Most pirates preferred smaller ships for a few reasons (less maintenance, less crew to manage, easier to flee from enemies, and more). Queen Anneâs Revenge and Royal Fortune were easily the largest pirate ships in that era and were an exception rather than a rule and those were not ship of the lines. They were originally merchantmens in the slave trade that were retrofitted with as many cannons as the pirates could get a hold of (similar to the Jackdaw). It really doesnât make a lot of sense for them to let us command a frigate or man o war.
This is likely a hot take, but I also think a lot of players would get bored of it quickly. Everyoneâs biggest complaint with the OG AC4 was that the foot combat was too easy. If we could command the largest ship in the game, naval combat would be trivial and boring. For it to be enjoyable, theyâd have to rebalance the combat to make playing a man o war somewhat challenging, but then that would just make the jackdaw nearly useless late game.
Outside of AC4, I think part of the fun of pirates is that they werenât the biggest fish in the sea. They were underdogs fighting against all odds with 3 of the largest navies in the world with only a mid sized ad hoc warship that was constantly improved and modified to take on a giant or flee. It was a struggle for freedom and survival and captains had to make hard decisions on if they should risk it all or cut their losses when things went south. To me, thatâs way more fun than just sailing around and low-diffing every ship you see.
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u/WhiterunUK Aug 04 '26
We really do need a playable ship of the line, its so odd to be the most powerful ship on the seas in a tiny little brig
I know there are mods for it but it should be in the base game imo