Barricade Melee & Firepower

[Njord]

What do the stats "Barricade Melee" and "Barricade Firepower" mean exactly? I feel like someone should make a very detailed and in-depth guide on boarding that is up to date and also kept updated, with all boarding mods listed.

[Licinio Chiavari]

5 hours ago, Sovereign said:

 

So it doesn't decrease offensive power after all? 

Redoutable refit trim is only bonus.

Barricade reduces hard your melee value while attacking. So definately not a good choise for a boarder... Aside trying to trick a subpar boarder: let him board you, wait his attack, last second defend: huge losses for him and huge morale loss. Keep the fight. When he will disengage, counterboard him (boarding timer - 60 sec - works for who started the boarder... Not the defender) and hope to break him before he disengages again. Therefore a pretty limited use for a boarder.

Great for defense: a single book almost counters 4+ boarding book/ups (then someone still says boarding is in attacker favour...).

 

[Licinio Chiavari]

Means that your melee while attacking will be heavily reduced (40%). But sameway your melee while defending will be higher.

Previously Barricades buffed also Firepower... so the effect of FireDeckGun, Grenades and Muskets.
Now it reduces by 30% the damage received from enemy firepower (so the same actions).

Just for further information.
Your and enemy melee and FP values are (approximately) the damage espected to be done to the enemy.

As a tactical note: Barricades book makes (with that single book) a ship able to defend from a full boarder both while attacking and musketeeing (with mods): simply stay brace and disengage (granted similar crew count and decks... and you were prepped).

[Njord]

1 hour ago, Licinio Chiavari said:

Means that your melee while attacking will be heavily reduced (40%). But sameway your melee while defending will be higher.

Previously Barricades buffed also Firepower... so the effect of FireDeckGun, Grenades and Muskets.
Now it reduces by 30% the damage received from enemy firepower (so the same actions).

Just for further information.
Your and enemy melee and FP values are (approximately) the damage espected to be done to the enemy.

As a tactical note: Barricades book makes (with that single book) a ship able to defend from a full boarder both while attacking and musketeeing (with mods): simply stay brace and disengage (granted similar crew count and decks... and you were prepped).

Fair enough, thank you. I thought the "Redoubtable Refit" would be more interesting...

[Licinio Chiavari]

1 minute ago, Released Privateer said:

That's bs, it was just renamed but it does the same thing. It never increased the firepower for offensive commands.

Honestly I used Barricade offensively with muskets... And worked as a charm.

[Licinio Chiavari]

23 minutes ago, Sovereign said:

Fair enough, thank you. I thought the "Redoubtable Refit" would be more interesting...

Redoutable refit is very strong with +20% melee and firepower. Still only on AI ships, so only crew space, with related limits. I hoped for long all refits being randomly available also on crafted ships.

I have a fake trading LGV (FIR/crew + redoutable) boarding fitted that got a nice amount of kills against unsuspecting raiders.

[Licinio Chiavari]

1 minute ago, Released Privateer said:

Because it doesn't decrease the power of your muskets, nor increase. Don't spread false information, barricades were always solely a defensive book.

Are you sure? Because I definately hitted harder on FP, with reduced melee on attack.

Still not an issue now being different.

[Njord]

16 minutes ago, Released Privateer said:

barricades were always solely a defensive book

 

14 minutes ago, Licinio Chiavari said:

Redoutable refit is very strong with +20% melee and firepower.

So it doesn't decrease offensive power after all? 

[Slim McSauce]

This may or not be right

0.4 Melee dense bonus

-0.4 Melee attack bonus

0.4 firepower defense bonus

 

So as you can see here you get a melee defense bonus, an attack nerf, and a defense buff against firepower, but no attack malus for firepower. You can use barricades and be still just as effective with a musket based set up for boarding. So muskets and Barricades together create a pretty OP boarding ship.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[Licinio Chiavari]

15 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

So as you can see here you get a melee defense bonus, an attack nerf, and a defense buff against firepower, but no attack malus for firepower. You can use barricades and be still just as effective with a musket based set up for boarding. So muskets and Barricades together create a pretty OP boarding ship.

Against people without a clue, even a not boarding fitted against marines could win (as Banished often pointed out).

Against people with a clue, I'll simply read your melee value versus mine while you attack and I stay in brace. If numbers are close (and they ARE close if the attacker has Barricades even with Marines too vs. my not geared crew) I'll simply stay in brace. Even if I'd lose a bit more crew than the attacker losses will be so close (with a slow related morale loss) I'll have plenty time to safely disengage.

Against people having an idea, muskets alone dont suffice if your attack is not so strong to oblige them to swap defend... even best muskets cant kill morale while enemy stays in brace (effectiveness of Musket Volley on brace is less than 1/4-5th than on defend if I remember correctly).

Therefore you NEED a sufficient melee attack to force defender to swap Defend and then kill him with muskets. If he stays brace... you simply kill him with attacks.
Attack you'd hamper with barricades.

 

Note: I'm speaking of boardings with similar crew/deck count.

[Licinio Chiavari]

51 minutes ago, Released Privateer said:

It looks more fun when Requin with muskets boards other 6th rates. Than even barricades can't save them and brace has big casualties. Tested recently in Deadman's Cay Patrol, got like 8 kills and most in boarding. 

I'd not mix "fun" and "efficiency" 

The problem with 6th rates... is boarding: they are nimble and can tack high on speed... if properly handled.

PS: And indeed it's a case where crew count differ. A lot.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Licinio Chiavari