General Tactics

[Oleander Ardens]

In the end it is impossible to get into too much detail anyway. There was a variance in gunpowder quality, density of shot and even different length of guns that rarely are recorded anywhere.

True enough. But as every gun was suscitable to such variances things even out among the calibers. Personally I think that the barrel of larger guns was (caliber-wise) relatively shorter than the one of smaller guns. They might haver used also rather relatively less powder to propel the shots. But still the momentum of a 36 would have been vastly superior to a 24.

People back then seems to have focused primarily on overall weight of a broadside and that is also what some miniature rulesets are doing. With some minor multipliers for smaller guns and shorter range for carronades, is a fair aproximation of overall firepower for a ship. Of course a computer game does allow for more advanced stuff under the hood.

Are carronades even in? So far I haven't seen them.

You could be right…

I saw one of the articles where an American 44 gun took on the line ahead of its mates. I think they said they sank one and boarded the ship that rammed them…a 64 I think it was!

It might have been the USS Constitution, which in reality was of course clearly outclassed by a SOL with 64 pieces unless in heavy waters. Perhaps CA has decided to paint things brightly, for all the colonials here