Windward – Capturing Towns, Hunting Pirates, Ferrying Passengers, Selling Goods, Building Lighthouses – All in a Days Work

I put in several more hours into Windward and it’s starting to make sense to me. I’ve gotten the hang of buying and selling good as well as upgrading my ship. I’ve completed multiple quests which have included exploring the landscape for a cartographer, hunting down pirates and bringing them to justice for a reasonable reward, as well as bribing pirate crews to knock off all the evil that they do, building lighthouses and guard towers and bringing several cities under my protection. I’ve also plucked several sealed letters from the drink and established myself as a guy who can get things done such as establishing new towns.

I’ve also come to understand a bit more in how exploration works. I left my known world and ventured into some new territory where I needed to chart the coast and locate new towns. Oh, but there was trouble brewing as none of the merchants were willing or able to sell me goods until the pesky pirate problem was under control. And what a feat that turned out to be.

It was my task to recapture each town and bring it under my protection. This would drive out the pirates, but only for a short time. As soon as I left to help another village, they would return and all that naughty wenching would commence. I had to establish my authority and this meant setting up guard towers to fire on the dirty scoundrels when they came near. It also meant pushing back dozens of pirate ships and even bribing them to come over to my crew.

Each time I managed to sink one of their ships, they would regroup and re-outfit a new ship and back they came. It took quite an effort and multiple ships, but I finally managed to hold them back and brought back order to this area. Once that was done, the trade routes opened again and I was able to buy and sell several new items including glass and cotton.

I also see a bit more of how navigation works. I can indeed leave my area which puts me into a pirate controlled map. Once I set things right in there, I can move on to another. It actually corresponds to the image you see when generating the world map. It goes from tropical to arid and if you have high enough experience and a good enough ship, you can move into these more hostile areas. I’ve taken care of 2 out of the 39 regions available to me. Quite a bit of work still to go.

I have to say, I like Windward quite a bit. It’s a game you can play for just a couple of minutes or you can really go to town and play for several hours. It’s also a game you play completely with the mouse, which means you don’t have to learn over elaborate keyboard combos to make something happen. You steer with the mouse, you buy goods with the mouse, and you attack and target with the mouse. This also means you can eat pizza and ice cream sandwiches and drink rum while you play. That’s good thinking there!

I still have to get back and help my little guy escape from prison in TinyKeep, but for the moment (since he’s not going anywhere), I shall continue to dominate on the high seas in Windward.

So this is the layout of the world. I’ve started over on the right in the little red area. It appears I can move all around to the other blocks and conquer them. No problem, I’ve got time.

Here are two pirates vessels I bribed into my way of thinking. If only life were so simple.