Iowa-Class: These four bad boys includes the legendary USS Missouri (Built June 1944) and the USS Iowa, USS New Jersey, and USS Wisconsin.
Yamato: Japan's HUGE behemoth of battleship. It's huge guns were more powerful than Missouri's. The Missouri's guns had more reach however, When it sailed to attack the Okinawa invasion forces it didn't have fuel for a return trip. This made little difference to the US fighter plane that blasted it out of the water.
Hood: The three fastest ships in the Royal Navy were HMS Renown, HMS Repulse, HMS Hood. These three WWI battle-crusiers could outrun every German ship in "Kreigsmarine." The Hood served in the hunt for the Bismarck.
Vittorio Venneto: The most famous vessel of this class was the Roma. One of the mightiest vessels to ever grace the worlds oceans. After the invasion of Salerno. The Germans believed that this vessel along with others of "Supermariner" were defecting to the Allies.  In one of the war's more curious moments the Roma was hit by a crude German guided bomb. The ship went down with 1,500 along and with it's admiral.
Richelieu: This ship is named after a famous high renaissance Italian ruler of FRANCE. So this is NOT, I repeat NOT a German or Italian vessel. Interestingly enough Vichy French naval forces in mixed it up with the British a few times. Seems the British were quite afraid that the "neutral" Vichy fleets in North Africa would fall into the wrong hands, In Tunisia the Germans did convince the French fleet to surrender.
Deutchsland:  Three Deutchland-class vessels were crafted and were hands down the deadliest ships at sea in 1939. They all were marvels of engineering built; to hold the most in the least amount of space as per the Treaty of Versailles. All these ships tallied successful missions against allied commerce. The Deutchsland itself was renamed Lutzow in February 1940 after completing it's first mission, Hitler feared the sinking of a ship with that name would've been bad for moral. The other ships in the class where the Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spree.
Bismarck: "Oh, we sunk the mighty Bismarck the terror of the sea" as the song goes. Hands down this is the most famous German Battleship, a real hassle for the British. The ship was isolated and a British task force finally picked it off after a prolonged hunt..
 
                                                                  THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE
 

Date: On December 13, 1939
    The Commerce Raider hunting force under Commodore H.H. Harwood was named "G." These forces included the Exeter, the Achilles, and the flagship Ajax. On December 13th they encountered the Graf Spree in the following battle the Exeter was heavily damaged and limped away as the Graf Spree fled to Montevideo on the 14th. Historically the HMS Cumberland the fourth ship in the 1/2 flotilla did not arrive until the 16th. However believing that a huge allied force confronted him Kapitan Langsdorff scuttled his ship on the 17th after contacting Berlin. Three days later he killed himself in a Montevideo hotel. While perhaps crazy Langsdorff was no nazi and an Imperial German flag was the one he choose to lay near his body. Meanwhile Harwood's forces had fled to safety in the Falklands. Harwood received a knighthood for the first major British victory of the war.
German Forces:
SS Graf Spree(deutchland-class)
British Forces:
 HMS Exeter
HMS Ajax
HMNZS Achilles
Rules Modifications:
* The SS Graf Spree has an Elite crew.
*The Exeter had torpedos which she fired at the Graf Spree to no avail. However as of present no High Seas Drifter rules for this weapon exist the author has promised that they will eventually be created.
* Ajax was able to put one of two sea fox planes into the air to act as a spotter. Two Walrus planes aboard the Exeter were damaged beyond use early in the battle.  The Graf Spree's lone floatplane; a Arado 196 was already damaged at the start of the battle. In game terms a plane has a 60% chance of getting into the air each round, with a modifier of -4% for every gun fired that turn. An unsuccessful attempt means the plane is damaged and cannot be launched again. If a plane is launched the crew of that ships get the advantage of a spotter and are considered Elite.  A box labeled "seaplanes" should be added to these ships "Critical" column. If the seaplanes are hit one of the sea planes are destroyed!
* There were 62 prisoner of the British Merchant Navy were aboard the Graf Spree. A box labeled "POWs" should be added to the ships "Critical" column. If the POWs are hit, no knighthood for Harwood!

Setup:(250 nautical miles east of Punta de Este): As I understand the Allied ships were set-up in a line like so:
Ajax-(2,000 yards)->Achilles-(2,000 yards)->Exeter. The Achilles and Exeter were reportedly "zig-zagging when Harwood aboard the Ajax ordered the Exeter to investigate smoke over the horizon bearing 320-degrees. From this point forward things caught interesting as the Graf Spree 20 miles away tried to close range on it's opponents.
 Victory: Germans win if the sink the Exeter and crawl away. British win if the sink the Exeter. The Germans can declare a draw by limping away after severely damaging any British Ship.
Other Options: The career of the Graf Spree would make a great campaign game. Langsdorf had hoped  to breakout for Buenos Aires before becoming convinced that the Allies had created a huge force. A battle with the Cumberland as the Graf Spree leaves Montevideo on the 16th would be interesting. Use modified Exeter stats for the slightly HMS Cumberland.

Leander Class Cruiser:
Save: Armor 5+
MAIN ARMAMENT:
Front Weapns: 4O 2P
Side wpns:4P 6O*
Rear: 2O   2P
HULL BOXES: Same as HOOD
SHIPS IN CLASS:  Leander, Ajax, Achilles, Neptune,
Orion, Perth, Sydney, Hobart
Achilles was a  Royal New Zealand Crusier and sister ship of the Ajax.

York Class Heavy Cruiser:
DEFENCE VALUE: save on 5
MAIN ARMAMENT:
Front Weapns: 4N 2P
Side wpns:4P 6N*
Rear: 2N  2P
HULL BOXES: armor same as hood
speed 6"
SHIPS IN CLASS: Just two the York and the Exeter
Barely Avoiding sinkage at the hands of the Graf Spree; the Exeter was sunk in March 1942 by the Japanese.

More Information on the battle can be found here:
http://britaininworldwar2.future.easyspace.com/Campaigns/Riverplate.html. Info on the Whole South Atlantic campaign
http://web.idirect.com/~sparish/hmsajax.html. ---Info centered on the Ajax
http://www.world-war.co.uk/index.htm. ---Cruisers of WWII(Image of the Exeter in 1937 taken from here)
http://www.grafspee.com/. Centered on the Graf Spree
http://www.ocean98.org/spee.htm---the whole operation
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Rob_Jerrard/River.htm--An Exeter crewmen remembers