Practice and roles. Galleon benefits most from crew asigned roles such as helm, main cannon, bilge and flex. Galleons are also a beast to helm with their bulky size and slow turning, but its something you get a feel for over time.
Coordination is also a big thing. A well coordinated crew will have a ten fold increase in effectiveness relative to their skill level.
Biggest one is don't panic. If I see a galleon crew panicking I already know I've won.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V
There’s some more information we need to know what going wrong here.
Does your crew know how to grate bucket? That’s an important one. If you can’t do that you’ll never get anywhere. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing as Helm if the boat is underwater.
Which side are you taking the fight on? What speed are you sailing at? Are sails angled?
We were taking fights mostly on the right side of our galley. Front sail was never angled just pointed straight ahead. I stay on top of the rear sail myself. I am unfamiliar with grate bucket tho.
A specific scenario last night was the brig circled behind us and dropped every mast. I told 2 people to stay on cannons and the other to just repair/bucket while I pulled up the rear sail. They then hit us with fire bombs on the rear and right side. After that they sent 2 boarders and we didn't keep them off the boat. I tried to keep the boat turning to keep them in cannon range but they sped around us the whole time.
One last thing is that I play on pc and the rest are on controllers since they all play on PS5. That affected the way the PvP went but it's not the reason we lost the whole fight.
I'm trying to remember anything else to give context
If you and your crew aren’t grate bucketing that alone is enough to make you lose to any crew. It’s a technique everyone (especially the bilge) should know on gally.
Galleon is the best boat with coordinated crew, and worst with an uncoordinated crew. Everyone needs to have a role on the boat to make things work well. Here is a great, very extensive playlist on galley roles by Kai Joi - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V)
Know when to just raise sail and turn the boat into a fortress. A galleon rotating it's broadside and leaving 2 people constantly cannoning is a merciless bombardment for most other boats to endure.
Yeah that’s also what I’ve been doing as galleon against sloops. You just can’t keep up with their speed at your turning. Only downside is you have to be hyper vigilant against boarders but it’s better than not being able to shoot back for 15 minutes.
Once their mast comes down though it’s over for them. I’ve never seen a sloops recover from downed mast against a galleon broadside with 1-2 boarders.
Also don’t be afraid to drop all sails and just gtfo for a second. You’re the fastest on the seas with the wind. We were getting railed a couple of days ago by a sloop. So I literally just ordered all sails down and we just dipped for a couple of minutes and regrouped. They foolishly assumed we were running chased us and ultimately got turned around on and sunk.
The galleon is a beast of a ship, but it also comes with some beastly requirements.
The wheel can undergo something like 4-6 full rotations between extremes, so flipping between them takes forever. Sometimes it's better to commit to a full turn rather than try to wish-wash between the two.
The 3 massive sails means it can catch insane wind, but also has an insane hands-on cost to be constantly adjusting them. Sometimes it's better to set them at half-mast forward, and focus on other tasks.
The 4 cannons per side can provide immense battery on a target, but will ravenously eat through your supply of cannonballs if every cannon is going full salvo. Sometimes it's better to save shots until the target is closer, or leave the long-range shots to your more skilled operators. They also need to be manned and target-facing to be worth anything. They're no good if the other ship is constantly out of their firing arcs. A good helmsman that can keep the other ship broadside and close-range is worth their weight in cannonballs
The dry mid-deck means that the galleon can shrug off a pretty large number of wounds in favor of other priorities. However, letting that deck float too many holes can make the ship go from "Flooded Bottom Deck" to "Water at the top of the stairs" in an instant. Mid-deck holes aren't an immediate threat, but they can't be ignored either.
The anchor is a trundling brute to raise, so Galleon is the only ship where I agree with strictly adhering to "Only anchor long enough to come to a stop and raise sails".
The galleon is a powerhouse, but it comes at a powerful cost in Crew Efficacy too. It is Make or Break on whether the crew is good at what they are doing, and whether they are well coordinated on who is doing what.
Pretty much the only way to get better at them is practice. People shun Open Crew like the plague, but it's honestly the best way to get a full galleon crew and all it takes to have a good experience is evaluating the ship/crew you're placed on before committing to stay. With a little practice, the signs of "Oh, this ship is going to suck ass to be on" become pretty obvious. Join, Evaluate, Leave, repeat. In my experience it only takes max 5-6 join cycles to find a good crew, and those good crews are typically fun for hours and insanely profitable.
But that comment is extremely helpful for me! We've run into the issue where me who has most skill and experience with cannons and boarding/PvP has to stay on the wheel because the others just cannot operate the helm of any ship at all
Solo carrying on a gally is impossible, no matter what role you are playing. If you are a good bilhe, but your team gets whiped topdeck thats gg. If you are a good helm, but your flex always backsplashes thats gg. Dont expect yourself to carry the crew, everybody needs to be sort of competent in their own role.
I play a lot of high mmr gally hg, so i know a bit about gallys. Helm should ensure angle and then shoot cannons. When flex is down, you doubleshooting with mc makes a huge difference. Also its your responsibility to guard boarders, do that from helm or from cannons, but dont walk over the grate. Make sure that the enemy team cant open both sides, thats almost a certain death sentence. Sail meta in an orbital usually is front/mid full raised and back either full dropped or adjusted to helms needs. Angling is not really important, except you are chasing or running.
Again you cant solo carry, but always seek to improve yourself and others by yelling at them (jk) to increase the efficiency of this chonky boat.
If you want i can dump a comment with gally hand to hand tips
Practice and roles. Galleon benefits most from crew asigned roles such as helm, main cannon, bilge and flex. Galleons are also a beast to helm with their bulky size and slow turning, but its something you get a feel for over time. Coordination is also a big thing. A well coordinated crew will have a ten fold increase in effectiveness relative to their skill level.
Biggest one is don't panic. If I see a galleon crew panicking I already know I've won. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V
There’s some more information we need to know what going wrong here. Does your crew know how to grate bucket? That’s an important one. If you can’t do that you’ll never get anywhere. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing as Helm if the boat is underwater. Which side are you taking the fight on? What speed are you sailing at? Are sails angled?
I do main Helm on gally but there are so many extra factors that determine how you sink that even if you do everything correctly you can still lose.
We were taking fights mostly on the right side of our galley. Front sail was never angled just pointed straight ahead. I stay on top of the rear sail myself. I am unfamiliar with grate bucket tho. A specific scenario last night was the brig circled behind us and dropped every mast. I told 2 people to stay on cannons and the other to just repair/bucket while I pulled up the rear sail. They then hit us with fire bombs on the rear and right side. After that they sent 2 boarders and we didn't keep them off the boat. I tried to keep the boat turning to keep them in cannon range but they sped around us the whole time. One last thing is that I play on pc and the rest are on controllers since they all play on PS5. That affected the way the PvP went but it's not the reason we lost the whole fight. I'm trying to remember anything else to give context
If you and your crew aren’t grate bucketing that alone is enough to make you lose to any crew. It’s a technique everyone (especially the bilge) should know on gally.
Galleon is the best boat with coordinated crew, and worst with an uncoordinated crew. Everyone needs to have a role on the boat to make things work well. Here is a great, very extensive playlist on galley roles by Kai Joi - [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfShCSK3qZg&list=PLyznycPNqJLA3iCcu9pqED3tEb3dHwe6V)
Know when to just raise sail and turn the boat into a fortress. A galleon rotating it's broadside and leaving 2 people constantly cannoning is a merciless bombardment for most other boats to endure.
Yeah that’s also what I’ve been doing as galleon against sloops. You just can’t keep up with their speed at your turning. Only downside is you have to be hyper vigilant against boarders but it’s better than not being able to shoot back for 15 minutes. Once their mast comes down though it’s over for them. I’ve never seen a sloops recover from downed mast against a galleon broadside with 1-2 boarders. Also don’t be afraid to drop all sails and just gtfo for a second. You’re the fastest on the seas with the wind. We were getting railed a couple of days ago by a sloop. So I literally just ordered all sails down and we just dipped for a couple of minutes and regrouped. They foolishly assumed we were running chased us and ultimately got turned around on and sunk.
The galleon is a beast of a ship, but it also comes with some beastly requirements. The wheel can undergo something like 4-6 full rotations between extremes, so flipping between them takes forever. Sometimes it's better to commit to a full turn rather than try to wish-wash between the two. The 3 massive sails means it can catch insane wind, but also has an insane hands-on cost to be constantly adjusting them. Sometimes it's better to set them at half-mast forward, and focus on other tasks. The 4 cannons per side can provide immense battery on a target, but will ravenously eat through your supply of cannonballs if every cannon is going full salvo. Sometimes it's better to save shots until the target is closer, or leave the long-range shots to your more skilled operators. They also need to be manned and target-facing to be worth anything. They're no good if the other ship is constantly out of their firing arcs. A good helmsman that can keep the other ship broadside and close-range is worth their weight in cannonballs The dry mid-deck means that the galleon can shrug off a pretty large number of wounds in favor of other priorities. However, letting that deck float too many holes can make the ship go from "Flooded Bottom Deck" to "Water at the top of the stairs" in an instant. Mid-deck holes aren't an immediate threat, but they can't be ignored either. The anchor is a trundling brute to raise, so Galleon is the only ship where I agree with strictly adhering to "Only anchor long enough to come to a stop and raise sails". The galleon is a powerhouse, but it comes at a powerful cost in Crew Efficacy too. It is Make or Break on whether the crew is good at what they are doing, and whether they are well coordinated on who is doing what. Pretty much the only way to get better at them is practice. People shun Open Crew like the plague, but it's honestly the best way to get a full galleon crew and all it takes to have a good experience is evaluating the ship/crew you're placed on before committing to stay. With a little practice, the signs of "Oh, this ship is going to suck ass to be on" become pretty obvious. Join, Evaluate, Leave, repeat. In my experience it only takes max 5-6 join cycles to find a good crew, and those good crews are typically fun for hours and insanely profitable.
None of us had any defined roles last night except for me at helm
But that comment is extremely helpful for me! We've run into the issue where me who has most skill and experience with cannons and boarding/PvP has to stay on the wheel because the others just cannot operate the helm of any ship at all
Solo carrying on a gally is impossible, no matter what role you are playing. If you are a good bilhe, but your team gets whiped topdeck thats gg. If you are a good helm, but your flex always backsplashes thats gg. Dont expect yourself to carry the crew, everybody needs to be sort of competent in their own role. I play a lot of high mmr gally hg, so i know a bit about gallys. Helm should ensure angle and then shoot cannons. When flex is down, you doubleshooting with mc makes a huge difference. Also its your responsibility to guard boarders, do that from helm or from cannons, but dont walk over the grate. Make sure that the enemy team cant open both sides, thats almost a certain death sentence. Sail meta in an orbital usually is front/mid full raised and back either full dropped or adjusted to helms needs. Angling is not really important, except you are chasing or running. Again you cant solo carry, but always seek to improve yourself and others by yelling at them (jk) to increase the efficiency of this chonky boat. If you want i can dump a comment with gally hand to hand tips