"Victory at Sea - more difficult to find than the Bismarck" Topic

Hi – just coming back to wargaming after several years away. Always liked naval and played GQ1&2. My lad is getting interested, esp the Med in WW2, so I need a simple and quick set of rules. I want to try Victory at Sea but despite all the marketing I can't seem to find a rulebook for under £50.00 GBP! Anyone know why Mongoose aren't printing a 'current' product? I've also read that VaS is available as a download – can anyone point me in the right direction please? Cheers all

wargames vault has it as a pdf for about £13.00 GBP

There's a new edition coming out this year. Probably why they don't have any, ran out and didn't bother to reprint.

Didn't Mongoose sell this rules set over to Warlord Games recently?
That might explain things.

What's wrong with teaching him GQ 1&2? You're not going to get much sompler than that.

Take a look at Steel Dreadnaught's Naval Thunder. It's available from War-games Vault. Liked it a lot better than VaS.

Lee

I agree GQ 1 or 2 are pretty simple. I'd give those a go and see what happens. I got my feet wet (pardon the pun) with those systems and think they are great.

GQ3 is available now.

Warlord Games and Mongoose are bringing out the new version of Victory at Sea later this year, including ships.

Thanks for all the help guys – I've not been able to reply earlier due to the three days one has to wait once a profile has been set up.

Being a GQ player of old I agree that it's pretty simple, but there's still quite a bit of staring at charts and working out odds. For a 7 year old that isn't as much fun as chucking 8 dice for Warspite firing a full broadside and just counting the 5s and 6s, if you know what I mean.

I've downloaded and printed VaS (thanks Yoakley) and had a read: very much more of a game than a sim, but that's fine for now. I've dug out some old half-painted Navwars and with a bit of license (i.e. a town class cruiser masquerading as Exeter and a couple of Southamptons pretending to be Leanders) we've got the River Plate to fight this weekend, and jolly excited about it he is too. He's the RN, of course.

I'll try and post some thoughts post action. I've also had a look at the suggested NWS rules changes, which make sense, though I'll try w/o changes before I decide.

Thanks for the tip about Naval Thunder too, Lee; I reckon I might have a look at that too.

So thanks to all: and equal speed charlie london

Bozkashi Jones,

I think the idea game for a younger player would have been War at Sea:

link

Its out of print now unfortunately.

I think Victory at Sea would be the next best option. If I recall correctly it has a bit less "math at the table" in terms of to hit modifiers etc than Naval Thunder does – but if your boy can handle the modifiers I prefer Naval Thunder over the current edition of VAS (which is going to get a new edition I believe this september from Mongoose/Warlord).

I'm also waiting for Grand Fleets 3 to come out (MJ12 games). Should be out anytime now. It would be good for younger players too, as everything you need is on your ship cards.

-Tim