"Modern fleet level rules" Topic

I do love my modern naval and I use a home brew set for low intensity conflicts which I'm very happy with.

Occasionally, though, creeping megalomania takes over and I have an itch to take control of a fleet and fight over vast swathes of ocean in a strategic context.

So, are there any rules out there which can handle this scale? I'm happy with the abstraction that would be needed for this level of conflict. Ideally I'd like something hex-based and which allows for strikes on land targets. Essentially the sort of game that would allow the whole Falklands War to be fought as one action, so a "strategic" timescale would be fine, as would a board game where I could use 1:6000 miniatures, even with a bit of modding to make it work…

If there's nowt out there then I'll work on my own set, but if there's a commercial product then so much the better. I've looked at 7th Fleet, so if anyone has played this I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Nick

The Fleet series games were a favourite at our games club at university back in the late 1980s, 7th Fleet was the most popular, so I'd give it a go if I were you.

Harpoon Captain's Edition might also be worth a look if you can find a copy

7th, 2nd, and 6th fleet are at the scale you desire but would not be suitable for miniatures. Map hexes are too small for even a single DD and there are usually multiple ships in a hex. I own 6th fleet and have played 2nd fleet. Good games but quite complex. These are theatre level games. Another game, Seapower and the State, covers the entire world but suffers from the same issue of hex size making it unsuitable. The game has also been OOP for many years and is almost impossible to find. There are several other theatre level games but they do not have hexes large enough tor what you wish.

Compass games is working on a game called Blue Water Navy link which might be what you are looking for. It is not due to be published until Q1 2018.

The two old Avalon Hill games, War at Sea and Victory in the Pacific, were WWII area movement games and there is also a WWI variant. The maps would work for 1/6k ships but you would need to develop your own combat rules and OOB. I have thought about this but never got going on a modern game.

Final thoughts. Supremacy link link a somewhat abstract, Risk like game, of modern/future era war could provide a map. There are two versions. I have played the older and am not too excited by it though the maps would work. You can find on ebay a mega version of the map link which you might want instead of paying for the whole game. Of course there are also the Axis and Allies maps.

Haver you considered Dan Versson Games Modern Naval Battles ? I'm sure someone posted about converting it to miniatures. It may be a bit too abstract for you as it's designed as a card game but may be worth a look.

I'm a huge fan of the Fleet Series but they are definitely not a miniatures game. However, I'm not sure, given the engagement ranges, that miniatures makes much sense with any rules for modern fleet combat. I used to play Harpoon on two separate tables in two separate rooms. It was fun but exhausting.

I made up a set of fleet rules, 10 nautical miles to the inch and 8 hours per turn, let me have your email if you want to give it a read. The entire Med fits on a 6*15 foot table.

You may want to look into Red Dragon/Green Crescent from Decision Games Modern War magazine/game series. That covers the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Pacific areas from the Philippines to Korea. The area based system features individual carriers, surface acton groups for cruisers/destroyers/frigates, and squadrons of aircraft. The system is easy to understand and fast paced as each side does what is called an "Op" each turn, which may be moving forces, launching huge airstrikes, transferring air units to other theaters, etc., plus random events.

There is a Sixth Fleet game coming out early next year that is set in the 80s and uses the same system.

Here are the links ref my earlier post;

Game and expansions,

link

link

link

Blog for the game played with miniatures

link

I saw MNB being played as a miniatures game a couple of weekends ago at Cangames. I didn't get any good shots of it, just a couple from the next table where I was, but it sounds like it's a regular staple there.

Woah! Great response, cheers guys.

Murvihill – thanks, I'd love to have a look. I'm at nickjonesinbarnsley, then the "at" thingy, followed by hotmail, dot co, then another dot, then UK. The things we have to do to avoid spam, eh?!

To everyone else, thanks – I'll work my way through the links.

All the best and thanks again,

Nick

On the way.

Nick,

I recently ran a game using Captain's Edition Harpoon with 1/6000 miniatures at a local convention. It went pretty well and seems like it could be adapted to other situations.

This blog post has more about what happened in the game: link

There are some other entries on my blog about the ships and markers.

Dave

Good call on Captains Edition. I love that game but never thought of enlarging it like that.

Murvihill – received with thanks matey! there are some really interesting ideas in there – I really like the idea of 'offsets' and the time/ground scales are the sort of thing I had in mind.

It might be a while until I get to this project due to others in the pipeline but that's a definite 'save for later', cheers.

Dave – as soon as Looked out the board and saw I could recognise Iceland I KNEW we were taking the same language!

As Renée Zellweger almost said, "You had me at GIUK gap"

Nick