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Hiistorical Ships in Expanded Battles?
Posted: Wed May 06, 2026 7:56 pm
by 76mm
Hi, I would like to pick up Expanded Battle but am a bit confused about historical ship designs in the game...I understand that the game doesn't come with any (or very few) historical designs, and that we need to create our own?
I would like to use historical designs, not something like historical designs that I could come up with. But I have no sources on the exact specifications of those historical designs, so I'm not sure how I could even create them in the game?
I want to play WWII German vs Soviet naval actions (as part of a campaign I'm doing)--mainly coastal actions--various gun and torpedo boats, destroyers, freighters, and some aircraft. How can I create the ship designs for this, and more generally is Expanded Battles suitable for this kind of action?
Re: Hiistorical Ships in Expanded Battles?
Posted: Thu May 07, 2026 3:34 am
by WLRoo
It's not ideal for that.
Forget torpedo boats, you cannot design anything smaller than 300t - and even those, I find you can't arm like a 100t torpedo boat!
Once you get to about 700t, it seems to work better, so destroyer and corvette actions are workable.
As for historical designs, I think these refer only to Capital ships.
Re: Hiistorical Ships in Expanded Battles?
Posted: Thu May 07, 2026 8:26 pm
by f11supertiger
76mm wrote: Wed May 06, 2026 7:56 pm
Hi, I would like to pick up Expanded Battle but am a bit confused about historical ship designs in the game...I understand that the game doesn't come with any (or very few) historical designs, and that we need to create our own?
I would like to use historical designs, not something like historical designs that I could come up with. But I have no sources on the exact specifications of those historical designs, so I'm not sure how I could even create them in the game?
I want to play WWII German vs Soviet naval actions (as part of a campaign I'm doing)--mainly coastal actions--various gun and torpedo boats, destroyers, freighters, and some aircraft. How can I create the ship designs for this, and more generally is Expanded Battles suitable for this kind of action?
Expanded Battles isn't ideal for ships smaller than like 500 tons, but I'm not sure if anything on the market is better.
Creating historical designs is pretty easy, but the tough thing is making them look good, visually. If you don't care about that, things are easier.
Re: Hiistorical Ships in Expanded Battles?
Posted: Fri May 08, 2026 5:37 am
by 76mm
Thanks guys, very helpful, I guess I'll give this one a pass, at least until I start playing with some bigger ships!
There are several sets of miniatures rules that cover this kind of action, so I guess I'll rely on those.
Re: Hiistorical Ships in Expanded Battles?
Posted: Fri May 08, 2026 5:08 pm
by WLRoo
Actually, another point against them would be that the game is single player only, if you're playing with a friend it wouldn't really work.
For a TT game, I've had good experiences with Cruel Seas (originally by Warlord Games, now manufactured by Skytrex); the Close Quarters expansion adds more craft, including submarines.