On the first run through I was able to create expedition ship and travel to 3 different harbour locations. on the 2nd run through I was only able to travel to 2 other ports - one which is part of mainland and the other which has very little resources on and is not really worth it as it only has stone. any reason why expedition ships would become limited in travel options?

You can only sail to empty island harbours. If you can't sail anywhere, or if you are only able to sail in limited directions, then it means the computer players have already made their own harbours on the islands.

Basically you were too slow in building a harbour and sending ships out on expeditions to the islands.

Often you don't know what you're doing the first time you play a new map, as you don't know where anything is. But the second time you play it you can use what you've learnt to make a bee-line to the places that matter as soon as you spawn - which are predominantly the harbours and the mountains with minerals.

Bon Voyage!

Nice 1. That makes sense. Thanks.

I had also same problem when I play and ships didn't move to anywhere. I was ver angry and thought it was a technical mistake of game and quickly entered this forum. Now I see that only problem is being late on building ships.
Next time first object to built a ship

Glad to help.

Even "useless" islands are good for something on long maps. Such as:

1) Fishing - There's always fish there. You can set up two fishing huts spaced out. Or hunting huts if there are loads of trees and wildlife.
2) Setting up a forester + woodcutter + sawmill - to generate planks if space is tight on your main island.
3) Clearing the area and using the space for farming - For additional food sources.

etc.

All great resources for Ships to take back to your main island. If your main island needs those particular resources, the Ships will automatically fetch them for you.

One little trick I found to quickly explore and expand the territory on any new islands using just one Soldier is to build several barracks on the islands.

...And as soon as one barrack is built your Ship will go and collect a Soldier (if you have any spare on your main island) and take him to the island, and he will enter one barrack and expand the territory. If you then right-click the barrack and then click "evacuate" he will leave that barrack (while still retaining the territory) and, if you've built any other barracks, he will enter one of those to expand your territory in that direction too. If you've made any other barracks you can again right-click "evacuate" on the one he's in and he'll leave and enter another barrack on the island.

It makes it extremely quick to expand territory on another island with just the one Soldier if the island is otherwise uninhabited.

When your just playing the free game play, the ones without that are not the missions, is it true that there are no maps where you could build a harbour, or is there a map that where you could actually construct a harbour?