I've noticed that some clubs/organisations differ in how long a single battle lasts. Here in Australia, most individual battles run for at least 60 mins, with up to six battles per day. This means that warships may have to leave the pond to rearm and regas. Some battles are run over 90 minutes! How long is an average battle in your format?
In the WWCC, the standard battle day consists of usually four sorties lasting 15 minutes each. Since even small ships carry enough ammo to last 15 minutes, the fighting is fast, furious, and highly destructive. That will be even more true this season, since the water district on whose pond we battle is only allowing us six combat events for the year. The battlefield has two shallow natural harbors, one for Axis (no-flag) and one for Allies (blue flag), which are separated by a small peninsula. The rest of the pond is wide open with lightly choppy, murky water and depth varying from 6 to 8 feet. We also have a convoy course that (theoretically) can be circled 3 times in 15 minutes at 25 knots. The first sortie of the day is scheduled to begin exactly at noon, with one sortie every hour after that. Of course, the time between sorties is flexible, so if ships are recovered and repaired quickly we get more sorties, and if things go slowly (or if there aren't enough ships in functional condition left to fight) then we have fewer sorties. I would prefer to start earlier in the day so we can have more than the average four sorties per day, but most club members have declined, including the folks with the safety equipment. The single biggest disadvantage to having short 15-minute sorties is that it is very hard to sink a ship within that time frame, especially capital ships over 20,000 tons displacement. Because of that, we must use a points-based system to determine which side wins. I have recently been reviewing old score sheets, and its rather embarrassing but it seems as though my club is not very good at arithmetic. The benefit of the short battles is that when we DO have our annual 2 hour long Axis-Allies Campaign Battle, its that much more memorable. Since there is much glory and honor in winning the Campaign Battle, and no attempt is made to "balance" the teams, the Axis and Allied fleets draw captains from as far north as Oregon and Washington and several captains build ships specifically for the extended rigors of the Campaign Battle in an attempt to gain any possible advantage. The Campaign Battle consistently has the highest club turnout of the year. The battleships take an average of nearly 40 large-caliber hits (that's 10 more holes than a 4-sortie day), and one particularly enthusiastic skipper has exceed 80 holes in every campaign battle. We also use strategies that cannot be used in the standard 15-minute sorties, such as laying several minefields in front of the enemy port to disrupt reloading and refitting, as well as catching sinking ships rushing blindly for shallow water. Blockades, team tactics, and special features (shore batteries, dock targets, and mission-specific ships) also appear more often. Stories from each campaign battle are unique and legendary, something that is very rare in a club that's over 20 years old. Recently, we have started to add specially modified 15-minute sorties to the lineup, including the "small ship smackdown" (open to ships under 20K tons only), the "big bruisers battle" (open to ships above 20K tons only), and the Last Man Standing (consecutive free-for-all sorties until there's only one ship left). these modified sorties have been well-received by the club, and are easily added to the regular schedule.
MWC battles are 2 or 3 'sorties' long. Each sortie is roughly 20 minutes (long enough to fire off a load of ammo), with 10 or 20 minutes between to reload, regas, and fix any technical issues. No patching is allowed between sorties. We typically run one battle before lunch, and one after. Patching is allowed between battles. As many people need to drive home on sunday, we do just a morning battle, and do a fourth "death ride" with no battery changes nor patching
MWC sorties time vary depending on the prevailing tactical situation. For instance the 1st sortie at 2007 nats was about 1 hour long, but next was about 30 minutes. MWC battle differ from "big gun" battle, in that _all ships_ are on the water at the start of each sortie. So that hour long sortie was with 43 ships. (22 battleships, 15 battlecruisers, 6 cruisers)
Nabs typically go with 20 minute sorties with no patching between sorties. Half hour to prep and rearm between sorties and after battles. Sometimes battles are over within 10 min other times a full 20 with very few ships left standing on the water. Campaign and other scenario battles are planned for this season.
