Captain Dodson

So I have started playing the American campaign today and overall I have enjoyed it. However, the ship choice from the admiralty is horrid and the resources are incredibly miniscule. I played on easy mind you. I understand the developers are trying to give a sense of inferiority to the Royal Navy but its a bit too much in my opinion. My biggest pet peeve right now is the fact that one of the few choices for ships you have from the admiralty is an unrated cutter. When I bought the first unrated cutter from the admiralty, I didnt have any choices at all for mounting cannon on it (no its not a troop ship). I bought another cutter meant to have 12 guns and still didnt have any choices to mount guns. Essentially I bought two ships from the admiralty and could not use them at all... Now I have had literally only two choices of armed ships so far, a cutter and sloop. One type I cannot arm at all and the other I simply cant afford. The 3rd choice is 5 or 6 troop carrying sloops when I only need one this far in the campaign. Am I missing something here? Besides these issues and a few bugs its been fairly decent! The Royal Navy campaign is much more enjoyable so far.

I have purchased the Commodore Edition of the game. This version of pre-order pack is advertised to allow you access to the alpha testing program. I have yet to receive my email for the link and info to allow me to play this game. What is the deal?