earning recognition and building a reputation is difficult in the finest military in the world. Recommended to new players.

All odds are against you in the fight for independence. You lack everything from financing and ships to technology, weapons, and recruits. However, this has provided an opportunity to gain fame and renown as even the smallest of victories can be inspiring against such odds. Recommended for experienced players.

Departing from Brest on 13 December 1805, it was 12 days before the Admiralty in London were aware of the French movements, by which time the French squadrons were deep in the Atlantic, one under Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissgues intending to cruise in the Caribbean and the other, under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez, sailing for the South Atlantic. Two British squadrons were hastily mustered and dispatched in pursuit, one under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Strachan and the other under Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren. These squadrons were joined by a third under Rear-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, who had deserted his station off Cadiz when he learned news of a French squadron to his south and subsequently crossed the Atlantic in pursuit of Willaumez. Although Willaumez managed to escape into the South Atlantic, Leissgues was less successful and was discovered and destroyed at the Battle of San Domingo in February 1806 by a combined force under Duckworth and Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane. Other squadrons already at sea became embroiled in the campaign: a smaller squadron that had been raiding the African coast under Commodore Jean-Marthe-Adrien L'Hermite since August 1805 provided a diversion to the major campaign but failed to draw off significant British forces, while the remnants of a French squadron under Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois that had been operating in the Indian Ocean since 1803 was intercepted and defeated by Warren in March, after a chance encounter on its journey back to France.

Willaumez achieved minor success in his operations in the South Atlantic and Caribbean, but was caught in a summer hurricane on his return journey and his ships were scattered along the Eastern Seaboard of North America. One was intercepted and destroyed by British forces and others were so badly damaged in the storm that they were forced to shelter in American ports. The survivors gradually returned to Brest during the autumn, the last arriving in early 1807. The campaign was the last significant operation in the Atlantic for the remainder of the war, and no French squadron of any size left any of the Biscay ports until 1808. The losses suffered by the Brest fleet weakened it so severely that it would not participate in a major operation until 1809, when an attempt to break out of Brest ended in defeat at the Battle of Basque Roads.

On 30 March 1805, the French Mediterranean Fleet under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve successfully broke out of Toulon harbour, avoiding the British blockade fleet under Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson and sailing westwards out of the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic, Nelson following several days behind.[1] Villeneuve, joined by a Spanish squadron, crossed the ocean to the Caribbean and anchored at Martinique, while Nelson arrived at Barbados on 11 June. Panicked by the British arrival, Villeneuve immediately returned to Europe, with Nelson again close behind. Villeneuve's orders had specified that he sail to Brest, the French naval port on the Bay of Biscay, and join there with the fleet under Vice-Admiral Honor Ganteaume. Together this force would drive the Royal Navy out of the English Channel in preparation for an invasion of Britain.[2] However, as he passed the Spanish port of Ferrol on 22 July 1805, Villeneuve was intercepted by a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder. At the ensuing Battle of Cape Finisterre, Calder captured two Spanish ships but failed to inflict a decisive blow on Villeneuve's squadron, which later sailed to Cadiz, Spain's principal Atlantic seaport. Nelson arrived shortly afterwards and initiated a blockade of the port.[3]

On 21 October 1805, Villeneuve's combined Franco-Spanish fleet sailed from Cadiz and was intercepted by Nelson, resulting in the Battle of Trafalgar. Although Nelson was killed at the height of the battle, his squadron inflicted a devastating defeat on the combined fleet, capturing or destroying 17 French or Spanish ships, including Villeneuve's flagship. The battered remnants of the French Mediterranean and Spanish Atlantic fleets retreated to Cadiz, although four French ships fled north and were intercepted and captured at the Battle of Cape Ortegal two weeks later.[4] In total, the campaign cost Napoleon 13 French and 12 Spanish ships, eliminating any possibility of even regional superiority at sea and therefore preventing the planned invasion of Britain, which had already been indefinitely postponed. The elimination of the French and Spanish fleets and the end of the threat of French invasion was widely celebrated in Britain, and seen by First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Barham, as an opportunity to reduce costs and damage to his ships by withdrawing the Atlantic blockade to Britain during the winter under the assumption that the battered French Navy would be unable and unwilling to operate at sea during the period.[5] He wrote: "It is of little purpose now, to wear out our ships in a fruitless blockade during the winter."[6]

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