" pre dreadnoughts any rules suggestions?" Topic

Just posted some pictures of some of my french pre dreadnoughts over on the blog. There not the best photos, i find it's tricky geting good ones of ships this scale. I was wondering dose any one have any rules suggestions for this period. I'm looking for somthing with quite simple book keeping, relatively fast play.

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Suggest Naval Thunder – Rise of the Battleship, which is an expansion to their WW1 Clash of Dreadnoughts. I've used them for Russo-Japanese actions.
Cheers
Wilf

Beautiful ships! Based on your needs, here is a link to a very nice set of rules that gives a good result and is loads of fun:

wtj.com/games/quickfire

And oh yes, they are free

clashofarms.com/rjw.html
and
clashofarms.com/feargod.html
The Russo-Japanese War and Fear God & Dread Nought from Clash of Arms cover the pre-dreadnought and WW 1 eras respectively. I'm not absolutely certain if the Russo-Japanese war has stats for the forces other than those involved in the war, but I believe it does.

In any case I have Fear God & Dread Nought and it has rules for creating the game stats for real world ships based on their real world statistics. While it has rules for dreadnoughts it can definitely be used for pre-dreadnought warfare.

It's not the fastest playing ruleset in the world, but I like it for level of detail it provides and once you've played a few games it goes pretty quickly (as long as you don't plan on doing a huge battle like Jutland, but I don't know any rule set that would do Jutland quickly).

Sides of Steel:

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Here is a summary of the game mechanics. The WW1 version of these rules are my fave for that period.

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My gaming group enjoys Perfidious Albion. Not the most complex or detailed, but gives a quick, fun game. link

Another vote for Perfidious Albion. They are a really fun set of rules, full of 'theme.'

I like David Manley's "Fire When Ready" rules. I think they have a good period flavor without too much book keeping.

You can get them as a PDF download ( link )

Naval Thunder has a huge pre-dreadnought community. In addition to fast, enjoyable gameplay with just the right amount of detail, you can talk about and share your games with like-minded gamers.

Here's the link to check out the rules:

link

(You'll want the Pre-Dreadnought Bundle)

Here's the forum to chat with other pre-dread gamers:

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I've used "You May Fire When Ready Gridley" a couple times, its mechanics are quick but it takes a couple hours to do enough damage to sink a battleship. There is a second book avaliable with ship stats.

Damn Battleships Again. It's a DBA by product and requires no book keeping. Like DBA it's rather abstract however it's available for free.

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Thanks for all the advice and suggestions guys! I think I'll take a look at the free ones first and then maybe try some of the others :)

I use quickfire. If you want something faster you can try also my really simple,really fast, really for kids rules. They are free but rather crude. PM me for them.

With Respect
KTravlos

Another vote for David Manley's "Fire When Ready" rules. Great period flavour without too much rivet counting.

If you want depth, go for Seekrieg V – the ultimate rivie counting rules, but they are better for smaller actions.

I've played the "Fire When Ready" rules perhaps 3 times, and liked them. That's not to say that other rules aren't good too.

Perfidious Albion seems rather strange at first, but is more fun and surprisingly more realistic in many ways to other rules. Easy to modify to to your own taste also.

QuickFire…easy,fast and free.

I fully endorse NT especially for Pre-dreads.

Looks like its a bit of a tie up between "fire when ready" and "perfidious Albion" thanks again for all the recommendations

Looks like its a bit of a tie up between "fire when ready" and "perfidious Albion" thanks again for all the recommendations.

Both rules play well. I prefer FwR because it is a conventional set. PA is a good set of rules, but is a little more abstract.

Damn Battleships Again, a nice simple system that you can complicate to your own taste:

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Cheers,
Bertie

Cant convince my regular opponents to climb the curve on PA/FWR (Though I reckon they look fab) and DBSA felt a bit samey, and lacking chrome.

But we hit a winner on Jim's quickfire WTJ quickfire rules… I found they really fit in your head, and provided chrome and a credible result in good time