Ship of the Line · published · build 25017120
Hello, Captains.
Today, we are finally opening Campaign Mode.First, I want to be completely straightforward with you:There are still many bugs.This is not a finished campaign being released as a completed feature. I am opening it now because I want to begin testing, fixing, and improving it together with you.If you encounter something strange, get stuck, or simply think,“Wouldn’t this work better another way?”please let me know.Your reports and feedback will directly shape the next patches.
Before talking about fleets, ports, or strategy, I want to explain what this campaign is really about.People.Ships are not counters.A 74-gun ship is not simply a number in a spreadsheet. It has a name, a captain, officers, and hundreds of men who eat, work, fight, survive — or sometimes do not come home.That is the part of this campaign I care about most.Everything else exists to give those people a war worth living through.
Captains and officers are not just collections of statistics.They have origins, personalities, patrons, rivals, careers, promotions, failures, and endings.Some are real historical figures — men such as Keppel, Harland, and others whose surviving records we followed.Others are reconstructed or fictional officers created to fill the fleets of the period.To make that distinction clear, every officer is classified into one of four historical tiers:
A — Strong historical record: based closely on surviving historical sources
B — Historical figure with limited records: sources supplemented by restrained reconstruction
C — Plausible fictional figure: created to represent a person who could reasonably have existed in the period
D — Fully fictional: created entirely for the game
Tiers C and D are fictional.They will never be presented as documented historical figures, and I ask that they not be quoted or referenced as real history.
An officer’s record is not fixed at the beginning of the campaign.It grows out of what actually happens under your command.A frigate captain may cut out a prize beneath the guns of a coastal battery.A lieutenant may receive promotion because the officer above him was killed.A flag officer may see his career destroyed by a court martial after a battle you ordered.Those events become part of their personal chronicle.The game records them in the restrained language of a naval record:“It is recorded that…”The campaign does not simply generate battles.It generates careers.
Ships carry their own histories.Where they were built.Which battles they fought.What damage they suffered.Which flag they served under.Who commanded them.If you capture an enemy vessel, it does not simply become generic tonnage in your fleet.It keeps its history.Its flag may change.Its past does not.And when a ship is finally lost, its record remains.Nothing is simply discarded.Over the course of a long campaign, these records accumulate into something more important to me than a victory screen:a history that belongs only to your campaign.
The year is 1778.The American Revolutionary War has expanded beyond North America, drawing the major naval powers of Europe into a wider Atlantic conflict.In Campaign Mode, you move fleets across a strategic map.When an enemy fleet is encountered, the battle uses the same combat system you have already been playing.Strategy and tactics are not separate worlds.The decisions you make on the campaign map determine the battles you fight.The results of those battles then reshape the campaign.Lose a ship, and your fleet becomes weaker.Capture an enemy vessel, and it becomes part of your own navy.Damage must be repaired.Losses remain losses.Nothing resets when the battle ends.And the people who survive carry that battle with them.
Campaign Mode currently allows you to play as:Great Britain · France · Spain · the Netherlands · the United StatesEach nation begins with different fleets, strategic positions, available forces, and war objectives.Before beginning, you can review each nation’s situation and victory conditions.You may attempt to preserve British naval dominance across the Atlantic.You may challenge it as France or Spain.You may fight for survival and independence as the United States.Or you may pursue the interests of the Netherlands amid a widening international war.Each nation begins from a different strategic position, with its own officer corps, fleets, and opportunities.
The campaign is not limited to a single region.The map stretches from the eastern coast of North America, across the Atlantic, to the English Channel, North Sea, Bay of Biscay, Iberian Peninsula, and parts of the Mediterranean.North America and Europe exist within one connected strategic theater.Crossing the Atlantic is itself a strategic decision.Fleet positioning matters.Supply routes matter.Ports matter.Control of major sea lanes matters.Where will you concentrate your fleet?Which ports must be defended?Which enemy bases should be blockaded?Where can you cut the enemy’s supply routes?These decisions can alter the entire course of the war.The coastline and terrain are based on real geographic data, and ports function as active strategic locations rather than simple markers on the map.
Ports are not decorations.They are where your fleets are:Repaired · Supplied · ConstructedLosing a major port means more than losing territory.It can reduce your ability to sustain naval operations across an entire region.Likewise, blockading an enemy base can limit the movement and supply of opposing fleets.A strategy such as blockading Brest to contain the French fleet can emerge naturally within the campaign.Destroying ships, protecting ports, maintaining supply routes, and denying those same resources to the enemy are all part of the same war.
When fleets meet, you have two choices:
Direct Command — Enter the battle and personally command your fleet
Delegate — Allow the AI to resolve the engagement
Regardless of your choice, the result becomes permanent.A sunk ship does not return.A captured vessel joins your navy.A damaged vessel must be repaired before returning to full strength.Even a victory may come at a strategic cost if several important ships are badly damaged.Likewise, an enemy fleet does not need to be completely destroyed for a battle to matter.Capturing a key vessel, forcing the enemy back to port, or damaging its ability to operate may be enough to change the wider campaign.Every battle changes what happens next.And every battle becomes part of the histories of the ships and officers who fought it.
Capturing an enemy port may require more than naval superiority.Sometimes, troops must go ashore.Campaign operations can continue into land battles and sieges.Break gates.Raise ladders against the walls.Exchange musket fire with defenders on the ramparts.Attack fortifications and force your way into the position.A naval engagement may lead directly into a landing operation and siege.Naval superiority creates opportunities on land.Captured ports then become bases for future operations at sea.The two theaters are connected.
Campaign Mode is the largest system added to the game so far.There is still a great deal that needs work.In particular:
Strategic decision-making by AI nations
Long-term campaign balance
Fleet movement and supply
Differences in national behavior
Delegated battle results
Landing operations and port captures
Officer careers and promotions
Automatically generated chronicles
Rare bugs that only appear under specific conditions
These are systems that can only be properly tested once many campaigns have actually been played.For that reason, I do not consider this the completion of Campaign Mode.This is the beginning of serious testing and development.
If you encounter a bug, please tell me:Which nation you were playing, where you were, what you were doing, and what happened.If possible, include a save file or screenshot.That can make it much easier to identify the cause.And feedback does not need to be limited to technical problems.Comments such as:“This part is not fun.”“This is difficult to understand.”“The AI is behaving strangely.”“I think this system should work differently.”“This officer’s record does not read like a real historical record.”are just as valuable as bug reports.
The combat side of the game has already improved enormously because of the problems, suggestions, and ideas you have shared while playing.I want to build the campaign in exactly the same way.This update is not the end.It is the beginning.Play it.Break it.Find the strange things.I will fix them one by one, add what is missing, and continue building Campaign Mode into something deeper, more believable, and more alive.Thank you very much for waiting.See you at sea, Captains.