"USA ships hunting CSA Raiders" Topic

Hello all. My question is in regard to making a rule decision for my game. In my research I have found mixed information concerning the "average" strength/combat power of Union vessels assigned to hunt down CSA raiders around the world vs the raiders "average" strength.
My question is if folks feel the Union ships normally had better weapons, crews, etc and in a one on one contest deserve a little advantage OR if, on average folks think the contest would normally be fairly even match ups. So…..what do you guys think or would expect if that came up in a game??
Thanks and happy gaming!!!!

Good question and I think highly situational – if you think about USS Kearsarge vs CSS Alabama, the battle ended in an hour with Alabama sinking – Kearsarge had been fitted with armour and also had better handled gunnery; the gunners on Alabama shot a little too fast (twice as fast as Kearsarge, but not as well aimed) and a little too high but also had some bad luck – a shot near Kearsarge's sterm post did not explode, which it it had would have probably crippled her

Plus earlier the CSS Alabama did sink a Union warship. So hard to say. I would base thing on type of guns they had and how much armor.

Yes I agree, not just a whole lot of historical examples to go by. Trying to find info on the ships the Union sent after them and how they were armed, protected, etc compared to the raiders.
On the one hand I would think the Union would have had a good idea about the raiders and made sure they sent ships that would have an advantage over them. On the other hand I can imagine that the Union would be in a hurry to hunt them down so they would send any ships they could. Thus the tough call.

Most Confederate raiders were Southern Officered and Crew with Europeans. Finding the raider was the hard part.

Overseas the ships were usually capable of a one-on-one encounter like the ambush of the "Alabama." On blockade, not so much, as the sinking of the "Hatteras" by the "Alabama" showed.

Thanks again for the input. I think at least for now I am gonna leave it as an even fight on the high seas……….so to speak.
Yes blockade was a different animal, as was the river ways, with BOTH sides scrambling to basically make minor changes and put guns on to any civilian ships they thought could do the job. Based on my research as time went on the CSA continued to do this because they had no choice but the USA was slowly able to build up a huge fleet of dedicated warships. From my research the CSA navy became very limited starting in 63.