My goal is to solo Galleon, but not just to get a-to-b, but to fight and win. This task seems daunting, but knowing gamers, there must be some who already do it!
I'll write some of my thoughts to get conversation and imagination flowing. But, everything is just...experiment, trial and error. You can only have fun and sink. There's no shame in defeat so long as the soul remains unconquered.
I don't know if this can be done. But I want it to be done!
Now, it looks like for gameplay, the fit test is riding the storm. That storm is brutal on the Galleon and I think I kept it afloat for a max of 15 minutes, but I lost all steerage and advantage of the wind....the seamanship required to keep the Galleon in a storm AND to bail/plank just was too much at my current game-play efficiency level.
Sailing the Galleon for me has been about efficiency. Everything is triplicate and delayed, so to take full advantage of the Galleon requires planning. Handling the ship can be done. I was able to get a true taste for this with a friend where I duo sailed the Galleon and basically managed the sails/helm while the crew member battled. We were able to maneuver fairly well without needing a lot of his assistance on sails, though that still did help.
How to best get advantage of operating the Galleon seems to come in the form of preparation, so first thing!
When you're on the hunt and you're closing in, I raise the sail to half.
You don't need a lot of speed, you don't need to pass and correct. So I start and finish most of my maneuvers in what I call half-sail (lower sheet-loops raised to the yardarm).
I may also raise foresails to quarter (sheets raised to almost a furl).
This allows me to avoid having to correct the foresail when needing more or less speed.
I rely upon the mizzen sail for the most power adjustments. It's the first I lower to full, it's the first I correct to the wind.
The next tactic is keeping a proper heading. I've been wanting to get better at this. The ONLY way I think I will be able to solo Galleon in battle is to keep distance and be a better cannon-sniper.
Boarding is too detrimental to my skill level right now that I want to avoid it entirely. Furthermore, my style of play is most enjoyable when I am master of the waves, not master of the deck.
So keeping your heading requires constant course correction. That means standard solo sloop routine but on a much bigger scale.
I often find myself "nibbling" at the sails, or doing a bail/plank then back to the helm.
The nibbling the sails is the most important part and where you need the sails in the quarter to half position most of the time.
You nibble them by positioning the main and fore sails for the wind for your next heading, while focusing on the helm.
Helm is priority, followed by bail/planking.
Edit - I want to emphasize that HOWEVER counter intuitive this seems, keeping sails at half or quarter is BETTER, I feel it, I've done it. The principle works even when crewing. I always see full sail out of sheer laziness but the MATH of the game proves me right.
The penalties of headwind are more severe than the gains of full sail. As such you want to reserve full sail for ONLY when you have long runs of weathergage (wind advantage).
Otherwise if you have to tack into the wind you will lose a lot of gain getting hit by full sail penalties.
For this reason whenever maneuvering I always take up some sail.
I have intuitively felt this with headway in storm...where situation is more severe. My 8 hour marathon in a storm in a solo sloop served me well on this point. I don't know how others feel, but I stand by this statement and think all good seamanship in this game starts and ends with amount of sail. :)
