"1970s rule set?? " Topic

When I fought my first naval games in the 70s I never saw the hard copy rules, they were just word of mouth. Essentially a ship had a certain number of damage points which hits reduced and when you had none left your ship sank. A 6" gun inflicted 2 points of damage, an 8" inflicted 5, a 15" inflicted 39 and an 18" inflicted 64. These were in effect one DP per 50lbs of shell weight. HMS Hood had 800 DPs, Bismarck 850, and so on.

Does anyone recognise what ruleset this was?

IT sounds like a version of Fletcher Pratt called Dreadnaught

Agreed.

First thing that springs to mind is Fletcher Pratt. Can't speak to Deadnaught.

That sounds like the old Skytrex WW1 naval rules, I still have a copy. It isn't FP, the damage vales are wrong (Bismarck has a lot more hit points than a mere 850 in FP).

Agree it's not FP. I have read summaries of his rules that include things like ranging shots, which were not in the set I remember.

Skytrex seems plausible given the date and the model supply. They gave quite a good game, as I recall?

To me they sound like the rules from the 1975 book "Naval Wargames" by Barry J Carter.

I've just had a look at my copy and the damage values are exact. Neither Bismarck nor Hood are listed in the 'suggested sinking rates', but KGV has 750 points, Scharnhorst 700.

Turrets and speed were lost in proportion to the damage points lost.

All very basic, but this was my first book on naval wargaming and I loved it as a kid.

Nick

Nick

The defence factor values for those ships I can recall look roughly like 1kt of displacement = 20 points. This would give 850 for Bismarck on 42,500 tons, and 700 for Scharnhorst at 35,000; although the same factor does not work for Hood or KGV.

It may be that the base factors go up or down according to armour, as I don't recall this being considered any other way and simple displacement is not a good proxy for it.

4th Cuirassier,

That looks about right then. In the book there is no allowance for armour or critical hits which is obviously a major failing.

The rules also use a square grid for movement and measurement (not a hex grid) so these are distorted.

That said I may dig out some old Skytrex models and give them a bash for the sake of nostalgia – a bit of retro 'heritage' wargaming…