Is this realistic?

[Zom]

I am sorry if this is a question that has been already asked and answered. And I am sorry if I am becoming a pest, but just wait till you get to know me better.

I have a fleet of three ships, quarter deckers, whatever the latin name is. Every battle, the middle ship takes all the losses. Every time. Now, if I was the Admiral (and he now has many stars... I think 10 maybe) I would try to manuever such that the least effective ship of my fleet was last to engage. Yet, here it is. Engagement after engagement, the ship with the most damage (and it is always the middle of the three) is apparently the only one to engage.

And this is total realism? How? If beyond moderator control I can accept that. Just asking.

What if I added a fourth ship? Would that matter?

[Maurits]

For as far as I know, the naval battles in RTW are hardcoded. Besides tinkering with the ship stats, we can't change anything about their mechanics. I agree that it doesn't work very realistic, but I'm afraid we can't do anything about it

[Caligula Caesar]

It's hardcoded that for some reason the 2nd ship in the fleet takes the most casualties (regardless of how many ships you have).

[Sphere]

If you have been paying attention, the same thing applies for land battles when you autocalc. The bulk of the casualties are put on the first few units in the stack.