Yes the limited palette was very challenging in differentiating friend from foe. There's a little dot or x in the top right of a ship tile to help out, but I don't think that was communicated in the tutorial and its a very small detail so it doesn't help too much. On the fire barrel, its mostly meant to be used on high health targets like the Avarice, the brigs, and man of wars. A single hit on them could easily do 4-6 damage over the course of the battle so 60% was where we settled on accuracy. I've seen multiple line ups get brought to the final battle and win, which is great cause that means more strategies can work! My personal line up was the starting frigate, two man o Wars, and three brigs. I have seen the 3 Man o War line up you got work as well. I agree that you might not need most of the abilities for a lot of the earlier levels, but on that boss they are essential. Abilities is the advantage the player has over the ai. The Man o War and Brig abilities in particular are very powerful. Thank you so much for the in depth review!