Imagination players. Read draft colony and trade rules for function.

Please read the following paragraph before possibly wasting your time: 

 I apologize to you gentle readers who do not have all the background on our local imagination campaign. The post is a read through for a very basic trade, colony and Pirates bolt on to our campaign. There's always someone who wants Pirates.

 I will not be offended if you skip the rest of the post. Campaign players skip at their peril!

So most of you will want to skip the remaining part of this post.

The Navy's will change based on this table. You can expect 500 points this year and next year but ratios of ships of the line to frigates, Frigates to Briggs is going to be kept. The cost of ships by the list which follows.

The colonies will be based on a map of the Caribbean. The colonies are three months sailing from the home continent. The map of the colonies and other Islands will be 20 miles per hex.
Each player starts with two colonies. Each player has 100 merchant ships to start. Players designate how many ships are local trade,  how many are in colonies, how many shuttle goods between the homeland and colonies and how many are privateers. 

Merchants will be listed as ships in various categories. So merchants will be either local to the country, meaning it trades with the continent or the ship is for the colonial trade or has become a privateer; privateers can change to pirates if unsuccessful.

 
Each year the trade revenue from shipping is one point per ship in local continent trade, two points if engaged in colonial trade. You must have ships in the shuttle service in order to use revenue in the homeland. 

Privateers will gain 3 points if successful. These three points will also be subtracted from the target countries trade revenue.
Letters of Marque will be issued for each privateer, must note the captain, ship name and which country is targeted. The governor of the colony can be given the authority issue Letters of Marque, corrupt governors will abuse the system.
If a privateer turns pirate, any shipping is a target, including country of origin.

 
At year end, trade revenue can be used to replace shipping losses, raise units for colonial defense or expansion, start a new colony. If a new colony is started, at least one half battalion will be needed for garrisoning.