This set of miniature rules is by Decision Games and retails for $29.95. It is available direct with $8 USD shipping or through The Last Square for $5. USD
I really like these rules. They have enough meat on the bone to give you a good feel for WWII Naval Conflict, but don't bog you down with charts and paperwork. The game uses damage, speed, and depth counters to eliminate the paperwork.
The scale is 1" = 1000 yards. One ship equals one ship, except in the case of MTB size craft, which are one miniature represents three vessels. Aircraft are one stand represents a squadron. The time scale is 30 minutes per turn.
All ships have four damage levels. The ships' speed, offensive firepower and other characteristics degrade as the ships take damage. All damage is simultaneous within the phase, but takes effect after the Damage Control sequence of that combat phase. There are three combat phases per turn. Aircraft, surface, and ASW. Each of these combat phases has a damage control phase. Any damage that becomes permanent during that DC phase is immediate and affects the ship in the subsequent combat phases of the same turn. So for example, aircraft attack a ship in the Aircraft Combat phase and they score three hits. In the DC portion of the Aircraft Combat Phase you roll and repair one of those, then you enter the Surface Combat Phase at damage level two. The torpedo rules are very easy and because of the 30-minute turns, the torpedoes are fired and resolved within one turn.
The really innovative portion of these rules is the morale rules. Most naval games I have participated in degenerate into slugfests where players fight to the last ship and then go down with it. The morale rules prevent this and allow for a "historical" ending to the games. Every fleet has a morale number determined by the total ship size of the fleet, the nationality rating, and the admiralty rating. As ships take damage they accrue points. Once your damage points exceed your morale points it is time to come about and head for home. This rule forces players to head for safer waters when their historical counterparts would have, yet they do not force games to come out just like they did in history. These rules alone make this set worth the money.
The rules themselves have a very good quality of production. The book has a color cover and B&W pictures inside. It comes with reference sheets and 120 color cardboard die-cut counters. There are instructions for making additional aesthetically pleasing markers for the game table. There are a couple of typos and contradictions in the rules. Very few by most rules' standards, but I will be e-mailing the designer for clarification.
I really like Seekrieg V for small action where a player controls less than four ships, but Battlestations! Battlestations! allows one player to easily run a fleet of ships and still get your game completed in just a few hours. Basically with miniatures, the reference sheets and templates, and a stat sheet for the ships a player has all he needs to command his fleet!
They also include a time gage of 10 minutes of playing time per ship on the table to help you figure your time requirements of for running games at conventions.
I highly recommend them and can't wait to play them!
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
