Naval battles need to be way more decisive

[therother]

Yup. It's easier when the ships are near land as I can trap them more easily. I have to be extra careful so that they all end their turn in a single stack. Otherwise, the large AI stack would kill them.

Trapping them is the way to go. If you win the battle, they've nowhere to retreat and are all sunk.

Thing that annoys me is that even when you win the first battle, and the fleet retreats, if you have another of your fleets attack it, it can still retreat just as far. Quite how it manages this feat is unknown.

My suspicion about naval warfare is that there is two factors going on: the number of men in each ship and the combat rating of the ships. The combat ratings determine the casualties, both in men and in ships sunk during the battle itself. But the number of men left determines is the ship is still able to function properly. Similar to the land battles, if a unit retreats (or enters) a battle severely depleted, it will not come back again.