Steam Ships a bit dissppointing

[Didz]

My Dutch Empire finally got their steam ships and I quickly built a fleet of them to see what they were like, with another under construction.

What a dissappointment. Their first encounter was with a fleet of Spanish 6th rates and trade ships raiding my trade on the Ivory Coast. The two fleets were equal in size but I assumed the difference in firepower 216 v 78 would have made this fight no contest for the Dutch steamers.

How wrong I was....true the Dutch paddle steamers literally ran rings round the Spanish fleet, but they never bothered firing their guns. According to the stats the range of the steamers was 500, which is the same as the 6th rates and most other vessels, but in practice they never fired unless they were virtually on top of the target.

So, what actually transpired reminded me of one of those really bad cowboy movies where the Indian's gallop in circles round the cowboys in the wagon train and get shot to pieces whilst doing nothing useful in return.

When I did manage to get close enough to open fire the results were somewhat unimpressive and I barely managed to scrape a victory losing a couple of ships in the process and having only two still in the fight by the end. The Admiral's flagship even managed to catch itself alight at one point and I'm surprised it managed to survive.

So....interesting experiment but back its back to 5th Rates and 3rd Rates for the Dutch, I like my ships to fire at the enemy, not catch fire to themselves. The entire fleet was scuttled on return to port and all future constuction cancelled.

Might try another limited experiment once I have rifled cannon.