Author:  Jim Cobb

Gamers will feel more comfortable about this East India Company add-on if they bear two things in mind: the game has nothing to do with “John Company” and very little semblance to Trafalgar, other than ship and commander names. Instead, the Privateer engine has been adapted to a fleet action with ships-of-the-line. The question is if play is good enough to excuse this marketing legerdemain.

Stately ships of the line move to the attack.

Waving Pennants, Wavering Crews

Battle of Trafalgar continues the ship graphics of Privateer. Vessels are depicted in fine details with the gun ports of three-deckers shown with the colored stripes of the time. Wind is not only visually pleasing with fluttering flags and billowing sails but also helpful in deciding when to tack to go with the direction of the breeze. Wave action laps against hulls and gives the large ships slight rolls. Wakes indicate the direction of the squadrons. A fog, though ahistorical, adds a touch of suspense to the proceedings as enemy reinforcements appear. Broadsides blaze and shot causes water spouts and ragged sails. Timbers fall and vessels capsize or go down bow first. The only major omission in the graphics is lack of the battle cam view present in the tactical battles of the older products.

Water spouts and numbers indicate an effective salvo.

Sound effects are suitably nautical with the wind blowing and waves lapping. Ships’ guns roar and hits crash. Crews cheer good salvos and growl when morale drops. Voice cues give status reports clearly, although terms are mixed; sometimes ships turn to port, others times to the left. No manual update comes with the add-on so players must have Privateer to learn basic interface commands. New commands can be figured out with the tool tips. However, the control options have many unexplained actions. The usual info bar at the bottom yields ship information and the mini-map gives an overview of the situation. An innovation is a separate info bar in the upper left giving access to each squadron.

Fire orders are given.

Hulls of Plywood

Play can be in either RTS or direct control modes. The RTS style allows players to give general orders to squadrons or individual ships. Clicking on the new squadron bars gives control to all five ships of a squadron with movement orders just right clicks on distant points. More specific orders are given through the info bar with two new types of orders. A squadron can be commanded into loose formation, line ahead, set speed equal to the slowest ship or sail in pairs. This last order is a strange way of saying “line abreast”. Ships can be ordered to fire at the closest enemy, move toward the enemy, maintain long range or fire at a designated enemy. The old orders for surrender, flee, board, stop, and ammunition type are still there. The info bar also shows the ships rating for hull, sail, guns, marines, and morale. A box is present for cargo. One wonders if this feature is a carry over from the system or a feature that was abandoned. Each squadron has its historical commander possessing persistent skills that players don’t have to activate.

The skills of a squadron leader ti shown,

Direct control allows players to handle a single ship directly. WASD controls direction while clicking a gun icon fires either broadside. Buttons on the rim of the mini-map sets sail state and firing arcs. Commands can be given via hot keys as well as icons. In this game, players should take direct control only if a ship can cause a crucial event. Ships don’t have captains with special skills as in the other games of the series.

A salvo fires in direct control.

The fleets begin the engagement.

Players with even a passing acquaintance with Trafalgar will know from the start this game doesn’t take the event seriously. Each side is divided into three squadrons of five ships. The British have two squadrons in line ahead with one in line abreast; not bad historically speaking. The Franco-Spanish fleet, however, isn’t in line at all but operates as three separate units, one apparently sailing against the wind. Attempting Nelson’s tactics is impossible from the start. Three levels of realism – arcade, normal, simulation – speak to how quickly vessels react to movement orders. At normal speeds, ships move stately but perhaps too slowly for some gamers. Game speed can be doubled or quadrupled at the risk of losing control of the battle.

The AI is no slouch, racing the player for the wind gauge in order to cross the T. Thus, fighting splits into two or three engagements of parallel lines. Ships fire automatically as their guns bear with damage points flashing above targets. As no crew quality exists, the battle comes down to exchanges of broadsides and wind advantage. When victory seems to be within grasp, the losing side gets reinforcements out of nowhere, turning the tide until the other side is so beaten up that it gets reinforced…and so it goes. Ships sink too quickly for their size. Even the most damaged hulk could stay afloat for hours. Boarding is nearly impossible in the game unless a player takes direct control of a ship, stops battering a stricken opponent, maneuvers along side and boards while hoping his other fourteen ships know what they’re doing. What gaineth a man a ship if he loseth his fleet?

A French ship goes down.

Battle of Trafalgar rides the coattails of the successful Privateer and has a nice approach to fleet action. Yet, this product has the feel of a game needing some weeks more work. For example, the quick save feature doesn’t work and orders don’t work when an entire fleet is selected, thus making one large line of battle impossible to form. More importantly, the developers lost sight of a few things that made Privateer so fine. No campaign is provided, even though Trafalgar was a product of sailing back and forth across the Atlantic. Some sort of battle generator would increase re-play while the addition of crew quality would shore up the historical aspects. Nitro should take the East India Company tactical engine and release a dedicated Age of Sail game. As it is, Battle of Trafalgar may appeal to gamers who already own the parent game but isn’t worth buying the whole system just to try to be Nelson. Instead, players should find a Lady Hamilton.

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