Primary Data Sources (Books):
Conway's Pre (blue) and Dreadnought (green), as both types fought in WWI (see below):
Jane's, although it could be argued that it is a mixture of fact and fiction it certainly gives the flavour of the era (see below):
Brown who describes in great detail the RN's ship building programme (see below):
Source of "Ship counters/models and maps" to cover all nations and theatres in WWI:
Avalanche Press, Great War at Sea Series:
Russo-Japanese War 1904-05 (see above), I also have these ships in 1/3000 courtesy of Navwar Tsushima Pack and extending out to cover the pre-Tsushima "Yellow Sea" and the like battles around Port Arthur
Board Game Vol. I - The Mediterranean (see above), I had been after this one for a while (seeing it for £60 at Salute in London years ago when I was in London I didn't mind buying it for £25 and waiting while it came from America). Likewise, I have the combatant nations ships (down to and including a representative few destroyers) in Navwar's 1/3000.
Board Game Vol. II - The North Sea, where the big boys play. Jutland and everything else that went on in the North Sea including the American Sixth Battle Squadron of the British Grand Fleet. Yes I have the Navwar 1/3000 models (gaining a flying start with the Jutland Battle Pack and expanding afterwards) for this (down to the representative destroyer level), including the Americans, Baltic Russians and Swedish Fleets.
The remaining Avalanche Press WWI naval game of interest is the Cruiser Warfare (more "commerce raider" global strategy than "Fleet Action"). This would cover Von Spee's East Asiatic Squadron (which did have small squadron actions at Coronel and The Falklands), SMS Emden, SMS Karlschruhe and the SMS Konigsberg.
The Navwar lists have now by and large have been 'plundered' regarding WWI 'standard fair' and I seem to be now extracting the more and more exotic or "ships that never made it off the drawing board"
What Next?:
What is needed is to put all the above to some good use in a "Naval Wargame Campaign"
5 comments:
Hi Mark
In relation to the RJW I suggest you seek out the 1905-6 Janes which was reprinted in 1969 and can still be had, and Piotr Olender's two volume Russo-Japanese Naval War 1904-5
I shall keep a look out for those volumes when I go hunting on the internet and at wargame shows
Thanks
Hi Geordie,
That is a fine collection and no mistake! I am really keen to take a look at the cruiser warfare title at some point - I prefer smaller actions these days although you wouldn't think so when you see the 1/2400th dreadnoughts in rows!
I must get back to WW1 naval at some point....;-)
All the best,
DC
More than half of the attraction of the naval side of things seems to be the planning and shopping collection of "what is needed"
The Cruiser Warfare title is very tempting as it closes off the Great War at Sea (WWI) collection before opening the hypothetical Jap-US 1920's battles before teh same maps use WWII counters
For WW2 I have Avalon Hill's War At Sea (Pacific/Atlantic) for a campaign system as well as other AH/VG individual games
PS David:
I was hoping to get you and Tim Gow thinking of doing something by posting this ;)
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