The campaign opens by consolidating ships instead of leaving them in small packets that can be picked off. Weaker naval units stay behind as port defenses, with pirates posing an immediate threat to exposed harbors. Later, an army is stationed in a port to prevent hostile fleets from raiding it. The sequence turns fleet management into a simple age-of-sail lesson: concentrate mobile forces, then give ports enough local protection to preserve the economic base behind the fleet.
Notable Point · 2:38-5:53
Fleet concentration and port defense
The opening setup and a later anti-raid measure turn Empire Total War fleet handling into a short lesson on concentration and layered port defense.