WARGAME SCENARIO

“For his prime task, to watch Toulon throughout the year 1804 so that the French Fleet might not escape to sea without being brought to battle, Nelson needed all the ships-of-the-line that the Admiralty could give him. To protect Britain’s Matitine trade flowing in and out of the Mediterranean past the Rock of Gibralter, he could spare only three 32-gunned frigates. Their commander, Captain John Gore’s chief concern was the threat presented by a single French ship-of-the-line, the 74 gunned ‘Aigle’ based on the nearby Spanish port of Cadiz. Yet Nelson, writing from the ‘Victory’ advised him:

‘Your intentions of attacking that ship are...very laudable, but I do not consider your

force by any means equal to it.’

Such caution must seem foreign to a man who risked his career to ensure British triumph... But like Hawke, Howe, and other great commanders of the age of fighting sail, Nelson judged that a ship-of-the-line mounting twice as many guns as the majority of frigates, was more than a match for a squadron of three small ‘cruisers’

And this was still the accepted view in the Dreadnought era a century later.”

Preface to Battle of River Plate by Geoffrey Bennett london 1972

WHAT DO THINK? WAS NELSON RIGHT?

Ship Stats for Modified SPI Frigate Game

French 74

Broadside Firepower

0-400 Meters 25

600-1000 Meters 14

1200-1400 Meters 7

1600-2000 Meters 2

Defense Strength 15

Movement 8 with up to two sixty degee course changes per turn

Crew Quality Average

British 32

Broadside Firepower

0-400 Meters 11

600-1000 Meters 5

1200-1400 Meters 2

1600-2000 Meters 1

Defense Strength 7

Movement 9 with up to three sixty degree course changes per turn

Crew Quality Veteran

Provided for Comparison ‘USS Constitution’

United States 44 (actually carried 55 guns)

Broadside Firepower

0-400 Meters 20

600-1000 Meters 10

1200-1400 Meters 4

1600-2000 Meters 1

Defense Strength 9

Movement 9 with up to three sixty degree course changes per turn

Crew Quality Veteran or Elite