Not sure on the tactical level. There are 12 scenarios. Search does not seem to be a big part of the game, if it is present at all. There is a big section with examples on how clouds and storms affect sighting and other activity though. The main effort seems to be in planning and executing your attacks on the opponent's ships.
Counters are individual ships, aircraft, clouds, and ordnance.
There are fair-weather cloud counters specific to each as well as storm markers. So a counter will represent a single torpedo, 1000lb AP bomb, etc. Ship values change by class to reflect modifications as the war went on. Damage to ships is attritional in nature. Never heard of that one before.