The 50 - Gun Ship

[Coog]

It would have been interesting to see how the 50-gun Leopard would have faired if it had taken on an American 44 instead of Chesapeake and with a bolder captain than Barron.

[Cmmdre]

It would have been interesting to see how the 50-gun Leopard would have faired if it had taken on an American 44 instead of Chesapeake and with a bolder captain than Barron.

Or William Bainbridge.

[csadn]

It would have been interesting to see how the 50-gun Leopard would have faired if it had taken on an American 44 instead of Chesapeake and with a bolder captain than Barron.

Well, I have only my _WS&IM_ games to go by, but: Assuming the British get a free first shot (the Americans are not looking for a fight, but are better-prepared than that idiot Barron was; so the Brits get one broadside off before the Americans can start firing), it's a close-run match; unless the British completely whiff that opener, they usually do well. (The victory conditions are a little weird -- the British just want to look for the "deserters"; if they do too much damage, they start a war. The same applies to the US ship -- they're on a diplomatic mission; wiping out a British ship could mean war. So each side is trying to disable the other without inflicting too many crew hits; or worse, blowing up a magazine. This leads to a lot of anti-rigging fire, as each side tries to cripple the other's maneuverability so it can place itself in a position to force a surrender.)