Can't declare war

[Chipchat2]

The declare war button on the diplomacy button is grayed out, and the King whines to me and makes me pay whenever I sink a ship

Why can't I fight a war?

 

[unmerged(137907)]

At the start of the 1600 there is short time period when Crown does not allow you to declare wars on other companies and attacking their fleets will result in sanctions. Logic behind this is that everything is just being started up and the Crown does not want you to go berserk right away as you should be making the foundations for your company.

The sanctions are lifted quite soon though, roughly 1605.

 

[unmerged(147835)]

it is 1605 now, and i can't man my ships with personal, i don't know why but still...its weird.

 

[unmerged(137907)]

Sorry, didn't get what you mean?

 

[unmerged(147088)]

it is 1605 now, and i can't man my ships with personal, i don't know why but still...its weird.

You mean you can't man them with marines? This is normal for all of the three starting ship designs; they can't carry marines. You need to unlock all of the ships that can have marines on them. Just be patient! You can attack enemy shipping soon enough, and besides, you're still quite early in the game to be that aggressive.

 

[unmerged(137907)]

Yep, sloop, schooner and cutter cannot take marines on board. You can see this in their info at Shipyard, they do not have the marine icon.

Related note: Each marine you hire onboard takes up 1 ton of cargo space. So if you fill your ship with marines, remember it when you try to buy cargo into the same ship

Also, each marine has annual salary, you can see this when hiring them, and when you hire them first time, they get paid immediately and then at the end of each year.

 

[unmerged(147835)]

Yeah, copy that.
I'm on the loosing side...
I'm dutch, and it stinks haha. I'm outnumbered by all others except sweden. They are retired