Prizes : Immortals Method - by Silk
Do you need to reduce your losses against low to mid level Lighthouse Prizes - especially during Global Missions? How many Marauders/ Bonnies do you send? How many survive? What Percentage losses do you incur?
If you are losing more than half of your marauders then it is unsafe to send any ships or other expensive units.
The first step is to reduce your casualties to fewer than 50% by adding a few Buccaneers/Skirmishers and Mercenaries.
Once you are confident that half of your Marauders (or Bonnies) are certain to survive then you can start adding one of each ship type [Jugg, SoL, Frig and Brig] (normal, veteran, brethren and pardoned are also counted as different ship types)
Let's start with this easy example - http://prntscr.com/4jp00o
For the lowest level Prizes it should be perfectly safe to send one of each unit type and expect no losses. This works well up to level 10, and will work perfectly up to level 16 depending on how many different Veteran, Brethren and Pardoned unit types you have and if you own Dread Units. I can now defeat level 23 Black Corsairs with zero losses.
Obviously, Defensive Prizes are much more difficult to defeat, so send lots of bonnies, skirmishers etc.
Casualties from Prizes are calculated as a percentage - You will always lose the same percentage of each unit type.
The Unit percentage loss is always rounded up or down, so losing more than half a ship will cause it to sink. Less than half and it will always survive - This is the key
The percentage is taken from the strength of the enemy divided by your strength, [but multiplied by 2.5 because we need to kill 100% of Spanish units].
The exact formula remains unknown, so allow a safety margin to avoid total disaster. - http://prntscr.com/5ii64y - This unhappy pirate should have sent 15,280 x 2.5 (1528 Prize Ranking x 10 = 15280 defense x 2.5 = 38,200 minimum strength)
Examine this screenshot - http://prntscr.com/2tdw8i + http://prntscr.com/2tdvfm
Please note that every ship, dread unit and other solitary units became Immortal, only the Marauders suffered losses (13 of 55)
This is because the Spanish are heavily outgunned. The total percentage losses are well below half.
13/55=23.64%
Once you know that you can safely send ONE of each ship type (and Dread Fleet) then you might want to experiment with adding more.
Prize Strength expected
More than 50% then no ships are safe
Below 50% then one ship/unit of each type are safe
Below 25% then two ships
Below 16% then three ships
Below 12% then four ships
Below 10% then five ships
Below 8% then six ships
Below 7% then seven ships
Below 6% then eight ships
Below 5.5% then nine ships
Below 5% then ten ships
Below 4.5% then eleven ships
Below 4% then twelve ships
Below 3.75% then thirteen ships
Below 3.5% then 14 ships
Below 3.3% then 15 ships
Below 3% then 16 ships
Below 2.5% then 20 ships etc etc
I normally aim below 10% losses so usually send 5 of every other unit type - I occasionally add extra Frigates and Brigs (up to 15 of each) expecting to deliberately lose one of each. These losses stack from one prize to the next and add to the quality and frequency of my rewards from prizes. I normally expect a reward after every 4 or 5 prizes. Rewards are based on the resource value of sacrificed units - you will need to sacrifice a lot of cannon-fodder to get the best rewards, but this is a bad tactic during Global events, when we need to complete 12 or more of our best prizes every day.
http://prntscr.com/3mh8o1 + http://prntscr.com/3mh9r1 .... Level 18 Black Corsair, lost 25 of 300 Marauders (less than 10%)
With higher level Prizes it is always a good idea to send waves of 100 Marauders or 200 Bonnies first to weaken the Prizes - There is no time limit, send 2 or 3 waves and then send your main force - Good Luck
