A friend and I played out Coronel twice using the Castles of Steel rules (though I gave the Brits the Canopus). We each played both sides and the British won both times.

Now part of the reason is that crew quality isn't really considered. Another part is the collapsed range is such that you can't really maintain the distance you need to maintain in order to be able to hit the British without return fire. Also, the cards (while fascinating as a mechanic) make it even harder to control when you fire resulting in some strange situations that I'm not sure are realistic. We might give it another try with the larger ships, say Dogger Bank or the equivalent to see how it goes but we're thinking about dividing the deck so that you only draw your own cards, maintaining randomness without the artificial nature of holding both of your opponent's fire cards.

I almost think, despite wanting to play on a small board (as I do) that it would be better to double the ranges so that you could at least try to maintain your distance.

What do you all think?