Topic: How many ships?

I am looking into getting some 1/2400 minis for naval wargaming.  I am interested in Spanish-American War and Russo-Japanese War stuff, alternate history, and eventually would like to try some WWI stuff.  I've checked out the demo but I had a few questions about Grand Fleets for the veterans.

1.  How well does it play solo?

2.  How many ships do you need for a "typical" scenario?

Thanks.

Ned

Re: How many ships?

I think it plays pretty well solo, but then I'm pretty good at deciding what one side would do if it didn't know what the other was doing.  There aren't any solo rules (in the first edition, anyway), so if you need solo rules because you can't ignore what you shouldn't know and just play both sides, I suppose they wouldn't work very well.

I guess that isn't much of an answer. neutral

I'm not sure there is a "typical" scenario.  I've played from four (Denmark Straight and River Plate) to seventeen (Gotland Island) ships solo.  Gotland Island took a while, but only because I played it out to the bitter end--it was decided pretty quickly.