The Battle of Port Royale

In between other projects I've been working on a Napoleonic naval game involving 12 elements per side. (This is one of the few projects that doesn't involve the computer so its one of the few things I've actually been able to do of late)
Oleg and I have been working on a naval skirmish system, based as always on the DBA system, which roughly translates to Oleg does all the numbers and then we get together to do trouble small shooting games, after which I make small models/counters.

Now, we are well under way to making our first full, 4 player game and I've been building the models we will need, though in truth, such a game could easily be played with paper counters.

The premise of the game is a large cutting out action in the Mediterranean Sea (circa 1805), based very loosely on the First Battle of Copenhagen and O'Brian's account of the demise of the Polychrest in the novel 'Post Captain'. Port Royale is a mythical French town, containing a number of war ships of the Revolutionary Marine Nationale which the British Royal Navy has decided to either capture, sink or burn.
The British have the advantage of the open sea and slightly greater numbers. The French have coastal defences and a possible concentration of fire power.

Each player must roll to see which 6 elements they have at their disposal from a list of 20 possible's. This ensures a random spread of forces across both sides whilst still confing the game to the traditional 12 elements. The largest elements available to either side are 74 gun ships of the line and the smallest are, for the French, Gun Boats and for the British Gun Brigs. The French also have the possibility of floating batteries.
The game can also be played by 2 players, with each taking on 12 naval elements rather than 6.

edited to add:

Grimsby Wargaming has a post on Napoleonic naval gaming today as well. Its well worth a look for the images of the models!

And speaking of mini's. I note that Langton has a page on Russian and Baltic models to include images of several most interesting Baltic galleasses!
I wish I could afford them!