surface combat

[prothall]

Another thing I would like to see tweaked a little is when I have a surface force attacking an enemy force. I have an undamaged surface force capable of over 30 knots in surface combat with damaged enemy units not capable of 20 knots and they are running away from me.
There should be a check on that which will not let the units disengage if the enemy task force has a substantially greater top speed

[Gregor_SSG]

The surface combat routines do take account of speed when disengaging, but they are built on the premise that speed is not the only factor in surface combat battles. The display is an abstraction, and can't really show how confused these affairs could be. Issues of command and control, formation keeping and a general reluctance by captains to charge headlong into unknown or poorly understood tactical situations means that if one side sincerely desires to get away from surface combat, it has a good chance of doing so.

Gregor

[Koakahiko]

Such as was the case of Kurita off Samar during the Leyte Gulf campaign...

[Koakahiko]

That is to say, Kurita's confusion and failure to close with and destroy Taffy Three...

[prothall]

I understand the priciple of smoke, chasing shell splashes and sending in escorts for disruptive torpedo attacks, but when a unit has a max speed of 6 knots under clear skies in broad daylight i would expect my 30+ knot ships to close and polish them off.
Maybe a check could be made and the slowest ship of a task unit is sacrificed to the enemy to allow the others to escape if that unit is not capable of atleast 1/3 the speed of the enemy force