Excellent post, cheers Ken.

I saw your post on another forum, but I thought I’d reply here too because I’m really enjoying your series of posts. Please keep them coming. 🙂

Re: “I’m looking for a happy medium, something that is playable on a table I can manage.”

Yes, finding a balance between model scale and sea scale is a challenge, even with tables as large as yours. I think the trick is choosing what you are happy to compromise.

I use 1/3000 miniatures and 2 inches for 1,000 yards (which is 1/18,000, so the models are six times bigger than they ought to be). I find that creates two or three distortions:

• Ships in formation are further apart than they should be because we separate the ships based on model scale, not sea scale. The leading ship will often be several thousand yards closer to the enemy than the rear ship in the same formation. That encourages the tendency to concentrate fire on the leading ship because it is significantly closer.
• Turns are wider than they should be because we tend to turn the ships based on model scale, not sea scale. That often results in ships closing the range far more than intended when changing course, making games more lethal. But games where nothing sinks are no fun.
• Collisions appear more likely. When the models are much bigger than the sea scale, they appear far more likely to collide at close range because the models are occupying far more table space than sea space. More collisions are fun, but not particularly historical (though the Mogami managed to collide with another cruiser at both Midway and Leyte).

Looking forward to Hood versus Bismarck. 😉