"A Casual Sunday's WWI Action" Topic

link

As a break from painting WW1 ships I actually played a game with them !

We used a random selection method to pick our forces and each of the 4 players had 2 Dreadnoughts a Light Cruiser and 4 Destroyers.

It was a great enjoyable days gaming, I am really pleased with how the rules are progressing and other than a tweek here and then the "standard" version is done. I already have lots of ideas for the Fast Play Jutland version.

The British lost a LC and 3DD, the Germans 2DD, Warspite was hit rather unluckily by a Torpedo and Collingwood lost its Bridge, the Germans didn't come off scot free as two of their Dreadnoughts lost turrets.

Pop by t'blog (link above) for the full story.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Thanks Ken, I follow your projects with great interest. Could you point me to any posts about the rules you are using – I really like the idea of ranging shots being required before being able to move to salvo fire (if I have that right). I've not seen this in any rules i have used and would be keen to know more.
Cheers
Alan

Hi Alan,

Firstly thanks for the kind words, always appreciated.

The rules are home brew and based on a set I wrote for WW2 about 25 years ago, I will probably put them on the blog when they are finished. My dream (?) of publishing a set of Wargaming rules and retirement to a sunny island are long gone so the likelihood is that they will be launched free to air.

I have reservations as they work as a good fun game with a reasonably high degree of accuracy but the rules lawyers will pick holes and disagree with concepts etc and I think can I be bothered, they will be too complicated for some, lacking in detail for others. It's a lot of work to get them out there in an understandable fashion, that and I use ship data cards so there are 150 of them just for Jutland to proof read !

The basics of the ranging is that at the start of the game (or when changing targets) large ships (with directors) throw ranging dice to represent the time spent calculating firing solutions etc.

We use the red dice from the X Wing game but essentially they are d8. A German ships will roll 3 dice a British ship 2 with an extra dice for a ship deemed to have good gunnery skills (eg Queen Mary) or lose a dice for poor gunnery skills. No changes for speed, turns etc just straight dice rolls (a simple way of representing the highly complex calculations involved).

For every 5,6,7 on a d8 (a hit on a X Wing Die) the firing ship records a ranging point on its target, this does no damage but represents the ship getting closer to having a good firing solution. Once a ship has scored three ranging points it is classed as ranged and fires as normal. An 8 on a d8 (crit on XWing) gives a ranging point and a "lucky" actual hit which is resolved as normal causing damage etc. The photo above shows our ranging markers, each clear ring is a ranging point, the red ring is a an actual hit in the previous turn.

You lose one dice for each ship firing at a target, lose one dice moving to the next in line, lose one dice for each turn after the first when a target is masked and on the turn you range in any ranging points over the 3 count as hits.

That's it in a nutshell, hope that makes sense, that's an explanation of one minor part of the rules, you can see how long it would take to explain the whole thing !

All the best Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

Hi Ken,

Well, don't give up your escape plan just yet, I like the sound of the ranging mechanism and it whets my appetite for more. I've pondered the rings on your splash markers before now and wondered at their purpose. Does sea state/weather just affect spotting or does it factor into the ranging process too?

But, I understand your reservations. I imagine the final development phase of rules requires a great deal of work and its a saturated market. That said, I'm guessing there's many more like me that'd be more than happy to give your rules a crack!

Thanks for your detailed reply – I'm a regular visitor to your blog so look forward to the next time you get to spend a casual Sunday around the table.

Cheers
Alan

Thanks Alan,

I have considered a visiblity modifier and will probably use one for Jutland. I prefer to keep the main rules as basic as possible and keep factors to a minimum and then add variables based on the scenario at hand.

With the basic throw being only 2 or 3 dice it's quite sensitive to changing factors. I will probably have a maximum visiblity range (which will vary during the game) with minus one dice within a couple of thousand yards of that.

Will finalise nearer the time.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer

I love these gaming and rules concepts. Well done! I for one am very interested in trying them one day.