Naval wargaming
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Naval wargaming is a branch of the wider hobby of miniature wargaming. Generally less popular than wargames set on land, naval wargaming nevertheless enjoys a degree of support around the world. Both historical and fantasy rulesets are available.
After World War II, several manufacturers started business in Germany, which remains a major centre of production to this day.[3] Other companies started in Britain and the United States as well, first centering on the wargamer, but as time went by and models became both more detailed and costly, marketing to the collector. There has also been a diversification in scales. Plastic kits in 1/600 and 1/700 became widely available. In the UK Skytrex and Navwar pioneered the "micro scale" with extensive ranges of ships from pre-dreadnought ironclads to modern vessels in 1/3000. In the US CinC and GHQ followed with slightly larger and more detailed models in 1/2400. In recent years Hallmark have moved the scale down to 1/6000.
A separate branch of
Overview
Rules
As with other arms of the wargaming hobby, rules can vary greatly in complexity. Commercially available historical rulesets cover practically every era of naval warfare from ancient and medieval ships through the fleets of the Age of Sail, the ironclad and battleship eras to the modern era. Models of most common types of ships are available, but in many cases wargamers have to source their own models, either by conversion or scratch building, especially where more esoteric periods or scales are in use.
The ancient Romans staged what were probably the first naval "wargames", with mock sea battles acted out in Rome's Colosseum, specially flooded for the occasion. (These Naumachiae later provided the inspiration for the title of Rod Langton's ancient naval rules.)
Popular naval wargaming began with the inclusion of wargaming rules in early editions of
A later proponent of popular naval wargaming was American author Fletcher Pratt. As well as publishing his rules Pratt staged large public games in ballrooms and other large meeting rooms, the events being almost as much a social event as a wargaming meeting. As with Janes' rules various incarnations and revisions of the Fletcher Pratt rule system are still in use today.[5]
The
One of the most popular sets of rules available at present is General Quarters, written by Lonnie Gill. Quick and easy to play, they have established themselves over the years as one of the leading sets of World War I and II era rules.[6] General Quarters 1 and 2 feature a slightly abstract combat system and ship definition system reminiscent of naval board wargames. However, this approach led to a fast-playing system that was the root of its popularity (probably coupled to an extensive array of supporting information and ship statistics). GQ1 and 2 have recently been replaced by a less abstract version, GQ3 which covers World War II; a World War I version entitled Fleet Action Imminent was released in January 2008.
Followers of naval wargaming tend to concentrate on historical settings. However, there is a smaller but nonetheless active arm of the hobby that covers fantasy and science fiction naval warfare. The now
Land-based miniature wargames have also been adapted to naval wargaming.
An unusual source of recent historical naval wargaming rules has been the adaptation of science fiction starship combat rules (the reverse is also true, as sci-fi tends to treat starships as being an evolution of "wet navy" shipping). An example of this approach to rule development is Victory at Sea from Mongoose Publishing. This is a simple, "entry level" set of rules developed from Mongoose's A Call to Arms sci-fi rules. Victory at Sea has also spawned a number of period variants including Ironclad and Age of Sail, and a World War I variant set called "Age of dreadnoughts" has also been published.[9] Elsewhere a variant of the Full Thrust science fiction starship combat rules exists that covers age of sail battles. Another example, Battlefleet Gothic (BFG), is based from the Warhammer 40,000 land battle game, both developed by Games Workshop. Every major army in Warhammer 40,000 has its representative fleet in BFG, as it is known colloquially.
Classic space navy battle games such as Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator corporation or Star Wars: Star Warriors have been heavily influenced by naval terminology.
Scales
In contrast to land wargaming, naval wargaming almost exclusively uses ratios to express the scale of the models. Popular scales include:
- 1:6000, 1:4800, 1:3000, 1:2400 - popular for use in games of the pre-Dreadnoughtera and later, although some notable ranges in earlier periods are available.
- 1:1800 - A growing intermediate scale, made popular by games such as Axis and Allies: War at Seathat use a "trading card" format. While still less common than smaller and larger scales, the simpler dynamics of "casual" wargaming makes this an increasingly common introductory scale.
- 1:1200, 1:1250 - the popular "collectors'" scale, with models from practically every era and nationality available.
- 1:900 - an unusual scale, used for ancient naval games.
- 1:600, 1:700 - generally used for coastal forces gaming set in ironcladera actions.
- 1:450 - another unusual scale, used for Age of Sailactions (e.g. Peter Pig's "Pieces of Eight" range).
- 1:400, 1:300, 1:285 - some coastal models are available in these scales. Often used for riverine actions involving close liaison with land forces in similar scales.
- 10mm or 1:160 - a newer scale for "collectible" American Civil War naval gaming. Often used for actions involving close liaison with land forces in 10 mm.
Notable exceptions to the "ratio" rule are the use of 15 mm to 25 mm games that emphasise boarding actions, and thus make use of figure ranges in those scales.
Radio control combat
Rather than simply acting out battles through the use of representative static models, in
For historic copies any ship traveling faster than the appropriate scale speed may be disqualified or ordered to maintain a slower speed. An inappropriately high top speed gives a ship an unfair advantage, and is frowned upon by other members. 1/144 scale is the most common scale, although others do exist.
Some events try to recreate historic events, while others create original scenarios, such as all-out war, a subset of ships defending a
Depending on the rules, a ship may be allowed to surrender and receive safe passage back to shore where it is removed from play, or other ships may fire on it until it sinks. Ships are designed to tolerate sinking such that a sunken ship need only be retrieved after the battle is over, minor repairs executed, fresh batteries installed, and returned to the water for the next round. Many ships also contain bilge pumps, of a maximum capacity specified by the rules of a specific club for the type of ship, to allow them to sustain minor damage without immediately sinking.
In some formats, events are scored by the final results, such as which side has more remaining ships (or survives longest) in a two team game, while others are scored on a point systems, with hits and sinkings assigned differing point values.
See also
Notes
- ISBN 1-872727-72-7
- ISBN 3-7822-0731-9
- ^ Jacobs, Paul 1250 History on the steelnavy.com website
- ^ The Fred Jane rules have been reprinted at http://www.wargaming.co
- ^ The Pratt rules are available from http://www.wargaming.co
- ^ Survey of naval Wargames Rules, NWS journal "Battlefleet" 1996
- ^ Nick Davis. "All At Sea Part One". Ruleset. White Dwarf. Archived from the original on 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
- ^ "The Ports of Pelargir". Website. Archived from the original on 2007-03-13. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
- ^ Victory at Sea
References
- Don't Give Up the Ship!, 1st Edition, 1972, Guidon Games, 50 pages, blue & black cover
- Don't Give Up the Ship!, 2nd Edition, 1975, TSR, Inc., 58 pages, blue, white & black cover
- White Dwarf 295 (U.S. ed.)