The AI is set up for 25% aggressiveness for both sides, which is about right, considering the behaviors of the commanders involved. It illustrates that a ballsy commander for either side could have possibly won the war that afternoon.
Hit probabilities are about right, 2.7% for British, 3.1% for German, but that should drop off for the Germans should they have to re-aquire a target.
Critical hit probabilities are 3.5% for British, and 1% for German, which isn't entirely accurate, seeing as how critical hits occured when a ship was hit in a specific area, instead of accruing hits in general. But owing to AI limitations, it works pretty damned well. I lost Seydlitz with a single hit the other day playing Dogger Bank, nasty surprise.
One thing that I hate, but has probably saved my ass many times, is that ships are limited to 1 torpedo apiece, British destroyers generally carried 4 tubes, German 6, most in trainable mounts that would allow salvos of 4-5 "fish" in an attack. Oh well....
Another thing that isn't accurately portrayed is the ease with which heavy ships destroy light cruisers. At Jutland, the British light cruisers escaped the German battle fleet without damage. That was due in fact to excellent ship handling and a novel evasive technique, which isn't programmed in.
I've had undamaged German dreadnought battleships sunk to a single torpedo hit, and even if they don't get sunk, they're disabled. That's stretching it a bit. Quite a bit, actually. Especially when it's a Kaiser class....
I've been playing all summer, and have gotten to where my victories aren't just pyrrhic ones anymore. When I began, I'd squeeze a win out for Germany at the cost of all the destroyers, and sometimes most or all of the battlecruisers and always all the light cruisers, now, I'm winning and preserving the majority of those ships.
My best so far was 16 British battleships sunk, 11 cruisers (no battlecruisers, they got away), and 57 destroyers. That for the loss of 4 German battleships (3 of which were pre-dreadnoughts), 3 light cruisers, and 54 destroyers. This was in June, IIRC. These days I get fewer battleships, more cruisers, and manage to keep the majority of my light forces.
I've only played the British side a couple times, BTW, too easy.
