"Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts - the #1 seller!" Topic

In its first day of release, Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts has already rocketed to be the #1 hottest seller on wargamevault.com!

Thanks to everyone who's helped make our launch so successful!

If you haven't checked it out for yourself, there is a lot more detail in the comments thread for our press release on this site (under News Talk) and more detail information about the game being added to our website as we speak.

See for yourself why Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts is a unique approach to naval wargaming that appeals to both newcomers, and salty veterans!

Added a detailed overview of the rules accessible through a link at the bottom of the homepage:

navalthunder.com

Any chance of seeing a pre-dreadnought version?

Looks interesting. I may spring the twelve bucks for the download.

According to their replies on the other thread, no Pre-Dreadnought version any time in the near future.

…………….Doug

Sounds interesting, and not extortionately priced ;)

Bravo Soulmage

A fine achievement, Downloading tonight

We've got a lot on our plate just keeping up with the World War I and World War II versions. . . so no pre-dread version right away. . . but perhaps in the future.

Clash of Dreadnoughts does includes stats for five or six RN pre-dreads and a couple KM designs that were active in the war, so there's some pre-dread action in the for you at least.

The Dreadnought,

What scale of ships are the rules intended for?

Do they include guidelines so we could figure out ratings for non-included ships?

-- Jeff

The rules will work easily for any scale 1/1800 or smaller.

You could try to ballpark ratings but the formulas are proprietary. Good news is that when we release a particular navy, its pretty comprehensive, and a massive supplement is already being worked on for the secondary combatants. So you won't have long to wait. Is there a particular navy you were interested in?

Well, I was wondering how easy it might be to figure out pre-Dreadnought ships -- particularly the Russo-Japanese fleets.

-- Jeff

Thinking this over some. . . .

I don't know that it would really be necessary to come out with a whole new edition of the game for this. I could just come out with a supplemental data card pack.

Wouldn't be 100% compatible with Naval Thunder: Clash of Dreadnoughts if you tried to mix the two, because there would be no adjustments for the fire control advancements.

But if you're just interested in sticking to the pre-dread era as opposed to trying to blend the two games together, it really wouldn't take anything more than just a supplemental data pack with the existing rules.

The big sticking point is the technical data. I don't have it for that era, and it would be expensive to get. If somebody knows how I can get it cheap (or free) I could probably crank this out in a weekend.

I need speed, displacement, armor thickness by location, armament, including layout information. . . good info on doctrine, strengths and weaknesses of Russian/Japanese ship design philosophy would be helpful also. Anecdotes of significant events from the actual battles. . . that sort of stuff.

If anybody knows where I can get that stuff or wants to write it up and send it to me, I can probably crank out an RJW supplement without too much difficulty and without delaying the other stuff overmuch – so long as people aren't trying to blend the two, or don't care that they'll be losing some of the historical accuracy if they do.

Material contributors whose stuff I use would of course get their copies for free.

Most, if not all, of that information is available in "Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1860-1905" if you have access to it.

I also believe that I've seen most of it online too . . . but just where escapes me at the moment.

-- Jeff

(note -- I've got pneumonia right now, so I've got no stamina at present).

Yeah, Conways was a major source for me in my WWI and WWII versions.

Unfortunately, the pre-1906 version is very hard to find and selling for something like $150 USD right now. Probably be hard pressed to recoup that on a pre-dread expansion.

I plan on checking the library if I get some time here soon.

I tried last night using online sources to build the data cards. There is some information available about the RJW pre-dreads. . . unfortunately I quickly found that some key information is missing. . . not the least of which is some context around the numbers. Sorting out which pre-dreads have Harvey Armor, which had Krupp, and which had Krupp Cemented for example.

Perhaps we could have volunteers to feed the information to TheDreadnuoght. I suggest one person each take a navy, feed the technical information he asked for via email, then sum it
with a page or two on "good info on doctrine, strengths and weaknesses of [your navy's] ship design philosophy".

I'll do the Russians.

That would be awesome guys if you could work that out. Here is a consolidated list of what I am looking for:

Ship Class
Ship Names for that class
The completion year for the first of the class
Speed in kts

Main battery size
Main battery layout
Secondary battery size
Secondary battery layout
Tertiary battery size (if any)
Tertiary battery layout

Secondary weapons will pretty much be reduced to Port or Starboard firing arcs, unless they are dedicated forward or aft, or mounted on the centerline. So don't worry about getting too fancy with how they are arranged unless its one of the alternate configurations. If you don't specify, I will just split them evenly port and starboard.

Ignore any guns smaller than 3" (24 pounders).

Torpedo size and number
Torpedo Layout (if you have it, if not that is OK)

Lower belt armor thickness (in inches)
Upper belt armor thickness (if different)
Turret face armor thickness
CT armor thickness if any
Deck armor thickness

Type of armor, Harvey, Krupp, or Krupp Cemented. If you're not sure, use your best guess. Harvey is pre-1895 when Krupp was invented. Krupp Cemented was developed sometime in the first few years of the 20th.

As far as doctrine/ship design philosophy, etc. . . I'm just looking for something that I can use to design a couple optional rules to give the navy some flavor.

I think that is everything. . . so, anybody who wants in on this can email me at navalthunder at gmail dot com.

Thanks guys!

Oh. . . one question about what you guys would like this to be.

Are you guys ok with resetting the baseline for armor values and shell penetration and so forth? If I take that approach these stats won't be usable at all with Clash of Dreadnoughts, but will work fine amongst themselves.

Alternately, I can make an effort to keep on the same number scale as CoD. So an armor value 9 in RJW means the same as an armor value 9 in CoD. This will take longer, and may have some accuracy issues trying to encapsulate and adjust across radically different and gun tech levels. But I can make the attempt if people prefer. Up to you guys.

The Dreadnought,

Take a look at this website, see if it has what you need:

link

As you scroll down for each ship, you'll find an awful lot of information.

-- Jeff

Personally I don't care if they're not "forward compatible" with WWi. As long as they work in their own period, that's fine with me . . . but others may want the compatibility.

What do others say?

-- Jeff

Jeff, that is indeed a lot of information. A couple problems I see:

1. Many of the drawings are such small scale that I can't really make out the layouts. I'm 32 years old w/ 20/20 vision. That's pretty small.

2. There is a lot of abbreviations/extraneous information in those pages. Sorting through all that (and again the miniscule font) would triple or quadruple the time it would take to write up the data cards.

3. There are also a ton of ship classes there. I'd probably look at doing ships from 1895 forward for:

Battleships
Armored Cruisers
Cruisers 1st – 3rd class
and a select handful of representative destroyers. Probably not much difference between them I am guessing anyway.

So. . . I guess I am saying if there is any enterprising individual who wants to transcribe that into the format I show above (and convert the numbers to inches) here's an opportunity for you to earn a free copy of the rules.

I'll get started in the morning with the Russians. Where's the best place to send the info?

You can email it to me at navalthunder at gmail dot com.

Thanks!

I'd make the stats from the two eras compatible. If for no other reason than… just because.

One playtest game we did when we were putting together Grand Fleets was a scenario that had the Japanese ships from Yellow Sea going against the German ships from Dogger Bank. Obviously "a-historical"… but fun. :D

Kevin

Just bought the game, looking forward to read the rules.

Cheers
Mark

Some general questions:

1) can you get a reasonable game (say 8 ships per side) on a 6ft x 4ft table in 1:3000 scale ?

2) How long would a game take ? (say 8 ships per side)

3) Are there any ready to play scenarios ?

Cheers

In response to your questions:

1. Absolutely! A 6x4 table will allow for some very decent sized battles. 8 ships per side would be accommodated very easily.

2. Depends on a few factors. In general I would say that type of action would be wrapped up in less than two hours. Of course, player experience and aggressiveness plays a role. If both players stand back and plink from the edge of long range, that would tend to extend the game somewhat.

3. Not as yet. However a supplement with numerous scenarios as well as a campaign system is in the works. Probably be posting a free scenario on the website in the near future.

In the meantime there are a number of good sources on the web for orders of battle of actual and hypothetical engagements.

Here would be a place to start:

worldwar1.co.uk

You could also try the Order of Battle pages here:

navweaps.com