Ares shot themselves in the foot with such a cramped stat range, which means that if there is to be any meaningful differentiation between the larger ships then smaller ships get lumped into a very unsatisfactory saminess. What works really well, if you are looking at "small ship" actions (frigates and smaller) is to restat the ships so that a high-end frigate has similar gunnery and burden stats to a top of the range SOL and work down from that. I've tried it informally a few times, and it makes for much more satisfying frigate actions, and lets you generate some real differences between various types of 28, 32 and 36 gunners. One day, when I get some time, I may just work up some ships mats fr this approach, unless someone picks up the ball and runs with it (I'm not exactly flush with free time just now)