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While sailing my Basic Cutter on routine trade interdiction duties on behalf of His Royal Majesty, King George III, I encountered a large American assault fleet just north of Xpu Ha on the Yucatan peninsula. The fleet was sailing south towards British territory, and their bellicose motives were self-evident. As a loyal subject of the Crown, I immediately notified British national chat of my observations and proceeded to shadow the fleet, comprised of three Victory-class 1st rates, two Bellona-class 3rd rates, a Constitution, two Trincomalee-class 5th rates, and multiple Frigates and Surprises. The fleet, aware of my presence, made for Xpu Ha and entered the port, leaving a single Trincomalee outside with sails down to keep an eye on me. After standing off upwind for a few minutes, me watching him, and he watching me, I observed additional USA ships sailing down from the Tumbado area to join the rest of the assault fleet in port. Before long, I intuited that the Trincomalee was waiting for me to sail away so that he could give a signal to the rest of the fleet that it was clear to move out. In a maneuver that I can only describe as somewhat inspired, I spotted some NPC fleets just south of the port and quickly raised my own sails and maneuvered to intercept them. As I sailed in front of an NPC Constitution, blocking my Cutter's view from the Trincomalee back in Xpu Ha, I quickly dropped my sails, confident my small profile would be invisible from the port. Within seconds of this ruse, I was proved right, as the entire US assault fleet spilled out of Xpa Ha and veritably filled the channel with their sails. I immediately raised my own sails and gave chase. The wind had shifted to my favor, so despite the fact that I was south of them, I was able to sail on a comfortable beam reach while maintaining a position well upwind of them, completely preventing them from engaging me as their square rigged ships could not sail up to reach me. And they had no fore-and-aft rigged ships to deal with such a situation. I continued to give position and status updates to my British compatriots in national chat, where a plan of defense was quickly formulated. As the assault fleet approached Chinchorro, the wind was shifting to the east and I moved to the head of the column to obtain a more advantageous position. Due to the nearby presence of land, this allowed one of the Surprises to engage me in battle, though I was able to bear off and ensure that he'd be nowhere near me once the battle instance loaded. Once in the instance, I set off on a close reach and easily sailed away from the Surprise, but while doing so, the captain of one of the Victory-class ships purchased a conquest flag for Brewers - a ways south of Chinchorro. However, because of my shadowing of the fleet, and my reporting to British national chat, it was obvious to all that Brewers was almost certainly a ruse, so one of my compatriots immediately purchased a conquest flag for Asuncion - a USA port nearby Chinchorro - in the hopes of tricking the assault fleet into switching to defense. As I dropped out of the battle instance, none the worse for wear, I saw that a rainstorm had set in. Despite the reduced visibility, I spotted sails in the distance and quickly identified one of the fleet ships I'd seen previously. They had completely reversed direction and were headed towards Congrios / Asuncion for what they thought was a counterstrike. Our plan had worked. I continued to shadow the fleet and found them anchored off the estuary between Congrios and Asuncion, sails down, waiting for a British assault fleet that was, unbeknownst to them, never going to materialize. After sending a NavyBrig to engage me, which I again easily sailed away from, it became clear that they'd fallen for a trick and with the last few minutes of their conquest timer slipping through their fingers, they relented and dispersed. I shadowed the three Victory-class 1st rates to what appeared to be their home port in Tumbado, exchanging a bit of goodnatured ribaldry via PM with the conquest flag holder. Hats off to my British countrymen who, through subterfuge and misdirection, were able to completely stymie a US assault fleet, preventing a British port in the Yucatan from being lost, with no losses of their own and absolutely minimal cost. A lovely evening, indeed!