So...what am I doing wrong?

[Laugh10704]

Trying, for the sixth time, to beat this game on the easiest level. I declare independence, the REF comes over, and I kill a bunch. And then, the Man-o-wars just start circling around one of my port cities. Forever. For 80+ turns they will just circle around doing absolutely nothing. No more REF comes over, so I can't win the game. This has happened multiple times.

Am I missing something about this game

 

[Refar]

It's a bug. And you are missing one of multiple threads that already exist, on how to deal with this.
In short, the MoW snaped. You need to do something to unsnap them. Offering them a cheap ship to kill (preferably somewhere not too close you your city) will do the trick sometimes. Or emptying the city they are bombarding of troops.

 

[Imagawa99]

just out of interest Laugh10704, have you put one your own ships into an indian village? i had half an idea that this might have been what caused the MoWs to behave like this

 

[Laugh10704]

No, I had no ships in an indian village. I -did- have ships in port (which the Man o wars blocked from exiting or attacking btw) however deleting the ships had no effect. Also, moving all my troops out of the blocked city had no effect as well.