Just got the game in, and tried a go of it. The basic rules are pretty easy to pick up on, and I think that with the advanced rules it will be quite a lot of fun. The miniatures aren't museum quality, but they look quite good for per-painted plastic. It probably would not meet the standards of a true Ship of the Line aficionado, but it certainly will make for a good beer and pretzel game.
I've done the math, and I may buy another starter set. The starter set comes with two frigates, and two ships-of-the-line. You have the option of choosing between two ship names for each of the four ships (the designers were brilliant in that move). If I buy another starter set, I can simply use the ship names that I didn't select in the first starter set, and have 8 individually named ships (four on either side). The starter set can be purchased for less than $70.00. On Amazon buying the ships separately runs about $13 - $25...