Pirates!

PIRATES! is the third battle in Act I: Blood. The knights begin a voyage to the New World, but encounter pirates on the way.

Library of Stone & Lizzie the Pirate
In the cutscene Library of Stone: Morgan and Alain discover the real reason the Ottomans had attacked Malta. After Alain is conveniently able to decipher the Circle of Ossus writing he sends Morgan to the New World to stop the Ottomans from getting their hands on this "Lake of the Moon".

In the cutscene Lizzie the Pirate: The Knights of St. John are waylaid by a band of pirates, led by Elisabet Ramsey. Her fire ships severely damage the knights flagship and sink it's escorts. The knights are stranded until help arrives and they can force their way past the heavily fortified pirate base.

Naval Supremacy Strategy
You begin with a handful of military units, resource crates and a Covered Wagon for building your new Town Center. It will prove to be your greatest weapon repeatedly during this battle, though your flagship will be no slouch either.

The strategy runs mostly on naval superiority, the town center anti-ship attack, and galleons as mobile barracks. Building up your base is once again not overly important, however the position of your town center is of utmost importance. Initially you can get by with just crossbowmen. Do not use cavalry such as hussars at all during this battle, they are weak against pirates (which have x4.0 multipliers against them). They have no such multipliers against crossbowmen (Ranged Infantry), and pirates range limitation lessens the dangers to crossbowmen. Also for the first little bit you do not want to spend coins on rodeleros, stockpile it for aging to Fortress as quickly as possible (this seems to be the trigger for more ships and armies being sent to you automatically from Malta). 15-20 crossbowmen should be enough for the first ten or fifteen minutes of the game when used with Morgan's swashbuckler attack.