Iīm a longtime lurker who mainly played Pacific games of Victory at Sea, but after repeatedly being frustrated by the invincible destroyers and useless air rules i decided to buy Naval Thunder based on the board comments. However at Wargame Vault this other game caught my eye: WWII All at Sea.
And for less than 10$ i decided to give it a go.
I must say iīm gladly surprised with this ruleset and wonder why people has not commented much about it.
The game is designed to play big fleet battles in smaller surfaces. And does so by using a simple hitting/damage system.
Guns are not detailed on a per turret basis, instead the ships have a Main Battery, and 1 or 2 additional secondary batteries with different ranges and to hit modifiers.
You only roll 1 dice to hit for each battery ( so no dice hoarding is required ) . If you can only fire half your battery ( target on fore or aft ) then you roll 2 dice and must hit with both to cause damage, so lining the enemy on the broadside is the way to go for maximizing your hit chances.
Turrets have a shell rating from E ( worse ) to A ( best ) so when you score a hit, you compare it with the target armor ( who has 3 values for short/mid/long range which accounts for things like unarmored decks ) . If the shell is the same rate or higher it will penetrate causing a random effect. If itīs one step lower, it will not cause damage, but hinder the targetīs targetting.
There are only 4 damage effects ( turrets, comm, buoyancy and engines ) that vary in criticity and are decided on a single d6 roll, so they are easy to remember and you donīt need constant referencing.
Most ships can be sunk in a single hit if you are lucky with the critical roll ( you need a 5 to hit buoyancy ) , but also, it is perfectly possible for a ship ( even a destroyer ) to survive a lot of punishment and still be in the fight by simply not rolling any 5.
Aviation has a hard time going through AA batteries ( they roll tons of dice and remove a flight for every "6" ) , but unlike VaS, if a flight gets through you have high chances of scoring critical hits as their payloads are almost always "A" rated.
I havenīt brought the game to the table yet, but i have high hopes on it. It seems to focus more on the tactics than in the detailed capabilities of the ships yet the ships feel different enough.
The only con iīve found so far is that ships do not have turning ratings. Any ship can turn up to 90° ( this is due to the timeframe of the turn being larger than most of the other games ) . However, any squadron trying to change direction has to check for Comms to see if order is received an no misshap happens.
Also, one of the most amazing points of this system is that the ship stats are condensed in a few lines of text and the author has been through all major and several minor navies of the time. Aside from the major powers you have Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Sweden and many others… If you can name it, the ship is probably there.
Overall i would recommend the game for:
- Those who look to put many ships on the table.
- Those who donīt like too many recordkeeping.
I wouldnīt recommend it to:
- Those expecting a detailed simulation of ship systems.
- Those expecting 100% historical accuracy.
- Those who like throwing tons of dice. ( AA weapons are the only ones who do that )
Iīm reading Naval Thunder now and i have a copy of Battlestations! Battlestations! coming, but so far i think All at Sea has hit my sweet spot for naval ( I play Pacific WWII so i like large fleet engagements )
The ruleset is published by Agema ( agema.org.uk ) and they have a short FAQ on their site. I had some other questions they hastily answered in a few hours, so iīm pretty satisfied with their support.
Anyone else has played this one? What are your thoughts?
's first experience with 1:4800 scale naval models.
