How to move ships around?

[hrulj]

I read the manual but can't seem to get it. When you enter into a naval battle how do you order your ships to move, where to move, how and when and where to attack etc? I am just stuck pressing the play button and watching ships never find each other

[noshurviverse]

What realism setting are you playing on? You can check this my looking at the preferences on the "strategic" screen.



If you're playing on Admiral's mode, you can only issue direct orders to your flag division (the one with the square flag). All other divisions you can give indirect orders to by opening their division menu and adjusting their lead formation, role and formation. Early game you will have rather limited options, these increase later in the game as fleet tactics improve.



On the other hand, if you're playing Rear Admiral you can issue direct order to any ship within LOS of your flag division. If you're playing Captain's mode you can issue direct orders to any ship, regardless of location. You can also manually order torpedo launches. As for how to issue these orders, the easiest way is to "SHIFT + click" the course you want them to move (after turning "AI controlled" off).

[ddg]

To add on to noshuriverse's reply, to issue orders to a division under manual control, you must first select it. See how your divisions have little red flags? Click a square red flag. It will turn yellow. In all modes you can directly control both the speed and direction of a division under manual control. Once you have a division selected, use the course and speed indicators in the lower left of the battle interface (beneath the order of battle, objective, reports, etc. frame) to set course and speed. You can also tell divisions to travel at cruise speed or the maximum speed of the slowest ship in the division using the handy buttons next to the display. You can also set the course of a selected division under manual control by holding Shift and left-clicking on the battle map.