Let's see. A quick thumbnail sketch.
Dragon Lords -- Very maneuverable because they ignore the wind, and relatively fast. They're claim to fame is that they have the only aircraft carrier. Well, it is a dragon carrier, but the dragons are relatively effective. Decent gunnery, fair boarding combat, interesting magic.
Dwarves -- They also ignore the wind but because of steam power, not magic. Their ships are well armored and heavy on the firepower but are weak in boarding combat. They're also relatively slow. Nonetheless, they're a very powerful fleet when handled properly.
Orcs -- Hideous firepower forward but relatively small broadsides. Most rely on the wind, although the smallest vessels do not. They're terrific at boarding combat (in the truest sense of "terrific"), and deadly when ramming.
Humans -- Jack of all trades. Decent broadsides, middle of the road for just about everything. They're affected by wind direction so can be sitting ducks unless handled skillfully.
Elves -- Very fast and maneuverable, but are also affected by the wind. Weak in boarding combat, average in broadsides. But they have some powerful magic that can have a tremendous effect in augmenting their capabilities.
Bone Griffons (undead) -- Not played them yet. Their ships are configurable to some extent which can give them powerful close-in broadsides or powerful long-ranged area-of-effect weaponry. Too soon for me to say.
Shroud Mages (?chaos dwarves?) -- Similar to dwarves but not quite as strong in defense and gunnery. They're alleged to have some powerful magic but I haven't seen that yet.
Sorry, but that's about all that I can tell right now (in a time crunch). I suggest you visit Spartan Games' forum. There's a lot of good information there about play styles for each faction and much more detail on the capabilities of each fleet.
likes his specialists!
