Designed and published by Roger B. Cormier, 1968

Scale

Distance not specified
Turn: 10 minutes
Counter: individual vessel

Components

1 52" x 36" rubberized map divided into 5/8" grid
33 British vessels
25 French vessels
15 Spanish Vessels
4 charts and tables (1 duplicated for 3 unique items)
2 OOBs
1 booklet with 12 pages typed rules, broken down to 7 3/4 pages of basic rules, 3/4 of a page of optional rules, 2 1/2 pages of tournament rules and 1 page of optional tournament rules.
Orders charts and Combat Charts
182 assorted markers (Cannons, Crew, Sails, Hulls, Boarding Parties)
2 Plastic Transparent Range Finders
1 Plastic Transparent Shielding Tool

The markers are used to mark reduced capacities of damaged vessels, and boarding party strengths. The map is a square grid marked at the corners. “Your game arrives by mail in two parts: a 6x12x12 inch non-descript box, and an out-sized mailing tube. The mailing tube holds a very large, one piece, vinal (sic) playing surface ... it lays flat with very little effort.

The box -- designed for holding the game, not for selling it -- contains several AH-type sheets of die-cut counters, but these come individually wrapped in plastic. There are three hand made range finders made of plexiglas yet! The rules are 8½ by 11 (S&T page size), neat and off-set printed ... There is even a plastic compartmented tray (with cover) in which to store playing pieces.” Chris Wagner in S&T 15 (Jan-Feb 1969).

The Game

In the Basic game, vessels move from corner to corner, orthogonally or diagonally. Movement allowances range from one to four intersections per turn. Each ship may make one 45 degree turn per move. The maximum range is nine intersections with four range bands (two, four, six and nine intersections).

The Shielding Tool is used to determine the danger zone between the firing ship and the target ship, and beyond the target ship. The Firing Ship, if within the first three range bands, chooses to fire High or Low. The cannon factors (which range from 1 to 16) are then cross-referenced with the range and aim point (there are 16 tables) and the amount of damage is determined with a 2d6 die roll. Damage reduces either Cannons (when they equal Crew Strength, the Crew starts to go too) or Sails. One more hit on these once a ship reaches zero on that particular factor sinks the ship. Raking fire doubles the fire strength of the firing ship.

Optional Rules include Wind Direction; Studding Sails for the British; Severely Damaged Ships; and more even loss of Sail Factors.

Tournament Rules add Grappling, Collision and Boarding Parties to the rules. Ships are no longer sunk, but captured. The counter set includes one of each vessel in each of the three color schemes. Optional Tournament Rules add Towing and Acceleration Rules.

Collector’s Value

Boone lists low, high and average prices of 300/400/341.60 at auction and 750/ 750/750.00 for sale. This is indicative of the almost legendary rarity of this game. Unsubstantiated rumors, bordering on urban legend, persist that Roger Cormier still possesses a stack of games, and puts them on the market at irregular intervals, one at a time, to maximize his return. In fact, it would appear that all 450 copies were sold off quite some time ago.

The Reviewers say:

“Roger Cormier’s Nelson at Trafalgar (sic) game is finally available to the general public; it was a long time coming, but (not unlike S&T itself) is well worth the wait. There are perhaps 100 copies of the game now in the hands of wargamers. Trafalgar is, essentially, a tactical game. Nelson’s strategy is taken for granted, and you commence play with the ships in the tactical positions they were actually in when the battle was closed. You do not have the strategic play situation you have in Jutland.

There is considerable bookkeeping involved, but again this is well handled. The game is very complex, making playing time long but not unenjoyable or boring. We would say that Trafalgar is vastly more playable than either Jutland or Confrontation. It is complex, like Blitzkrieg, but it is playable, again, about on the Blitzkrieg level

[W]e never thought we would call the rules to any wargame ‘outstanding’, but Trafalgar rules are, unquestionably, the most easily understood, unambiguous, well-organized and thorough rules of any wargame available today

[T]he best naval wargame we have ever encountered, and, in many respects, the best wargame anywhere, at any price.”

--Chris Wagner in S&T 15.

“Three copies of Trafalgar were auctioned at Origins ’91; the first I have ever seen at auction, and perhaps the last for a few years. All were punched, of course. They caused a greater stir than the original edition of Avalon Hill’s Tactics auctioned there, even though the Tactics went for twice the price. At least one of the copies was placed in the auction by Mr. Cormier himself. The prices were fairly consistent: $300 for a questionable copy in a generic box, $325 for a copy packaged in a wooden wine box (strange, but effective), and $400 for a copy in its original mailing box (but without the map tube). Mr. Cormier has no more copies in his possession save his personal copy, so that avenue of acquisition is sadly closed to us.”

--Mike Collier in the Wargame Collector’s Journal 2.

“Trafalgar was reviewed in issue #15 of S&T magazine. (A readable ‘blow-by-blow’ account of the battle in S&T #84(Operation Grenade).) It is a rather eye-opening look at how perspectives towards price, playability and complexity have evolved over the years.

In those days, $11 was an astronomical price for a game. It is characterized as being very complex, and requiring a great deal of bookkeeping. The number of games that were available for comparison was severely limited, but they state unequivocally that it would rate as the best game on any topic seen to date. I would also rate it very highly, but granted a contemporary historical perspective, perhaps for different reasons.

The game sets up very quickly (15 minutes or so), aided by the location and orientation information for each ship silkscreened onto the map. The players manage about 35 ships each, and the campaign lasts 23 turns. In my estimate, for two moderately skilled players, the full campaign would require about 8 hours.

All in all, the game develops into as chaotic a sequence of events as the original battle was, but the balance probably favors the British. As victory is granted to the allies if they limit the British to sinking less than 10 ships more than the allies themselves sink, perhaps the best strategy for the allies is to cut and run, and force the British to overtake. That would seem to have been the historical strategy, which the British were able to foil. Given that the allied player has complete control over all his ships, perhaps he could pull it off where the allied commander, Villeneuve, was not. In conclusion, if you are fortunate enough to run across a copy, you would have in your possession not only one of the premier collectables in the hobby, but a truly fine game.”

--Mark Collier in the Wargame Collector’s Journal 8.

The games that were available

1952
Tactics

1958
Dispatcher; Gettysburg; Tactics II; U-Boat

1959
Verdict

1960
C&O/B&O; In the Year of Our Lord; Conflict; Battle of Atlanta; Trade Winds

1961
Air Empire; Chancellorsville; Civil War; D-Day; Nieuchess; Waterloo; Diplomacy; 1863; Battle Cry; Civil War; Skirmish

1962
Bismarck; Broadsides

1963
Stalingrad; Dogfight; Hit the Beach; Battle of the Little Big Horn

1964
Hannibal; Afrika Korps; Midway; Madrid; Phalanx

1965
Blitzkrieg; Battle of the Bulge; Nuclear War; Viet Nam; Madrid II; Operation Gigantis

1966
Guadalcanal; War of the Halgolandisch Succession; San Jacinto

1967
Jutland; Fight in the Skies; Blintzkrieg; Poland 1939; Confrontation; Strategy One; Vietnam

1968
1914; 1812; Battle of Britain; Dien Bien Phu; Arbela; Austerlitz; the Battle of Bennington; Barbarossa; Atlantis; Company Commander; MiG Valley; Hannibal; Italy; Normandy; Tannenberg; the Cities Game; Commerce Raider; Battle of the Falklands; Gaugamela; and a number of games available (supposedly) from Red Forces: 2nd Bull Run; Actium 31 BC; Bull Run; Caen; Chattanooga; Chickamauga; Citadel; Cold Harbor; Desert War; Dungeness 1652; Eastern Front; Fredericksburg; Goodwyn Sands; Italian Campaign; Kharkov; Kursk; Lake Erie 1813; Lepanto 1571; Leyte Gulf 1944; Lissa 1866; Malaya; Manila Bay; Petersburg; Rostov; Salamis 480 BC; Spanish Armada 1588; Spotsylvania; St. Lo; WWI; WWII; Yalu River 1894.