] I would agree that Claudius is better King material than Hamlet, at the moment .

You were the person that started me thinking this direction. :-)

] But, just how good a military leader is he, really?

Hmmmm.... Good point. I have been thinking about this. Claudius seems to treat Fortinbras as a misbehaving upstart child. After all, he goes to Old norway to negotiate, not to F himself. Seems to me, F is a very real threat to Denmark. Perhaps that is why he lets F traipse across Denmark to Poland - C is grossly underestimating the threat.