I thoroughly enjoyed the game. I played on easy and it was too easy but that's what easy is for, I'd like to see the difference on harder levels which I will try. Certainly more can be added, bigger maps maybe, it filled up pretty early. Otherwise I loved the game.

Quite the pleasant little game, it does have some flaws though.

First and foremost - the battle AI:
It has no understanding of focused fire instead picking targets seemingly at random (not entirely true, it does select one target and focuces its' efforts on it just to forget about it entirely the following turn), which results in losing a ship stronger than a sloop being quite the event.
Its' target prioritizing is iffy at best - more often than not it'll fire upon a pristine galleon at the very edge of its' range rather than finish off a 10hp frigate right next to it.

Next up - the battles themselves:
Their mechanics are poorly explained and could really use a dedicated page in the manual, for example I've only found about how damage is tied to range by random observation and I've yet to figure out exactly how range works, it seems that it's possible to fire further on the horizontal plane than vertically
There is very little point to giving us the number of live cannons on a ship if it's impossible for them to be taken out (at least I've not had that happen once throuought an entire run)
I've also experienced a few bugs with ship sprites not corresponding to their actual positions and being able to board ships by the an edge of the map from the opposite edge

General issues:
The forts are underpowered to a ridiculous extent - they cost more than a frigate while sporting less guns, having the same amount of hp and (obviously) being immobile) (personally I think it'd be safe to say that a fort without any tech upgrades should be at the very least on par with a galleon), also, due to damage being tied to range their +2 firing range upgrade is borderline worthless.
There is no variation amongst the playable nations, for example having the Dutch earn more from trading, the Spanish being able to use galleons (they were their main users historically speaking), the English getting a one-fits-all ship of the line (a more powerful frigate) while the French would have, say, stronger Forts.
Signing peace treaties shouldn't have a 100% success rate and should carry a ceasefire period with it, I couldn't help but chuckle when the British declared peace just for me to continue steamrolling them the very same turn
Technologies take a bit too long to research, that could be offset by allowing the player to speed the process up with funds

However, I have to point out that the majorty of the abouve is nitpicking, if one ignores cardboard fortifications and the occasional graphical bug that he's left with a perfectly playable turn baced strategy with some economic elements mixed in and a good timewaster at that

way to slow! ( i mean specifically battles) but besides that it is an ok game. you could add a few more battle dynamics, and maybe some more over-world stuff. check out the game civilization for ideas maybe.

the only major flaw i found was that i was unable to retreat from battles, and there didnt seem to be any way of checking how strong someone was without either attacking with a full fleet or sending in a scout that would inevitably die.
otherwise this is tite.

Nice game ...kind of sucks cause I can only choose from 4 nations :(....