"Fast Playing Modern Era Naval Rules" Topic

Hello. Like the Subject title stated I am looking for some fast playing Modern Era naval rules to pit NATO versus Warsaw Pac naval forces against each other. I would prefer a rule set that isn't a heavy detailed simulation (e.g. Harpoon) but something that casual gamers can pickup and play easily. Does anyone have any suggestions please? Thanks.

Shipwreck is one rule set that might meet your needs. I own a copy but have not played it. It's a lot less technical than Harpoon and purportedly moves quite a bit faster. You should be able to find a couple of AARs on the web.

Shipwreck.

If you want/need the kind of detail Harpoon provides there are a number of PC games that do the same thing better and faster.

I checked for Shipwreck and I see it on Wargamers Vault but I can't seem to find any site for Vandering Publications. Has Vandering Publications gone out of business?

I'm assuming mostly surface v surface?

Probably Shipwreck. Harpoon has a much, much higher level of detail.

If you want to go with sub v sub, I have a heavy modification of Ground Zero Game's Full Thrust that I wrote. While it does include sub v surface, I'm still not happy with that part of the game.

Yes, my primary focus would be ship vs ship with air thrown in too for CAP, anti-sub, and anti-ship.

Look up SEASTRIKE (Ariel Games). It is a board game and you can find them on e-bay. Nice easy

Well, sub-hunting is complex (though keep in mind I come at it from the perspective of the sub hunting the surface ship, I'm told that the difficulties are pretty much identical), almost to the point that I think it needs to be handled either with an umpire or computer.

My game uses a LOT of ProbSub markers instead, which is about the only way I could think of to make the mystery work without an umpire.

I think that once you start throwing missiles around, about the only thing that matters is ship's relative bearing (for defensive fire arcs and radar cross sections).

Harpoon Captain's Edition?
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I've got a set of rules, the concepts seem easy to me but like all things modern the details get tricky. At ten miles to the inch it's designed to fight an ocean and not a single task force, but you can run US carriers which is hard with most modern rules. If you're interested give me an email address and I'll send them to you.

Shipwreck. Pretty quick, nice amount of detail. Slows down when there are a lot of missiles and helicopters in the air, but that's unavoidable.

Shipwreck does include some interesting abstract rules for submarines and a solid, if simple, air-to-air and air strike system. You can certainly have some aircraft fly by and make some attacks during a scenario, though I suspect actually operating a carrier on the board would take a lot of time.

If you're playing Tankwreck, the land warfare companion game, you can have ships provide artillery support, etc. So Shipwreck can do sea-to-land strikes.

I *think* (don't quote me) Vandering is just Martin Bourne, the designer. So it's not gone, it's just that he has a real job and the web page hasn't been updated. He may actually be out of physical copies of Shipwreck, anyway. Again, don't quote me. So Vandering is not gone, but it may not be able to sell you what you want.

There's a Yahoo group (!) where you can get all the support files, and it's pretty active so you can get other help when you need it.

There's also Surface Battle Group available on Wargame Vault with a 1972-78 expansion, but the author seems to have gone silent, so what's available now may be all that you get.

There are some older discussions about it on TMP, when the author was around.

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You folks are all outstanding. Please accept my deepest thanks for all your comments and information.

Naval Command?

TMP link

I second Naval Command. Fast playing, simple while still challenging, loads of fun. Reminds me, it's coming up on my gaming group's rotation this week, I should think up a scenario to throw at them…

I'd second the Seastrike suggestion. The system is elegaant, pretty easy to grasp, and it provides for designing your own ships, so while the ships in the game are generic, you can easily change them to specific types.

Naval Command