Why isolated battle-squadron duels are unlikely

What would happen if two equally matched battle squadrons met?

Such an isolated four-ship-on-four-ship duel would imply serious operational errors on both sides, so a faster battlecruiser encounter provides the more plausible case.

A fleet action should bring larger forces together, so two evenly matched battle squadrons fighting in isolation would mean serious operational errors on both sides. Even an independently operating American squadron accidentally meeting a German formation is treated as a remote possibility. The episode therefore switches to battlecruisers, whose fast-squadron role makes an independent encounter more plausible. That choice keeps the game scenario within the operational assumptions of First World War fleet doctrine.