Your view of the bounty hunters

[Maltacus]

This thread is for discussion of everyones view of the bounty hunters, both the shore ruffians and persistent squadrons. Do you think of them as privateers out for your head only or naval specialists with your ships on a long list of missions? How should they be represented in the game, should anything be changed?

[Oldtimer]

Well,

I think of them as pirates attacking everyone, even other pirates. I think that is what Gentlemen of Luck were in RL. For me that is the only logical classification as law abiding bounty hunters would not attack someone without a bounty on his head. Unless they hold a LoM of a nation hostile to yours but that makes them privateers.

Rgds,

Oldtimer

[modernknight1]

Well I can’t move the conversation from the other topic to this one right now, but I can cut and paste my comments from our other discussion here to continue the discussion. MK

From other topic…

I agree with much of what you say. However, I look at it slightly different. Privateers were often very organized and with commissions issued from the highest authorities and with a lot of money backing them, often their ships were very formidable. Just look at the Dutch character Isaac Rochussen in our game. A real historical privateer who became so successful and wealthy from privateering that he had his own fleet of 400 ships! Most of the commissions were from Zeeland and he was responsible for taking the majority of those issued from that Admiralty (The Dutch had five separate Admiralties) He was a classic nepotist that got letters of commission (Karte van Kommisee) for his own family members and friends and their relatives as the captains of his ships. Not all of the 400 ships were his own. Many were simply given to him to manage by other merchants who had more ships than they needed and wanted a piece of the action. Rochussen even had his own shipyard!

When I state that the Dutch Zeeroovers were a menace and the largest segment of privateers present in the world of the last quarter of the 17th century I make no exaggerations. In my book I have a lot of evidence I have collected backing up my claims that their contributions were critical to bringing English commerce to a stand still (even to the point of collapse) during the Anglo-Dutch wars. There were some years where over 500 English prizes were brought into Amsterdam alone and that makes no accounting for the Zeeland captains who operated out of other cities and would have taken their prizes there. Still digging – constantly digging.

Anyway, I still contend that the majority of these privateers would have used smaller ships like the Flemish and Corsair Privateers and the Dunkirk/Ferrol Raiders and English Scout Frigates. This is a big reason why I have been so keen on getting more of a variety of models like these into the game. A large ship requires a large amount of upkeep and is expensive to man as well. Sure a large ship is going to be faster when the wind is behind her, but in most other conditions the smaller ships would be more advantageous.

Jeffrey has already built a ship randomizer in the game that I asked him to. About one out of every five or six encounters with both regular enemy naval squadrons, pirates, bounty hunters and Gentlemen of Luck are going to produce formidable ship combinations that will usually outclass what you have. I can speak from experience, I have usually had to run away from these flotillas when they show up! (yes there are occasionally 1st and 2nd raters in these formations) I didn’t want to overdue it because we know that most encounters in the Caribbean of our period would have been with smaller and middling ships. However, it is a video game and NOT a 100 percent accurate simulation of the time either. These ships should occasionally be both encounterable and captureable.

We can and will continue to tune game mechanics to achieve more realism and your input to this is always greatly helpful!

MK

[Maltacus]

From other topic, the post modernknight replied to:
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I think bounty hunter squadrons can be interpreted in several ways. I think of them as regular navy – since they wear naval uniforms and fly their nations flag – but with special missions. Their missions priority and the vessels available to them differ a lot, hence the variety of ships they use. Captured prizes that the nation can’t incorporate in their common navy are therefore a good candidate to be given to these captains (mostly applies to the Dutch probably, with their shallow home waters).
Also, while the dock thugs are motivated and financed only by the bounty itself, these squadrons are of course backed by their state – and rightfully so, economically speaking, due to the amount of mischief that the target will have to have caused to provoke such a dreadful response. In the game, none less than Michiel the Ruyter has taken his de Seven Provincien to the Caribbean to settle the score with Robert Holmes. I think of the bounty hunts as being up to that level of state comittment.
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My own aim is to change bounty hunter squadrons to be much rarer but more powerful too. Perhaps up to six ship rather than three, and able to include almost any kind of capital ship, both native and captured prizes from current or past wars (I mean, all the sea battles and town sacking going on in the game has to result in a great deal of ships changing ownership, right?). The sight of such a punitive squadron bearing down on you should be a fear-inspiring source of nightmares for the protagonist, rather than the nuisance they usually are right now.

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