I have to say, I have much more success in Naval battles against uneven odds than on land. I relish the thought, early in the game, of being attacked by a bunch of galleons, manned by pirates cause it's just a load of free, powerful trade ships to add to mmy repertoire

I've taken on 4 galleons with a single 6th rate and won, only last night. You just have to be very careful and patient. The only way to go up against ships where you're outmanned and outgunned is to demast them fromm as far away as you can. I tend to fight from downwind cause that way it's easier to run away. I try to travel away from the lead ship in tights esses, leaving the guns on chainshot anf fire at will. You'll soon enough knock the masts off. Once you've done that, you just carefully manouvre to the back of each ship in turn - making sure not to get in line and range of their guns and then pepper them with canister shot until they surrender. Last night I managed to end the battle with all four surrendered and got three of them to join my fleet! Free ships!

So I, for one, am really enjoying all the different tactics one can employ on the sea. I'm playing on VH campaign and H battles, for those who care