Definitely applies for their Age of Sail game, and I do enjoy that one too. but I was talking about Pre-Dreadnaught steam ship warfare. The ships like this, or this, or Semi-Dreadnaughts like this. And while they have a bad reputation, I love the ugly French bastard fleet.

This was before autoloader systems really existed, before long range fire control existed, and ships that were only barely considered stable in calm water. And as much as I like the Dreadnaught-era warfare for its large fleet battles at long range, there is something to the "Get in close and slug it out" style of the Pre-Dreadnaughts that I find more entertaining. It is also more about positioning since your secondary's make up the bulk of your firepower in those ships. And you will learn to fear Torpedo Boats, because in an era before effective anti-torpedo and flood protection systems existed, I have absolutely lost battleships to a single torpedo that caused it to capsize before I could even do anything to save it.