Re: Space tactics

On 17 Aug 98 at 9:53, maxxon@swob.dna.fi wrote:

[snip]

> (Not that this is any news: Battleships advocates spent the entire
> WWI and WWII waiting for the decisive battleship engagement, which
> never really came about. In addition, I recall reading all the naval
> battles of WWII took place within 400 miles of shore. Realism and
> playability are not always the same thing.)

Adding to the information that you already may know : ... ;)

Jutland was probably the most decisive naval battle of WWI... The
British lost 3 armoured cruisers, 8 destroyers, and 3 dreadnaughts,
with about 6,000 killed. The Germans: 4 light cruisers, five torpedo
boats, a pre dreadnaught, and 1 dreadnaught, with about 2,500 killed 

At first sight this makes it look like the German fleet were the 
victors. However, it was the German fleet that disengaged and ran to 
port, never to try a foray again. This is mainly due to the fact that 
the British fleet though dented, still far outnumbered the Germans in 
ready capital ships, while the surviving German capital ships were 
severely damaged and unable to put to sea at short notice.

The battle also hilighted the foolhardyness of pitching destroyers 
against capital ships with predictable results.

Signal interception and decryption/decoding was also a factor (partly 
wasted) in the setting of the battle.

Working these factors into a campaign setting can give it far more 
flavour, and give the commanders a (sometimes bewildering) number of 
factors to take into account
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Richard Slattery	     richard@mgkc.demon.co.uk
Don't pay any attention to the critics--don't even ignore them. 
     Samuel Goldwyn
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