"Heligoland Bight - FOG of war?" Topic

Any thoughts on how to recreate something of the confusion, fog of war, misidentification, and friendly fire incedents of this battle?

It seems a jolly romp, but only if the various commanders can be kept ignorant of just exactly who is who.

I am thinking of preplotted movement and firing orders, collected from each group of captains based on what they know. After each group has submitted orders miniatures would be moved on the table top, amaster referee's map updated, players would resolve firing on each target, damage would be reported to the appropriate captains and the next turn be plotted.

A heavy burden on the referees, but I think the game could be worth it.

Has anybody run something like this?

It could also work as a play by email game with a numbered hex grid.

of course it would work great as a email game. The ref decides who sees what and when.

One of the weaknesses of miniature gaming is the general lack of fog of war (as you can see the other guys miniatures). One method you could do is a double blind game. each side has their own table of miniatures with some sort of screen between them (much like the old battleship game). Each side moves there own ships and the ref decides when something from the other side comes into view. Then, a playing piece is placed on the players board. The beauty of this system is that one side might see the other first and someone may or not know they have been spotted. The weakness is the space requirement and the need for the extra "spotted" playing pieces.

I'd second a "double blind" game. we ran a WW2 Barents Sea (Convoy JW51B) game as a double blind several years ago and it worked extremely well. Mnay of the "fog of war" associated facets of the real action were unwitting recreated by the players. I think it would work well for Heligoland as well. Its more of an effort for the umpire, but its worth it for the end result.

Im playing in a WW2 game thats run double blind – hex based (actually the same Convoy JW51B) and it is a great way to game.

I only have to hand the information I actually know – I can plot on what my team mates tell me but that may be inaccurate. It makes for very interesting decision making and play.