"AH Jutland vs. Fear God and Dread Nought (for mini's?)" Topic

I am considering getting back into historical gaming after a decade of absence. WW1 naval has been a major target of my reading lately and I am considering gaming the period.

I have looked at some of the rules sets available, but was wondering; would the "board" games such as AH "Jutland", or CoA "Fear God and Dread Nought" give a decent feel for the period- while providing temporary "miniatures"?

I apologize if this is somewhat off topic, but does anyone have opinions on those two games? Thanks!

"Fear God and Dread Naught" is a set of miniatures rules that happens to come with a bunch of counters. It is an ok set of rules but rather pricey (mainly due to all those counters). It is a bit more complex than I would want for doing any of the larger WWI actions

I seem to remember that Jutland had a set of miniatures rules in it as well (though I may be thinking of the Bismarck game).

Duncan

You can make your own counters easily enough. But I do WW1 in 1/6000 and painted up the entire Jutland boxes, British and German, in two weekends:

link

I really like the fast-play rules "Dreadnought" by Ben King:

link

Jutland was basically a paper map search game, with a transfer to the floor with cardboard ship counters. They may as well have been miniatures. It only provided capital ships, but later issues of the AH General provided rules for destroyers and cruisers.
It was basically a Fletcher Pratt system, with critical hits and all that fluff.
It was complicated when compared to AH Stalingrad or Afrika Korps, but compared to later abominations, not overly so.

I have never played Fear God and Dread Nought so I can't comment. I played AH's Jutland alot as a teenager, I recall loads of book keeping, really more then I would want to do now, especially if playing the massive fleet engagement of Jutland.

I like Figurehead ships, inexpensive and exquisit little castings and modified Salvo II by 3W Games.

I have Jutland and Fear God and Dreadnought. For a moderately complex set of rules which are lots of fun I pick Jutland. Fear God and Dreadnought are tedious and ovely complex for my tastes. I admit that I would prefer a set of rules even less complex than Jutland but I can live with them. I never play FGaD. It is an excellent historical resourec however.

Hey Crispy!

With regard to the Ben King rules, I note their are some scenario books available as well… are these also required for play?

Or, can I successfully play Jutland & various North Sea actions with just the rulebook?

(I haven't been able to find much information on the system)

Clint

I have FG&DN and a friend has Jutland. We played both. The former is very complex and each turn is only 3 minutes real time I believe. I agree it is pricey but you are really buying a technical thesis on WW1. Get this game and you do not need any other books.

I am currently completing my own Fast Play FG&DN with 12 minute turns. I am using the base probability charts and ship data as a reference. The results so far look good and can't wait to try them. I think it will play quick; though you still won't be able to do a Jutland easy.

Clint:

The rules have ship lists with all the necessary data but no scenarios (other than some generic ones).

But WW1 was actually somewhat lacking in balanced fights, so make-up-your-own is a good way to go (that's what I do).

E-mail me offline and I can give you more info about the rules….mark@scalecreep.com

Fear God and Dreadnought does have scenarios, and several of them. They are in a separate book in the box set and not in the rule book alone.

We use the AH Jutland rules (with some small modifications) and the old Regal Miniatures (now Figurehead) 1:6000 scale ships glued directly on the counters. The only bookkeeping is crossing off various "hit" boxes on the ship charts.

We recently had the first in a series of clashes between the Home Fleet and the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. The battle report, with pictures, is at:

link

You can get the ships either through Regal Distributors or Noble Miniatures (associated companies). Their web sites are:

link
nobleminis.com/Figurehead/Figurehead6000.html

The AH Jutland game rules, both tactical and strategic, provide a very good "feel" for the period. And using the AH Jutland counters will enable you to give the rules a good run-through before you commit to buying the ships. But once you get the ships, then you can just paint them, glue them to the game counters, and continue on your way.

Have fun,

Jim

Hmmm,

Must have accidently deleted something with the Noble Miniatures link. Let's try that again.

link

Jim

That's better.

Jim

See my comments about Flight of the Goeben on another thread, in case you get tired of refighting Jutland! AH Jutland did have light cruisers and destroyers, but deployed as squadrons rather than individual ships. Minden games/Panzerschreck magazine publishes Dreadnoughts and Battlecruisers, an introductory game of WWI naval combat which is a small step up over Jutland, but still easy to use and fun to play.

Also wanted to add that the original Fletcher Pratt rules used range estimation, not used by AH Jutland…..