It occurred to me when playing today that while a dedicated assault on NW African towns can seriously slow down ships of factions you are unfriendly with on their way home (as they can't restock supplies), it doesn't actually confer THAT much of an advantage for the costs involved.
Would it be possible to modify the game in such a way that sailors began dying, or losing cargo in some way, if the ship ran out of range for too long?
The idea being to create a new tactical advantage (weakening the ship through crew loss, making it easier to attack), and an increased financial advantage (loss of cargo translating into loss of profits), making it far more worthwhile to monopolise the route back to Europe and making the harshness of running out of supplies on the open ocean more apparent.
Would it be possible to modify the game in such a way that sailors began dying, or losing cargo in some way, if the ship ran out of range for too long?
The idea being to create a new tactical advantage (weakening the ship through crew loss, making it easier to attack), and an increased financial advantage (loss of cargo translating into loss of profits), making it far more worthwhile to monopolise the route back to Europe and making the harshness of running out of supplies on the open ocean more apparent.
