I’ll take a look at your fleets. I really like the submarines lore-wise but I could see myself going for one of their wooden ships + Devil Ray if that makes it somewhat more playable.
As for the other fleets:
I forget what the other fleet was in the Antonio/False Treasure game but I got really lucky with False Treasure, I think it eliminated 13-14 gold.
Zephyr beating Acorazado happened just recently. Acorazado wiped out an entire Pirate fleet except for the Zephyr, losing one mast in the process. Zephyr was able to evade it long enough to set up a fort. Acorazado sailed up to the fort (Devil’s Maw) and hit it twice. The Maw was able to hit twice to bring Acorazado down to three masts, then Zephyr darted out and rammed Acorazado. The ram was successful, then in the boarding party they each rolled a 7, except Zephyr’s +1 bonus gave it the win and eliminated Admiral Castro. With Zephyr now blocking Acorazado’s line of sight to the fort, Spain just sunk the Zephyr to end the game rather than risk another turn.
Turns out, the pirates had enough gold in the Maw to win.