Darkfall’s latest patch set the Sea Fortresses to go live in prime time rather than on a moving 22 hour schedule. The patch also made it so they go live daily, which might be a bug (the previous timer was for once every ten days). Forum opinion seems to be that every three days in prime time would be ideal. We shall see what Aventurine does, if anything.

As I had time last night, and my internet was stable (which now is a 50/50 proposition, some days it’s fine, some days it still spikes), I was able to join Flying V as they set out to try and capture the northern fortress. We had about 25 people, and sailed out on the recently added Junk (Yunk) ship.

We arrived just as the tower went live, and the battle was already raging. At first approach we tried to position ourselves to get as many cannons on the fortress as possible, but it soon became clear that, due to the six or seven other ships in the area, this would not be so easy. Numerous times enemy boats would sail across our field of view, shooting a few cannonballs and continuing on. Our overall organization was very solid however, and whenever the ship took damage we were able to quickly repair it (the more damage a ship takes, the slower is moves).

The fortress was ultimately captured by DHW, but that did not mean the fighting was over. At one point we got in good position to fire on an enemy Barque. We crippled it (25% HP), and then considered a boarding action to take it. However, as we were not the only ones taking aim at it, it’s HP continued to drop and eventually the decision to just sink it was made. Once the ship was down, a large battle broke out in the water, and at a later point we would end up returning to this spot to loot a good number of graves.

As we sailed a bit further, we spotted another ship (a Brig I believe) that had already been boarded and had fighting on its deck. Making a quick call, we sent our force to the ship to capture it. After some fighting, the deck was cleared and the ship was ours. At this point we had suffered a few casualties, and not having the manpower to control two boats, packed the Brig up and continued on.

An enemy Schooner then came into range, piloted by Covert Ops. Our two ships came close enough to board, but neither side made the jump. After some back and forth fire, we got positioning on them and unleashed our cannons, making quick work of their boat. With the crew now in the water, we sent in most of our players to clean up, and that fighting went well. However, as we were finishing off the last CO, a DHW force engaged us, and in our wounded and scattered state, we were defeated (I say we, but I was still on deck guarding the ship, so only watched/listened to the action). A few attempts were made to board our boat, but the enemy always jumped off quickly, in part thanks to our wall blocking the captain.

Having suffered some serious casualties from the fight with DHW, we sailed away, stopping once to pick up some loot. While we were not successful in capturing the tower, the night was still a success thanks to the captured ship, not to mention all of the good PvP. Seeing that many ships in action was a blast, and rumor has it AV has some additional plans related to swimmers vs ships, as currently it’s just a little too effective to sit in the water and attempt to board a ship.

Definitely looking forward to the next trip though, and hopefully some of the games bigger ships get brought out.

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