What we discovered when we added many "PGG" characters (those are the "hero" characters you can select to start a new game) is that the original COAS had a feature where the other heroes you did not select travel the map to the different colonies while you play and they consume both store goods and tavern crew resources. So now that we have so many in ERAS, that often depletes the availability of things like store powder and ammunition. We have not changed or disabled this feature. The workaround is to capture prize ships and take their powder and ammo.
There is no colony management and the only benefit is for the tax money.