Excellent post by Emperor's Child. As much as I hate giving control of my fleets to the AI, I have to admit that SE IV's strategic battle option is better than manual combat at simulating the inevitable "friction of war".
In SE IV terms, the battle of August 9, 1942 was fought between a Japanese "fleet" with max fleet and ship modifiers (the ships had operated together for some time; the crews were highly trained in night fighting) and an Allied "fleet" with minimal fleet/ship modifiers (essentially a scratch force of ships with little night fighting training). The Japanese also had superior "combat sensors" (oversize binoculars & lookouts chosen for night vision, vs buggy radar and ordinary optics).
The old Japanese CRs in the battle carried fewer 8" guns than the Allied CRs, but had overall weapon superiority thanks to their "Long Lance" torpedo mounts (longer range, higher speed, and bigger warhead than Allied torps). Atrocities' quote doesn't mention them, but in fact the four Allied CR lost were sunk by torpedo hits. Kako was also a victim of torpedoes; the day after the battle it was sunk by a US submarine.
The action off Savo Island is difficult to model on the SE IV battle map. Certainly the fleets should start at close range (as if entering the system square through adjacent sides), and the Japanese would definitely fire first. Unfortunately in SE IV one side is nearly always annihilated, which wasn't the case at Savo Island. However, if both fleets have "Don't get hurt" orders, I can see them breaking off after one (involuntary) round of combat.
So who wants to do a WW II Pacific Theater mod for SE IV?
