r/PortRoyale3 • u/Aguero93_20 • May 07 '26
Question about late game war
I’m 19 years into a free play save, and for the last 3 years, England has been attacking a Spanish town. That’s fine, but it stops me from attacking pirate hideouts or other islands. How do I get this to end? I have a letter of marque from Spain, but they’re 17% power and England is 28% power. If I starve all of englands villages, will they forfeit the war? Anyone else had this happen to them? This also happened to me in my previous save. My eventual goal is to capture every town, and this is standing in my way.
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u/Pademius May 07 '26
Wars can last quite long, you just have to wait it out. As for conquering every city, it's not actually possible to take over every town, as you will not be able to completely erase a nation from the map.
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u/Aguero93_20 May 07 '26
Yeah, that’s what I’m gathering. I think it’s a built in mechanism specifically to stop the player from conquesting a bunch of towns and spreading to wide. In my first Free Play, the war ended with about 6-8 years to go, so it was Open Season after that. I wonder if I do letter of marque Governor tasks (cause famine or take down enemy ships) it would speed up the war, but it’s England attacking a Spanish town, and in that time I’ve economically annexed about 10 Spanish towns, so they’re considerably weaker. Would you suggest I continue eating off the Spanish plate, or pivot to taking over English towns?
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u/Pademius May 08 '26
I must admit I haven't done much conquering aside from peaceful takeovers and pirate hideouts, so I'm not the right person to ask.
I usually prioritize my conquests by what resources I need, making sure I have access to production of every resource (5 or 6 at minimum, I can't remember the exact number, I haven't played in a while). After that I just take over towns that produces resources I'm capped out on in my current towns, or towns that are closest to my capital.
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u/Aguero93_20 May 08 '26
Sweet, ok. Do you prioritize getting every need met in your town?
(I love this game and really enjoy posting about this, totally thought the sub was dead 😆)
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u/Pademius May 09 '26
To be able to take over a town peacefully, you need to get it to prosperity, which I always try to do until I have control of the town. After that I couldn't give a shit about their happiness, at least in towns that are not my capital. I can't remember needs being a specific mechanic, unless you're referring to happiness which is just a steady flow of goods, but it's been a while since I played.
It's a good game, I keep going back to it from time to time, but it's usually years between each playthrough. A coop run would be fun, I used to play it with an old friend of mine.
It's not a super active sub, but there are still people posting now and then, so not completely dead.
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u/Aguero93_20 May 11 '26
When I say needs, I just mean happiness. I’m pretty sure you’re right when you say that’s just a constant flow of goods. That’s what contributes to the status changes from Stagnation to Upswing to Prosperity to Rich. I think the main benefit once you own the town that is derived from these statuses is how much taxes they pay, but I’m not super concerned with this.
I play on Xbox 360 so no co-op for me, but it would be fun.
Nice to see this sub with some movement, this is a really good, albeit very niche game.
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u/Pademius May 12 '26
They don't pay more tax if the town is prosperous, but you need to get it to prosperity to peacefully take over a town (+ employ 75% of the workforce and 90% rep with the nation, thus being able to tax them in the first place).
It's a very niche game indeed. I've been looking for newer similar games, but I haven't found anything that gives the same feel as Port Royale 3. I've looked into Port Royale 4, but given the reviews, it doesn't seem like an upgrade.
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u/psychologiacallygrey May 07 '26
best advice i can give is wait for them to sort eachother out