Do the NPCs for the royalty missions get easier with fewer ships as normal NPCs do or do they always have those lvl10+ God fleets?

I've done the Marquess mission several times, and the NPC fleets have been equally strong each time.

Yep... they stay in god-fleet mode. But as they do not repair after each battle, you can wear them down with repeated hits until sunk.

If you take Luna Negra for instance or anyone which has 100% on npc win rate you will see that in their biography, they all never became a marquee before because it's impossible not to lose to the god fleet that you speak of.

You are correct : have to take some losses when you do the full ranking run : I'm not 100%, as old age dims the memory, but I do think I ran at them with a top-line SotL fleet way back when, and still needed a few goes to finish them off.

Danik wrote:You are correct : have to take some losses when you do the full ranking run : I'm not 100%, as old age dims the memory, but I do think I ran at them with a top-line SotL fleet way back when, and still needed a few goes to finish them off.

There is another way past that I think, if you cast the voodoo which weakens then by 50% on all ports before the mission starts, not sure if it works.

That doesn't work, Grimrock. It was expalained by Captain Jack that such cards had no effect on mission NPCs, although I can't give you a link, unfortunately.

Aye, I recall CJ saying that too : it's no big deal anyway, unless one has a fetish for a 100% record : the prize, especially the MoW for the first marquess run, makes the exercise worthwhile even with a few losses involved.

"A few losses" indeed. I don't use SoLs, so I've been fighting Blackbeard and Morgan with Frigates...

That will eat some turns... good hunting, Haron.