From: Peter Landry I reviewed with interest the discussion about naval strengths of the various European powers in the 1792 variant of Emperor's War. My gaming group has already given this topic some serious thought and I would like to offer a few observations which may be of interest. 1. It is very important to distinguish between numbers of ships of the line on the Admiralty lists versus the number of ships that were in fact operational, combat-ready, and deployed in European waters. A case in point is Spain. In numerous places it is mentioned that Spain has about 56 ships of the line. However, never during the revolutionary period or during the Napoleonic Wars did she have more than 30 SOL's in a fleet in European waters (Cape St. Vincent = 27, Trafalgar = 15). Our group uses the game scale of 1 fleet = 12 ships of the line. Furthermore, in 1792 Spain was not yet mobilizing for war. Therefore, I would suggest she really only had 1 squadron that would have been ready for effective action. In terms of starting numbers, I would suggest the following starting numbers and positions: Britain = 3 squadrons in British Isles, 1 squadron at Gibraltar France = 2 squadrons in Britanny (Brest), 1 squadron in Savoy (Toulon) Spain = 1 squadron in Murcia (Cartegena) Russia = 1 squadron in Baltic Sea (St. Petersburg), 1 squadron in Crimea (Sevastopol) Ottoman Empire = 1 squadron in Constantinople Minor fleets = 1 squadron in their respective territory. As a general rule, Britain was able, as a product of naval numbers and quality to fend off and eventually defeat the combined fleets of France, Spain and Holland. If it just become a straight numbers game, this very significant result may be overlooked. I am not suggesting historical determinism, but a fair case can be made that the historical outcome should have at least an average chance of occurring. Also, each minor and major power should be considered to have 1 transport fleet, with the exception of Britain and France, who should have 2. The rationale for this is that France invaded Egypt with approximately 40,000 men (i.e. 2 corps) while Britain never deployed more than 40,000 British troops on the continent (again, roughly 2 corps). No other major power transported effectively more than 1 corps. As well, battle squadrons should not be considered as having transport capacity - they were already packed with sailors and marines! It also prevents D-Day assaults on Normandy that I have witnessed in our games where 5 British corps (100,000 men) descend on the French coastline. By way of comparison, the Allies landed only 156,000 on June 6, 1944, some 150 years later! 2. The current rules, in my opinion, do not sufficiently reflect the varying naval quality of the different major powers. Our group plays with the following die roll modifiers for each major power's fleets when determing combat results: Britain = +3 Russia = +1 (many officers were British or British trained) Denmark = +1 Holland = +1 (until it becomes the Batavian republic under France, after which the fleet declines) France, Sweden, Portugal = 0 Spain, Ottoman Empire, Naples = -1 I hope this may provide some insight into the naval situation of the period. Of course, there might be things I have overlooked. One book to consult is called "Navies of the Napoleonic Era" by Otto Von Pivka. Back to OSG News March 2000 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Operational Studies Group. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com