For the better part of thirty years I have been searching and experimenting with various rule systems that allow me to play WWI naval games, specifically North Sea actions between the Royal Navy (RN) Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet (HSF). This encompassed and included a vast fleet of 1/3000 Navwar ships (the Jutland Battle Pack and much. much more [ahem]) for use with General Quarters (I and II). I have acquired a shelf load of books and various boards games (Avalanche Press - The Great War at Sea Vol II - The North Sea and the Baltic and SPI Dreadnought to name two). There is the History of Wargames project's reprint of Fletcher Pratt's rules, a copy of "Si Vis Pakem" (Prof David Manley's WWI rules), an old copy of A&A's Sea Wars [1894-1945] and teh Jutland scenario booklet, XTR's Command Magazine Jutland zip-lock game and many other things I bet I have forgotten about, but all of which make me think "Jutland". The wilderness years are now over as Minden Games "Der Tag" officially does it for me (see below, a simple and brilliant game, designed originally as a solitaire game, but it was cleverly expanded by a ingenious friend to a multi-player system which we played over Zoom for myself (as Admiral Scheer) and some friends as the various RN "fleets" [most of the Grand Fleet at Scapa, some Grand Fleet elements at Cromarty Firth, at Rosyth the BCF and the "Wobbly Eight" of the Dover Patrol]):
It is a high level operational game, German action cards initiating missions but there is a huge emotional buy-in during combat, from a simple but effective combat system that "gets it right". It is set in the 1916 Jutland year and plays for four turns of nerve racking play. We ran the game twice on consecutive days, each game lasting just over an hour of playing time. It was also a great conversational piece and highly entertaining to play as everyone got into teh mood. I can only say "I highly recommend it to you" if you are of a similar disposition as myself to WWI naval warfare. I just wish I had found it sooner! Please also see Board Game Geek's review (and if you get it, enjoy the solitaire version, but do think about translating it to a multi player version to spread the joy):
Footnote: My WWI naval addiction. I must also give a shout out to Paul Hague's two books of naval wargame rules. The first I discovered as a teenager in the Public Library and I ended up making 1:3000(ish) WWI ships out of bits of balsa wood (looking back I am amazed at the fortitude and ambition of that young man, I think I got the BCF, 5th BS and 1st SG of the HSF). The second book was purchased some twenty years later and was a welcome reunion to somebody returning to his hobby's "second life" in his late twenties.
Board Game Geek Comments:
6 comments:
I thought Paul Hague's books - especially the first one - were possibly the best wargames books I'd ever read - knowledgeable, informative, practical and with a sense of fun. I have often wondered what became of him, and hope he realised what pleasure he had given to others. His version of Jutland was what sent me off down a long trail. And I have Der Tag and can totally see its potential!
Paul's book planted a seed that grew and grew, his first book in particular covered triremes (I love the Airfix Roman Legionaries he used in his scratch built triremes), Tudor Royal Navy v the French (again using Airfix kits), Napoleonic Royal Navy v the French (again using Airfix kits), the crazy Pre-Dreadnought (Steam and Sail transition - scratch built) and the Dreadnoughts of the First World War. Absolutely brilliant as you say. His second covered the WWII including Pacific Carriers and Convoy as well as destroyers, cruisers and battleships. I think I need to nostalgically flick through those pages again, classic wargaming.
I feel sad that his books never appeared in my public library, so I never came across them. I have his first book now though!
Steve
So strange .. it was a time that books were not certainly cheap (they are literally cheaper now from teh second hand sales) and teh Public Library was a god send. If you liked the first book I can recommends the second.
I'll look out for it, thanks. Our public library was pretty good: Featherstone, Grant, Young, Wesencraft. I devoured them all!
Good hunting Steve!
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