Some thought about gaming the naval war

I have just finished reading the "Lords of the Lake", Robert Malcomsom's book about the war on Lake Ontario. So here follows some thoughts about what I need in a set of rules in order to fight the battles or at least the represent the character of these battles.

Scale
Ignoring HMS St.Laurence for the moment you need a set of rules that goes from gunboats to frigates. This is smaller than any set of rules that I have seen. It does reverse the order of most age of sail which focus on the battleships and not the little boats. Here they are the centre of attention and not an add-on.

Cannons & Carronades
Each fleet developed a unique characteristic in its armaments with Americans favoring cannons while the British carronades that influenced their tactics.

I think the most the extreme example that needs to be modeled is HMS Detroit at the battle of Lake Eire which carried the following armament.
Carronades

• 1x 24s
• 1x 18s
  

Long Guns

• 2x 24s
• 1x18s
• 6x12s
• 8x 9s
  

Sailing qualities
Both fleets could include the traditional square rigger, schooners and even row powered gunboats.

Crew Management
Both sides could find themselves short of crew thereby restricting the ability to fight their ships. Most rules I can think either ignore crew management as being to complex or include as an add-on

There that's it for the moment. I will look at the various rules I have got to see if they will do the job or can be bashed into shape. This ship has just set sail.