Purchasing Advice

[Hjl]

Yes it is a pain. I shop at miniature market when I want anything. I believe they ship internationally.

If I were you I'd get a first, 2 thirds, 2 frigates and an unrated. Then expand with more 3rds/4ths/2nds depending on your desires. Can't really go wrong with lots of thirds and frigates.

[Bligh]

I echo Hugh's opinion here Alan.
As a rule of thumb you should have at least five 74s to each other type of liner until you build up your fleet to the point of being able to pop in the ships you want and switch 100s around as you wish. With seven 100 gunners and all the 74s they do plus a couple of repaints, and ships for both sides of the cards, I am still pushing this ratio over the top. On good advice I use a couple of the 100s for second rates now.

The Spanish and French did tend to have a few more big ships than we did, so you could add an extra one here. As for Frigates, no battle line employed them excepting as repeater ships, towing disabled Liners or harrying enemy escaping ships.
As far as I know the largest all Frigate action consisted of six a side, so you are never likely to need more than that.

Rob.