Questions on naval combat

[moose1999]

Just read the Wargamer preview and I liked what it said about naval combat.
I'm especially very pleased with the fact that momentum plays a role when manoeuvring your ships.
A couple of questions, though:

How will wind direction and strength influence ship manoeuvring?

Will ships be forced to use up all their movement points? (another way of simulating momentum)

Will the ships in general be limited in their manoeuvrability (big part of the fun of age of sail naval combat is the relatively limited control of speed and manoeuvrability of the ships - this forces you to think ahead...)

Will ships get more movement points when sailing downwind? So we can turn into the wind to slow down and gain extra movement points (within the same turn) by turning our ship to ride with the wind?

How do you model the different manoeuvrability and speed of different ship classes? Just by giving them more (or less) movement points or making it cost more movement points for a big ship to turn?
Or is it more detailed, like using turn-radius? For example, a big, heavy ship will have a bigger turn radius, using three or more hexes to turn around, while a small, more nimble ship can more or less turn on a dime/hex...?

Will there be unique models for all ship classes in detailed combat?

Will there be unique ship classes/types for some countries/provinces?
Specifically, will I be able to harass English shipping in The Sound (the water between Denmark and Sweden) with my historically accurate fleet of small, fast, manoeuvrable, oar-driven gunboats...?[:D] (I know I'm stretching it here...)
I assume the answer to the above question is no - but will I be able to mod them in somehow...?
Should I start working on the models right away...? [:)]

And last question:

Are you aware that CoG:EE looks f... good...!?

[Gil R.]

Sorry, been busy. I'll try to answer these.

Wind has an enormous impact on how far a ship can sail in each direction, whether it can turn, how accurately it fires, etc. If you look at the screenshot in Jim Cobb's preview you'll see two big arrows showing wind direction, so as you can see it's something you need to know at all times. Winds can go from light breeze to gale.

Ships do not HAVE to use each movement point. (Ships can also drop anchor, which is another matter.) There is an inertia rule that has ships move forward slightly before their turn begins, depending on their speed, etc.

Ships do maneuver, with size/type and condition (i.e., whether their rigging is all shot up or rudder destroyed) having significant impact.

Different ship types have different base movement points, but then there are a bunch of modifiers.

For tacking, different ship types have a different chance of success depending on wind speed (e.g., in a light breeze a frigate is more than twice as likely as a 1st-rate ship).

We don't have a ship type that only one country uses, but the basic stats do vary somewhat, so that a French 1st-rate ship might be different from a Turkish one. And yes, this is all very moddable.

I hope this was worth the wait. (My response, not the game, I mean.)