"Naval Game Scenario Ideas Needed" Topic

I am looking for scenario ideas for naval battles with 4-8 players. I'm looking for more narrative scenario ideas, rather than just battles. So think fantasy battles, Hollywood etc. There are a few usual suspects, but I'd like to tap the hive mind. Here are ones I've tried:

• CONVOY: Get a treasure ship/ambassador/prisoner off the opposite board edge.
  
• SINK/CAPTURE THE BADDIE: players gang up on a mega-ship (think OGRE at sea).
  
• GET THE GOLD: Players race to grab pile of gold around the table.

What else you got?

So are you focusing on Age of Sail, Trireme or steel hull eras?

Any and all eras.

I took some repainted ancient galleys to a club night along with some basic rules once. I ended up with 3 players so they started on 3 sides of the table and they were three victorious squadrons after a battle returning to harbour (a couple of pint glasses about a foot apart on the 4th side was the harbour entrance).

The first through the harbour gates got the local 'ladies of negotiable virtue'.

It was fun but not the most historical scenario I have devised over the years.

I saw a naval fantasy game with triremes and 25mm crew at a show in Atlanta back in the 1990s. This was long before Armada. Everyone loved it.

We did a campaign system for the age of sail in 2001. We used a point to point system. Never tried a scenario generation system.

WW2 scenario to consider is the two cruiser + destroyers sent to Aleutians to engage the Japanese force there.
Plenty of Ironclad actions with the game.

How about a variation on the Battle of the Java Sea? 1-2 players form Team 1, each with a fairly powerful cruiser or destroyer force. The other players form Team 2; each player controls a much smaller force of a multi-national character, and they don't all enter the map in the same place. One of them is randomly chosen to be the admiral. Team 2 has enough power to win, but only if they follow the admiral's orders (and if the admiral's orders are good ones). If Team 2 attacks piecemeal, then Team 1 will almost certainly win. The game is more about teamwork than tactics.

Duel/Seek – Submarine with a goal of a particular ship in the convoy and the convoy out to get the Sub or wolf pack if you want more than one player on a side.

Run the Blockade – one or two players try to get past the rest. Can cover many eras – similar tp your Convoy.

Anchorage – smaller boats trying to overwhelm a larger vessel at anchor – perhaps at night.

Fuel or Ammunition Limited fight – when by "condition" or abandon the action

A scenario from Guadalcanal where one side, the Japanese for example, are trying to escort supply/reinforcing ships while the other side tries to intercept. Can be a night battle so no need to worry about airpower and can have some interesting visibility problems to deal with.

Breakout-powerful force stuck in rocky harbor. Lots of choke points for ships to get through. Points for ships that make it off board for trapped side. Points for ships sunk for defending side.

Defend an amphibious assault-transports offloading troops are objective. Points for sinking them for attacker. Points per turn they are afloat for defender

Age of Galleys. "Charlton Heston" Rome v. Pirates.
15 Roman Galleys v. 9 Illyrian Pirates. Each player pushes 3 ships. The Roman force commanders have variable commitment to the battle. The commanders are political rivals, so betrayal is likely. The Illyrians are likewise every man for himself.

Age of Sail. Get hold of a copy of Wooden Ships and Iron Men. In the scenario book is a French British campaign in Indian waters involving a bunch of 64 and 54 gun renta-a-ships-of-the-line, during the AWI.

ACW. The Naval Battle of Memphis, or the Naval Battle of Plum Point Bend.

Transitional Steam. The Battle of Humaita. During the War of the Triple Alliance, Paraguay erected a mammoth earthen fort on the Paraguay River to deny the Allies use of the River. If they could bypass the Fort bad things would happen. The Allies have a large mixed fleet, including ironclads. The Paraguayans have a chain boom, a small squadron and 2 200pdr Armstrong breech loaders. This was written up in The Courier, and recently gamed by the Little Wars video guys.

Pre-Dreads. After Dewey's successful "mugging" of the Spaniards at Manila Bay, the Germans cobbled together a force of Colonial outpost ships to try to muscle their way to the table where the spoils would be divided up. A wet side confrontation was not unthinkable.

Exeter has a good idea about getting Wooden Ships and Iron Men. Great system for Age of Sail.
If you already have ship miniatures you might try to get Ship of the Line. An early miniature system by Juggernaught. It is what WS&IM was based on according of what I was told back then. I have played and sold both. My WS&IM copy was originally a Battleline copy with ship names not numbers. The SoL used a square grid. But I payed in one game of miniatures with a hex grid.

I agree with the suggestions of Wooden Ships and Iron Men.

For 1700s-ish anti-piracy, I would set up some ratios something like this:

4 player game. 3 players each get 1 pirate ship each. 1 player gets 2 navy ships. Each pirate has the objectives of (1) get off the board and (2) something else. Navy objective is sink or capture as many pirate ships as possible.

8 player game. 6 players get 1 pirate ship each. 2 players get 2 or 3 navy ships each. Same objectives.

Setting up the pirate ships for probably non-cooperation means that the they won't gang up on the navy. The navy will cause more damage to the pirates by virtue of bigger guns and better crews and officers.

There is also:
1. Amphibious landings, large scale of just landing a spy.
2. Naval fire support of land forces
3. Area denial at a choke point.
4. Destruction cities or supplies.
5. Blockade.

A big fat prize is drifting in the ocean due to a storm, it has lost it's sails, masts, ores and rudder ( Spanish galleon loaded with gold?) It floats right past Port Royal and a bunch of pirate ships happen to be in the port. Crews rush to their ships , hoist sails and a free for all to take the prize ensues. Some other nations ships could be in the area looking for the stricken treasure ship…. The crew of the treasure galleon could put up a stiff resistance to being boarded?

A modern version of this is a big fat prize lost engine power and is drifting towards some hostile nations shores. The ship cannot restart it's engines or make repairs without getting some major assistance. The captain that boards the hapless vessel and takes her as a prize is fast tracking for a promotion. Do not let other nations secure the prize…

A bit of an odd one – perhaps a game master playing a Hurricane and the Players each part of a Spanish Treasure Fleet

@Disaster Gamer

1. After the storm has passed.

2. Possible factions , pirates and hostile nations bearing a letter or Marque.

3. The original post was looking for fantasy or Hollywood style multiplayer game. I assume he wants the players to play against each other?

If you were willing to go VSF you could model a true monstrosity ( the Ogre idea you mentioned). The thing is bristling with hull points, guns torpedos, lays mines, Gatling guns to repel boarders etc… Captain Nemo type death machine or Great power on a rampage.

The scenario, the ship of doom is cruising down the coast shelling ports into oblivion and has sunk every vessel sent against it. A large allied fleet has been assembled to defeat this ship.

+1 Disaster Wargamer

In place of a submarine, a sea monster for pre-WW1/fantasy. Hadn't thought of that!

Something similar to the drifting galleon/ogre idea— there's a legendary "ghost" warship with magical power/superweapons which has supposedly been spotted. Who ever gets her gains a significant advantage in the fight. Race to board her (and deal with whatever "skeleton crew" still remains on her), and then turn her power on the enemy, at which point it becomes a straight up fight— or to sink her so nobody gets her power!

The ghost ship should move about randomly (or by a designed pattern) and all sorts of surprises should potentially affect her would-be claimants before she becomes their property. Lots of ways to go with this one.

Fantasy:
Fight the Kraken! A horrid beastie rises from the depths, looking for lunch.

Dragon attack! Fire breathing baddies swoop from the skies— sharpshooters to the rigging!

And give the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik a read— there are ideas in their involving dragons and Napoleonic sailing vessels which might be fun.

Another good source for fantasy naval combat with any and all types of vessels is Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen series, which features the crew of a "4 stacker" US naval destroyer, circa 1942, which is transported into an alternate Earth populated by intelligent carnivorous dinosaurs who sail early-age-of-sail type weapons, and war upon intelligent, near-human sized lemurs, who live on enormous sea-going sailing vessels. As the series progresses, the destroyer's crew, who ally with the lemurs, discover other allies and enemies, some with technology equal to or superior than their own— including a massive Japanese battleship which pursued them through the magic storm which transported them all.
The following types of vessels and other tools of war wind up being discovered or created by the US Navy men and their allies:
Wooden sailing frigates
Wooden aircraft carriers
Lightweight sea-planes based on 1941 designs, but constructed of wood and canvas.
Zeppelins.
Kamakaze dinosaur gliders
Trained pterosaurs (sort of)
At least two submarines
Steam-powered ocean going paddle wheelers
" " " " screw ships
Ironclads (CSS Virginia style)
P-40 Warhawk
Cavalry mounted on carnivorous lizards (there are a number of land battles)
Muzzle-loading muskets
Muzzle-loading rifles
Breech-loading rifles/shotguns
Mortars
Grenades and grenade launchers
Torpedoes
Pikes
Shield walls
Tanks
And other crazy stuff.
The great thing is, the author knows his military history, strategy and tactics, and makes it all work together brilliantly. Plus, the book contains diagrams and maps of battles and tactical situations, as well as "spotter" silhouettes of the various craft and their relatives sizes. The series is a gold mine for scenarios, land and sea.