Designing a battleship game.

Hi guys.

I'm designing a nautical wargame. The basics are: You build your ship and then battle the enemy ships.
Currently i am trying to write rules for this game but i have little experience doing a boardgame so i need your help.

I'm starting slow and just focusing on the basics. So now currently i'm stuck at movement.
I want my ships to move like in warhammer fantasy which means that the board has no squares or hexagons. Flat surface and measurer are needed to play.
Ships are very slow and turn very narrowly.. How can i make my ships turn realisticly and reduce "drifting" which means the ships tail getting too happy when turning..

I was thinking about making the ship forced to move at least a fixed distance when turning. This way the ship turns but moves forward so the ship isn't just spinning in place. (Try rotating a massive battleship like a tank.)

What do you guys think?


EDIT:
The ship models are made out of paper and the size of the ships vary. Bigger the ship, easier the enemy will hit you. But bigger ships have more hitpoints.
I was thinking about adding a half circle on the nose of the ship so it can declare how much the ship can turn. (Like a red mark showing that the ship can only turn 30 degrees.)

But can the turning mechanism be made without the half circle marker? It's a tough one to figure out.

Look at X wing, where there is a set amount of maneuvers and certain ships can only use certain ones

Look at X wing, where there is a set amount of maneuvers and certain ships can only use certain ones

Thanks for the fast reply!

The X wing tends to use a square base which is fairly easy to build movement from.
But i'm looking to  have baseless models. These ships do not have square bases under them.


I was thinking about the ships tail being stationary while the front end is moved sideways when turning.. It could work.
Ships can only turn a limited amount per turn.

Look at X wing, where there is a set amount of maneuvers and certain ships can only use certain ones

Thanks for the fast reply!

The X wing tends to use a square base which is fairly easy to build movement from.
But i'm looking to  have baseless models. These ships do not have square bases under them.

No but you do have a prow and a stern that could be used for the same thing

No but you do have a prow and a stern that could be used for the same thing

I'll playtest and see if it works.


EDIT:

By holding the rear of the ship in place and rotating the front of the ship 2cm and then moveing 5cm forward creates a smooth but slow turning movement..

I still wonder can the ship movement be done with hexagons like in battletech?
What if the ship is longer than 4 hexagons and wider than 2 hexagons? How does that behemoth turn and move?

EDIT:

Okay i think i can make it work more easily with hexagons..