Flagship is terrible

[buttons]

Why is my flagship consistently the worst ship I have in any battle? If I have a mix of 12-16" gunned BBs my flagship is always the older 12" gunned ships ensuring that they get sunk first, and if I am in admiral mode, my entire fleet descends into chaos as I wait for it to finish sinking so I can control a new ship. Is there historical precedent for this, because I feel like the flagship/lead ship of a line should be one of the better if not best battleships available.

[ramjb]

Yes. There is precedent. SMS Deutschland (A predreadnought) was the german fleet's flagship until Friedrich der Grosse was completed. Friedrich der Grosse went as a flagship to Jutland when the more modern König class was around.

The Grand Fleet flew it's flag on 13.5'' Iron Duke during Jutland, even while there were plenty of 15'' gunned Revenges and Queen Elizabeths in the fleet.

And well, let's not forget that in the Phillipine Sea, where there were 15 american carriers and 7 american battleships in Spruance's 3rd Fleet... he and his flag were sailing aboard USS Indianapolis. A 8'' gun heavy cruiser.


I'm not one to say I don't wish I could work on the organization of the fleet, create squadrons and allocate ships to them, choosing which ones lead and which ones follow in each squadron/division, and of course I'd like to be able to name which ship I want to be my fleet's flagship... but for now we can't do it.

As for historical precedents go, however, no, the flagship wasn't always the most powerful ship in the fleet.

[mycophobia]

There are precedents where the flag ships are not the newest ships, in fact they by ww2 sometime a light cruiser will serve as the fleet flagship even when battleships are present. I presume to keep the admiral from being both the center of command and the biggest target. (This also happens with carrier task force not always being commanded from a carrier) However in those scenarios the Battleship squadron will nevertheless have their own leadship. Rtw1/2 never really did distinguish the "lead ship" of a battle line and the flag ship from which the admiral commands. A lot of the times they are one and the same, but there also exists occasions where they are not.

Sometime the flagship is not the "strongest" ship on paper. For example during the hunt for Bismarck KGV served as flag ship despite the 16in armed Rodney being present(though obviously it can be argued KGV is the more advanced ship so it only made sense to have her as flag). Ultimately im not aware of a clear precedent where a obviously inferior battleshipserves as the flagship when more modern and powerful ships are in the same squadron. (Like having say, one of the R Class serving as flagship in a squadron with the KGVs. Though again given their speed difference its unlikely these two class would even operate together.) The admiral commanding from a cruiser however, was not uncommon at all.

I do hope someone with more knowledge on historical reasons behind flagship choice shed more lights on the issue.

[ramjb]

Well it took more than simple "point a finger, and choose which one I pick" to be a flagship. Ships with the special duty of acting in flagship roles need extra space for the Admiral and his staff, dedicated rooms for staff meetings, map rooms, etc. As time went by and electronics grew in importance they usually had extra radio and communications equipment for the obvious needs of the role.

Needless to say flagships usually were big warships - battleships, and in some cases even cruisers. But those which acted on that role, had been specifically built (or modified) with it in mind: Not every ship was built with those facilities, they took valuable space and they weren't needed for every single big unit in the fleet. In some cases whole classes were built with the needed facilities. In other (most of them) one of the ships within a class would be picked during construction, and have the necessary modifications made to it, while her sisters didn't. 

For instance, Indianapolis and her sister ship, Portland, were built from the yard with extensive flagship facilities as part of the class so they were identical as built.
Meanwhile, out of the South Dakota class, only USS South Dakota was built with the needed facilities (which demanded deleting two of the secondary 5'' DP mounts in that particular warship to make room for them). 


So yes, it took some special things in order for a ship to act as a flagship, and generally, only ships built with that role in mind were fitted with the necessary equipment to do the job.