I’ve come up with three basic scenarios.

The first assumes Admiral Cervera’s fleet runs the U.S.blockade and makes it to Havana.  From there, he can threaten the Florida Straits, U.S. East Coast and/or Puerto Rico.

The second anticipates Spain commits to reinforcing the Philippines,  with a U.S. counter move sending the Eastern Squadron to the Mediterranean, protected by the Covering Force.

Finally, that Spain purchases ships from Chile.  This possibility affected U.S. dispositions.  The Chilean ships were the O’Higgins, weeks away from completion in a British shipyard, as well as two ships already in service, the Esmeralda and Ministro Zenteno.  The latter two were situated in the Pacific, where they could sail to the Philippines, with the O’Higgins close to Spanish territorial waters.

While working my way through all of this, I came to realize this is really a series of Red vs.  Blue operational problems, with the Spanish-American War providing historical context.  The scenarios are more than counterfactual, as the underlying assumptions are so very significant, anticipating Spanish domestic and foreign policies resulting in a trained and maintained fleet, without the ambivalence and defeatism.

After scratching all of this out,  I took a detailed look at the scenarios accompanying the game.  They are good, well explained, and cover what happened several might-have-been.  There’s even a campaign game linking the scenarios with die-driven variables!

So, my afterthought is “Why Did I Do All Of This?”  Well, I guess it would be depth of knowledge and the ability to view the historical events not as a series of separate scenarios, but within a  broader scope.

At times, it’s good to rationalize.