a safe haven is a defensive prize, you need to send def troops there instead of offensive ones. offense troops have very low def numbers, so you'll lose a lot more when you use them for defense.

*hugs*

Yikes !  There is no explanation of any of these nuances !

So what are the best ways to get VICTORY without losing forces for the four different Prizes:

1) Black Corsair

2) Caravel

3) Safe Haven

4) Sea Fort

black corsairs and caravels are offensive prizes, so you need offense for those.

safe havens and sea forts are defensive prizes, so you need defense for those.

in my experience, armada units are good to use on black corsairs, but for caravels it's better to use pirates, mercs and fleet.

defensive prizes i normally send just bonnies and defensive winnings from offensive prizes too, but others probably have their own system that works for them.

with the defensive prizes you can send 1 bonnie and the report will show you how much of which type of unit is there, so you can work out what the best mix of unit types and numbers is to win that prize.

hope this helps

*hugs*

So, I just tried to take a Safe Haven Level 17, and sent only defensive ships and units but I got slaughtered, lost almost EVERYTHING !  I didn't send many units though, so how do I know how many units to send ?

Let's say I send one bonnie that gets slaughtered, and I find out the strength of the enemy as follows:

90 El Diablo and 40 El Infierno ships

19 Desperados and 5 Conquistadors

What would be the optimal force to send with losing very few of my ships and units?

Just trying to get this right ONCE AND FOR ALL !

NavigatorNY said:

Yikes !  There is no explanation of any of these nuances !

If green/red are not telling enough, when you mouse-over the button for sending troops, it'll say "Defend" or "Attack":

Also, after you click on it, the window title will be "Reinforcements" or "Raid".

And, of course, the Help System explains it quite clearly:

My guess as to why you aren't seeing a payout is your bank wasn't paid back.

Bank - resource value of the troops you've won + 12% interest. Resource value is calculated by adding up the value to create a unit even if you can't build it yet.

As you can see a bonnie for instance costs 115 resources to create 1 unit. To figure out the bank you take this value multiplied by the number of units you won then multiple by 1.12. This gives you the bank value including interest. My best suggestion is to push to higher levels, keep doing your highest level prize till you're at least at level 30. Also to help with this is to constantly build troops, Doing this helps with paying off the bank and interest. In the begining of the game I suggest destroying every unit you win even jugs. These units especially because a jug for instance has a value of 25k. Normally its good to keep these units but to get better payouts you need to be at higher levels. For instance a level 70+ can give you a 15k fleet units. For suggestions about playing the lh check out this section of the forum: