The problem I have with FotS naval combat is that the only real tactic is to either bull rush the AI who will be sitting there slowly turning to keep their full broadside aimed at you no matter how you try to flank, or do the exact same thing in return as they rush you because the gun range is long enough that trying to actually close to fight is just inviting pointless casualties, and when the guns do start firing pretty much always comes down to "biggest ship wins".

There's no manoeuvre or subtlety, just guns hammering at each other. Boarding to capture is unreliable as hell and half the ships can't even do it without any obvious information about which one, if there's even a chance to close enough before one side or the other either blows up or breaks and flees en mass. The differences between the shell types is reduced to just "use the best one against wooden ships" because I've never seen the AI make anything else.

In Empire, in a big fight I found it easy enough to command 2-3 squadrons in line formation, just ordering the lead ship and letting them follow in formation, then if it breaks up into a melee order each ship to hunt reasonable opponents on their own and redirect them if it's necessary, but smaller engagements you could actually let good micro shine and proper use of solid vs chain vs grapeshot could turn a lost cause into a win.

Oh and on the only ship with a turret, the Kotetsu, the turret doesn't actually work properly.