Command Tactics (Helm Help)

In 1699 a lone 200 ton vessel slipped across the water in the darkness of a moonless night, with a destination of Port Martinique. Upon arrival only one man disembarked, a very well dressed man of either great political power, or possibly from the House of Lords. But he was neither. For he was John Roberts…aka Black Bart.

On the pier he moved about with purpose towards the trade tavern to negotiate supplies and fresh water. But while walking he noticed an inordinate amount of sailors and soldiers in uniform. Seeing a familiar face he pulled aside a dock worker and inquired, and so discovered the Spanish had two Galleons moored up on the outer piers that Bart had not seen. Turning to the skies he measured dusk, and made hast about his negotiations.

Upon returning to his ship, the Royal Fortune, he ordered a third of the crew to move the supplies onboard, a third to load the port canons with ball and the starboard canons with grapeshot and chains, while the last third would rig the sails for Corsair maneuvers.

One of the most important elements to pirates were and always have been, their ships. In today’s computer age of piracy your ship, be it your personal computer or a seedbox, is your main and primary tool with which to operate your goals. Or is it?

The aspects of 17th century ships were size, speed, firepower, and such. Your computer is rated in capacity of storage, transmission speed, and the ability to negotiate dozens or sometimes hundreds of torrents at a time consuming memory and processor.

But will having all the tools at your disposal be enough?

The Galleons in port were 75 small gun patrol vessels much like the ones sold by SavvySeed — a formidable addition to any pirate’s fleet. Ahhh I just love the smell of coconut in the Caribbean. Oh my, look over there….

“…over where mate?” “Speak surely!” said Bart. “There captain” the first mate pointing frantically “at two notch the twelve starboard”. Bart snapped the looking glass to his right a bit “Aye son of a bitch and we’re rigged for Corsair.” In the looking glass on the horizon of the dusk lit sky was an inbound British Ship-of-the-Line. 2,200 tons with a crew of 850 bearing 100 guns. Without collapsing the looking glass Bart stared into the sea pulling on his beard.

“Full ahead, and forget Corsair, prepare for Cross Lateen” demanded Bart.

“Surely”, thought the crew, “Bart didn’t intend to slap them in the face and then try to outrun them!”.

At 100 yards and closing the Royal Fortune had the attention of the large British war ship. But the twelve mile per hour winds were not treating either kindly for speed. At fifty yards Bart yelled the order to cross the Lateens (a maneuver only a Brigantine ship could do due to the mast arrangement) and the forward sail pitched left while the rear sails pitched right. The Royal Fortune literally started to spin to the port in her own wake.

Within 30 seconds the Royal Fortune was completely broadside to the perpendicular warship and fired all 15 starboard canons. Two sets of chains fired toppled the warship’s fore main mast snapping it twenty feet up and driving the entire rigging downward like a spear through three decks. While the grapeshot played hell on the fore deck crew. Bart yelled for Corsair, a maneuver that would take advantage of the Brigantine’s MUCH superior speed.

The Royal Fortune crossed her own wake running towards Port Martinique ahead of the warship and held a port heading till the port side canons were at a flanking broadside. The warship, in pursuit, could bring nothing to bear. And was coming ever closer to a much larger problem. A main mast down and two Spanish Galleons inbound….Spain and England were in an argument over this port….did Bart know that?

The effects of adequate computer, seedbox, and transmission speeds are not always enough to produce the results desired by all pirates. Newfound tracker membership leaves the pirate to the challenge of making the proper decisions on those first initial downloads.

A few wrong decisions at the start can create a deficit that can be hard or impossible to correct!

• Some pirates employ the tactic of downloading everything and pray for a winner. You are The Gambler!
• And there is the time honored wisdom of porn, if available, because you can’t go wrong there can ya? You are The Sage!
• You could study which types of torrents have the most “snatches” and mentally bookmark what genres of torrents tend to be popular on that tracker, perhaps even compiling a pattern: shows that a certain uploader “always” uploads on certain days, for example, that leave you lurking the announce channel poised to attack. You are The Assassin!
• Or focus on the free leech items and seep a good buffer, then actually download torrents of interest later, because after all… You are The Investor!
• Going into your ROUTE table at command line and changing the METRICS of your route path to bypass congested gateways, is a bit more than the average pirate is wanting, but setting a pair of seedboxes to work IP ranges in tandem is not out of the question. Your brain….the most powerful tool in a pirate’s arsenal. But is it powerful enough to understand this last tactic and play on my level?

So tell me, pirates…. what are your tactics?