"WWII Naval Campaign System" Topic

Looking for suggestions of what might be out there to use to create a campaign game.

There is a great area movment boardgame out there that would be great for this but I can't remember it's name. I want to say War in the Pacific but I'm not sure if that is correct.

Victory in the pacific by Avalon Hill.

Depends which theatre but Avalon Hill's Bismarck is great for the Bismarck campaign. There's an add on for the Graf Spee campaign.

I'm sure it could adapt. On ebay you can buy CDs of all the AH naval games for a few quid. I bought it… there's a massive Pacific campaign game as well.

We played the Old Midway from AH and the Victory at Sea as miniature campaigns.

Greetings

Dear Tom

Actually funny you should mention it, in the Society of Daisy we are using Victory in the Pacific and War at Sea in an adaptation of the game to a world-wide naval operations campaign system. The games ideas are being used for strategic movement and we are using ship models in a simplified table top resolution. NOTE HOWEVER! The game is NOT a campaign game, it is a campaign system, that is one which in no way envisions playing the whole game but using it as a strategic framework to craft scenarios for the table top. We plan the big game, to simply be a scenario generator which you can operate as such and use some of the principals of the game to do the background work.

We haven't yet decided on a name. It will either be "Jayne's Frightening Ships 1937" or TITGTAUGSUAYCT!"

for "This is the game that Admiral Ugaki screwed up and you can too!"

Avalanche Press Second world war at sea series of boardgames might suit.

It cover operational and tactical operations at sea. The tactical system is simplistic and uses buckets of dice but that's where your favoured naval rules come in.

The counters are actually nicely done representations of the ships and could be used instead of models.

Check out boardgame geek for more information. One such game is link

I own Bomb Alley which covers the war in the mediterranean and its got huge potential for a miniature based campaign.

ODGW makes Sudden Storm, a campaign game set in 1937 with a fictional US-Japan clash. They set it up for their GQ3 naval rules, but you could really use any tactical rules set.

Also, I'll second the Avalanche Press games as great tools for a campaign generator. Pick your theater, they probably have a game.

Honestly, I found the campaign rules in the old General Quarters did everything I needed for limited operational campaigns. I've run multiple campaign games including Hunt the Graf Spee, Relief of Wake Island and the big daddy – Midway.

If you are looking at Destroyers and MTBs I am working on Flotilla Forward. It will do for these platforms what Platoon Forward and Squadron Forward did for their areas respectively.
You will take your group of ships, and roll up missions to complete while managing your officers/crews. There will be events that take place post battle and you will recieve "help" from your superiors just like the other forward games.
If you are looking for naval battles for larger ships I would third the Avalanche Press games.

Good luck

Joe

Thanks for all the suggestions!

How wide is the scope of your campaign? You could use Flat Top by Avalon Hill for campaigns around the Solomon Islands.

There is an old set of UK campaign rules called The Naval Campaign (by Skytrex possibly). These could be used to create a global WW2 naval campaign.

I have Flot Top. Would also bee looking for other Pacific as well as Atlantic and Med areas.

ODGW "The Solomon's Campaign" is quite good…if you want to game Guadalcanal.

If you don't, the concepts can be applied elsewhere.

If that's not your cup of tea, I fourth Avalanche games.

Also, I'm surprised Mal Wright hasn't posted – I do believe he has a number of games that either are campaigns or are "campaignable" so to speak. I think they're mostly Clash of Arms games, but others might know best.

In terms of theater, I'd suggest also the mediterranean, as the Italians put up several stiff fights and there are also several intrigueing what-ifs, lots of ship types from E-Boats to battleships and carriers, and you can always abstract land-based aircraft attacks. Plus Italian and British ships have spiffy camo schemes.

The MEd is my second love after the Pacific.