Flagships

Description
Flagships are special ships within the game, controlled by the E.I.T.C or Navy. They appear with a flag above their ship class and level. What makes these ships different is that they are the only ones that can be boarded by players. They must be disabled, boarded and then scuttled to maximise plunder.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a175/Aka_Steve/flag.jpg

Boarding
To board a flagship, first you must bring its health down as you would any normal ship. When it is zero, you must launch grappling hooks and tow the ship into boarding position. Then you swing over to attack the crew. It is recommended that you destroy or damage the crew with cannon fire first, unless you have a high level character, or you are with other crew mates. After the crew are defeated, you swing back over to your ship, scuttle the enemy flagship, and gain its treasure and cargo. One difference between sinking and boarding is that when you disable the enemy flagship, you gain notoriety as you would when sinking a ship, but you must board then scuttle the ship to then gain its treasure.

Flagship Types
In game, flagships can be any type of ship, randomly determined. They can be as low level as the Navy Bulwark, or as high level as the E.I.T.C Warlord. The only difference between flagships and normal ships is that they must be boarded and fought over first before sinking them. Flagships usually carry more and higher quality treasure than regular enemy ships.

Enemies on Flagships
Generally, when you disable a flagship, you can launch grappling hooks and board then duel the crew. However, it is better to first try and pick off any visible crew memebers, which makes boarding easier. When you do eventually swing over, the remaining crew members will engage you. You will know if you have missed one or more because you will swing back to your ship automatically when all enemies are defeated. The lower the ship class, the lower the crew levels will be, for example; a Navy Bulwark would contain Cadets and possbily one Guard, whereas a Monarch would be manned by Officers and Veterans.