[Bullethead]

Originally Posted by sandbag69

How realistic is Jutland?

We like to think it's the most realistic naval sim ever made. It's really a simulation, despite some reviewers calling it a strategy game. The core of the game is the simulation of the interaction of guns, armor, and fire control systems of 1916. You interact with this simulation in tactical battles, and there's an operational-level campaign game (as in you don't build units, recruit troops, etc., but just make plans for what you've got, but these decisions CAN have strategic (as in war-winning/losing) repurcussions).

Does it take into effect

British Dud Shells? or shells that smashed apart on contact with German Armour.

Yup. Brit AP shells in 1916 sucked, no doubt about it. We made this an optional setting, however. You can choose to have the Brits shoot crappy 1916 shells or the Greenboys of the later period. Your choice. If the 13.5" and 15" guns shoot Greenboys, you'll soon see that the vaunted German ship toughness was largely a product of inferior Brit ammo prior to 1917/18.

Poor shooting by Beatty's Battle Cruisers?

Yup. And also the problems of those BBs with the foretop behind the forefunnel.

Bad British cordite handling in the Beatties Battle Cruisers?

Yup, but differently than you're implying. The preponderance of the evidence is that it was NOT sloppy magazine practices that blew up the Brits at Jutland, but the highly volatile nature of Brit cordite itself. IOW, all Brit ships, BBs and BCs alike, had a good chance of blowing up if a turret was penetrated. Campbell's argument in his Jutland: An Analysis of the Fighting, seems closest to the truth of all those out there, in our opinions. For the full SES position on this issue (which is pretty much a rehash of Campbell), please see Yang's Jutland wiki here (a post I wrote): http://jutland.wikia.com/wiki/Damage.

The tendency for Brit ships to explode, however, is rather game-imbalancing in MP. Thus, we made this an option, too. If you turn the option off, then ALL ships (Brit and German) have a slight chance of blowing up once in a while. If you turn the option on, Germans still occasionally blow up, and so do Brits, but the Brits in addition have a significant chance of blowing up on a turret penetration.

Are British Destroyers painted Black so they showed up more easily at night.

No. By 1916, very few DDs on either side were still painted black, because the vast majority of them were escorting the BBs around and neither side wanted to fight at night at that time. Actually, the Germans had more black DDs/TBs in 1916 than the Brits did, from what I can tell.

Does it have all the ship classes that were present at Jutland?

And then some. Because the campaign runs the full length of 1916, the game includes every ship of TB size and above that was in service at some point in 1916 in the North Sea, whether she was a Jutland or not. Thus, in addition to the complete Jutland OOB, you've got all the Brit AMCs enforcing the blockade, subs, zeps, the German TBs in Flanders, the Dover Patrol and its monitors, ships sunk in 1916 prior to 31 May (King Edward VII, and Arethusa, for example), and ships that entered service in 1916 subsequent to 1 June ("Refit" and "Repair", the R-class DDs, etc.).

The game comes with historical canned scenarios for different phases of Jutland. 1st contact at 1415, from when the BCs opened fire at 1548, the start of the battlefleet phase at 1750, when the night action really heated up at 2350, and when 12DF torpedoed Pommern. Except for the 1st and the last listed, all these scenarios have every ship that was still afloat at that point in time. The only reason the 1st one doesn't have everything is that even with a 200km x 200km battlespace, Jellicoe was too far away to be in the battle. The last one was intended just to be a small scenario, so doesn't have all the ships.

Every ship in the game is available in the scenario editor, however. This even includes a 3-turret version of Lion for use in July/August when Q turret was shore being repair (this ship appears in the what-if 19 August canned scenarios).