I am playing an 1890s campaign as Spain and so far I am enjoying it, with a few caveats.
Turns still take too long. In 1.10.2 it was always the update mission part that could take 5+ minutes to complete. With 1.10.3 it is sometimes stuck on update missions, sometimes on build ships.
Enemies accept battle on the strategy map then run away. It's not a fun way to spend 3-5 minutes trying to chase them down. It's really egregious when both sides are matched in tonnage.
I like the shipbuilding capacity system, it's another minigame that works with the overall whole. I'd love a way to increase capacity manually, or a system that puts ships in a build queue if you go over capacity.
Overall though things are coming along nicely. The diplomacy system is a good start, I'd love an option like a non-aggression pact to reduce tension on an ongoing bases. I also appreciate the task force cap, I've already had some better battles because the AI seems like it can coordinate smaller numbers of ships better.