Well, I've started playing Coastal using the Russians. Man, it is intense. The problem though is it's very, very easy to get lopsided games. If you get one team that has 3 frigates on it, it's all over. Their gun decks can shoot up speed boats / PT boats long before we can get into range.
But it is a total blast when the teams are even. I'm going to work the Russians up 'till I have one more BR2.3 speed boat then I'm going to play it for quite a while to get the crew skills up before I move on.
I'll probably start the German and U.S. coastal line as well. I already have a U.S. premium PT boat from a while back that I only played twice and had no clue what I was doing.