New(er) Captain in Northern Virginia

[JimBlkHwk]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. Finally growing my fleet and gaming space. Going to dive into the solo campaigns in the coming days.

[Teamski]

I concentrated on 3rd-1st rates as sloops, 4th and 5th rates wouldn't have normally been used in a line of battle; in the end, you really don't need that many of them. as you won't see too many scenarios with more than a few engaged. Here is the fabric I use. It is a lot deeper of a color in person. I really like the textures.

-Eric

[Bligh]

Another thing to bear in mind, is the size of your table. Most two mat scenarios can't handle more than about six ships a side. If you go for bigger games at clubs, other players can contribute their ships to make up larger squadrons and Fleets. It is only obsessives like Chris and myself who collect enough ships to do Trafalgar and the Nile. We ask ourselves stupid questions like when will Ares bring out the Dutch so that we can do Camperdown.
If I were starting again with hindsight, I would restrict my Squadrons to the following for British, French and Spanish.
For each Nation:-
One First Rate, one 80, Three 74s, one 60 or 50, three Frigates of differing size, a couple of Sloops, and my two favourites a Bomb ketch and a Razee. If you add a Merchant ship to each fleet which can be use as any nationality I think you will have the backbones of many and varied scenarios.

That would total about 36 in all. The underlined being the least important, you could reduce that number to 30, or leave out the Spanish Fleet and end up with 24 ships.
That should fit the bill for whatever your pocket or the other half can stand.

Rob.