User Guide

At Sea
The Navigation Screen
This screen displays a portion of the Caribbean. The view remains
centred on your ship at all times.
What’s on the Navigation Screen
Your Ship: Your ship appears in the centre of the map. If you have
more than one ship, your “flagship” is in the lead and the other ves-
sels are following her.

Book Three Sid Meier’s Pirates!
®
The difficulty level affects a number of aspects of the game. The
higher the difficulty level, the tougher your opponents in action
sequences - ship battles, dueling, and so forth. In addition, it is hard-
er to recruit crewmen and keep them happy at the higher levels. On
the other hand, as the difficulty level rises you get to keep a larger
portion of the booty when you divide the plunder. Once in the game
you can raise or lower the difficulty level only when you divide the
plunder.
Choose Your Skill
The following skills are available to you:
Fencing
This helps your pirate in one-on-one duels against enemy swords-
men.
Gunnery
This helps your pirate defeat enemy ships in sea combat.
Navigation
This helps you get better speed at all point of sailing.
Medicine
This “skill” delays the effects of aging on your pirate.
Once you have chosen you pirate’s skill, you are ready to play! The
scene changes, and you find yourself at sea, just outside of a port of
your nationality.

Sid Meier’s Pirates!
®
Book Three
The Memoirs of Captain Sydney
The Caribbean is like one of them high-born Spanish ladies: ye can
love her, but ye can’t trust her. One minute she’s as placid as a sea-cow and
yer sailin’ along as easy as kiss-my-hand, everybody leanin’ on the rail and
spittin’ to leeward; the next she throws a hurricane at ye, and yer runnin’
as if all the hounds of hell was on your trail, swearin’ that if ye gets out of
this alive ye’ll never set foot on a boat again.
But ye always do go back to her, see? Because, despite her bein’ an
untrustworthy, ungrateful, murderous wench and all, ye bloody well do love
her, more than ye love life itself.
Arg. And that’s all the bloody poetry ye’ll be gettin’ out of me today,
cully. And pour me another pint o’ rum, by the Powers!
Storm Clouds
Land
Cities
Your Ship
Landmark
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