Demo command station

When trying to demo the game recently, I felt that trying to present the game with the full command stations would be a bit too intimidating for new players.
However, playing without the stations makes the game feel kind of sluggish and removes a fair bit of character.

I'd suggest the creation of a "default" command station for demo purposes, containing a few simple and generic orders that fit within a demo scope.
Personally, I'd say the Stroke of Luck (re-roll), Flank Speed, Evasive Action and enhanced damage control abilities are the ones that should be on there.
Probably no national rules either; just a generic station that could fit with any country.

How do others feel about this?
How would you set this up? Which orders would you say are simple and impactful enough for a demo?

Great suggestion. I'll be following this thread with interest.

I think it's a good idea. I'd personally add Make Smoke and an appropriated version of the RN's England expects
every man to do his duty, or MN's Elan, mostly because it would give the demo recipient a little bit of padding to keep them in the game longer. Because honestly, watching ships evaporate to several torpedo hits or go up in a blaze is much more satisfying in most respects than driving them off, and the more you get a demo player rolling on the hit location table, the better. Else, I'd say demo officers with good command scores for small and medium ships.

Hm, I'd say Smoke might add too much complexity.

I'm not using terrain like squalls either for demos.

You could also argue that not having all your ships blown to bits would be a much better representation of Naval Combat than other games where you play until all ships are sunk

I'd aim for choosing commands that touch different phases and parts of the game, to highlight those. In that light an activation to influence the command station could certainly put some more interaction in that part of the game. I do however agree on excluding the smoke, that would not only add a pretty complicated activation, but would also require to bring in the extra complexity of terrain and cover rules.

This is a very interesting suggestion. I've only played IJN vs USN so far and my initial order suggestions for inclusion would be:

1. Stroke of Luck
2. Flank Speed
3. Evasive Action
4. Keep Her Afloat
5. Veteran Commander (failure effect: Lose 2 order tokens this turn or next turn if no orders remain during the current turn)
6. Veteran Ship Crew (failure effect: All hits become misses)
7. Adapted Tactics
8. Stealthy Approach
9. Intelligence Windfall (same success/failure effects as USN OP-20-G order)
10. Superior Optics/Radar Assisted Firing (use success/failure effects of IJN Superior Optics order)

This is a very interesting suggestion. I've only played IJN vs USN so far and my initial order suggestions for inclusion would be:

1. Stroke of Luck
2. Flank Speed
3. Evasive Action
4. Keep Her Afloat
5. Veteran Commander (failure effect: Lose 2 order tokens this turn or next turn if no orders remain during the current turn)
6. Veteran Ship Crew (failure effect: All hits become misses)
7. Adapted Tactics
8. Stealthy Approach
9. Intelligence Windfall (same success/failure effects as USN OP-20-G order)
10. Superior Optics/Radar Assisted Firing (use success/failure effects of IJN Superior Optics order)

I think you kind of misunderstood Marqod's suggestion Bezmozgu, the idea as I understand it is to get a very much simplified command station to introduce beginners to the mechanics of the command station without them having to grasp the use of each command there.

Something like this I would imagine? I included the officer also to simplify things even more and to reduce the work of printing and sorting.

I failed to explain my suggestions, my bad. The command station and advanced activation orders are a fun and unique aspect of the system. I think that more than four orders should be included on a demo command station to convey more of the flavor and better represent the various options available in the full system: maneuver, timing, reaction. I believe removing the unique national characteristics from the demo station simplifies it enough so that including 8 to 10 generic advanced activation orders does not overwhelm the new player, but at the same time gives the new player a good taste of what is possible as well as several more choices to affect play if they are willing to spend the order markers.