I checked out the naval interface and studied it for some time. Granted it is a prototype or pre-alpha, I would still like to pose some questions and make a few comments.

1. The black and gold icons are really intuitive. I really like them. For example, I can see that you can select your type of shot: ball, chain, and grape. I am assuming that the purpose of selecting ball is to sink the enemy ship, chain is to de-mast and still the ship for boarding and the grape is to clear the enemy deck of personnel. Is this correct? Will the relevant guns automatically fire (e.g. elevate) for each type of shot?

2. I have noticed that there are icons to fire port and starboard deck guns. Is this just to set them at fire-at-will as former missile units? I would like to know if there would be more options such as (a) firing a broadside volley and (b) if we could actually time the broadside?

3. Will there be different kinds of units (or officers) that can be added to the ship to enhance its performance (as in navigation, rate of fire, boarding) or will there be a standard ship with a standard compliment and the ship’s performance will improve with experience and go down as men get killed off? It appears the latter when looking at the interface.

4. Also, I was a little surprised by the amount of ships the naval interface represented. I was expecting naval engagements to be limited to a handful of ships and this portion of the UI to be more descriptive about the ship and its composition. A lot of people may prefer quantity but I’m hoping for a more tactical, controlled, naval engagement.

Although Empire: Total War will be mostly about land battles, I am looking forward to how navies will be implemented and contribute to our TW experience. I expect the gaming community is too so I hope this goes off with a loud bang.