FLS has posted an overview of the Point Battle system in Pirates of the burning Sea, which is a variant rule set of a typical skirmish battle.

Point Battles

Skirmish was created to give you a way to try out battles and experiment in ways that can’t happen elsewhere in the game. In a normal skirmish, you can set restrictions on what is allowed in a match. This leads to everyone building to the limit of those restrictions. Why take a player in a sloop if the same slot can be filled by a high end frigate? That’s where point battles enter the picture.
What is a point battle?

Every battle in Pirates of the Burning Sea is restricted by the number of players. With the point battle option checked in skirmish, the limit switches from player count to player strength. The battle creator can set a point value for each side in a skirmish, and then players can fill up each side until they hit the point cap. This allows organized groups to arrange battles and find good configurations for a point cap. Sure, you can field a full group of SOLs with a high point cap, but then you might find yourself heavily outnumbered by a mixed fleet of cutters, frigates and maybe a flagship. Ever want to try an all-sloop versus all-SOL battle? Now you can.

Read more here.