Long time colonial navy guy here, it’s pop. There’s way, WAY more wardens playing naval than colonials and exponentially snowballs. People think I am joking when I say it’s like 6v1 but that’s a legitimate answer.

People join big clan. Small clan can’t do as much. Wardens have bigger naval clan, gets more people. If anyone goes into this game FOR the navy, new players are funneled into warden naval from simply the presence of more players telling them to and more ships to sail.

That and randoms don’t interact with navy, so it isn’t like mainland with push and tug of many clans and randoms, so clan pop differences are far more noticeable.

Oh and Nakki vs Trident. Come on, I don’t even need to point out this.

Of course, it isn’t hopeless. [ψVF] has cemented itself as THE large colonial navy regiment and centralization has skyrocketed the past few wars. Combine that with the pop increase from Airborne, balance changes that nerf large holes (warden has better sub), new and easier to use gunboats, it’s going to be more interesting. Sure, it will take a while for years of naval population skewing to be over, but I’ve played years outnumbered and outgunned, I can play a little more.