Overland Travel

If you run your ship aground on a large landmass far enough from any ports, a landing party will be formed. Using the keypad to move around, you can lead a group to explore the island. You can press "r" at any time to immediately return to your ship, or you can physically return to the ship overland. If you enter a port while commanding a landing party, you will have 3 options:
 * Enter town


 * Attack town (x pirates vs. x defenders)

However, if your crew is too small to put up a fight against the defenders, the "attack town" option will be gray, and clicking it won't do anything. If you take the first option, you will go to the regular port interface. If you choose the last option, your party will simply reappear back on the map right next to the town. If you decide the odds are good enough, and attack the town, you will enter an intricate system for a land battle worthy of its own game.
 * Leave town

If you win the battle, you will ransack the city, taking an enormous amount of gold (but no resources). You then get to decide if you want to install a new Governor in the port. If you install a Governor, you can choose any type (Spanish, French, Dutch, British) except for the type that the city used to be. The city will still be poor, but it will still have any qualities the town had before, and it will be a new port for the nation you decided. This has a massive effect on your rank, almost automatically promoting you.

Using this method, you could theoretically take out an entire nation, or all the nations except one, but the practical implications of it are astounding.