Great input!

Ship on ship stuff like grape shot and chain shot are things that I have mastered in Pirates!. I usually found ships like the Sloop of War to be most suitable to piracy because they could manouver into the eye of the wind better than larger ships, but they had a small crew capacity which necessitated a heavy bombardment with grapeshots, after some with chain shot if necessary, prior to boarding, which sometimes damages the prize. A Brig, I think, was the best of two worlds, fairly easy to manouver and could carry a good number of scurvy non-land-lubbers (and more guns!).

The main points I've made out so far seems to be:
Having the wind at your back will aid you in an engagement, if you win. But if you must withdraw, it may be your doom. Shoot at the fore or aft if you can, no return fire.

As for which mechanichs may be included in the game we can only speculate... I've seen varying heights of waves having impact on the capability of different sizes of ships mentioned in another thread, which I guess might not be included, along with depth of the water.

A defensive measure in Pirates! is to turn right as your enemy fires, so the projectiles misses (overshooting or hitting the water where you would have been). I wonder if that will be in the game, or if it's even very realistic? How much time would you have to avoid a cannon ball?

What do you think the chances are of grape/chain shot being included? How about upgrades a'la Pirates! such as iron scantlings?

In Pirates!, the wind was usually very predictable, blowing from one direstion most of the time. Travel in the opposite direction was substantially slower. Seems like a simple thing to implement, I hope CA did because it would perhaps add a strategic element to the naval campaign map. I guess it's too much to hope for that sailing in certain directions would grant you lesser movement than others.

Do you think seizing enemy vessels will have any role in game?