Table of Contents

1 Foreword 2
2 Installing and Starting the Game 2
2.1 System Requirements 2
2.2 Starting the Game 2
3 Customer Support 2
3.1 If You Are Experiencing Problems 3
3.2 Contacting Us 3
4 Main Menu 4
5 The Adventure Begins 4
5.1 Selecting the Scenario 4
5.2 Aim of the Game 4
5.3 Experience, Promotion and Rank 5
6 Operating the Game 5
6.1 Town View 5
6.2 Your Convoy 6
6.3 Sea Chart 7
6.4 Sea Battles 8
6.5 Your Crew’s Morale 9
6.6 Encounters 9
6.7 The Types of Ship 10
7 Trading Goods 11
7.1 Prices 11
7.2 Consumption 11
7.3 Import and Export 11
7.4 Town Info 11
7.5 List of Goods 12
7.6 Settlers 12
8 Nations 13
8.1 Your Relations with the Nations 13
8.2 The Nations’ Relations with Each Other 13
8.3 Letters of Marque 13
9 Credits 14
10 Keyboard Functions and Mouse Controls 15
11 Gallery - Ship Types 16

1
1. Foreword

Thank you very much for deciding to buy “Tortuga - Pirates of the New World”. This is a game that
takes you back to the swashbuckling world of the Caribbean as it was in the colonial era. Your job is to
annex towns for your nation while amassing a healthy fortune for yourself.
You begin your adventure with a small ship and a handful of crewmembers. Your objective is to pro-
gressively strengthen your convoy by capturing larger and larger ships. But watch out! Your crew
would also like a slice of your booty now and then. If you’re not careful, you’ll be so busy distributing
ships and booty to your crew that you won’t have time to do anything else.

2. Installing and Starting the Game

To install “Pirates of the New World” please insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive. The setup
program will start automatically. If you have deactivated the autorun option, please run the “Setup.exe”
program on the CD. Now follow the instructions on the screen.

2.1 System Requirements

Minimum
Pentium II – 450, 64MB RAM, 4x CD-ROM, 16MB 3D accelerated graphics card, sound card,
500MB free hard disk space, DirectX 8.1 for graphics and sound card, Windows 98/2000/Me/XP
operating system.
Recommended
You will need the following system to activate all the graphic options:

Pentium III – 700, 128MB RAM, 32MB high-speed 3D accelerated graphics card

2.2 Starting the Game

The CD must be in the drive while you are playing. Start the program using the autorun menu from
the Start bar.

3. Customer Support

Due to the huge number of hardware and software components and system configurations available on
the market, there is always a slight chance that problems may arise when installing and operating soft-
ware products.
We will be happy to help you if you have any difficulties using our software. If you are having problems,
please consult the troubleshooting tips in the “Readme” file first. This file is installed with the game and
can be opened from the Start menu.

2
3.1 If You are Experiencing Problems

Please refer to the Readme.txt file if you hit on any problems. It is installed along with the game and you
will find solutions for any known configuration and networking issues in it.

3.2 Contacting Us

If the Readme does not contain the answer you need, you can contact us in one of the following ways.

3.2.1 Website
You will find product information, current updates, patches and solutions for all Ascaron games at:
http://www.ascaron.com

3.2.2 Forum
The Forum contains more hints & tips and technical assistance. Access it via:
http://www.ascaron-fforum.com
Or from the website by following the “Forum” link.

3.2.3 Email
You can email us via:
[email protected]

Please send us a full description of your problem and we will reply with assistance as soon as we can.
To assist us in providing you with technical support, please include the following information with any
technical query:
title and, if known, version of your Ascaron product
your system (processor, RAM, operating system)
your computer hardware (make and model of sound card, graphics card, CD-ROM drive, etc.)
software versions (DirectX, graphics driver, etc)
Please note that email is the recommended method of direct technical support, as the telephone lines
can be extremely busy.

3.2.4 Telephone
You can also obtain help by telephone during the hours of 2.00pm - 5.00pm, Monday - Friday, on the
following number: 00 49 5241 9669 0 (Germany)

3
4. Main Menu

New game
Begin a new adventure here.
Load game
Load a previously saved game.
Hall of fame
A record of the greatest adventurers’ achievements. A place in the hall of fame is awarded only to
those who have successfully completed a scenario.
Options
This is where you can alter the default settings for the game. Please note that you should adjust the
graphic details to a lower setting if the graphics in the game are jerky.
The recommended resolution is 1024x768, although a higher resolution is also available.
The Options menu can also be accessed from the game.

5. The Adventure Begins

5.1 Selecting the Scenario

First you must choose the period in which the game is to take place and which nation you wish to repre-
sent.
When you play “Pirates of the New World” for the first time, there is only one scenario that you can
select. It is a particularly easy one, and tips and advice are displayed from time to time while you play.
Once you have successfully completed this scenario, you will be able to select from new, more difficult
scenarios.

5.2 Aim of the Game

The aim of each scenario is to seize a certain number of towns within a given timescale. However, as
you can only seize other nations’ towns for your nation if a governor has instructed you to do so, you
need to earn the governors’ trust. You can achieve this by agreeing to complete other missions issued
by the governors and maintaining good relations with their nation.
The most important missions are issued to you by the governors of your own nation. These are the
scenario missions. Don’t worry; you will always be given adequate warning. You won’t be instructed to
seize a town until you have accomplished a certain number of scenario missions. You need several of
these missions before you can complete the scenario successfully.
There is also a secondary game objective: to get your hands on as much booty as you can! Seize a
whole heap of booty by capturing towns, looting, completing missions and even trading. Whenever you
share booty out among your crew, part of the booty is allocated to your personal assets. The more
personal assets you have, the higher your score will be at the end of the game.

4
5.3 Experience, Promotion and Rank

There are 10 ranks in “Pirates of the New World”. At the beginning of the game you are always a
“helper”. Your experience increases as you perform specific actions and your rank increases whenever
the experience bar reaches 100%.

You obtain experience for:

- sinking and boarding ships (experience gained for each ship)
- every newly discovered town
- every completed mission
- destroying an infamous pirate (in addition to defeated ships)
The higher your rank, the harder the missions offered to you by the governors become. You also need
to rise in rank if you want to try your luck with the “town capture” missions, because you need these to
win the game.

6. Operating the Game

You will find a summary of all the keyboard shortcuts and mouse functions in the appendix. The most
important functions in the game are displayed when you press the F1 key.

6.1 Town View

At the beginning of the game, you will find yourself in a town. You can do various things here, such as
buying ammo and repairing ships. In towns that have a governor, you can also pay the governor a visit.
He might have a job for you!

Town name Seamap

Your townsfolk and your Options Menu
reputation with this nation Game Load, Save and Game options.
is shown for this town. You can ONLY save inside a Town!

Date and Money

Convoy Display

Tab
Switch between
Ships and Goods

Ship List

Game Objective
Shows the Game Goal
and the current
Scenario Mission.
These missions are
Selectable Buildings
gained through the
Some buildings have a color
governor of your nation.
overlay. Move the mouse over such
buildings to highlight them.
Click on the building to select it.

5
6.2 Your Convoy

Your convoy is displayed on the right-hand side of the screen at all times.
Convoy indicator
Morale
The crew’s morale is displayed under your name. Take care
not to let it sink to 0!
Ammo
Below the morale you will see the ammo available in the con-
voy, divided into chain shot,grape shot and heavy shot.
Convoy details
Below the morale, the actual details of the convoy are dis-
played: maximum speed in knots (corresponds to the slowest
ship’s speed), number of cannons in the convoy, number of
sailors.
Cargo
The large barrel shows the size of the convoy’s cargo in
barrels. Each cannon and each unit of goods takes up one
barrel.
Condition
The condition bar is displayed on the far right. A green bar
indicates the convoy’s general condition is good.
Ship and goods toggle
Below the convoy indicator is a toggle that you can use to switch between the ship and goods indica-
tors.

Ship details
The ship list displays all of your convoy’s ships. It also
shows how many cannons would be available to each ship in
a sea battle.
A condition bar is also displayed for each ship.
Click on a ship in the ship list to view the ship’s details. This
displays the maximum speed in knots, as well as the number
of cannon hatches and the minimum and maximum crew.
Click on the ship in the ship list again to return to the con-
voy details.

6
 Goods list
When you click on the goods tab, a list of all the goods in your
convoy is displayed. If you have loaded goods onto your ship,
these will be shown in color. Make sure you always have enough
food and rum on board for your sailors!

6.3 Sea Chart

Once you leave a town, the sea chart is displayed. You can use this to guide your ship around the
Caribbean.

Chronicle
Displays the current events in the Experience Point
Caribbean. The chronicle is Indicator
updated when you enter a town or
greet other ships.

Log Book Encounters

Messages, Missions and Treasure Maps are You can deactivate your
stored here. The log book also contains personal encounters with normal
data, status and historical successes. traders through this button.

Your Convoy
Will always be in the center of the
screen. Right-click on an area of Unknown Convoy
sea to move your convoy. This convoy has not been
investigated closely enough
yet. If you close in on the
convoy, the number of ships
Known Convoy
and the convoy captain will be
Known Towns displayed. If passing very close
The symbols in the town show its it will become an encounter.
nation and the events. Move the
mouse over a symbol to find out
more about it. If you are close
enough to a town, you can enter it.
With a left click on the town you will
see current town information.

7
6.4 Sea Battles

Sea battles can occur whenever two convoys meet on the sea chart.
Here are some tried and tested battle tips that have saved the life of many a sailor:
• You can only ever navigate one ship in a sea battle. However, you will notice that your opponent
may actually have more than one ship, depending on how many captains are in his convoy. The
number of ships you will have to fight is indicated before the sea battle begins.
• Aim in front of your enemy’s bow. You are firing at moving targets, so take aim carefully.
• A large crew prevents your ship being boarded. In a boarding fight, every man counts. However, a
ship’s minimum crew will not join in the fight.
• Pay attention to the wind direction, which is indicated by the clouds and the ships’ flags. Entice
your opponent against the wind to slow him down.
• Avoid enemies that are significantly stronger than you. The brig that you own at the beginning of
the game is a lovely ship; it would be such a shame for it to be exposed to the broadside of a frigate.

Boarding Preparation Mini Sea Map

Select this button to prepare your crew for Shows the positions
a boarding. As soon as your ship rams that of all ships in combat.
of the enemy, your crew will storm it and try
to capture the ship. Only try to capture a
ship when you have enough crew!

Ship Display
You can select the type of
ammunition you want to use.

Enemy Ships
All enemy ships are displayed here.
If the enemy has more ships and
Your Ship captains, then up to 5 ships will be
You steer your ship on the sea displayed here.
map by using the right mouse
button to set your course.
Click the left mouse button to
fire your cannons.

Ammo
Three different types of ammo are available in battle.

Heavy shot Heavy shot inflicts considerable damage to your opponent’s hull.

Grape shot This ammo is particularly useful for massacring enemy ships’ crews.

Chain shot This is the ammo to use if you want to rip your enemy’s sails to shreds, there
by rendering his vessel impossible to maneuver.
8
6.5 Your Crew’s Morale

Your crew will expect you to share out the booty after a series of risky adventures. The amount of time
you have to distribute the booty is indicated by the crew’s morale display. If morale is at rock bottom,
there is a risk that some of the crew will mutiny and make off with both ships and booty.
Influencing morale
You can prevent morale sinking too quickly by regularly defeating enemy ships and by having plenty of
food and rum on board. But remember, no matter what you do, at some point morale will slump and you
will have to share out your booty!
Distributing booty
Whenever you capture or loot a ship, or make a profit from trading or completing missions, the booty
increases. This booty belongs to you and your crew.
You can use the treasure chest in any governor’s town to distribute the booty. This means that most
goods and all ships except one are sold and converted into gold. Each crew member then receives his
share. Of course, you get the biggest share; after all, you are the captain. The higher the scenario’s
difficulty level, the larger your share of the booty will be.
After the booty has been distributed, you are left with a ship along with its crew, cannons and ammo
and maybe some food, so that you can begin your next adventure straightaway. The important thing is
that your crew’s morale is sky-high again!

6.6 Encounters

Getting too close to another convoy on the sea chart will result in an encounter. You can generally
choose whether to attack the unfamiliar convoy or to greet it and exchange news (in which case the
Chronicle is updated to include any new developments in the Caribbean).
There are several different kinds of convoy that you may encounter:
Traders
Traders conduct business between towns and never attack
of their own accord.
Pirates
Pirates scour the Caribbean for smaller traders’ ships to
attack and loot. They are generally not very strong,
although they get more ferocious as the game progresses.
Infamous pirates
These pirates are somewhat more dangerous, as they have
already achieved a certain degree of notoriety, which is why
there is a reward for anyone who catches them. You can earn
this reward for yourself by eliminating the pirates and then reporting to any governor.
You can find out which are the most wanted, infamous pirates by consulting the pirate list displayed in
every town. With every rank that you achieve, new pirates appear on the scene; the number of pirates
displayed is limited.
Buccaneers
These are experienced captains hired by a nation to seize enemy ships. Certain buccaneers may also
pursue you, especially if you have particularly bad relations with the nation that appointed them and,
more specifically, if you are classed as “Hunted”.
When you defeat a buccaneer and capture his ships, he is automatically taken prisoner. If you then visit

9
a governor from the buccaneer’s nation, you will be offered a ransom.
Military convoys
If you besiege a particular trade route and attack a particular nation’s ships over a long period of time,
you may find that the nation in question assembles a relatively powerful military convoy and sends it off
to drive you away.
Transport convoys
Depending on the nation, these can be very large convoys that come from Europe to supply luxury
goods to the governor towns. They take goods from the colonies with them on their return journey.
A transport convoy will never initiate an attack, but you should note that they are usually very heavily
armed.
The legendary Spanish treasure fleet
One convoy that you certainly won’t come across very often belongs to the Spanish treasure fleet.
These convoys have called at Spanish colonial towns since the middle of the 16th century to ensure
the safe transport to Europe of the silver and gold extracted from the mines of the New World. This
treasure fleet can be found in TORTUGA: “Pirates of the New World”. It begins its voyage in the
East or West and calls at a series of different towns. Needless to say, it has fantastic riches on board
as it makes its way back to Europe.
Keep an eye on the Chronicle! A new entry will appear as soon as the treasure fleet appears.

6.7 The Types of Ship

There are 12 different ships in TORTUGA: “Pirates of the New World”. The trade flute ship, mil-
itary frigate and Ship of the Line are not available until later scenarios. Exact details of these ships
are an official secret of the English crown and cannot be published here.

Ship Type Cargo Maneuverability Speed Length Cannons HP Masts Crew

Min / Max
Pinnace 50 100 6-10 20m 8 50 2 (short) 4 30
Sloop 50 98 6-11 25m 14 50 1 6 40
Brig 80 92 5-11 30m 16 80 2 6 50
Barque 80 90 5-12 35m 20 80 3 8 60
Flute ship 120 82 4-10 35m 16 120 3 8 80
Trade flute ship 200 ?-? ? 35m ? 200 3 ? ?
Frigate 180 80 5-11 40m 28 180 3 10 100
Military frigate 120 ?-? ? 45m ? 180 3 ? ?
Caravel 200 76 4-10 50m 36 200 3 10 120
Carrack 200 74 5-12 55m 40 200 3 10 140
Galleon 240 72 4-13 60m 44 240 4 12 160
Ship of the line 280 ?-? ? 70m ? 280 4 ? ?

10
7 Trading goods

OK, so you’re a buccaneer, not a trader, but if you ever fancy dabbling in a bit of New World trading
– maybe just as part of a mission – you should note the following:

7.1 Prices

The concept of supply and demand applies whenever you are buying and selling. The greater the
demand for a product, the more expensive it is, and the greater its availability, the cheaper it is.

7.2 Consumption

All towns are inhabited by citizens that consume goods every day. The greater the lack of goods in a
town, the more dissatisfied the citizens and the slower the town’s growth rate.
All towns support businesses that produce goods. The goods produced are generally available in larg-
er quantities than in towns where they are not produced.
Some goods are required as raw materials for other goods. If the raw materials are not available, no
goods can be produced.
Growing towns also need wood, bricks, hemp and hardware for the construction of buildings.

7.3 Import and Export

Transport convoys from Europe regularly arrive in the governor towns to deliver luxury goods and pick
up goods from the colonies. This means that goods from the colonies are always in very high demand in
governor towns. Furthermore, they have plenty of reasonably priced luxury goods on offer after a
delivery.

7.4 Town Info

The goods produced in a town and the level of demand for particular goods can be viewed in the town
info. This can be accessed by left-clicking on a town on the sea chart or by clicking on the nation’s flag
in the town view.

11
7.5 List of Goods

Product Type Raw material

Grain Food
Fish Food Hemp, salt
Meat Food Salt
Potatoes Food
Rum Food Sugar, wood

Cloth Commodity Cotton, dyes

Salt Commodity
Bricks Commodity Wood
Wood Commodity
Hemp Commodity

Tobacco Goods from the colonies / export

Dyes Goods from the colonies / export
Cocoa Goods from the colonies / export
Sugar Goods from the colonies / export
Cotton Goods from the colonies / export

Wine Luxury product / import

Hardware Luxury product / import
Pottery Luxury product / import
Clothing Luxury product / import

7.6 Settlers

Settlers from the Old World are continually arriving in the New World with imported goods.
These settlers are in search of a new home and more than pay their way in a town with a shortage
of settlers.
You can load and unload settlers using the Cargo menu. When you unload settlers, you only receive
money if the town needs workers.
A lack or surplus of settlers is also displayed as a small icon next to the towns on the sea chart.

12
8 The Nations

8.1 Your Relations with the Nations

At the beginning of the game you always have a favorable reputation (“friendly”) with your selected
nation, while all the other nations have a “neutral” opinion of you. The other types of reputation are
“hostile” and “hunted”.

Your reputation with a nation is enhanced when you eliminate pirates or accomplish missions, or if you
possess a letter of marque and pursue enemy ships.

Your reputation with a nation suffers if you sink or capture the nation’s ships. Looting ships does not
adversely affect reputation. Of course, attacking a nation’s towns also puts a strain on relations with
that nation.

Good relations with a nation mean that:

• you are assigned more missions by this nation’s governors

• you find new sailors more easily
• you get better prices for ships, cargo, and goods

If your reputation with a nation is particularly bad (“hostile”) you will not be able to enter this nation’s
towns and the governors will want nothing to do with you. If you are viewed as “hunted”, you may even
find that the nation’s buccaneers will attack you.

8.2 The Nations’ Relations with Each Other

The nations’ relations with each other fluctuate constantly between war and peace. Nations at peace
with each other are considered to be cordial or allied. If you inflict damage on a nation, by sinking a
ship, for example, your reputation also invariably suffers with friends of this nation, although not to
such a great extent.

8.3 Letters of Marque

Whenever two nations are at war with each other, you can acquire a letter of marque from a nation to
pursue the enemy’s ships.

The advantage of the letter of marque is that, by pursuing enemy ships, you can increase your reputa-
tion with the nation that issued you with the letter of marque. A further benefit is that your reputation
is only damaged in the eyes of the nation whose ships you are attacking, and not with that nation’s
allies.

13
9. Credits

Concept and Project Management Music and Sound Effects

Daniel Dumont Dag Winderlich
Henrik Hobein
Lead Graphic Design
Marco Zeugner Engine Development
Bastian Clarenbach
Lead Tester Hendrik Grüne
Lars Berenbrinker
Interface Library
Programming Ulf Winkelmann
Simulation, Logic, and Missions
Peter Grimsehl
Manual and Cover
Interface and Town Graphics Text
Ralf Rüdiger Daniel Dumont
Alan Wild
Sea Battles
Thomas Mohr Layout
Jürgen Venjakob
3D Graphics Alan Wild
Michael Kopietz
Bernd Ludewig Product Manager (International)
Alan Wild
Graphics
Ships, Battles, and Effects Technical Director
Patrick Lubbers Kay Struve
Mark Külker
Marketing Manager
Town View Christian Franke
Marco Zeugner
Christian Fischer International Sales & Distribution
Roger Swindells
Interface
Anca Finta Producer
Holger Flöttmann
Sea Chart
Robert Palme

Video Sequences
Stefan Hoffmann

Quality Assurance
Management
Lars Berenbrinker
Gameplay
Sebastian Neuhaus
Hardware
Markus Reiser

“Uses Miles Sound System. Copyright © 1991-2003 by RAD

Game Tools, Inc.”

“MPEG Layer-3 playback supplied with the Miles Sound System

from RAD Game Tools, Inc. MPEG Layer-3 audio compression
technology licensed by Fraunhofer IIS and THOMSON multi-
media.”
14
10. Keyboard Functions and Mouse Controls

Keyboard
ESC Displays the Options menu
Pause Pause Game
F1 Displays the help file for the game
+/- Game Speed
Space bar Fast Forward
PgUp / PgDn Zoom
C Chronicle
L Log
M Displays the outstanding missions in the log
F2 - F8 Log submenus
1, 2, 3 Selects ammo in sea battles

Mouse
Town view Left-click on building: Building menu
Sea chart Left-click on town: Town Info
Right click: Set Course
Sea battle Left click: Fire Cannons
Right click: Set Course
Dialog All dialogs with a Close button can also be closed by right-clicking.
Zoom In a sea battle, you can zoom using the mouse wheel and PgUp/PgDn.

15
11. Gallery - Ship Types

Pinnace

Sloop

Brig

Barque

Flute Ship

Frigate

Caravel

Carrack

Galleon

16