How to arrange ships in a group?

[Vlad Tzepes]

Forgive me if that has been answered before, but I couldn't find it.

So - is there a way to arrange your ships when forming a battle group? I mean, to decide what ship would lead (e.g. in line astern)?

Whenever I form a group, it kinda auto-arranges. If I try to move the ships by click-and-drag, like in land battles deployment phase, it just draws a rectangle. If I try to use the units cards, it doesn't work. Am I missing something?

One of the reasons to do that is because ships in line of battle, in ETW, don't keep the distance to the one in front - which is exactly what the historical line of battle meant.

[Forward Observer]

I'm in the same boat (excuse the pun) as you. The only time I see the in line formation keep some sense of order is when all the ships are exactly the same rate or at least close.

All my big battles end up in a big fur ball. Other than a few big set piece battles like Trafalgar or the Nile, the vast majority of ship confrontations were not big fleet battles, but merely 1 to 1, 2 to 1, or 2 to 2. It's too bad these kinds of battles don't come up in the game more.

The ships and the ocean sure do look pretty if one over-looks the fact that the developers mistakenly bent a sail on the cross-jack (lowest yardarm on the mizzen) on every full rigged ship.
They also show the main yards above the tops, which is also incorrect.

Anyway, I've gotten to where anything involving over 6 ships total, I'd rather auto-resolve.

Cheers

[Shahed]

I've managed to succesfully use a fleet of 14 in a single formation.

You have to line them up manually in the order you want them and in the formation you want them in, select all and press group.

I usually create a double line (or staggered line) of the heavy ships, flanked by heavy screens like 4th rates or lighter frigates (5th or 6th rates). I place a 2-3 screens to lead and trail the formation, so they draw fire away from the capital ships. Since I discovered the joy of the carronade frigates I now have a 4 ship formation of carronade frigates which breaks from the main formation on contact with the enemy and charges straight through the enemy formation creating gaps and dishing damage.

[antisocialmunky]

Alt + 2 until someone sinks. Then... luck be with you.

[crpcarrot]

i place the ships indivdually where i want them (selct ship, click where u want it) and then group them. ty tned to keep formation unless they run into something. long lines make loger turning circles

[AussieGiant]

Just quietly CA have done a pretty good job on the Naval side of things.

It's very well done and I've managed to navigate and win one off battles using up to 14 ships. Clearly one real limitation is the ability to manage many ships at a time. That in itself gives you an advantage if you are good enough.

You certainly can't group ships of different speeds. Get the SOL together, check their speed before grouping them and put the fastest at the back. They will auto adjust their sails to maintain spacing.

Then stick all the Frigates together, then finally the small little guy's in a nice little group. What I usually do is send the "Light Brigade" out the back and chase up the trailing SOL in the enemy formation. If you zig zag back and forth behind him you'll nail the trailing ship pretty fast...and you can get very very close if you are good. Those big frigates are very good at doing this. If they break off then you can just set full sail and bug out with perhaps only one effective broadside from the unhappy SOL.

By using chain shot you can cut down the main formation by 2 to 3 ships over the course of a big battle.

[crpcarrot]

ive had balttles with 14 ships too i jsut dint gorup them all together. the most number of ships i have in 1 group is 5

[AussieGiant]

I like to put the SOL in groups of 3 or 4. That way when you cross the T you can actually barge your way through fairly effectively. By doing it with two separate columns I find I have a bit more flexibility.