So, I have seen a free mobile game and I think it is for pc is a game with turn-based combat, sea-sail, and easy explore mechanics is Polytopia, you start with 4 free tribes but the rest have to be purchased if you want them. Not high on the list, but a great game to play if you are waiting somewhere or have about 10 minutes or something free-time

Has anyone played Atlas? https://store.steampowered.com/app/834910/ATLAS/

As far as online titles go it does look solid on the first glance and pvp seems to be thankfully optional...

Haven't played it yet but seems like a mix of Impressions city builder and naval RTS : https://youtu.be/Jo9lZ3O31Qg?t=1250

Here's one that can have interesting naval battles that no one ever mentions:

Commander: Conquest of the Americas

trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGgCI5ByMU

I love the original Colonization. It's the game that made me interested in this time period in the first place.

https://www.gog.com/game/pirates_gold_plus
https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale
https://www.gog.com/game/port_royale_2
https://www.gog.com/game/sid_meiers_civilization_iv_the_complete_edition
https://www.gog.com/game/europa_universalis_iii_complete

Civ IV Complete has standalone remake of the classic Colonization in 3D.
EU series has exploration and colonisation that play important role. Since it's strategy game, it's sea battles are unfortunately quite boring.

I've been circling these games for a long time but still haven't played them. You're enjoying the naval combat? Seems they decided to go turn-based on 4. Wonder how that worked out?

WOW, thanks for the heads up! Ive never heard of this game... the combat looks good... and it's on GOG!

I'm extremely interested in Ultimate Admiral Age of Sail. Has anyone played it?

I just remembered American Conquest, made by the same devs of the Cossacks and STALKER series. I have them on steam but haven't played them yet, but it seems they do have a naval combat element : https://youtu.be/k7pWLMgezwY
Its an RTS set in the correct time-period though it needs some fan patches to get it working properly IIRC.

Haven't play Ultimate Admiral but it seems to be set in the later part of the age of exploration, ie 1700s and beyond. I haven't played it but do know that its made by the Total War DarthMod developer: https://www.ultimategeneral.com/blog/my-modding-work and https://www.ultimategeneral.com/blog/from-darthmod-to-game-design so it's probably a safe buy. I've read their naval combat MMO was shady in a steam-review though.

I assume you avoid Steam?
I enjoyed Imperial Glory but it feels old now. Like I said, like old Napoleon: Total War. But NTW is slightly more hardcore and more detailed. There generals have no effect whatsoever in Imperial Glory. They're just names and troop carrier and there's no admirals. There's no morale concept in Imperial Glory. Generals and admirals' traits have effects in combat in NTW, including morale effects.

Ultimate Admiral Age of Sail is on my wishlist. I haven't played their older games: Ultimate General (both Civil War and Gettysburg), but their games are good. My guess is Ultimate Admiral will be more towards hardcore.

I enjoy Port Royal 3 including the naval battles, although I hate some parts of it. Chain shot and grape shot ammo are limited and they produced by towns over time. I don't like the aiming system. This game is designed to be casual, but some mechanics become unintentionally a bit hardcore, in my opinion. There's no ammo limit in ETW, NTW or Imperial Glory or Pirates! and their aiming systems are much better. In PR3 the gunner becomes confused, switching targets when two or more ships get close together. In ETW or NTW, this is good, you can shoot at their general direction and can hit them both, thus more efficient shooting. There's no wind direction or strength indicator although if these do affect your speed. Historically, anemometer has been invented long before this game period. There are wind and speed indicators in ETW/NTW, Pirates!, Imperial Glory. No wind speed indicator in ETW/NTW, but you can see the water surface to get the idea how strong the wind is, also the weather.

I'm not against turn-based naval combat, as I prefer TBS to RTS (I'm a strategy aficionado), talking about PR4. But they did it badly in PR4. No chain shot, no effects due to wind, no speed, so I heard from reviews. Poorly implemented. But I'm still somewhat excited to play it someday because the looks got better. I hope they improve this game a lot before they abandon development.

Imperial Glory was a "Total War little". It was polished, looked great, simplified but attractive strategic and diplomatic mode, Unitil I stopped playing it when I saw some great looking and smooth tactical battles but without a morale mode implemented. Your battallions lose men and they only stop fighting when the last man is dead, no retreats or partial force units which could return to battle. This was Zero or One, I considered it stupid and broke the game for me.

This is not Sid meier Gettysburg, or Ultimate General, or even Total War. This ruined a game that could have been a good quality alternative to the genre due to a bad implementation of what simplify things to appeal gamers meant. A pure misunderstanding.

Anyone remember The Ancient Art of War at Sea?

It got an award for Best Packaging ^_^

Notice how the crosshair moves. This is a pre-mouse game.

I downloaded the first Port Royale recently. It's a very challenging and fun game. Aside from the sea battles, which I like because they occur in real time and require planning and tactics, there are also missions to do to go up in rank. There's also an economic aspect which I still haven't mastered but my friend is able to make millions of in each game. I haven't figured out how to play outside of our local network.

If I had to play favourites among those available at GOG, I guess that would be Port Royale 2 (later instalments look better but are somewhat lacking and not as satisfying) for a strategy, and Corsairs aka Sea Dogs: City of Abandoned Ships (Caribbean Tales' also ain't as bad as its rep if modded) for Action-RPG.

Try Redhook's Revenge. It's a pirate trivia board game. Imagisoft made it free on their website. You can raid ports for loot, battle other pirates and steal their gold.

Heart of Africa maybe?

Loved 7 Cities of Gold back in my C64 days...