"Auto-resolve" is, sadly, totally & completely busted

[neph]

I started a new campaign, and oddly enough the foe decided to put no torpedoes on any of their vessels! Odd for the pre-dreadnought era, and it means I handily win every single battle, killing most or all opponents with no to minimal losses. However, because the AI's been improved, their torpedo-less vessels always try to hold range vs. my torpedo-laden vessels. Excellent decision on their part, but it does make battles very, very tedious & long, especially because I can only accelerate time to 3x in the close-quarters of the predreadnought era. It takes ages waiting to finally get within the (very short) torpedo range, then do it again, and again, and again, for each enemy vessel.

No problem, that's what "auto-resolve" is for, right? After all, I'm clearly winning every battle without any difficulty & inflicting major losses. While I'm sure it's going to be very less-than-perfect, at least it'll approximate the battle results without the huge repetitive slog of predreadnought combat vs an unaggressive enemy.

WRONG. In my use of "auto-resolve" (probably 50-60 times) I have sunk exactly 0 enemies. I have had CAs sunk vs their undergunned, torpedoless CLs, when I have never, ever lost a CA in a manually-fought battle. Sure, that might be chance, whatever. But what broke my back is losing a BB (the first one I'd lost in years of campaign--never before did I lose a battleship in a manually-fought battle) in a 2xBB+CA+2xCL+2xTB vs CA+CL fight. bro what??? I'm not using auto-resolve in close battles where I'm aware it is likely it will give me a poorer result that I can obtain through hands-on-combat. I'm using it only in fights where I'm confident I have a sufficient advantage to not be slapped in the face. Clearly, such fights don't exist!

To add insult to injury, since I never manage to deal casualties when using auto-resolve & am always losing ships or outdamaged by the enemy, "naval prestige" is perpetually slipping lower & lower--despite having a massive advantage in nearly every fight. Long story short, the auto-resolve feature isn't just poor, it's absolutely absurd. Whatever method it uses to judge the odds does not at all resemble combat in this game. If you are cursed with repetitive & slow battles & you have no desire to spend 30 minutes trying to corner a handful of cruisers, start a new campaign or find a way to give yourself 10x & 30x time warp regardless of range.

Edited November 28, 2021 by neph