Ok so I had my first thoughts on the scenario goals:

Winning conditions:

The Royal Navy under Nelson's command win the game if:

a) More French ships are destroyed or forced to surrender then British ships
and
b) The Orient is destroyed
and
c) three to four ships of the Royal Navy have sailed between the coast/shoals and the French line

Rules in play:

Standard rules with collission
Sail setting for the RN
Let the men drink for the RN


Special rules:

The Orient: No special damages except for the Orient. The moment she receives a fire damage, she gets one fire damage marker at the start of every round. The moment the Orient is destroyed and on fire, she explodes. As a result of the explosion, each French ship gets two crew damages and no ship (French & British) is allowed to fire for the following round.

French ships: A lot of sailors were not on board of the French ships when the RN arrived at Abukir. Each French ship has one crew damage token at the start of the battle to represent this.

Sunset: The last 30 minutes before the scenario ends (2 hours) - each ship can only fire at half range for the rest of the game

British captains: Are free to discuss the order of their ships, targets to destroy, movements and positions they want to sail to. It's allowed to show and plan open the sail setting tokens and the let the men drink token, but it's not allowed to show the planned movement cards to each other.

Ranking order in the RN: There will be two RN commanders - Nelson on the HMS Vanguard - in command of the ships that will attack from the seaside
and
the Captain of the HMS Goliath (Thomas Foley) - in command of the 3 - 4 ships that will sail between the coast/shoals and the French line.

Admiral Horatio Nelson & HMS Vanguard: Will get some Captain & crew abilities

Hidden special rule: Will be announced during play as a surprise.



These are my first thoughts and I'll put them in the second post of this thread for a better visibility.

More ideas?