Welcome to my third guide on Blackwake. I hope you will find this as equally useful as my previous captaining guide to Blackwake.

Before we begin, I must apologise (again) for the length of this guide.

Although perhaps not approaching the ridiculous (and extremely useful) 100+ page Wargame Red Dragon guide, it's pushing it. I am confident however that the information inside it will make up for the length. Tactics in Blackwake (as in any situation really) are complex beasts.

It is impossible for a captain to become effective without practise. My guides provide a ground work and ensure that some valuable lessons are learnt without the pain myself and others went through to learn them (!) but theory is no substitute for raw experience and intuition.

In this guide you will find the accumulation of hundreds of hours of Blackwake tactical theory, both in game as captain, and by watching videos, discussion with fellow players and observing the successes and failings of other captains.

If you are new to captaincy in Blackwake, it is probably best to ignore this guide for the moment and look instead at my other guide, which provides basic and intermediate information on how to be an effective captain. This guide lacks descriptions of any kind of the tools of the trade as captain. It assumes a good knowledge of the weapons and players at your command.
At the same time, it is never too early to be thinking about how to captain.

One of the commenters who kindly complimented me on my guide suggested that I do a guide on tactics and tips and tricks. Little did I know that this monstrosity would be the result. We are all learning and although I have spent enough time in Blackwake to believe myself competent enough to make blanket statements - for example to state that there are indeed only 5 situations in Blackwake (!) - we are always learning and I am eager to hear your assessments of the situations and my recommended solutions to them. Naturally, much of this rests upon my own personal taste for victory through superior firepower followed by whirlwind boarding assaults.

Blackwake's a simple game really.

You put stuff in guns, you hit people and things with swords and hammers. You might man a pump for a while.

So what makes every game different?

The captain.

I'm sure you'll have run across a few of them by now.

There are good ones. There are bad ones. The are loud ones, there are quiet ones. There are those who will learn - and those who will not.

The personalities of each of these individuals define the fun factor vs the pump factor of each game. Boarding, shooting things and getting loads of juicy triples is fun.

Staring at the pump go up and down as you wonder how your crew could be so stupid to ignore that hole beside you, less so.

A key component to Blackwake is commanding and coordinating your crew. Alright. You've done that. They're manning guns, they're nattering away and saying "ARRRRR" a lot.

Now what?

Captain - it's on your shoulders now. You must outwit, outsmart and outfight your opponent. You must now not only enforce your will upon your crew, but now there is this opponent that must be outfought too.

Good luck, but realise that it is the aim of this guide to remove as much luck as possible from the equation.

Yes, you read right. Theory

Don't be afraid. Frankly, I think this stuff is pretty damn interesting.

I'm an amateur military historian. (And after university I hope to god that "amateur" bit changes!) As you look deeper into campaigns and battles and why generals win and lose, you'll encounter some concepts that I believe are easily applied to Blackwake. Blackwake involves command. It involves two captains slugging it out, demanding the best from their crews. These crews are often - even after a week of Blackwake - extremely competent. By the same token, these crews are human - and they are fallible.
So why does one side fail and the other succeed?

Friction was first properly discussed in Karl Von Clausewitz's classic treatise "On War".

Clausewitz had seen a lot, he'd been a staff officer in both the Prussian and Russian armies during the Napoleonic wars, he knew what it was to see a great general and a veteran army be destroyed by over confidence and an added bit of Russian winter.

One of his quotes sums it up the best:

"Everything in war is very simple. But the simplest thing is difficult."

The idea is that in the confusion and uncertainty of the campaign and especially the battle, everything you would expect to be simple and easy suddenly becomes difficult as a result of the aforementioned confusion and uncertainty. Unforeseen events, changed conditions and simple misunderstandings make everything take longer or be botched.

Now - how does this apply to Blackwake?

Well - Blackwake's a simple game.

At its heart all you do is load cannons or repair stuff.

All you do as captain is point your guns at the enemy so your gunners can shoot, right?

Wrong.

That 13 year old shouting in your ear is explaining to his mum why he can't come to dinner. He is now distracted and that's one less gun shooting in that broadside.

One shot less.

There's a newbie who doesn't understand that it takes 3 seconds for their gun to shoot. And so they miss.

There goes another shot.

Some troll has shot off a gun randomly just before and now your crew is still reloading it.

And other shot bites the dust.

Despite your shouts for your crew to hold fire, another guy fires off a gun at empty sea.

Guess what. Your 8 gun broadside on your galleon is now reduced to four. Through no fault of your own. It wouldn't matter how awesome you were as a captain. This could be your first time, it could be your 100th.

And the enemy - thanks to whatever cruel god - just happens - as always - to unload a full broadside into you.

Say it's the start of the game. You're trying to make up lost ground before it has even started. And none of those examples involve an sort of combat.

Friction are all these situations. They can be just random stupidity on your side. It can manifest during enemy action - and it only gets worse from there. I'm sure you'll have seen such cases by now.

There is nothing you can do about friction. Stuff just happens. Internets fail, real life rears its ugly head, the enemy will fire back and you must always remember that the second most abundant particle in the universe (after hydrogen) is stupidity.

But you can learn to live with it and try and try and soften some of the worst cases.

Make it clear that people messing around throwing water over you or standing around aren't helping. Be firm, but not rude.

Keep people informed. Let them know how the battle is going and what the ship is doing. The chances are they'll recognise what to do better if they know the situation.

Friction happens no matter what, but recognising it and understanding when it will happen and how to come back from it is a vital skill.

Situations of high friction include:

An enemy's broadside hitting you.

A ramming action.

A boarding action

Being grappled.

In these situations, do not expect even a minority of your crew to follow your orders. They'll do their best, but remember that to meet the situation they must move often a long distance, will often stay at their current job until it is done, and of course may be killed or be about to be killed.

It is important I put friction front and centre in this guide.
There is a danger that in my discussion of tactics and the 5 situations that I give the impression that all you need to do is perform a magic formula and your victory will be assured. All these situations and maneuvers hinge upon your crew being a coherent force whose effectiveness is not destroyed by friction. It is entirely possible for you to pull off the perfect maneuver and your crew to entirely fail to capitalise thanks to the friction they are suffering under.
Friction is the nature of any human endeavour, but it is magnified in times of intense action (for example Blackwake), learn to live with it - and you will be well on your way to being able to survive any situation you encounter.

Initiative - unlike friction - is a bit easier to understand and to quantify.

In Blackwake, it's a case of who is reacting to whom.

If your galleon is turning to get its broadside onto a fleeing enemy. You have the initiative.

If your galleon is turning away to avoid an enemy's galleon, they have the initiative.

Why is this important?

It is important to recognise the initiative because it gives you a mental list of options for you to act upon. It also gives you information on how the battle is going and the quality of the enemy captain.

To keep things simple I have assumed the situation to be a 1v1 fight, but the principles still apply to fleet action - but having the initiative over one enemy does not necessarily translate to the initiative over another..

So you have the initiative. This may come from:

- Getting the first broadside off.

- Putting more holes into the enemy then they have into you.

- The enemy being out of position.

- The enemy's manoeuvrability being inferior to your own.

- The enemy being unable to fire upon you whilst you can, for whatever reason.

- You outnumber the enemy in ships.

You may not have the initiative if:

- Your broadside missed, or was late.

- You can't get a shot on the enemy, whether due to positioning or their super manoeuvrability

- You're severally damaged and forced to retreat.

- You are outnumbered.


It is possible for neither ship to have the initiative. This is where neither ships have an advantage in positioning or may shoot. The person who has lost the initiative should always aim to bring this situation about, usually by retreating. Doing so is a victory for them and enables their fully repaired and rearmed ship to engage the enemy in a situation where they can take the initiative for themselves, with dire consequences for the enemy.

Whilst these appear to be strict rules, they are anything but. It is entirely possible for a skilled captain and a motivated crew to break every rule in the book and survive. You will need a good dollop of luck to go with it however!

Now that we're done with the theory, let's get on to concrete advice!

Presented below are what - in my opinion - are the five situations of Blackwake. Whenever you are in a battle, one of these situations are in effect, whether you are mindful of them or not. Although there many positions I may not have obviously touched upon, I am confident that the situation is simply one of these five done wrong!

All but one of these has a counter, and the one that can't be countered is a situation where you've lost already and your only chance of survival is relying on your crew being heroes - usually dead heroes.

My apologies for Sun Tzu for shamelessly stealing the idea of the five "situations". I shall continue to shamelessly steal by reiterating his metaphor that these maneuvers are like notes in music. Although the notes of music by themselves sound similar all the time - the possible rhythms and combinations are endless.

Choosing and using each of these situations to your advantage is a skill that you must master for yourself. When you do - you will feel invincible.

The Head On is where you place your ship so that it heads directly toward the enemy's broadside. Against a competent enemy ship, you are guaranteed to take damage. You may take casualties. These must be accepted and factored into your calculations.
Do not undertake a Head On lightly, you must weigh the potential damage versus the potential reward very carefully. To make a standard head on, make sure your ship is in good shape, ideally undamaged. Your sails should be undamaged if possible. You do not want to remain under the enemy's guns for too long.
Ensure that every gunner is ready on the side that will have a shot on the enemy. The earlier warning the better. The longer a crew are at their guns, the better aimed the broadside will be - generally.

Ensure your bow chasers are firing, anti-sail swivels as well to ensure maximum damage to your enemy's maneuver, this will be critical in taking advantage of a successful broadside, if you are in the galleon, these can be valuable in causing friction to the enemy crew in casualties and repairs. The sight of a galleon bearing down on them, with the potential of a ram killing them at their guns, will also create even more confusion, particularly in a poorly disciplined or youthful (i.e. loud) crew.

In the last moment, turn your ship, letting your gunners fire at will. The broadside will be brutal, but do not expect all shots to hit.

A diagram of the Head-On. In 1, the attacking ship passes behind the enemy, unleashing a devastating broadside as it passes, and immediately begins turning. In 2. As the ship which has fired turns, the enemy is finally able to fire, their fire will be ineffective. In 3, the attacking ship's opposite broadside is ready - for a final devastating shot.

Bring your ship opposite to the side which just fired and get your gunners to immediately switch to the other side. You should have enough time to turn for a second broadside and if your crew is really good, you should be able to have both sides loaded up by the time you turn. The enemy will either be in headlong retreat, or have attempted to shoot you. They will have largely missed their shots having been presented with the rear of your ship - especially thanks to the casualties and confusion you will have hopefully caused.

Either way, the action will now transition into either Drivebys or a Retreat situation. Either situation leaves you with the initiative.

The Head on is an effective counter to an enemy wishing to fight Broadside to Broadside, where if they turn first they will inevitably ruin you with the first broadside.
A driveby may also be converted into this maneuver, although with both ships heading toward one another at such speeds the crew and captain must be extremely quick in their action. Communication - as ever - is key.


A variation of the Head On is the Reckless Head On. This is where your extremely damaged ship has not fired effectively and has been badly hit by an enemy's broadside. This perhaps reckless maneuver is aimed at accepting hits early on in exchange for a large window of time where the enemy must reposition to fire on you effectively. Follow the same maneuver as above, although repairs should be maximised in place for shooting, the chances are most guns will be underwater and useless.

As you pass, turn in the opposite direction your enemy's heading and fall back. The enemy will lose the ability to broadside you as they reposition. All the time you will be extending. By the time they can broadside you, they will be presented with the small target of your stern.
Care should be taken that this maneuver does not become a Nightmare Scenario for you.

Countering the Head On is simple, so long as you recognise it early on. In general only a fool would ram a fully lifted Galleon head on - unless it is to support their teammates, so it is safe to assume the enemy is undertaking this maneuver instead.
As early as possible, as soon as the maneuver is identified even, you should turn your ship into the enemy's ship. You won't complete the maneuver, but you will begin to have a larger target for your gunners to shoot at - and ensure they are shooting! The enemy will find their gunners dead, their ship full of holes and you can administer the coup de grace by turning about away from them to present your other broadside in a manner similar to the second part of the offensive Driveby describe below.

The Broadside to Broadside situation is a relatively simple situation and should only be accepted when you are confident you have a significant advantage over the enemy.

The maneuver is simple. Sail - at any distance that is within gun range - and ensure your guns are aimed at your enemy as much as possible. Eventually, one of you is going to be forced to sheer away and give up the engagement.

A diagram of the Broadside to Broadside. In 1 and 2, both sides exchange fire. In 3, one side has had enough is forced to sheer off.

There are numerous possible conditions under which the Broadside to Broadside may take place. As long as you have the opening broadside (enabled by you transitioning from a driveby, a failed head on, or similar), you are in an advantageous position. If the enemy is able to return significant fire, then you should expect a battle of attrition. Ensure your guns are constantly firing and your holes are being repaired. Should all holes be repaired and you are able to lift in the middle of an engagement then victory is almost certain.

If on the other hand your broadside was poor or the enemy hit you first, then you should seek to end this situation immediately. Battles of attrition require luck for the inferior side to win. Do not expect luck to go your way. You must stack your side. You should seek to disengage and try to neutralise the initiative so neither side has an advantage. Come back to the battle with a clean slate. Make this decision as early as possible to minimise casualties and repairs. The sooner you can minimise enemy fire, the sooner your repairs will be completely. Until then, all you will be is a gigantic points pinata for your enemy.

At close range, within grapeshot distance and lower, Broadside to Broadside is ideal for a soft boarding. Laying along side a half sunk ship whose guns may not return fire effectively, whilst allowing you to fire your full broadside of grapeshot into them is deadly, particularly as your crew can at will swim or jump across to the enemy ship to kill and create chaos in their ranks. Friction skyrockets when the enemy is boarded. Make sure you keep an eye on the enemy's movement and use the various speeds to keep your ship along side them. The enemy will usually be in such a bad way that if they do happen to lift then they will have nothing to stop you from simply unloading into them again.

Broadside to Broadside is an effective maneuver, but it is not usually decisive. Use cautiously and ensure the odds are stacked in your favour. Fairfights are for losers.

The Driveby is an ideal opener to a game, depending on your opponent's movements.
They are extremely taxing for your gunners, as the window to hit the enemy is very small. These can devolve into bloodbaths where both sides fire at the same time and ruin both side's ships. Avoid these situations. With a bit of cunning it is perfectly possible to turn this maneuver into an extremely deadly surprise for your opponent.

The Driveby comes in two flavours. The Passive Driveby and the Aggressive Driveby.

The Passive Driveby is used for targets of opportunity - when you want to be somewhere else - an ally in need, a ram or similar - but have something you can shoot at as you pass.

IThe Passive Drivebyn 1. The two ships are approaching one another. In 2. One ship turns early, to allow it to fire first. With luck and skill, the ship will inflict serious damage upon its opponent, resulting in its return fire being ineffective. In 3. the ship continues on to it's target.

Ensure your gunners are prepared. They will have to be quick. As you sail toward the enemy, select a moment to turn to present your broadside toward them first - thus assuring you of the first shot. Allow the gunners to shoot and then continue on sailing to your target. With luck, you will have disabled one enemy ship for a while and be already on the way to wrecking another.

The Aggressive Driveby assumes the enemy is the target you wish to focus on. Like the first maneuver, ensure you are the one to turn first. Once you have unleashed a devastating broadside upon the enemy, continue the turn you made so that your other side is brought to bear. You will now be able to bring a second equally devastating broadside to bear. The enemy may have been able to get a broadside into you - maybe even a devastating one. But they won't be able to get a full broadside into you a second time, unlike what you're about to do.


The Aggressive Driveby. In 1. The two ships are approaching. In 2. One ship turns early and - hopefully - fires a devastating barrage into the enemy. It continues its turn. Meanwhile, as it turns, the enemy, reeling from the barrage, finds its return fire is poor. In 3. The ship that is turning now has another broadside ready to fire. The enemy meanwhile, will still be reloading and repairing.
Having put, with luck, double the number of holes into the enemy that they have put into you, you now have complete command of the engagement. You could go Broadside to Broadside, you could ram, or you could try to bring the enemy into the nightmare scenario.

Head Ons aren't easy, if things go wrong they have a tendency of coming down to pure stupid luck, which is not what you should ever rely on.
But a head on done well can place you in a winning position in the opening minutes of the engagement. Use it well.

The Retreat is a simple maneuver. If you are being pursued, you must endeavour to ensure that the enemy has as little target as possible to hit with its broadside. The pursuer meanwhile must try to catch or otherwise find a position where it may brings its guns to bear whilst still remaining in contact. For both sides this is difficult. The pursuit therefore tends to become something akin to a worm, with both sides zigzagging trying both trying to hit and avoid being hit.

The Retreat, a losing, but necessary, battle.

The options available to the pursued are few, especially if they are severally damaged. Undertaking the retreat as early as possible means your crew both have the maximum amount of time to repair - and the enemy has the smallest target, meaning that the chances of them hitting you again and prolonging your repairs are unlikely.
As the pursued, you cannot continue running forever. There are very good reasons why anti-sail swivel guns are only in the nose. At some point you must turn and seek to turn the engagement around.
There some things you can do to make sure the initiative is neutralised.
An ideal one, despite appearances, is being rammed.
So long as your holes are few and your crew are prepared, you can weather a ram from the rear. The enemy will only have a short window in order to jump aboard your ship and their being immobilised means that the chase is effectively over and you will have ample time to repair.

The pursuer meanwhile can be assured that, so long as their swivels are manned, they will catch the enemy - eventually. Time and speed are of the essence however, the enemy will have ample time to lift and you must ensure your bowchasers - if they are available - are active.
Ideally, you should seek to lay yourself alongside the enemy and convert the action into a close in Broadside to Broadside situation.
In such a position, the damaged ship will stand no chance in the face of simultaneous broadsides and boarding action.

The Nightmare Scenario is a nightmare, to put things lightly.

The result of a failed Head On or the evolution of an Aggressive Driveby, the Nightmare Scenario is rare, but usually spells the certain destruction of the ship whose "T" is crossed.

In this situation, the attacking ship a significant portion of its broadside available to fire down the length of the ship (but not all). Meanwhile the defending ship will find - if they are not underwater already, it's bowchasers only able to return fire.

The Nightmare Scenario, there is little to be done but sink for the defending ship.

What follows is a massacre. Although it is unlikely that a ram will take place, the attacking ship's position in the path of the defending ship prevents any maneuver or retreat. Grapeshot is highly recommended in this situation - and can expect to pick up 4-5 kills in one burst. I have personally seen 8 kills (on my own unfortunate ship sadly).

Without outside aid or tremendous luck, the defending ship is surely doomed, with extreme casualties and ticket losses into the bargain.

Ramming is a tricky one as things go.

Every server I enter has people telling me it's crap and I should never use it.

My adventures in Hoys to my mind say differently.

For my part, I regard ramming as an important part of any battle - against veteran players I would regard it as essential.

Ramming is a tradeoff - you as captain get to apply guaranteed damage (and possible casualties) to the enemy ship in exchange for losing your ability to maneuver.

This is a great trade off - under the right conditions.

Every ram should therefore be calculated as much as possible before hand and you should reassess the situation all the way into the attack.

Ramming, to my mind, is profoundly unscientific. You must rely on intuition and have an eye to the progress of the battle. There are no rules. Sometimes it is good to attack an enemy when they are low in the water and disrupt, if not ruin, their repairs. Sometimes its best to ram simply to board the enemy and foil their careful plans. Nothing messes up a broadside like a captain being sniped.

I would strongly recommend any captain who rarely rams to test ramming more often. Make sure your crew is prepared and ready to jump aboard, coordinate with your allies so they can add supporting fire - and with luck your ram will be a low risk, high damage surprise attack.

Hoys, supported by Galleon fire, excel in this kind of fighting.

Conversely, a ship with a destroyed bowsprit is a sitting duck - and if the enemy can camp the broken bowsprit effectively and make repairs impossible then the rammer is doomed.

It is sad that ramming gets so much hate, it really is one of the most annoying and deadly tools in the captain's arsenal.

By contrast, grappling has received serious - and in my opinion undeserved - love since the game released.

I met a captain whose only tactic was to load his ship up with grapple shot and just keep on coming until he could grapple. Most of the time the fight would devolve into a tedious 10-15 minute grapple with fortunes swinging one way or the other in a single respawn. He was tenacious and he was often able to get the grapple in - but his crew would be so badly shot up he'd lose anyway. It was almost depressing to unload full broadside after full broadside into him - until he'd get into range for grapples and then be wiped out by grape shot and roundshot.

Grapples are not a spur of the moment decision. Once a fight is lost grapples will not save you - your crew will be too hurt and you will likely be too low in the water to hit with the grapples anyway.

Instead, grapples - as our galleon captain above recognised, are a strategic decision. The captain must recognise that this is a losing battle and that more tickets (or supplies) must be won. If the battle is being won then there is absolutely no reason to grapple. It will degenerate into a diceroll to see who crew are better, with Murphy's law rerolling your dice. It is far better to fight the enemy with gunfire and rams. They will sink and lose tickets much faster. Only in a losing situation and with time to prepare should grapples be used. (or if you simply are in it for a laugh, but I'm assuming you want to be serious with this)

They must organise their crew so that grapples are loaded in multiple guns in case of "friction" (i.e. stuff ups) and they should engage the enemy in order to minimise casualties, the chances are any dead will still be waiting to respawn when you grapple. A head on or driveby encounter are usually best - following the standard procedure at close range so that you may minimise damage and ideally get the first shot off.

In a grapple action - coordinating your crew is key, as well as calling any friendly ships to your aid. Recognise a winning or losing situation and use it as a measure for how aggressive your crew can be. Even when boarded, you are still captain - and your orders may still affect the outcome.

Grapples are good. They bring you tickets - which may turn a game around, but the danger of things going sour means that it should be restricted to when you are the losing side.

This is a ridiculously long guide (even by my standards).
I hope to expand it - and add videos and more pictures as I go on.

For the moment however, I hope this will provide useful guidance for beginner - intermediate captains seeking to sharpen their maneuver skills. Blackwake is a game of maneuver, it is a game of getting into the right position at the right time, with the right crew. Only then may you take advantage.

Thank you for making it this far. As I say, if one person improves then this guide has done its job.

Despite everything I've said - best of luck.

See you on the High Seas

Signed, sealed, and blackspotted.

Kommissar Hedgehog
At Sea

4/3/2017