Quote Originally Posted by Didz View Post
I agree that needs to be sorted. But just for the record doesn;t it work if you just slow down the lead ship?

I would have thought that if the formation of the group is fixed then slowing the lead ship ought to cause all the others to slow down so as to maintain station on her. It seems to work that way for naturally faster ships in the formation, you can actually see them spilling wind to avoid losing station.
I'm not sure about that, but it may work that way. However, it's not very intuitive. Group commands for speed, shot selection, etc... would be so much better. I generally try to group a mixed fleet with my ships of the line separate from 6th rates, brigs, and sloops. I'll use the heavy hitters to directly engage with roundshot and the others to cross the T astern, if possible, with chain shot to damage masts & sails and slow my opponent's ships of the line. Group commands that actually work would make the operation a whole lot smoother.