"Seekrieg 5 Review from a beginner..." Topic

Ok,

I ordered Seekrieg 5 about 10 days ago and ordered all five CDs of the ship logs as well. I received them quite quickly from NWS.

I will admit that when I opened the box and saw the rule book along with all of the charts I was a bit daunted. I had heard they were complex and I had my doubts.

I began reading the rules and was very pleasantly surprised! They are not near as complicated as some would have you believe. In fact it is quite the opposite. I will admit they are a bit "charty," but not overly so. For you basic surface engagement you only use a few charts. The majority of the charts is used for the strategic game and is very well thought out. They add a lot to the game when played as a campaign.

I must admit that I am brand new to naval gaming. I have only read GQ & GQ2, as well as MGP's Victory at Sea, which is a work in progress at best.

Reading Seekrieg 5 was actually a lot of fun. I learned a lot about naval warfare and the issues involving it. The designer's notes at the end of the rules go a long way toward explaining how and why they handled the rules the way they did.

While I will admit I think they will take some experience to master, there are a lot of rules from different genres that do. The ship log sheets have everything you need to run each ship and computing combat results are made easy by the well thought out and organized game charts.

I have yet to play any games with these rules; I am looking very forward to doing so. When I was contemplating buying these rules I searched for reviews here first. What I found was primarily from seasoned naval wargamers, and admittedly I was leery of buying them for game use. I assumed I was buying them for the purpose of using them as a reference set of rules. (We have all done it!)

Instead I discovered I had bought a great set of rules that aren't nearly as complex or difficult as I was led to believe.

I highly recommend them and hope this helps another newbie like me or just someone on the fence about buying these rules…

Thanks…

That was helpful, I had considered buying them as well for reference purposes only really. If the product is as good as you say it is then I think I'll be in for a treat! Is the campaign system well thought out (playable vs theoretical)? I'm beginning to have my doubts that GQ3 even exists so there might be a change in the winds. . .

I found it playable, granted I haven't even played yet, but the rules are there and it handles map movement and weather reasonably. The detection rules, aircraft endurances and such all seem very easy to plot and play…

I will let you know how my first game goes. Should be in the next week or two. I wanna get some minis painted first…

Hi Gunslinger, great review. I bought the rules some time ago (and a lot of miniatures) but my RL exploded and I havn't had time to catch up.

You just reminded my why I bought them ;oD

Cheers
Mark