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[Aman]

reading a book I got on Cape Esperance. The author (who was aboard Helena during the action) goes into some nice brief details about some of the gear used. Basically, the USN force couldn’t even turn about their line ahead without a loss in communications resulting in mistakes. They were very green, and in the end they were very lucky (reminds me of Midway). Their communications gear was remarkably poor for such expensive items. I can understand tanks having crappy radios, but not a multi-million dollar naval vessel. I’d classify their TBS as not even as good as a CB.

It really makes me think that there should be limitations on night maneuver by a formation of several ships commanded by one player. The miniatures just follow our orders too easily!

The easiest way is to say that ships can only fight in line ahead at night, and only make turns of less than 30 degrees. This represents a cautious admiral attempting to keep his ships in formation for the duration of the battle.

For more daring players, a dice roll may be needed for every ship but the Flagship if not working within the above limit. Starting with the lead ship, roll 1d12 and on a "12" a veteran ship (or 11-12 for a Green ship) continues it's last turn of orders instead of this turn of orders. Note that if the rest of the ships are assumed to be following - 1.2.5 Movement Plot - they will conform to the ship that failed to follow the order.

If you want to make it a little more interesting, continue to roll for the rest of the ships, and if THEY fail they follow the new order instead of last turn's order!

Note that this will also have the positive result of limiting the size of Divisions to manageable sizes, say 3-6.

I’m thinking a 12 for IJN and a 11-12 for USN or the ships follow their previous turn’s order instead.