Goeben's pursuit turns on coal, speed, and force weight

The scenario keeps the Royal Navy's Tsushima-influenced fire plan, using high-explosive or common pointed shells at long range to damage upperworks before armour-piercing fire at shorter distance. Goeben and Breslau face two battlecruisers, five cruisers, and roughly eight to twelve destroyers, so the German ships have every reason to run rather than accept a decisive engagement. Goeben's nominal speed also depended on high-quality coal, while the British pursuers are assumed to have better fuel and therefore a small but important practical advantage. A difference of less than a knot can prevent the German battlecruiser from opening the range and make cumulative damage increasingly likely. Fleet logistics and fuel quality determine whether the counterfactual encounter can occur.