My assessment of Privateers Bounty is that it is too easy to damage enemy ships

I have been struggling to understand why the Dutch did better in the First Anglo-Dutch War than they do in simulations with Privateers Bounty. My latest theory is that it is too easy to inflict damage on enemy ships (generally). A counterpoint to that is that English 2nd Rates, such as the James and Triumph act as if they were super-dreadnoughts, in their ability to take Dutch fire and not take crew or hull damage.

I suspect that part of the issue could be that using the English burden as a defense factor may not actually be representative of real ship performance. Of course, I have been using a "hull value" for more than a decade, and it was based on dividing the burden by 3. So I have been doing the same thing, myself. I have used a variation of Paul Hague's detailed rules that I developed in 1990, so that I used his "firepower factor", which took the broadside weight, in pounds, and divided by 20. I calculate the "hull value" by dividing the English burden, in tons, by 3. Thus, the Mermaid (5th Rate), of 1651, would have a hull factor computed as follows:

hull factor = 286/3 = 95.

I always round the hull factor. For the "firepower", I do something different. I fix the calculation so that if a ship has a broadside weight greater than zero, then the minimum value is "1". The calculation is:

Round(0.5 + (BroadsideWt / 20)).

Namely, I add 0.5 to the result of dividing the broadside weight by 20, and round the result to the nearest integral value.

All the information in the scenarios is available

The ship definitions are all available in Word documents. I need to modify my Smalltalk code to extract the ships into separate files, based on their country (now that I understand the country codes). Still, I have most English and Dutch ships already extracted into Word documents, that I would make available, on request. The scenarios largely are documented in Word documents, as well, including the OOBs used. The OOBs are all scaled down to fit into the constraints of Privateers Bounty.

I wanted to say some more about my last post

One thing that is striking about the two lists of survivors is that the English were much more heavily damaged than the Dutch. The Dutch still had little choice but to concede, as there were so many more English ships, and they were generally more heavily armed.

A point to realize is that both the fleets started with approximately equal numbers. Of course, the Dutch fleet was much more lightly armed than the English. Even ignoring broadside weight and just counting guns, there was a great difference. The results, however, show the folly of facing ships with demi-cannon (32pdr) and culverins (18pdr) with ships mostly armed with 8pdrs and 12pdrs on the lower tier. There were a few exceptions. The East Indiaman Vogelstruis had 18pdrs on the lower tier. The Brederode had 4-36pdr, along with 24pdr and 18pdr guns. The upper tier was armed with 12pdrs, in her case.

The Dutch didn't fix their "armament problem" completely until the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In the second war, many "battleships" were armed with 18pdrs on the lower tier and faced English ships with demi-cannon. Finally, in the third war, De Ruyter's flagship had a complete lower tier of 36pdrs.

I collected some data on a Battle of Portland simulation

I ran the Battle of Portland scenario, and used my usual tactics for the Dutch. The only problem, really, was that several times, while steering by the helm, when I took the mouse off the helm, it swung. That caused problems, obviously, as the ships went in odd directions, which caused some ships to get too close to the English. Also, some ships are inherently less maneuverable or slower, and they tend to get separated and overwhelmed. I decided that it would be interesting to record the surviving ships and their condition. The summary is that 73% of the English and 41% of the Dutch remained (or at least that was the battle strength left, in Privateers Bounty terms). It is worth remembering that the scenario has to use reduced numbers, as the total ships are limited. I typically limit the total numbers to about 82.

 

 

Ship	Guns	Hull	Sails	Crew
Advantage (prize)	26	65	95	90
Adventure	36	65	90	90
Amity	36	80	90	95
Anne and Joyce (M)	34	60	45	75
Centurion	36	35	70	70
Convertine	44	70	70	90
Diamond	42	85	50	90
Dragon	38	55	60	80
Entrance	44	90	65	85
Fairfax (1)	52	95	85	95
Guinea frigate	32	65	35	90
Katherine (prize)	24	50	70	70
Laurel	48	50	70	85
Merlin	12	50	60	90
Nonsuch	40	45	35	80
Pearl	24	20	60	70
Prosperous of London	42	70	65	80
Providence	32	60	75	90
Rainbow	52	100	70	90
Richard and Martha (M)	40	90	65	95
Roebuck (M)	30	45	80	70
Ruby	42	50	50	70
Sampson (prize)	26	85	70	95
Sapphire	38	35	70	80
Speaker	56	90	60	90
Triumph	62	100	80	90
Vanguard	56	100	75	95
Victory	60	95	75	95
Worcester	42	95	45	80

 

 

In addition, the Paradox had been surrendered, but was still afloat.

 

 

Ship	Guns	Hull	Sails	Crew
Arke Troijane-AD	28	100	100	100
Brederode-R	54	100	100	100
Eenhoorn-NQ	30	100	100	100
Elias-AD	34	100	100	100
Faam-Z	30	95	90	95
Gelderland-R	26	100	98	99
Hollandia-38-Z	38	100	95	100
Liefde-1-Z	26	100	100	100
Prins-RD	28	100	100	100
Prinses Albertina-F	24	100	70	100
Prins te Paard-RD	38	80	75	90
Sara-F	24	95	100	100
Vlissingen-Vli-Z	26	100	100	100
Vrede-A	44	100	100	100
Vrijheid-A	44	90	40	90
Wapen van Zeeland	30	100	80	95

 

In addition, the Vogelstruis (40 guns) and Gecroonde Liefde (23 guns) were surrendered but still afloat.