Are there any resources for tactics of the era? How well would they translate into the sim since primarily we are ordering navigation orders. But I'd love to learn. Thanx for your help.
Steam and Iron is accurate enough to allow real world tactics to be effective; what worked in real life should work in the game. Conversely, Players who decide to make it up as they go or attempt to use inappropriate techniques may find themselves in trouble or in situations that might seem counter intuitive. So your plan to learn more about the era will likely improve your enjoyment of the game and better appreciate its potential.
That said, there are certain game-related actions that you can take that may facilitate using historical tactical fleet management techniques:
1. The AI's programming is doctrinally sound for the period. However when a scenario is written or a campaign turn executed, it will have a particular mission assigned: Aggressive, Normal, Cautious and Withdraw. As Player, you will not necessarily know what that mission is and so you may see a superior force attempt to disengage or an inferior enemy force an action in what may seem unfavourable conditions.
2. Your divisional commanders and ship captains' under fire may perform unwanted manoeuvre's like leaving the line or missing turns. Some of this is tied to crew quality (and division quality in the Campaigns) but there is also some random elements. Continuous action will decrease the cohesion of your lines over time, something that is reasonable and realistic. Also the more you attempt radical course changes during an engagement, the greater the chance is that you may end up with unintended actions from subordinate units. Right-clicking of the Formation flag in the OOB tree will bring up the Fatigue level and other options including a Formation-wide disengagement command. You may not need these but you should be aware how to access them.
3. Your maximum Fleet speed should be one-knot slower than the maximum speed of the slowest ship if you hope to maintain fleet cohesion. Ships need a small margin of speed for station-keeping and without it will tend to fall out of station, particularly if there is manoeuvring.
4. The AI will manoeuvre DD's into what might appear to be torpedo launching positions but you are unlikely to know if they have actually launched torpedoes. The torpedo attack routines are pretty complex and the AI DD captain's are not always happy with the target geometry. AI big ships will often turn away at the mere threat of a torpedo attack by your forces particularly if on a Cautious or Withdraw mission. When the AI boats appear to be attacking you, your principle choices are:
a. Turn away - this increases torpedo running time and decreases relative velocities between torpedo and target making it easier for your AI ship captain's to evade;
b. Stay the course - Always an option but sometimes a very painful one; and
c. Turn towards - Decreases running time and increases relative velocities making evasion more difficult and less likely.
Remember to click the Turn Together box and change formation from Line Ahead to Line Abreast.
5. Ships of the era were designed to project maximum firepower to the broadsides and the direction where the maximum number of guns could engage was known as a ships' "A-Arc". In gunnery combat, the goal is to place the enemy in your A-Arcs while keeping out of his. Don't get wrapped up trying to "cross the T", if you do you will probably discover that the AI will do everything that it can to make that event too brief to be decisive.
6. If you turn together <30 degrees or so (setting formation to Line Abreast) your ships will be in an intermediate formation between Line Ahead and Line Abreast known as a "Line of Bearing" or "Echelon". This can be useful to alleviate smoke interference or clear arcs of fire for guns mounted off the centre line of the ships (the
Nassau's and RN dreadnoughts up to and including
Neptune are examples). Using this formation can limit your options since a turn in succession (following the leader) can result in chaos. Before attempting a turn in succession, turn together back into line ahead and only then commence the turn in succession.
7. DD's are always a problem in a gunnery action. The AI will place them on your disengaged sides when the enemy is spotted but this may take some time and they may interfere with your gunnery lines of sight. Consider placing screening DD divisions in Supporting roles in line ahead and or making the Independent. If you order a Force Torpedo Attack option, you may not see anything happen immediately as the AI now has to calculate the relative geometry, manoeuvre the DD sub-units to suitable positions and only then actually launch the attacks. This can be a very time consuming process and is by no means guaranteed to work in all situations. Try to anticipate events and place your torpedo forces into positions to facilitate an attack, often but not always ahead and on the disengaged side relative to your lead high value units. This is easier at Rear-Admiral or Captain difficulty but it is seldom easy to execute in action.
8. Understand that holding steady courses will produce the best gunnery results but also make
you easier to hit
and increase your vulnerability to torpedo attack. There is no one-size-fits-all solution and it's why you're paid the big bucks.
9. Big ships are tremendously vulnerable at night and in poor visibility. Torpedo attacks can come out of literally nowhere.
10. If gunfire does not produce a catastrophic magazine explosion, most warships are capable of absorbing considerable damage from heavy-calibre hits but underwater damage can be fatal. Both fire and flooding represent damage that keeps on giving and getting the ship out of combat so she can put her fires out and or stop flooding can become vital. Damaged ships are also vulnerable to weather and it is not unusual in a campaign scenario to have a cripple succumb to damage on the way home. Damaged ships may detach on their own or may be detached by Right-Clicking on the ship name in the OOB tree and selecting Detach and provided sufficient damage has been done, the ships will detach, generally with a DD escort and try to make the nearest base.
Good luck, good shooting and enjoy the game. Thanks.