"Why Not Naval?" Topic

I'm an ardent naval war gamer, love it, always have, the vast majority of my wargaming covers naval subjects. But I'm aware that it is very much a niche area of wargaming. So, for those of you who are not naval gamers, why not? What is it that has stopped you getting into it?

Just more interested in land battles. Nothing more to it.

I actually have a keen interest in naval wargames, but it takes a lot more prep to make the naval game more interesting; by that, I mean context. Most rules just provide the mechanics to resolve naval engagements, but the best naval wargames are fought as part of a campaign, which few rules provide. I keep meaning to do something like a South China Sea scenario with Shipwreck, but that means I need to research naval and land based assets, and come up with my own rules for aerial reconnaissance, etc.

I'll blame the movies.

I've enjoyed a few naval games — trireme type games, GW's Man O War, a campaign game of Ironclads & Etherflyers.

Off-putting bits from various naval games:

* 20th Century: Guess the Range mechanics (only benefits players who happen to be good at that).

* Age of Sail: Endless book-keeping (on paper or computer-assisted data entry).

* Age of Sail: everyone sailing around on their own whims because no one could convey a good sense of group tactics to the players.

* Generally: I don't have a grasp of tactics that would make the game play as enjoyable as a land battle.

I can't answer your question because I love naval wargaming and always have. It's an equal mystery to me why so relatively few gamers are interested in naval subjects.

Unless there's islands, rivers of coastlines involved there's nothing to hide behind! Nothing to take cover in! So much of my approach to a game comes from a reading of the terrain and without that I'm lost!

I do a lot of simple naval gaming but am put off by the many more complicated rules sets. Academically I find the effects of plunging fire and armor designs interesting but don't want to game them. Same with other gunnery and damage issues. I really do not like checking off damage boxes on a ships data sheet and then having to figure out what the ship can still do.

That's a good question. I have enjoyed the few naval games I've played -- Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Age of Sail, that little pocket hex-and-counters game with biremes and triremes -- but I have never tried to put together a unit of ships or even buy a rules set (except that pocket game -- was that an early Steve Jackson minigame?).

On the other hand, I own many starships and have played in (and, in come cases, run) games of Full Thrust, Battlefleet Gothic, Power Projection, classic Traveller space combat, Mayday, and even my own attempt to use Full Thrust movement with High Guard statistics. So maybe it's just the water.

Rum, sodomy and the lash?

P.S. I do play some naval, so I' m not sure what that says!

P.P.S. Still waiting for a good set of rules for modern sub -v- sub game.

Don't like the uniforms…

Played a few games but much rather do land engagements, no complicated reason for not doing naval games

I do enjoy, but yes hard to find proper opponents.
Funny though with imagination, good ( existing, GHQ and Gq3) scenario generators, history what ifs and variants, we get plenty of posdibilities.
Also easy to set up, and able to pick numbers of gamers, even on the hop, for clubs.
Funny it is not played more. Maybe because one needs to know a bit, at least the ships types, differences etc. to do it properly, and historical knowledge is a diminishing valuable among players.

I really enjoy naval gaming both age of sail and WW2. I intend to look at WW1 one day.

What appeals is the there tends to be plenty of tactical manoeuvring to bring the guns to bare and games are rarely centred on a few straight forward moves to contact, which defines a lot of land based wargaming.

While I could and would naval game in practically any era and there are always ships under construction on my table, I can imagine that those for whom painting is a great part of their enjoyment would find ships rather dull to paint.

I'm pretty much exclusively a horse & musket/adventure gaming guy. Here's a few reasons why naval games are not attractive to me:

In my imagination, it's a battle of weapon platforms not men; I'm more interested in individual heroics and bravery. That's all abstracted away here.

Rigid movement; It's a game of setting up angles instead of conquest, capturing tangible assets and real estate, utilising terrain to ones advantage.

No uniforms

Lots of fiddly models

As above, too much book keeping.

To do it in a scale/size I prefer (25/28s) would require more space than I can provide.

(Some of these are also reasons I don't care for Aviation gaming either.)

Most of them don't "feel" right to me, especially 20th century games. I'm a former navy officer, and what the rules miss is the speed at which things happen. Ships moving towards each other at 30 knots actually puts a premium on your time and your knowledge of how to drive the ship. You don't calculate your endless die roll modifiers and roll every hit, taking an hour for a three minute turn, no you put the ship at the best range and heading and shoot and hope it all works well. Most WW2 actions were over and done in under an hour, yet our games usually end because they run out of time for the game.

Age of sail, OTOH, I like, but I don't have the models for it. Depends on how much bookkeeping is involved.

I was a Navy officer. Too much like work. :)

I do some, but not a lot of naval gaming. So, even if the game is not Tomahawks and Harpoons (or Interdiction, SAR, HADR, SOF support, Logistics, …) I have specific expectations about the "feel" for a naval game, so I guess I am a picky customer. (This might be akin to why I am glad I am NOT a beer connoisseur.)

I am also a big fan of celestial navigation and deckplate seamanship, so Age of Sail and earlier still get that "feel" requirement from me.

From a modeling perspective it lacks the visual appeal that goes along with land battles. No colorful uniforms, no varied terrain.

From a gaming perspective, the strategy and tactics of naval warfare are not as well known as those for land based warfare.

I love all I have played and play as many as I can, except airplane influenced. As noted above, GQ 3 and FAI have some intriguing "what if" scenario books.

I love naval gaming tend to play it whenever possible.

Now I have a friend who has a huge collection of figures for all kinds of periods. I am not sure he has anything for naval gaming. Ships to go for a land game yes. He complains that the games tend to get all clustered up in the middle of the table. He feels the same about air combat.

I'd love to do WW1 or WW2 naval games but have never found a set of rules I like. Either way too complex, too paperwork heavy or seem to encourage fighting to her last ship, nothing like the accounts one reads.

I love naval wargaming … but I also love land wargaming as well. Both have things in their favour, but when the two intersect I am in wargaming heaven!