Quote Originally Posted by Sir Beane View Post

If CA take the realistic approach (and there is no reason yet to doubt them) then we you might see 4 or 5 fleets of twenty ships of the line, at the absolute maximum. When you think how big Empire's oceans are that really isn't that many ships.
One way to limit the number of fleets realistically is to limit the number of Admirals (ie. floating generals) available to a particular faction. (Admirals could be required to merge more than single ships together.) The number of admirals might depend on how many of a specialized building you have constructed (dockyard, admiralty?). This would represent the level of economic commitment of the player's faction to maintaining a navy.