"WWII Naval combat beginners questions" Topic

Howdy all,

My gaming group and I are looking into playing some WWII naval combat, but I had a few questions;

1. Rules wise, we have read around and have settled on General Quarters, does this seem like a good idea for a newbie and could you recommend another rules set if not?

2. Miniatures. We're looking in the scale range of 1:2400 and have found the micronaughts range ( link ) Does this seem a suitable scale and are there any other miniatures we should take a look at?

3. Just a rules question; for general quarters,when selecting your fleet, is there a points system similar to other miniatures games? I'm a bit confused as to how to select what I should get for my fleet.

Thank you

Hi,

We use GQIII at our club and thoroughly enjoy the rules. Stations Manned & Ready by A&A Games are good but GQIII just ticked more boxes for us.

We opted for the Hallmark 1/6000 ships. They are stunning and have far more detail than the 1/3000 currently on the market and are cheaper. We found 1/2400 just too large on the table. Worth a thought.

When you order the rules you register on the ODGW website and get access to all sorts of downloads. The ships have a points value, especially if you buy the Deluxe ship cards – which are well worth the money, but to be honest you'll probably end up playing scenarios etc as plain equal points encounters are just dull. As a starter go onto The Wargames Vault and look at the A&A Games scenarios. These are either very cheap or free and worth a look to give you a few starting ideas.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

other rules set options are:

Naval Thunder WW2 from Steel Dreadnought:
navalthunder.jigsy.com/products

Also from Majestic 12, Grand Fleets:
link

Larger scale ships need larger playing area, so horses for courses, I tend to go smaller (1/3000 Navwar or 1/6000 Hallmark),

Cheers,
Wilf

Cheers,
Wilf

We went with 1/2400 (detail and large enough to see for some oder eyes) but I could see myself also getting 1/6000 for larger actions. In 1/2400 besides GHQ there are Panzerschiffe and Viking Forge ships also. We're playing "historically inspired" scenarios vs point-point games. I've settled on pre-43 Japan for my forces. We're playing Naval Thunder but could easily have gone with GQ3.

Panzerschiffe:

link

Viking Forge:

link

GQ1/2, or GQ3 are good options, as is 1/2400th.

I like the GHQ vessels. CinC (now PFC) also make some nice vessels too, in the same scale – slightly less detail, stylistically, but still very crisply sculpted and cast.

If wanting to do points games, you can go with hull damage points for that, generally.

I play at 1/2400' I also like Mongoose's Victory at Sea ( with the Manley tweaks ). Very easy to play even when doing large carrier actions or massed Betty Bombers attacking American surface forces.

Another vote for GQ III and 1/2400.

I would say smaller models better for gaming, unless you have a really massive area available on which to play. I bought 1/3000, which are fine, but even on an 8 x8 table they take up a lot of room. Never seen the 1/6000 ranges, but, if you are starting from scratch and can afford to buy at least two fleets, I would say go for the smaller models.
As for rules, we use "home grown" ones for simplicity, but GQ have a good rep. Big issue with WW2 naval is that submarines and aircraft are very significant and they are quite hard to represent on the table. We use "dummy" subs- 4 for every 1 actual. We are seriously looking at going to WW1 for our naval games, submarines still had some part to play and naval air power was embryonic, but the fleet actions, of all sizes, were generally about the surface vessels.
Whatever scale and rules you decide on, don't forget to build fleets of merchant vessels- protecting/ attacking convoys was a significant role for WW2 navies.

My group plays GQ3 with GHQ 1/2400 scale ships (because that's what I have!) I love the look of GHQ's models, but if I had the chance to do over, I'd go with 1/6000. When I started playing naval 35 years ago, 1/2400 on the floor was just fine. Now that my group is older, we prefer (or need?) to play on a table. At 1/2400, battles with any ships larger than destroyers just don't look right. With the range scales a table enforces, the cruisers and battleships look like they are engaging at point blank.

Then there is 1/4800 th, no ugly bases for DD and a destroyer has the size of a cruisee in6000. Enough to reward painting it right.

Can use the same distances. In D12 years I will redo it from 1/6000.

I went with 1/2400 mainly CinC & GHQ. They paint up easily and are well detailed.As for rules I use Naval Thunder. WW2 & WW1 surface actions mostly. WW2 forces for the Guadalcanal battles which are always fun games.

I use 1/2400(mix of GHQ, CinC, Viking Forge, Panzershiffs, mainly) for General Quarters and Command at Sea. The later is a bit more complex. When I started I typically found a battle I wanted to do such as Savo Island or another smaller battle, and bought the ships to do that. Then added ships as I did other battles such as Java Sea. Order of Battles can be found online and in various publications. A nice thing about Command at Sea is it comes with detailed orders of battle for many historical battles(I think the scenario books are available separately as well). I would suggest start small and build your fleets incrementally. I have never really used a points system. An idea if a points system isn't available.

If you are just starting out, I'd suggest cutting your teeth on GQ2 and easing into GQ3 gradually. GQ2 are pretty simplistic, but on balance pretty darn good. There are other rules sets out there that all have merits. Seapower isn't bad. You might want to save a foray into SeeKrieg for some date in the future.

The actual models will depend on personal taste and intended scope. The more ships you intend to have in your battle, the smaller the models you will want to use. 2400/3000 will work for medium sized battles of maybe 30 models at most. 4800/6000 would be the way to go if you wanted to try something like Jutland. I can't do 6000, my eyes aren't up to it. GHQ are about the most detailed 2400's but they can be delicate. Most scales have just about any ship you might want. 3000 is the most comprehensive for most periods. A Google search for the scale numeric, e.g. "1/2400 model" should pull up all but the most esoteric companies.

Re a point system, the damage point idea is about as sound as any. Try not to sweat balance too much. Try to go historical scenarios. They're more interesting.

Enjoy

General Quarters 3 is a very simple and comprehensive set of rules, which appears daunting at first, because it covers so much. For surface combat, you only need the first chapter, rules for submarines and detailed aerial operations also get their own chapters. Currently there are two Decisions at Sea campaigns for the game. One is on the Solomons concentrating on Guadalcanal and one on a hypothetical but completely possible war between Japan and the US starting in 1937, called Sudden Storm. This game is a delight for all the big gun enthusiasts out there as airplanes had not yet achieved the dominance they would come to have in WWII.

Good luck on finding GQ2, but GQ1 is still available from NavWar in the UK, but you will have to do your correspondence with them by post or fax, as they eschew modern digital communications.

GQ/1:2400 combo is a very good start. I do 1:3000 because it was cheaper to start up but as I'm developing a taste for smaller actions I'd like to start with 1:2400 for the aesthetic value.

Depending on how big your actions are you might want to consider Battlestations! Battlestations! which are specifically designed for lots of ships and may be worth looking at for big carrier battles. I've used them and like them, especially for bigger Mediterranean actions between Britain & Empire and the Italians.

For smaller actions I use a set cobbled together from an old book by Paul Hague but for club gaming I imagine you'll need an 'off the shelf' set that everyone can agree on. GQ is spot on for this.

Nick

We play "Battlestations!, Battlestations!" a rules set for fleet actions in WWII. A bit less fiddly than GQ though GQ is pretty simple. Horses for courses I guess. I have 1/6000 modern and WWII. 1/4800 WWII. 1/3000 WWI and pre-dreadnought. Go slow on 1/6000 or 1/4800 both are small enough that they are hard to see but the distance between ships is rewarding. Of the two I would go 1/6000 since you cant see the 1/4800 much better and the distances look right. Buy a couple of each and see how you feel. I do not care for the sculpts of 1/3000 WWII and 1/2400 while beautiful sculpts just take up too much room on the table distorting the distances too much.

All my stuff is 1/1200….All intended for GQ3.

I went GQ3 because it solves the issues with size of ship.

A destroyer v destroyer action is much better using GQ3 than GQ3

Obviously, you need a lot of gaming space for this size of ship and eventually, I will not have a space problem since I own a nice big building.

i like naval thunder. they have all bellierent nation stats on one shhet. easy to play. did operation pedestal with new players. in 2400 scale ships. did 7 turns in 3 hours. with new players to the system.

enjoy!

I'm a big fan of Naval Thunder. I use 1/2400 models. It plays quickly and is easy to learn. I even was able to teach my wife how to play and she picked up it quickly. The results seem to end up where I think they would historically.