No pirate game could be complete without fierce battles between ships and rivals. Those battles occur in two distinct forms - attacking or sinking enemy ships with your cannons, and boarding them to fight their crew and if victorious, looting and pillaging what they carry.
Attacking your enemies with cannons is quite simple, just sail broadside them and if they are in range and your cannons are ready to fire they will do so. If you hit a ship it will be damaged and its crew may be hurt or killed too, this allows you to weaken an enemy before boarding them but if you hit them too many times their ship will burn and sink and you will get nothing at all.
Boarding your enemies is done by sailing into them which triggers crew-vs-crew turn based combat. As this fighting plays out the other ships in the battle are still sailing around and may attack with their cannons - which can be extremely effective when you are outnumbered, or deadly for your own ships. Other ships can also join a crew-vs-crew fight, or engage in an entirely separate crew-vs-crew fight.
The crew-vs-crew combat is turn-based and each crew member has a melee attack, while some crew roles also have a ranged and special attack capable of inflicting more damage or hitting multiple opponents in one turn. If you win this combat you can search the ship for plunder or loot its hold which each take a turn and may need to be done multiple times to retrieve all of the treasures or goods.
As the campaigns progress and you command multiple ships you must balance winning these fights and taking the time to loot and plunder your enemies, with the presence of any other ships that may attack you or flee or enter the battle map while you are locked in crew-vs-crew combat.