Expanding the base game

[Diamondback]

Back in War at Sea days, to combat cheesebuilds some of our House Rules guys had an "Orders of Battle" option that required each large warship to have at least two smaller ship for escort (read, "no Yamato+Musashi+kamikaze swarm").

For example:
*Each battleship or carrier must be escorted by at least two cruisers or destroyers.
*Each cruiser must be escorted by at least two destroyers.

Applying this, I would propose a rule of thumb of 3-4 Third Rates per three-decker, accompanied by at least 2-3 frigates and a sloop. Nelson's Weather Column at Trafalgar had four threedeckers in its nine ships mostly clustered in the lead, while Collingwood only had three, one each either end and near the middle, in the Lee Column of fifteen. So that's an average of seven triples in 24 SOL's, which suggests a ratio of around 1/3 to 1/4 your total SOL strength should be the big boys. Two-deckers like Portland aren't exactly useful in SOL engagements, but they make good convoy escorts and flagships for frigate squadrons.

[Lieste]

Back in War at Sea days, to combat cheesebuilds some of our House Rules guys had an "Orders of Battle" option that required each large warship to have at least two smaller ship for escort (read, "no Yamato+Musashi+kamikaze swarm").

For example:
*Each battleship or carrier must be escorted by at least two cruisers or destroyers.
*Each cruiser must be escorted by at least two destroyers.

Applying this, I would propose a rule of thumb of 3-4 Third Rates per three-decker, accompanied by at least 2-3 frigates and a sloop. Nelson's Weather Column at Trafalgar had four threedeckers in its nine ships mostly clustered in the lead, while Collingwood only had three, one each either end and near the middle, in the Lee Column of fifteen. So that's an average of seven triples in 24 SOL's, which suggests a ratio of around 1/3 to 1/4 your total SOL strength should be the big boys. Two-deckers like Portland aren't exactly useful in SOL engagements, but they make good convoy escorts and flagships for frigate squadrons.

While it is true that many of the ships were 2 deck, it is also the case than a proportion had more heavier and more effective guns than even the first and second rates. The larger number of 9 or 12pdr guns add relatively little to their effectiveness. Having a few more guns in each gun deck, and those guns being of a heavier calibre and supplemented by more and heavier (on average) carronades made the large 74s and 84s more effective than their "rating" as third rates suggests. British Common 74s were smaller on average than the Allied fleet however.

[Bligh]

Yes David, there was a lot of variation and changes made as the years went by. We can only approximate unless we have specific knowledge about a certain ship, and as we all know even the experts can be very elusive about the exact combination of weaponry on many of the vessels for all the periods of their lives.

Rob.