Ok I know a lot of you will say only cowards run and that it is a pirate game so you should stand and fight. But lets say my ship is loaded with loot and my enemies have no loot, I stand to gain absolutely nothing by standing my ground and fighting but I have all my loot to lose by standing and fighting, therefore the enemy has nothing to lose and I have everything to lose, this scenario doesn't make the choice to stand and fight a reasonable or smart choice.
Not only that but let's say you do stand and fight, you win the fight, the enemy has a good chance to spawn nearby only to come right back at you.
I approach this game with a little strategy, I don't always go in guns blazing especially with a lot of loot unless my attacker also has a lot of loot.
You can say that you could drop gunpowder barrels in the water but doing this you're hoping for the best and even if you do manage to strike their ship it is highly unlikely to sink them or even stop them. gunpowder barrels are high risk, very low reward.
I don't know the solution, but fleeing ships should have some options rather than boarding or standing their ground, if a crew is half decent they can prevent boarders with ease.
I personally wouldn't mind the ability to launch blunder bombs and fire bombs back towards enemies out of lets say a mini cannon, blunder bombs would slow enemy ships while also knocking their ship off course on impact. I wouldn't go as far as allowing us to launch cannon balls off the back of our ships but the blunder bomb idea I would stand by 100%
