Naval War

[Zeta16]

How much naval action will be in this game?

[mbatch729]

From the Adanac Site...

Naval Operations

Design
Naval units are available to each of the major powers. These are divided into several types, Dreadnaughts, Pre-Dreadnaughts, Battlecruisers, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines and Transports.

The map is divided into sea zones. These are, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea, the English Channel, the North Atlantic, the Western Med, the Central Med, the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea.

Naval units must either be in a naval zone or a port.

At the beginning of each bi-monthly turn, players may order naval units to sea by selecting the sea zone they wish them to move to. During the turn the naval units will move towards the objective zone and once there they will engage in battle with any enemy naval units there.

There are five battle types and they are not performed simultaneously. The types of naval battles are

1. Screening. These are attacks by destroyers against each other and cruisers.
2. Torpedo Attacks. These are attacks by destroyers on capital ships that have lost their screen.
3. Line of Battle. This is a "Jutland" style exchange of gunfire by capital ships.
4. Anti-Submarine. Destroyers will attack enemy submarines in the same zone.
5. Submarine. Subs will launch attacks against enemy transports.


As ships take damage they are forced to return to port. On their return they are subject to attack by enemy subs which may attack wounded naval units.


Transports provide trade as well as the movement by sea of ground forces. To move a ground unit by sea requires a transport in each sea zone to be moved through. Each of those transports are unable to provide any other function during that turn. Ground units may only be moved between two ports.

At the end of the turn, transports that have survived in a sea zone and which did not participate in the moving of ground units, may provide trade up to the national limit of that zone. For example, through trade the North Atlantic provides a large number of raw materials and food if transports are there. The Baltic Sea provides Raw Materials to Germany alone and so on.

The naval module is not meant to be a detailed treatment of naval activities in the Great War. It is instead designed to reflect decisions regarding the importance of the naval war at a strategic level.

[EricLarsen]

mbatch729,
The naval game system has undergone a tremendous evolution since Frank wrote up his initial premise almost a year ago. Actually the naval game system has been simplified, but in the process it has been given the proper "two-front war" feel that it requires. The "Shipping" order works for transports to go out to sea to transport resources, but destroyers use the same shipping order to perform transport escort and submarines also use it for anti-shipping activities. There's an Amphibious order for having transports perform amphib transports. There's a "Patrol" order for ordering ships to sea to fight enemy warships.

The game uses sea areas so there aren't too many sea areas to keep track of. Frank has included port hexes for New York, Halifax and Alexandria where units from America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand come on. Alexandria will come in quite handy for amphib ops at Gallipoli or Salonika.

Players can produce naval asset points which are multi-purpose naval building blocks for building new ships, repairing damaged ships and most importantly for floating your boats at sea. Players will have to pay if they want to play on the high seas and I think this adds a much needed dose of reality so that players can't float their boats for free every turn.
Eric

[mbatch729]

Cool beans. Thanks Eric. I almost hate to ask, but I will anyway. Any guesstimate on when this might be finished? Late Summer, Early Fall? July 4, 2004 @ 1405 EDT?

[Brady]

What of the Forces Stationed in Areas not represented in the above Mentioned map areas, such as Graph Spees Ships ? How will the be made available?

[EricLarsen]

mbatch729 & Brady,
I'm not sure what the projected release date is to be honest. I certainly will do everything I can to help get the game to that magical moment as soon as possible.

The "offmap" action is handled pretty much as history ran. The German ships in the Pacific and other areas aren't really modeled per se. Fleet counters represent about 9 dreadnaughts, two full divisions, and larger numbers of smaller ships. While Frank has included the Turkish/Russian border action the map doesn't cover the action in Iraq or around Palestine as those areas, while interesting, weren't significant enough to truly affect the outcome of the war. I think Frank has done a great job of including all the significant action that needs to be included while keeping the game playable, fun and informative.
Eric