As has long been the case, one does not leave all one's ships at sea, but often a power will choose to leave ships in port, where although they are not able to do anything, they are also not likely to be destroyed by another power - very useful if you are trying to develop a navy in the teeth of a fleet off the coast.
I am as guilty as the next man of sinking the compter's ships whenever they are built when I am at war with them, and as I was playing it dawned on me how unrealistic this is. Possibly it should be possible for there to be a new structure that allows ships to be placed into port (not that I think that it is possible MTW, unfortunately).
This would allow countries that are slower to gain effective ships to build a number before they are released into the seas, making the chances of winning local nalval superiority a possibility.
