obviously familiarized yourself with the controls:

• how to work with the wind (more wind to the rear = more speed and vice versa)
  
• how using front and rear sails affects turning related to the wind
  
• different speeds at full sails, battle sails (cannons menu activated), front or rear sails or with the use of slider
  
• rate of turn of different ships, number of guns, red no-go zone against the wind
  Thus you can out-turn your opponent, force him to sail against the wind (slow down) or do not let him to do it to you
  
• different max. range of ammunition as well as different damage done (closer = more damage)
  
• different purpose of ammunition (chainballs - sails, balls - damage, grapeshot - crew)
  
• different abilities you unlock with experience and upgrades for ships you can unlock for gold

1. Simple destruction:
Quite simple - get it to your broadside and blast it with balls till the destruction. Get closer, use double load at short range or bombs to increase the damage. Obviously it doesn't work on ladies that are bigger, have more guns and are sailed by better skippers

2. Disabling:

• Load chainballs. Use your bow cannons in pursuit on fleeing enemy or stern ones when somebody is at your tail to chip away his sail. If you carefully position yourself to the side a little and work properly with distance, you can even hit sails that are farther from you.
  
• If enemy allows you, you can use broadside when sailing side-by-side but this usually happens when enemy is shooting at you. Learn to shoot a little bit in front of opponent's sails to compensate for movement to maximize damage.
  
• with a nimble ship, you can get bigger enemy to pursuit you, then quickly turn against him, get a fairly good broadshot at his side and turn away before he can get his broadside at you. Needs some practice but it is actually fairly easy
  
• Little warning: beware of wind and your no-go zone, so you do not end up laying dead against the wind. On the opposite - you can use your opponents no-go zone to prevent him to follow you in this move / slow him down and get more time to aim, shoot and flee

with the enemy disabled, you can proceed to

2A. Destruction:

• Shoot him from max. range with balls to avoid return fire
  
• If you have mortar installed, get him into the center of the aiming circle, stop your ship and keep pounding him with bombs till his demise. Works very well on bigger ships and despite higher cost of the bombs it is fairly cheap due to their damage (my experience - unless shooting very small ships 50% and more shots are hits on average) and the fact that you are absolutely immune to him and have to pay for no repairs
  
• Dirty trick: Use wind, come close to him and drop oil barrel (you need to have this skill and you have to know direction in which you throws them. It might by to the rear, but galleons throw them to the left). Then just wait till he is toast and collect the floating cargo.
  OH BUT: more skilled skippers have nasty habit to throw barrel of oil or gunpowder when you approach them from rear - so be careful to not to fall in the same trap

2B. Surrender:

• Use either balls or mortar to blast enemy until one his side damage is more than 50% (even better - it turns red). Be careful not to kill with last salvo or bombs.
  (next step does very little damage to crew if ship's hull is intact)
  
• Load grapeshots, come close and shoot his damaged side until you kill his crew. Be careful as even disabled ships can turn too quickly and get broadside salvo at you. So plan your moves, try to pick side that allows you to approach with the wind and not go against the wind even with some turning with your enemy at close range.
  Always come at angle to his stern or bow and shoot at angle - avoid broadside duel if you do not have size advantage
  When done properly, you can take fairly bigger ship with little damage
  
• Then you can either completely loot the ship's cargo and guns, or even capture her if you have enough crew to man both ships
  Note: When capturing the slave ships this doesn't matter as freed slaves always fully man both ships

2C. Boarding:

• You need to have Corsair skill (and advanced versions) and it is good to have abundant crew, falconets, pistol and musketry updates on your ship
  
• Just come from rear or front outside broadside firing sector to the enemy until boarding icon (anchor / hook) appears. Click it and fight your enemy by clicking on fight and shooting icons as they appear. If you can kill enemy crew faster than he does it to yours, you win
  Notes:
  
• There is IMHO little reasons for boarding if you have grapeshots and you are able to do the step 2A, which is easy and do not deplete you of your crew. But if you are out of ammo or too damaged to risk enemy's salvo, than you may take this aproach
  
• Also - Surrender and Boarding can be used to defeat pirates, but you cannot take their ships. Immediately, as they are defeated, they will set their ship on fire and you have to flee. But with the good wind and if you are not blocked by the enemy, you can flee the inferno with little-to-no damage. Thus you can use these procedures to fight pirates if there is not better option (you are out of cannonballs)

3. Plain Boarding:

• Same like 2C - just no previous cannon shooting except using chainballs to slow down your enemy so you can approach him.
  
• As it is described there - have enough crew, skills and upgrades, come close, board him and defeat him.
  
• Advantage? Men are abundant and cheap, much cheaper than balls you would otherwise spend and also you do and take no damage to both ships so you save money for repairs and / or get better price if you are going to sell the ship

Obviously, judge the situation. How many enemies, what size, where are they relatively to you. Which ones are the fastest, which are the most powerful.

Many times you encounter 2 smaller pirate vessel that would attempt to flee, because you are more powerful. Then hunt them if you want and destroy by any procedure from previous chapter

If enemy takes up the fight and you do not want to flee then:

• I use only one my ship for fight as the others are usually more nuisance than help. So I set them to flee enemy (oh just check them to not to run into some island, as AI is stupid enough to do so). Once they are far enough I order them to stop so I can call them back in reasonable time
  
• I may switch primary fighting vessel over the course of the fight either due to the damage taken or because it is more suited to different part.
  
• Let's say that I am fighting group of warships - 2-4 galleons, frigates supported by 2 small ships (corvettes / brigs). I pick - if possible - nimble ship as sails-killer:
  [1] drink rum. That increases your speed.
  [2] load chainballs
  [3] if you have chance, blast enemy ships with broadside salvo to get some damage to sails
  [4] run. Let them follow you. If you do not want to capture all of them and you have the skill, use gunpowder barrels and change your path so in following you, they will hit it. If you have enough of them, you can kill all ships in this way. Just do not outrun them too much
  [5] Unless using gunpowder trick, shoot their front sails with your rear guns. Do different damage to different ship's sail to spread them
  [6] as described in one-vs-one part, turn against, shoot broadside turn back and flee a little. This is kind of a dogfight - running, turning, shooting broadside at side (preferably) of the enemy, using rear cannons and staying outside their broadside
  [7] check their sails status. Focus on rear sails, as the front ones are more easy to hit with either rear or broadside shots
  Do not disable 2 ships close to each other if you want to capture them, it would be difficult to come close for killing crew or boarding and avoiding return fire from 2 of them. Disable one, let the other move away and then disable her

Once disabled use the same ship or get bigger / fresh one or just replenish ammo and crew and proceed with destruction or capture of the enemy ships as described in previous chapter. If you want to capture the ships, do not use boarding as you will need your men to man the captured ships

This are just "fight against many" scenarios but there is either friendly or enemy fort or eventually allied ships not from your fleet.

Breaking blockade:

• There is friendly fort and even friendly ships (sometimes). You may take fight close to the port and it will shoot enemy with mortar. Just do not get friendly fire :)
  
• It has one disadvantage - it will destroy ships you may want to capture. If you want to do that bait them away before disabling.
  
• Friendly ships? Let them fight their battle and do not run into their salvos.

Attacking town:

• Obviously, no friendly ship except your own and fort is now your enemy. You need mortar.
  
• Bait enemy fleet away from fort, disable / destroy them.
  
• Return to fort and destroy it with mortar. Use strong ship, as you are going to take some mortar bomb hits from the fort.
  
• Now you may return to disabled ships and capture them
  
• Note: I prefer destruction of the fort before capturing ships as its destruction is mandatory for success. And you cannot do it without taking some damage. Afterwards I may still decide to destroy disabled ships from safe distance if I am too damaged, but vice versa if I take too damage before coming to fort I am in inevitable risk of loosing my expensive upgraded ship (and possible failure of the mission)

Capture of the treasure ship:

• It is just group of ships where one is usually cargo type with just a few cannons.
  
• Disable / destroy the escort as it goes after you, while escorted ship usually flees.
  
• Go after the escorted ship, disable it.
  
• Than destroy, capture or force to surrender all ships and you are done.

Capital ships = 1st and 2nd rate Ships of the line

Well, sinking them is not a big deal - use any tactics described in other chapters.
Gunpowder barrels works well. But using nimbler ship, crippling sails and then using mortar works very well (with such a big target you rarely miss with mortar bomb). Only problem is the fact that mostly you encounter them in packs so you have to probably deal with smaller units at first.

More interesting is the capture:

• these ships have large crew (1st rate 600 members) so boarding is pretty tough unless you have 1st rate with enlarged cabins and full crew. Otherwise you have to disengage before your crew suffers losses below minimal crew (= ship loss) and bring fresh one to continue / finish the job.
  
• another challenge is prize crew to capture them you need ~209 men for the 1st rate and ~139 men for the 2nd rate. After longer fight and if you use boarding, this may be tough to have enough men for your as well as prize ships

Obvious alternative is killing the crew with grapeshots. Just avoid some problems:

• destroy sails and damage side to turn red - "simple"
  
• you may then use your own capital ship to do the job - just keep in mind that killing some 400 men out of 600 takes several salvos and if you get broadsides from your victim, it will hurt a lot. Because you are at point blank range. But it is doable
  
• Easier way is the use of nimble ship - I love my corvette. You can come from the rear (I have never yet encounter Capital ships with stern guns equipped) and keep at it's back even if your victim tries to turn - if you know the controls.
  
• keep shooting
  
• BUT BEWARE: If you come with clearly smaller ship to boarding range, capital ship WILL TRY TO BOARD YOU. Be ready for this and immediately hit "End fight" and get some distance. Because of the big crew of your enemy, your losses would be MASSIVE. So - always have fair reserve of the men above minimal crew, or you are done.
  In order to not to get any chances - keep your enemy farther that is the boarder of the 1st damage range for the grapeshot. I was never boarded by enemy, who was on this border or farther

ONCE MORE: Do not forget to bring massive prize crew if you want to capture capital ships.

• of course, plan your skill development. Would you like more to trade or to fight? Do you want board enemy ships or blasting away its crew with grapeshots is good for you? If you want to be a warrior, repair skill and ability to replace destroyed cannons are fairly useful. Just do not forget to include material in cargo list
  
• do not waste money to upgrade every ship. Especially for the first ships you will not keep.
  
• Important general upgrades are:
  [1] cargo ones, even for warships as they allow you to take more ammo, repair material, traps, spare cannons.
  [2] speed ones like copper plating and square sails as they allows you to flee when you do not want fight
  [3] for some smaller ships even sail-upgrades that allows you sail more against the wind - you may thus outrun bigger ship sailing more steeply against the wind that she can (this doesn't work for big merchants with big no-go zone)
  [4] rear cannons (you can slow down pursuing ships by demolishing front sails)
  
• Important combat upgrades are:
  [a] cannons, their damage and reload, stern and bow cannons
  [b.] mortar to take forts or disabled ships. Have it on at least one ship in your active fleet
  [c] stronger hull is always welcomed (stronger sails - well you may choose, sometimes enemy uses chainballs, but not so often - just do not be surprised if he does. Thus not priority. )
  [d] all that allows you to turn quicker and sail faster
  [e] for ship designed for boarding or "troop transport" to man captured vessels - bigger cabins
  [f] for ship designed for boarding - all boarding weapons
  [g] Ram? Sometimes I use it, sometimes it does lot of damage, sometimes it fails. If you want it, have it on more nimble and faster ship unless you are fighting slow ships
  
  
• I have universal fleet of galleons used mostly for trade, but at least one is fully upgraded and can do all combat duties, rest is mostly upgraded for cargo and speed (now the rest is also fairly upgraded)
  
• I also prefer to have one combat fleet with one nimble ship for disabling sails (corvette is great, xebec can also do the trick - fast, small no-go, they turn quickly) and muscle ones to do the rest - frigates, war galleons and bigger ones.
  
• When going against enemy fleet, it is good to have one ship with good cargo and crew capacity, pack her with ammo, some repair stuff, spare cannons and as many men as possible to supply ships dedicated to combat or have enough men for crew of the captured ships
  
  
• Do not forget to use rum for combat vessels before fight - you get more speed and bonus if boarding
  
• Damaging or killing disabled ship with mortar is so easy - almost a cheat
  
• Bait enemy in pursuit into gunpowder trap. If they are too close or fast, toss oil one to make them avoid flames
  
• Drop oil barrel close to disabled enemy to toast him - it's extremely cheap. Avoid his barrel
  
• Use telescope to check enemy - it is also about the skill. It may be smaller ship but if it's skipper has high rank, 50% bonus on reload and 60% on damage his broadside is going to hurt a lot and there is easily going to be more than one. Not to forget - high ranks are those that use gunpowder and oil traps. Low ranks do not (or very very rarely)
  
• Do not get trapped in your no-go zone but if possible, force enemy to turn into his when outmaneuvering him. With proper ship it is possible to get good broadside shot and turn away with complete immunity