Unfortunately the idea of splitting the TF down into smaller groups barely made any difference. The oddity it provoked can only be described as mass teleportation.
Initially I split the TF into 4 groups of two or three ships each. When they sailed into the combat hex the De Ruyter and two DD's attacked, inflicting about as much damage as the entire force had done previously, due to the fact that there were just less ships to overkill the unlucky one or two singled out. So far so good, but there was unfortunately no combat from the other three TFs. On re-running the turn it has become obvious that as soon as the Japanese TF has faced one battle, it is magically transported to one hex away, leaving the other mini TFs who had also arrived wondering where the Japanese had gone.
I tried to second guess this by spreading the mini TFs out along where the Japanese retreat would take them to. The first hex they had to retire to is the main bay, and I managed to get more shots at them there, unfortunately ineffectual. However, as soon as this second little TF had a go at them, they were immediately taken to yet another retreat hex, and it is apparent that if you are clever, or lucky, enough to guess where the enemy TF will teleport to, you can keep bouncing them around ad infinitum.
The example I saved is shown in the attachment. The USS Houston catches the Japanese TF at point 1 as shown. It does mighty fine, causing a lot of damage. The Japanese are immediately afterwards bounced into a battle in the bay at point 2, where I had second guessed that they would appear in, although it was pretty obvious. The De Ruyter and friends had a minor shot at them and pulled out of the attack after just two rounds for some unknown reason. The Japanese were then bounced into point 3.
This all happened instantaneously. The Japanese did not actually sail there, as witnessed by the ML which appeared in the second battle at point 2 and immediately rolled over to sink because it was so badly damaged. There is obviously some 'automatic retreat one hex in any direction' rule in the game code. Unfortunately this just means that trying to hit a TF with waves of mini TFs cannot work.
All this playing around really did was obscure the main problem which would avoid the need for this bizarre behaviour in the first place. Hopefully the devs will make a change to enable Surface TFs to actually do some damage under ideal circumstances, by altering the targetting routine. If not, then at least I have learned that surface TFs larger than 4 ships are pointless [:D]
The example:
Day Time Surface Combat, near Davao at 41,61
Japanese Ships
ML Ikitsushima, Shell hits 18, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Tomozono Maru #3, Shell hits 5, and is sunk
AP Hie Maru
AP Kiko Maru
AP Sanfuku Maru
AP Tango Maru, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tarushima Maru, Shell hits 10, and is sunk
AP Tatsujin Maru
AP Tatsuta Maru, Shell hits 2
AP Teiryu Maru
AP Tenryu Maru
AK Tokiwa Maru
AP Toyo Maru #2
AP Ujigawa Maru
AP Yamafuku Maru, Shell hits 7, on fire
AP Zyuyo Maru
AK Tokiwasan Maru
Allied Ships
CA Houston, Shell hits 4
DD John D. Edwards
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Day Time Surface Combat at 42,62
Japanese Ships
ML Ikitsushima, and is sunk
AP Hie Maru
AP Kiko Maru, Shell hits 3
AP Sanfuku Maru
AP Tango Maru, on fire, heavy damage
AP Tatsujin Maru
AP Tatsuta Maru
AP Teiryu Maru
AP Tenryu Maru
AK Tokiwa Maru
AP Toyo Maru #2
AP Ujigawa Maru
AP Yamafuku Maru, Shell hits 4, on fire, heavy damage
AP Zyuyo Maru
AK Tokiwasan Maru, Shell hits 9, on fire, heavy damage
Allied Ships
CL De Ruyter, Shell hits 1
CL Marblehead
DD Scout, Shell hits 1
DD Thracian
[Edit] - more cockups!
