SHIP SHI... STUFF ;p
(APOLOGY IN ADVANCE! I got carried away in the writing, but I really started getting passionate ;p)
If any ship deserves to go really slow, it is the SoL. For the most part, the major battles involving the SoL were not very far from its home ports. Why? Because such a massive ship was extremely expensive! The loss of something that huge would have been a major loss for any nation!
Frigates, on the other hand, were considered almost expendable in comparison. They were the ones cruising and acting as escorts... not SoL!
Analogy time! SoL's are like Abrams Tanks. They are massive, incredibly deadly, speedy on a straight line, and expensive. Frigates are more like Bradley Fighting Vehicles. They are quick in the normal sense of the world, deadly against everything smaller (and capable of evading larger foes), and (in comparison) relatively cheap.
Now ask yourself. Have you EVER heard of an Abrams being used to guard a convoy? Possibly yes, BUT only if that convoy is expected to go through some extremely hostile territory, or if the convoy is particularly valuable... which explains why Degrasse was defending a certain convoy of ships... which were holding a cargo of cannon... which just so happened to result in the doom of Cornwallis!
Ok, so now we have established that the Frigate was a ship whose speciality was escort duty and patrols. Everyone knows that the Frigate was a beautifully lined ship, designed for speed and maneuverability, while the SoL was built for sheer ability to kick A$$
I previously showed you guys a link which stated that the galleon was a versatile ship, often converted between military and civilian uses with great alacrity. It was in fact an excellent vessel! An incredible number of them were produced, simply because of how excellent and versatile they were... although clearly they were not really ships of the line. They were well designed ships, albiet technically of an era prior to the one we are really representing.
Finally, the Privateer! Fast, footloose, and fancy-free, these guys were basically Jack Sparrow with a license to kill (and no EvIL dEaD style monsters ;p). I can understand the reasoning behind forcing them to stay near a base (most French privateers operated out of France!) since we hardly need ships of roving miscreants stalking the planet (something they would hardly have done...), but they do need to be strong enough to cause some damage without being too powerful and eliminating the need for another class of ship... likeee say the frigate? ;p
Baaasically, I really am pushing for a good reason to build every ship! We require something like that with ground units (the good all around, the quality defender, the superior attacker, the mobile attacker, etc) but ships... not so much anymore, not so much ;p
TO THE POINT!
Rhye, it seems like you are really killing the reason to build frigates. You are making them frightfully slow, weak attack units with a bombard barely equivalent to that of a galleon (which is defensive!) and then granting them radar (oh, its ok that you suck and are really slow, because YOU CAN SEE FAR! ;p) and then! THEN! you create a unit basically equivalent (except with an even weaker attack) that can enslave... and it gets better! BOTH of these units suck so much compared to the SoL that if either gets built its because you are sick and tired of seeing the darn thing!
Seriously, you would have to be a bit loopy to build a ship incabable of defending itself against a galleass... and if you build the frigate, thats what you are! ;p
(please please please notice that most of this is hyperbole and laugh at it a bit ;p)
I will more than admit that my stat suggestions are not perfect! Most of them I ripped off of convenient land units (Privateer=> Crusader, SoL => lancer -1 w/ BONII) which fill the same duties! So sure, tweak em a ton. But seriously, history aside, you cannot have a unit that is so dominant that no other unit types will be produced. It destroys the point of giving the player a choice... the choice which you/we considered so incredibly important when designing the land tree.
Take everything you read with a grain of salt, and possibly re-think this plan. In the end, Rhye, it is totally up to you. Its your baby and its your decision... I'm just trying to change your mind ;p