An admiral optimizes the fleet, not the flagship

High command requires the admiral to choose positions that serve the formation's mission, even when a particular ship would be safer elsewhere. Air-defence destroyers may need to take station up-threat from the carrier, while anti-submarine frigates cover the approaches most dangerous to the group rather than to themselves. Erich Bey returns as the counterexample because he too often treated surrounding ships as extensions of the flagship and fought around that ship. The correct arrangement remains mission-dependent, but the admiral must decide for the whole force rather than instinctively privilege the deck beneath the flag.