Der Tag (Minden Games) : The Holy Grail of WWI North Sea HSF v GF Wargaming is found!

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): 

• https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316075/der-tag-1916-solitaire-ww1-naval-game

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: 

• https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3168818/der-tag-is-der-game
• https://boardgamegeek.com/video/542479/der-tag-1916-solitaire-ww1-naval-game/coffee-with-kilroy-panzerschreck-issue-17-fall-202

Audible Book: Admiral Jellicoe and The Crisis of the Naval War

This was a fascinating subject as Jellicoe was very much a "war hero" for his services to the Grand Fleet, leading up to and beyond Jutland, but the inability to deal with the U-Boat threat was his Achilles Heal (see below, revealing more as a detective story of what was not said, what he was prepared to say and what he was focused or overly fixated on): 

All in all I found it a turgid read, but was totally fascinated by the way the man was consumed with detail but somehow missed the most facing pungent problem facing the Allies in WWI (he considered fighting U-Boars nigh impossible). The convoy solution to the problem was mentioned in passing (and is literally the oldest trick in the naval service book) as "logistical problems were eventually solved", no hint at the political issues (understatement, ahem) with Lloyd George and no admission of credit to which the crisis was turned around. Plenty of attention to efforts and energy of ideas and systems that did not really yield the results effective convoys did. A far cry from an account of the same period from these Wikipedia pages: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convoys_in_World_War_I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jellicoe,_1st_Earl_Jellicoe

Auible Books review .. and crazed mini-rant about "THE NAVAL CRISIS"

2015/2016: Prior to New Job [20 Books]

It all started with a external business consultant where I then worked introducing me to the CD format book for the car. Albeit a rather strange book called:

1: How to to Think Yourself Rich (Business Theory)

Which was state of the art thinking circa 1910 (I kid you not). I then found Audible as I was having trouble reading through "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". Listening was easier than reading certain "text book types" for me. I then found the "bug".

Another fourteen books followed, mainly business(ish) (see below, exclude the four from the second picture below that also appear in 2016 new job):

Plus:

2: Connections 2013 Conference (Wargaming Simulation)
3: Connections 2014 Conference (Wargaming Simulation)
4: Connections 2015 Conference (Wargaming Simulation)
5: SCRUM (Project Managing/Computing)

2016: Starting New Job (Longer Commute) [7 Books]

1: SCRUM (Project Management/Computing)

2: Connections 2016 Conference (Wargaming Simulation)

3: Superbetter (Games/Simulations/Computing)

4: Gamify (Games/Computing)

5: Rising Sun (History - WWII Pacific)

6: Brief History of Time (Science)

7: Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (History WW2 Pacific)

8: Edge of Uncertainty (WIP)

2017: Same Job [26 Books]

1: Edge of Uncertainty - Science

2: Japanese Destroyer Captain – WWII War Pacific 1939-45

3: MIT Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning – Science/Computing

4: Ship of Ghosts – WWII War Pacific

5: The Victorian Internet - Science

6: Miracle at Midway – WWII War Pacific 1942

7: Algorithms to Live By – Science/Computing

8: Neptune’s Inferno – WWII War Pacific 1942/43

9: What We Cannot Know - Science

10: Fleet at Floodtide– WWII War Pacific 1944-45

11: Hackers – Computer Science Pioneers

12: The War That Never Was – History Modern

13: Frazzled (Mindfulness) - Psychology

14: Our Mathematical Universe – Science

15: Why France Collapsed – WWII 1940 History

16: Mindfulness for Women: - Psychology

17: To Rule the Waves: (Naval History)

18: Elon Musk – Innovation/Science/Start-Up/Lean

19: Move Fast and Break Things – Science/Lean/Agile/Start-Up

20: Battle of Dogger Bank – History WWI Naval North Sea

21: The Art of Being Invisible – Computing/Science

22: The Crisis of the Naval War (Jellicoe) – WWI Naval War History

23: Crystal Clear Communication – Business

24: Cyber Security – Computing/Science/Politics

25: Killing the Bismarck – WW2/Naval Atlantic

26: UK Connections 2013

27: Outliers – Science (WIP)

A grand total 53 Books I would not of otherwise read!

All of them were in some way engaging and interesting but one book was alarming! No not the France 1940 book Why France Collapsed (although it did have many strange tales to tell), it was the Jellicoe one: The Crisis of the Naval War.

Scary in that for the 8 hours and 20 minutes of its telling, the first 1 hour twenty minutes described the various Admiralty Departments and Committees "than ran the war" and why the Admiralty was a cumbersome beast to change in a direction it did not want to go. There was a a further hour describing how awkward it was to spare destroyers for anti-submarine work and how clever we were routing ships around the trade roots (cleverly avoiding the delays of convoy congestion - merchant captains would never be able to sail in a formation akin to a battleship squadron and its meticulous station keeping). Jellicoe was a brilliant naval officer (specialising in battleship gunnery) but in his summation of year of crisis he barely mentioned but in passing the convoy system that dramatically turned the tide (less than an hour). The drop off in sinkings once the convoy system was in place told the tale. He focused on developing [ineffective] hydroponic detection (not ASDIC that came much later in between wars) via trawler flotillas and Q-ships to hunt the U-Boats by luring them into attacking them. Detailing types of mines, the efforts to place armaments on merchants ships and statistics of training merchant seamen to fire them.

However the long and the short of it was that without the convoy system the submarine was an invisible killer than no warship could find. By guarding the merchant ships the U-Boats at least had to reveal themselves in attack and thus open themselves up in turn to be attacked. An even more salient point was that "convoys" were actually as hard to find by the act of concentration of many vessels in a tight area as a single ship. The oceans were suddenly denuded of targets. Jellicoe seemed to be the wrong man for the challenge and he had little to say about his political masters forcing the change (Lloyd George).

In all fascinating but scary at the same time, I literally did noy believe what I was hearing (the book was published in 1920).

Jutland Re-Fight done earlier this year (by the USN)

Now this is what I call a Jutland re-fight (even if they did use cards instead of models, Fletcher Pratt will be turning in his grave):

https://wargamingcommunity.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/battle-of-jutland-centennial-2/

But even the US Naval War College did not finish it! Respect for even hosting it though ;)

Notes to self: Musings on WWI Naval rules (North Sea) Part #2

WWI North Sea Battle Cruiser-Actions, Beatty versus Hipper: Round One 1914.

"Now you see them now you don't, Battle Cruisers in the mist!"

Hipper's First Scouting Group of December 1914 comprising of: SMS Seydlitz, SMS Molke, SMS Von der Tann, SMS Derfflinger and SMS Blucher (see below):

Beatty's depleted Battle Cruiser Fleet (BCF) of December 1914 comprising of: HMS Lion, HMS Queen Mary, HMS Tiger and HMS New Zealand (see below):

Note: Unbeknownst to the Germans, in terms of Capitol Ships, they actually possessed a numerical superiority of ONE. Despite this they were always thinking in effect they were numerically inferior. This was due to RN Battle Cruiser commitment to other theatres, namely fighting the Goeban and Von Spee. However this superiority is somewhat artificial as the SMS Blucher is technically an Armoured Cruiser rather than a true blood modern Battle Cruiser.

The goal is to develop a solitaire card and dice driven naval combat system (because it is so hard to find an opponent and it is good to replay scenarios over and over again).

The assumption is that the active player is the RN Commander (aka Beatty), for WWI 'contact' naval actions in the North Sea. The RN's goal, with the aid of secret intelligence (courtesy of Admiralty Room 40), is to ambush a German raiding force (aka Hipper) with superior forces and bring about it's destruction. The logic being that Command and Control problems for RN player is far greater, whereas the High Seas Fleet (HSF) is more concentrated, easier to control and is intent more on escape.

This type of scenario was played out several times during the course of the war (particularly 1914 to 1916) and seems an ideal test-vehicle for solo play.

Raw Game Ingredients:

• Formations
• Orders 
• Command Dice

"This is a  new idea since last posting. As I have been playing a lot of Chain of Command, it's Command Dice mechanic seems much more sophisticated and appropriate that my initial musings using PiP points (aka DBA)"

• Simultaneous Movement and Combat
• Morale Status

Next: A historical scenario "The Scarborough Raid December 1914"