The Arsenals

There are three ports in every ocean with purple stars on them.

The Arsenals

Broad ArrowsTokenIron arrowheads struck with the Crown's mark, pried off an Arsenal's stores. Nobody else stamps them, and the Arsenal's smiths take them back for work.FoundTaking an Arsenal (the purple-starred ports) Arsenal ChestChestAn iron-strapped chest from an Arsenal strongroom. Stores by the ton, the deep materials, and now and then a piece of the Arsenal's own gear.

A Royal Dockyard, an Arsenal and a Grand Arsenal stand in every ocean, five hundred, a thousand and fifteen hundred ships deep, with a purple star for each five hundred. A raid on one has no fleet cap. Bring everything.

• A taken Arsenal pays Broad Arrows, and nothing else in the game does. It rebuilds over a week, and a port taken half-rebuilt pays half.
• Taken near full strength it gives up an Arsenal Chest: stores by the ton, the deep materials, and now and then a piece of the Arsenal's own gear.
• Three pieces, raised through five stages with the Arrows: the Commodore's Pennant, the Signal Book and the Dockyard Maul. Each pays its best to a fleet of three hundred hulls or more.
• An Admiralty Station sometimes gives up a Mysterious Message. Read it in your Dispatches and it shows a bearing, nothing else. Sail there.
• Four more pieces the chest gives up once and never raises: the Ram Prow, the Dockmaster's Bicorne, the Keel-Laying Ring and the Master Gunner's Linstock. Rare. A hunt.

Battles You Can See

Man-o'-WarHeavyCombatShip of the line. The most powerful warship afloat. Requires steel plating.Attack 1000Hull 800Cargo 300Speed 3Powder 60/rd Coastal FortressHeavyDefenceA stone star fortress. Guns behind walls that take a fleet to bring down.Attack 300Hull 500Powder 20/rd Heavy CannonHeavyDefenceA 32-pounder. Devastating at range. Built for frigate lines.Attack 60Hull 40Powder 6/rd

A thousand-ship battle now draws every ship. The fleets shrink to fit, the water fills from edge to edge, and the losses fall across the whole mass as the rounds go by.

• A defence catches fire the moment the broadside that fells it lands, burns through the round and comes down with the ships, not after them.
• A port with more guns than fit its shore now stands them in ranks, so every work you destroy is on screen to be destroyed.
• A fight against an Arsenal plays out over several rounds, focused fire and a slower burn, so there is something to watch.

Deploy Brings Them Home

Supply BarqueMediumCargoA deep-hulled barque built for hauling cargo to distant colonies.Attack 0Hull 80Cargo 2500Speed 4 OakumMaterialTarred rope fibre for caulking ship hulls. Bought from trade posts.FoundIron Chests, Gold Chests and Treasure HoardsBought for gold at a Caulker's Yard Barrel of CodSalt cod packed in brine. Sell, cook, or gut for materials.

Deploy now sends your ships home again with what you tell them to fetch. Load the hold, press Set Return, and one click moves goods both ways between your ports.

• Ships come home: the fleet unloads at your colony, picks up what you name there (a share of it, leaving as much behind as you say) and sails back.
• At a town: buy naval stores and ingredients with the gold aboard and gut your fish and barrels at the fishmonger, then sail home. The fleet waits at the town while the fishmonger works. With nothing set it docks and waits for you, as before.
• Haul Orders: save a return as an order and pick it from a list next time. An order holds instructions, never ships or a port, so one serves every colony.
• Trade is now part of Deploy. Aim a Deploy at a town and it is a trade run.
• Shipping Lanes, new research at the Guild: a fleet slot of its own for hauls at levels 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15, and every level makes hauls and town runs faster.
• Regular Run, a new Hauling achievement for hauls brought home.

Misc.

• Two or more scouts home now fold into one row. View All opens a single report that tallies the tiles charted, everything found and every ship lost, and one Continue brings them all in.

• A small alliance now fills an Elite raid's empty seats itself: the fewer members, the more hulls each may commit, up to three times the usual cap for an alliance of one.

• The Collections page now shows your Heirlooms and your Arsenal pieces as sets, each at the stage you have raised it to, and has achievements and titles for both.

• A haven on a Frontier seat now shows its stars and what stands on the quay, every hull and work on hover, so you know what you are sailing into.

• The havens now keep a line of frigates and galleons behind the swarm, and gunners who have drilled. A haven asks for the fleet its stars promise.

• Every fight in the Frontier now plays out over several rounds of focused fire, so a win can cost ships and a fleet that is outmatched is not wiped to the last hull.

• Reading a sea chart now unrolls the water it opens, with a course to set from the page.

• The guns now sound as they fire, every cannonball its own blast, a work blows apart and burns, and a great ship goes up as she goes down.

• A brush with one of the Frontier's captains now plays out in the visualiser like any other fight, win or lose.

• A Taskmaster's quest cards now show every material a quest pays, and the quest's name opens the full hover: what it needs, what it fights, what it pays.

• The Diving Bell Ship now costs no Sea-cured Oak, so Deep Salvage is open to the captain it is written for. The Bathysphere Tender carries the oak instead.

• The yard's by-product scrolls (Oak Curing, Silver Sifting, Lime Scraping, Store Picking) now turn up far more often on the shallow and reef wrecks, every ocean alike.

The Admiralty keeps its harbours well. Nobody has emptied one yet.