"Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare" Topic

G'day all,

While I wrote the below review a while back I thought I'd share it here as the 2nd expansion is in pre-order stage (and has a campaign system)and while the game is a stand alone card based game – our gaming group is having a lot of success with using 1/700 miniatures to play it.

From:
link

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare is a card based resource management style game published by Dan Verssen Games ( dvg.com ).

Game Components:
110 full colour action cards (missile combat, gun combat, torpedo combat, Air Support, Bomber Strike, Battle plan, Screening ship, Intel, Repair, Near Miss & superior tactics) – action cards are used for attack and/or defence managing your fleet composition to utilse your action cards best is very important to victory.
110 full colour ship cards (Argentina 9, China 14, France 13, Japan 12, Norway 7, Taiwan 11, United Kingdom 14, United States 15, Soviet Union 14 & non-combatant 1)
2 6 sided dice (you don't need more than 2, additional 6 sided dice are useful aid in tracking multiple attacks/defenses)
Full Colour Rules Booklet
(which is available as a free pdf from dvg.com – 8 pages of core rules with plenty of clear explanations and examples)

Game Scale: Individual Ships
Players: 2 to 6 (more than 2 better)
Time to Play: 1 Hour (to 2 hours)
Complexity: Low to Moderate (high replay potential, skill rewarded)Example of play: see mnb-gwscenarios.pdf

Comments:
Game components: Very nice high resolution picture images on cleanly cut card. The action and ship cards fit easily into standard card plastic sleeves (not included) to provide greater protection if required.
Rules clarity: Excellent, only a very few errata/questions not addressed in the Rules As Written (RAW). Three optional rules, 4 scenarios included.
Games Mechanism: Resource management – both of fleet selection, deployment/re-deployment and action cards – is eloquent and rewarding. The uncertainties involved are challenging yet the game is not chance driven, as good asset management usually can minimise bad luck and maximise good luck.
Replay value: Very high – each game progresses differently.

Disadvantages:
* The fleets are not balanced, this can lead to fundamentally unbalanced games were a player is more likely to win due to their fleet selection than to their skill/luck. (see link
The more players playing the less this is an issue as it is in the overall interest of the weaker fleet players to gang up on the strongest and knock them down/out early.
(see link
This difference in fleets can be used to balance players skill. e.g. when introducing this game to others it may be appropriate to give the newer players the better fleets.
* Limited online community, compared to some other naval games (e.g. Wizards – War at Sea), there is at present as far as I can disern very little "buzz" abot MNB:GW – which is a shame as this is a very nice game that I believe deserves better support. It may be that the soon to be released expansion will inspire online support/discussion of this game and further expansions.

Possibilities
* Using miniatures – currently we are often using 1:700 scale ships, 1:350 scale aircraft and 1:144 scale missiles with the RAW.
(see link
* Collectable Card Game market – MNB:GW could easily be marketted as a CCG rather than as a boxed game. Of course this might not fit DVG's present market strategy but I believe it would be worth considering.
*Collectable Miniature Game market – as mentioned previously the Wizards naval game War at Sea is proving to be popular and profitable. It is likely that there is a more limitted market for modern naval gaming – but possibly worth investigating.

Overall:
I really like this game and heartily recommend it.
9 out of 10

ps. some very nice pics at:
link

Thanks for the heads-up on the game, David. I may just have to purchase a copy of same to, well, you know, scratch that particular itch…

Played that game until the cards frayed. Great to play while everybody in the group was debating in what other game to play and do-able when enebriated.

There is a land based tank version supposedly coming out.

My group has played this 3 handed. None of us had played before but we all picked it up quick. It was fun. With more than 2 sides there really is a tendency for players to try and bring down the strong guy first, or at least weaken him. We were able to play multiple games in an evening.

G'day all,

I'm biased.. it is the best thing since sliced bread! ;-)
I've played a number of naval rules and then played this.. with miniatures and without.. and still find it interesting even though it has such simple rules..
Of course I've messed about with house rules.. but keep coming back to the Rules As Written (RAW), though playing Mac's scenerio generator has been fun (he needs to fix assault – a sneak cheese player can win on the 1st turn – I'm sneaky/cheesy ;-))
Hmm must try it enebriated..

Land Game – yeah it is still on the pre-order list.. which means DVG needs some more people to commit to buying before it goes to the printer.. I recently pre-ordered it with the MNB Expansion set 2.. which includes the Indian navy :-) – hopefully both will go to print soon!

G'day all,

I've recently finished proof reading the ship cards for the Campaign Expansion.

While I cannot release specifics* – Dan says he is happy for me to speak in general about capability and what the new ships bring to the game.

So.. which fleet should I start with?

*that would spoil the excitement of opening the box…

some discussion here:
link

G'day all,

I've talked to Dan about the campaign system, not much that I can reveal except that the system will provide for three level of game length/size, multiple players and there will be linkage between games (eg what happens to a ship in one game will effect it's use in the next) as part of the campaign system and isn't dependant on having expansion #1.

Dan also says that pre-orders are slowly coming in… which means that it isn't yet on the way to the printers..

If you know of anyone who might be interested – please encourage them to get their pre-orders in, I'm itching to get my copy as soon asd possible!

Also I raised with Dan the need for an official FAQ/Errata, does anyone have anything they want clarified?
I've started a list at:
link

Comments?

For an example of a Play by Forum post see:

link

Some good news – I spoke to Dan, the expansion set 2 which adds more ships and a campaign system is likely to go to the printers next week…
an early draft of the campaign rules is available at:
dvg.com

TODAYS GOOD NEWS!
------------------
Modern Naval Battles – Campaign Expansion has arrived from the printer, and we have started shipping them! The shipping process will take several days. Once shipped, orders within the US should arrive in 3 to 5 days, and International orders should arrive in 7 to 10 days. If you have any questions, please email us immediately to make arrangements at: dan@dvg.com

Thank you,
-Dan Verssen Games (DVG)
dvg.com
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Who will be first to post a review?

I could – but that would be cheating as I did proof reading. :whistle:

G'day all,

Great news for those of us waiting on the expansion

Dan has published the rules at:

PDF link

That way we can see what the main game mechanics are! :D

This is the sort of support that Dan provides that makes me very happy… :D

and not just because my name is on the last page.. :whistle: :modest:

All the best

David