Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War - review

This is another review in the Once and Future Rules series, of wargame rules that are out of print, but that got a lot of play at one time (at least, in the clubs and groups I played in since the early 1980s).

I have mentioned my love for renaissance gaming in general, and the English Civil War period in particular, several times during this series of reviews.  This time, I would like to review a set of miniature rules that I came to in the mid 1980s, although they were first published in 1974 (a second edition came out in 1977, and that is the edition that I own).  These rules are the 'Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War' by Bill Protz.  These are still available for sale on Bill's website, along with some of his other excellent rules.

Curiously enough, the first edition of Bill Protz' ECW wargaming masterpiece (i.e. - the volume I am reviewing here) came out in 1974.  It was published by the Myers and Zimmermann wargaming house of Z&M Publishing (Myers and Zimmermann were the lads behind the Angriff rules, and they went on to form a publishing house for wargaming rules - mostly from their neck of the woods up in Milwaukee).

The interesting thing about the publishing year, is that it is one year after the first appearance of Cavaliers and Roundheads, by Gygax and Perren (published by TSR).  From Bill's website, he got interested in the English Civil War, as a wargaming topic, because of Cavaliers and Roundheads (C&R), and also the availability of the Hinchliffe ECW figures.  I seem to recall that TSR needed cash for their new publishing idea, the Dungeons & Dragons boxed set, and that they rushed out C&R for publication in order to raise cash.  The English Civil War must have been a popular period at this time, to not only inspire two great rulesets coming out within a year of each other, but also to convince Mssrs. Kuntz and Gygax at TSR that they could raise capital from selling an ECW rule book.  But they did.  And, furthermore, the Protz book (WGECW) is still highly regarded, and as mentioned above, still for sale.

The English Civil War continues to be a very interesting topic for wargamers, as it not only features in generic, broadbased rules sets such as DBR and Field of Glory Renaissance, but also continues to inspire specific rulesets in popular series' such as Warhammer English Civil War (sadly, now out of print, like the rest of the Warhammer historical series), and Pike and Shotte from Warlord Games (which covers the broader Renaissance, but which has an ECW specific period book - 'To Kill a King' -  due for release the month that this article is being written).  Of course, it has been, and continues a period of interest for me, as well.  On to the rules . . .

WGECW is presented as a 5x8 booklet, 76 pages long.  The book is divided up, generally, into three sections: (1) is an introduction, which gives a very brief overview of the English Civil War, and also reasons for wargaming in this period, (2) is the section containing the rules themselves, and (3) is a series of appendices that introduce information about army composition, painting and uniform information, rules for fighting sieges, and other bits of extra information.  It is this third section that lifts this book from being just a tactical rulebook, to being a wargamer's guide.  C&R did this, somewhat, but not to the extent that Bill Protz has done here.

Initial Concepts
One thing to establish up front, is that the miniatures within the units don't really matter.  Well, that is to say, they matter because it is a miniatures game, and they matter because they bring the splendor and pageantry to the wargame, but they don't matter in the sense of combat being based on particular figures in contact, or even specifically how many figures there are in a unit.  What does matter, is the units CR or Combat Rating.  Now this is typically computed initially from the number of miniatures in a unit (and the point value of those miniatures), but it will change up and down with circumstance, and in fact, the initial CR of a unit might be increased by 25% if the unit is elite.  The unit's CR is what matters, in WGECW.  Combat effectiveness is based on the CR, and losses are subtracted from the CR (although the author suggests that miniatures be removed from a unit, in proportion to CR losses that the unit undergoes).

 The CR is calculated from points values of the miniatures in a formation.  This includes extra points for figures such as officers, flag bearers, and sergeants.  For a mixed formation, such as an ECW formation with a body of Pikemen, and perhaps two flanking bodies of Musketeers, each of those divisions would have its own CR calculated and recorded on a unit roster.

Scale and Unit Types
Game scale is given at 1 inch to 15 yards for the ground, 1 figure to 20 men for the troops.  Basic types of figures are foot, horse, and artillery.

Foot troops can be Open Ordered (such as skirmishing forlorn hope), Ordered (typical musket and pike formation), Double Ordered (half the depth of Ordered formations), or Close Ordered (tightly packed infantry, in order to defend against enemy cavalry).  Finally, there is the possibility of a Ring formation (like a hedgehog, or square formation).

Horse troops can be either Ordered (such as typical charging cavalry), or Open Ordered (such as dragoons or other cavalry, spread out in order to screen), or Caracole (designed to allow pistol fire and recall against an enemy unit).

The rules give basing sizes for troops, which generally doesn't change for the different ordering listed above, EXCEPT for Close Ordered Infantry.  In that case, the player is to remove half the stands of the unit from the table, but to record and remember what their CR is - they have just gotten denser.

Foot unit stands represent three ranks of troops, and Ordered and Close Ordered units are 6 ranks deep, so they should be two miniature ranks (or stands) deep.  Double Ordered infantry are only 3 ranks deep, so are only one stand deep (called Double Ordered, because by halving the depth, they double the length of the formation line).  Horse units and artillery have their methods of representing Ordering on the tabletop.  Open Ordered units, it should be pointed out, have the stands dispersed by a short gap between them - typical skirmishing formation representation.

Turn Sequence
The game turn is divided up into a sequence of events.  Since this is a game that practices simultaneous movement, it features order writing.  Regular readers of this blog will know my affection for simultaneous movement and order writing (similar to my affection for root canal).  When we played these rules, so many years ago, we would write general battlefield orders at the beginning of the game, and our specific turn orders were only changes to those, as well as announcing charges etc.  It helps to have a referee.

The sequenced events of the turn, however, are these:

1. Both sides write down orders for their units.
2. Both sides read out their orders, alternating who goes first every other turn.
3. Moves are performed simultaneously according to orders.
4. Skirmish Fire is assessed, and casualties immediately calculated and removed.
5. Artillery Fire is assessed, and casualties immediately calculated and removed.
6. Other Small Arms Fire is assessed, and casualties immediately calculated and removed.
7. Melee is adjudicated and resolved.
8. Turn is complete.

Morale tests can be triggered in any of the firing or melee events.

Movement
Movement is quite straight forward, and is based on some simple charts showing inches, based on the type of movement (and troop type) performing it.  There are some simple reductions and additions based on different circumstances (road movement, move and fire, direction change, etc).  There are some specifics to be followed if a unit of musketeers is going to be firing by introduction (that is, as the ranks fire, and are replaced from the rear, that they slowly move forward), or extroduction (the same, only the unit as a whole slowly moves backward, as firers run to the rear of their file).

Movement for cavalry is slightly more involved, although the chart is every bit as simple.  For mounted troops, the player must determine if the horses are trotting, cantering or galloping.   Rules are given about accelerating through these different states.  A horse, cannot, for instance, go from a simple stand-still to galloping in one move.  It must start at trotting, then the next turn can proceed to cantering, and finally to galloping.  As with foot troops, there are some simple additions or reductions based on circumstance and operations.

Finally, there is a similar table, with similar rules for artillery pieces of different sizes, and different situations.

Small Arms Fire
Once the type of fire (regular, introduction/extroduction, pistol caracole, etc) is determined, then the number of figures, and their CR, can be assessed.  The following procedure is used to determine the number of casualties (expressed in CR reduction to the target unit) is finalized.

1. Determine CR
2. Determine Range
3. Toss 1 die
4. Check Die Adjustment Chart for mods
5. Cross reference die results with range, to get an Effectiveness Letter
6. Cross reference the effect letter, and the CR firing on the Small Arms Casualty Chart, to get the casualty integer.
7. Modify the casualty integer by modifiers on the final casualty adjustment chart.
8. Take the final modified casualty integer, and multiply it by the point value of the target troops, and deduct the result from the target unit's CR

One final consideration, is that armored units (foot and horse) have a reduced calculus of how much total CR damage is inflicted.

Artillery Fire
The procedures for doing Artillery Fire, are somewhat different from small arms fire.

• First,  determine your target, and then based on range there is a chance for the artillery shot to go awry.  If at short range, it is a definite hit, but at medium and long range there is a chance to miss.
• Second, determine the ranks penetrated (light guns penetrate 2 ranks, medium guns penetrate 3, and heavy guns will penetrate 4).  
• Third, for each rank penetrated, there is a one point casualty integer, and these are all summed up (so for 3 ranks penetrated, there is a total casualty integer of 3).  This is reduced by terrain (such as firing up- or down-hill).  
• Finally, multiply the casualty integer times the CR of the troops hit, and reduce this from the target unit.  This total amount is reduced by half in a number of situations.
• The final CR total is subtracted from the target unit's CR.

There are similar procedures for other types of shot (the above, is for regular round shot, that does damage by bouncing through multiple ranks of soldiers, and killing them).  Shot types include exploding shell and langridge (case, or hail) shot.

Melee
Not surprising, the CR system is core to how melee engagements are adjudicated in these rules.  Each side calculates their current CR (lots of modifiers, such as Horse vs. non-Horse gets multiplied by 125%).  Then, the winner of the melee is determined.  This is done by each side rolling 2d6, and multiplying the result by their unit's CR.  The high score wins the melee combat.  Now, casualties are inflicted as a percentage of the original CR (not the product of the CR multiplied by dice).  The losing side will deduct (from their base CR score) an amount equal to 25% of the winner's CR.  The winning side will deduct 10% of the loser's CR.  The loser then takes, and applies, a morale test.  There are rules for fleeing, pursuits, and how officers affect things.  That is it - it is easy to play out melee combat, and although the impact of multiplying your CR by a 2d6 roll at first blush seems like there can be a lot of variability, the actual casualties (CR deduction) and morale results are more important.

Example combat - Lets say a Royalist Pike and Shot unit, with 12 pikemen (including 2pt command figures), and 12 musketeers will have a total CR of 36.  It is facing a Parliamentarian unit with 8 pikemen and 16 musketeers, or a total CR of 32.  The Royalist player rolls a 7 on the dice, and a total of (7x36) or 252.  The Parliamentarian player rolls a 9 on the dice, and a total of (9x32) or 288.  The Parliamentarian unit wins.  The Royalist unit subtracts (.25 x 32) 8 points from it's CR.  The Parliamentary unit subtracts (.10 x 36) 4 points from it's CR.  The Royalist unit, as the losing unit, will have to test morale

Extras
The rulebook is about half full of appendices. The first few of these go over how units should be organized on the wargames table, and a short guide to painting and flags, as well as advice to the 15mm player (a new scale, for the most part, in the early 1970s).

But then the appendices get more interesting.  There is a subset of rules for doing siege games.  These cover the specifics of affecting fortifications and buildings, as well as rules for grenadoes and other siege equipment.  A series of six different classes of storming/sieging are described, as scenarios and what is to be done in each (as well as victory conditions, and how to represent that sort of siege on the tabletop).

There is a set of notes regarding the organization of armies and the proportion of units, etc, in the years of the First Civil War (1642-1646).  And finally, there are some blank and sample unit rosters (showing a clean way to record unit CR and orders/status).  Lastly, the book ends with a nice glossary of ECW military terms.

Assessment/Conclusion
I owned this book before I owned either Forlorn Hope or 1644 (both of which I played more than these rules).  In fact, the only renaissance/ECW rules I owned before these were the George Gush rules from WRG (and, eventually, Universal Soldier).  I only played these a few times, but I returned to the book for information about the period, and units, artillery types, etc many times over while in my early years of ECW playing.  This was one of those rulebooks that back then (in the 1980s) was in many of the wargaming shops I visited, and also on the rack at vendor booths at wargaming conventions. I saw it a lot, but unfortunately the people I played with did not use it.

One of the things I found disconcerting (more below, as I discuss this effect in regards to shooting) is the fact that the unit is kept track of by its CR, and casualties and effects are based on total CR engaged, and not individual stands or figures.  I understand the reason for this, with mixed units of pike and shot, but it seemed to introduce as many difficulties as it solved, see my comments below about shooting (both musketry and artillery).

The basic scale and representation of the game (in terms of figures per unit, movement and shooting ranges, and also turn/time sequence) works very well.  But for some reason, these rules never quite were the thing in the group I played with. I include it here, because of the impact the book had, and Bill Protz's excellent writing about wargames, not so much because I played it so often (I played almost all the other ECW rules mentioned in this review series - Forlorn Hope, Cavaliers and Roundheads, Universal Soldier, Hackbutt and Pike, and the forthcoming Gush rules and 1644 - more than I played the Wargamer's Guide to the English Civil War).  Eventually, I would get other resources on wargaming units and uniforms and army lists, etc (Forlorn Hope was excellent in that regard, but also great books from Caliver), but early on - this is the book that made me fall in love with wargaming the period.  Even if the rules in this book did not.

Pros/Cons for Musketry and Artillery
Okay, this seems (to me) to be a bit overly complicated, mostly because of the basic structure of WGECW.  The casualty integer is a number of enemy figures killed.  But the final step, of converting it back to points and then deducting it from the CR, is because of the requirement to discuss everything about a unit in terms of CR, rather than in terms of figures. 


I give the author (Bill Protz) the benefit of the doubt, because there are benefits of doing a unit as a whole, even when it is comprised of disparate parts (like pike, officers, halberdiers, and shot all in a large battalia, for instance).  That is always hard to do, and rules for the period (even the latest modern rules) always struggle hard in how to do hybrid units.  The CR system is an elegant way to do it, it just didn't appeal to the people I was playing with.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Angriff! - review

This is another review in the Once and Future Rules series, of wargame rules that are out of print, but that got a lot of play at one time (at least, in the clubs and groups I played in since the early 1980s).

This is a review of the Angriff rules, by Myers and Zimmermann, from 1968.  The version I have, and am reviewing (in particular) is the version I played just after high school, from the 1982 printed version.  While I only played these, by themselves, a little in the 1980s, I liked them, and would continue to use the infantry rules with other sets of tank rules, for a very long time.  Before I get into the detailed review, a little history and nostalgia about my history with WW2 rules and wargaming.

 World War 2 wargaming, has been a very large part of my wargaming experience from the beginning.  Before coming to miniatures and miniature wargaming, I started with board games that had a WW2 flavor, and also I had been an avid military model builder, mostly of US ground vehicles from WW2.  Moving into miniatures, my first foray was into Napoleonics, as described earlier in another review, and that gave way to medieval skirmish gaming very quickly (as something my co-gamers at the time were interested in).

However, my brothers and I, like lots of kids from that generation, also grew up on a steady diet of WW2 war movies and books.  So when the possibility of building some WW2 miniatures, and coming up with rules, came upon us, we used the plastic HO (including all the near-HO scales, 1:87, 1:76, and 1:72) models for infantry from Airfix and Atlantic, as well as all the many HO scale models we had built and painted.  The rules were based on my experience, at the time, with the Hinchliffe guide, as well as some books from the library on wargaming.  It seemed to me that these types of games, unlike the "obviously" much more scientific SPI and Avalon Hill games, could be written by an amateur.  So I came up with some rules.  They were simple.  Tanks moved 8".  Jeeps moved 12".  Infantry moved 4".  Shooting was by numbers of D6, and the number of 6s rolled were casualties.  A US Sgt with a SMG was by far the most dangerous element in the game (thanks John Wayne movies).

Moving forward, I got a little more interested in more formal rules.  I got a copy of Tractics, from TSR.  I really liked the first book - Tank and AntiTank, but it was just a little bit too much detail.  That remains true today for lots of people who encounter Tractics.

Moving forward, I tried some other rules sets, eventually (later on) setting on Overwatch, but in the meantime, I tried the Angriff rules and also the WRG 1925-1950 rules.  One thing I encountered early on was the fantastic magazine, Wargamer's Digest, from Gene McCoy.

The pictures of battles, and the fantastic tabletop scenarios and maps, along with Gene's system 76 order of battle system were extremely exciting, and one of the things that drove my interest in this period.  So when I got into Angriff, and saw the possibility of representing troops in a way similar to Gene's - with a single tank for a command vehicle, and then a tank representing each platoon, so a company might have a total of four models.  That works great for Angriff, and was the scale of gaming I wanted to do.  I never used a total of 30 miniatures on a stand to represent the infantry, as Angriff requests, but usually I would have a stand of three miniatures to represent a platoon or section.

The rulebook itself is divided up into (roughly) two sections.  The first, up to page 24, is the actual wargames rules.  This covers a variety of different topics:

• Unit organization
• Preparing for Battle
• Movement of Forces
• Sighting
• Terrain Descriptions
• Artillery Fire
• Tank Fire
• Small Arms Fire
• The Melee
• The Charge
• Percentage and Direct Fire Tables
• Engineers
• Urban Warfare
• Morale Factors
• Odds-n-Ends

The second section is the set of detailed appendices.  This runs from page 25, through to the end of the book, at page 62.  This is an excellent set of charts covering not only the modeling of combat phenomena in the wargame rules (such as vehicle parameters, and weapon systems range and accuracy), but also things like typical order of battle charts for common organizations from WW2.  As a very useful resource from the time, there is also a list of manufacturers that make HO and Micro scale WW2 models.

Scale
So, as mentioned, the rules call for a 1-to-1 representation on tabletop by vehicle models, but using stands for infantry is recommended (a stand for 10 men is perfect).  However . . . as mentioned, most of the time when I played these rules, we used 1 vehicle for a platoon, when translating a historical OB or one of Gene McCoy's excellent scenarios.  That gets a little funky sometimes, but seems to work for most scenarios.

• Ground scale is 50 yards to an inch.  (I can't find it now that I am looking, but I recall that in micro scale it is 100 yards to an inch).
• Turns appear to be about a minute per turn (calculating backwards from the movement rates).

Turn Sequence
Angriff has each player roll 2d6, to determine initiative.  High roller gets to chose to be player A or player B in the following sequence.  Note, as you read through this, that phases 1 and 2, as well as phases 6 and 7 are each roughly simultaneous.  So, while player A does phase 1, then player B does phase 2, the results of those are simultaneous.  Everything else, happens when it happens.

1. Side A moves 1/3 of its move, plus an additional 3" for all vehicles or men on roads.
2. Side B moves 1/3 of its move, plus an additional 3" for all vehicles or men on roads.
3. Artillery fire, if any, commences.
4. Tanks or vehicle mounted weapons fire.
5. Small arms fire, if any, commences.
6. Side B moves the remaining 2/3 of its move (but only 1/3 if it has fired).
7. Side A moves the remaining 2/3 of its move (but only 1/3 if it has fired). 
8. Melee combats.

No movement plotting, no order writing.  The importance of moving first or second, in turn phases 1/2 and 6/7 is of course the psychology of giving away your intended position before your opponent moves, so it may be useful to move second (i.e. choose being Player B if you are high roller for initiative).  Equally, being player A could be important, it is up to the player.

Movement
As can be expected from the turn sequence, all movement distances (given in the rules by vehicle type; or a total of 6" for dismounted infantry) are divisible by 3.  So dismounted infantry can move 2" in the first move phase, and then 4" in the second move phase, if they did not fire.

Infantry that are dismounted, can also move an additional 6" at the end of a move, representing a forced march.  This takes place, simultaneously for infantry of both sides, following phase 8 of the turn (i.e. - after everything else, include melee combats).  An infantry element can only force march three rounds in a row, and then has to take a break of a Full turn with no movement.  If an infantry element force marches for two rounds in a row, then it has to take a Half turn rest.  Alternating force march with regular moves mean that no rest periods are needed.

What this 'force march' business means is that an infantry element can cover 12" of tabletop distance in a turn, by force marching (pretty good for most WW2 rules).  Also, while force marching, the infantry can fire, but only at half effect.

Terrain, in the game, is officially in four different types - Woods (which may be moderate/light or dense/heavy), Hills (which are assumed to be contoured, like "wedding cake" hills), Swamps, and Rivers (which come in 3 classes, or widths).

Loading a vehicle is handled very much like old school rules handled Artillery in horse and musket games.  Infantry in Angriff, as regards loading and unloading, can do any two actions.  These can be (1) loading, (2) moving, and (3) unloading.  The same applies to towed guns and equipment.  Large artillery can only be moved by heavy movers, not being manhandled.

Sighting
The typical sighting distance is 1750 yards, or 35 inches.  The game handles units that are out of LOS, or beyond sighting distance, by using poker chips to represent small groups of troops.

Looking into or through woods is even more limited (10" if looking  into moderate woods; 5" if looking into dense woods).

Rules are in place for how much can be hidden in a building, and how and where visibility markers are replaced by actual units, etc.

Artillery Fire
The rulebook covers barrage fire, but recommends against it for the scale engagements the rules are representing.  That never stopped a wargamer, however here I will cover the recommended use of artillery pieces in direct fire (and limited indirect fire, such as with a forward observer).

So, firing an artillery piece, or even a tank weapon, that is firing High Explosive rounds (rather than armor penetrators) allows the weapon to have an impact on crew members of towed weapons, and exposed infantry, within 2" of the point of attack of the weapon.  The effect is very simple, and is a number of casualties in that impact circle based on the caliber of the weapon.  If this kills all the crew of a served weapon, then the weapon is also considered destroyed (for game purposes).  Note that such fire is limited to the normal 35" sighting range.

Indirect fire, by using an observer, is allowed for any range up to the maximum for the weapon, as long as an observer is within 35" of the target.  The rules prohibit towed AT and AA weapons from firing this way, as they were designed and intended to work differently.

As mentioned, barrage fire is defined in the rulebook, for artillery assets that might be off board, but it is advised against because it is out of the scope for the engagements envisioned in the rules.  One of the interesting things about barrage fire in these rules is how simply it is handled (another mark for the elegance of these rules).

1. Construct a grid like the one pictured here, on clear acetate (12"x18" for HO; 6"x9" for Micro).  
2. Place the star over the aiming point of the barrage fire, with the top of the star pointing aligned in the direction of the barrage (i.e. - pointing away from where the firing battery is located).  
3. Then roll 2d6.  
4. If you are using a small battery (i.e. tubes smaller than 135mm), then the two numbers are the squares that are hit by the barrage.  
5. If you are using a large battery, then those two numbers, as well as the sum of the two, are the squares that are hit.  
6. If you roll doubles on the dice, then that is a bad barrage, and only the one square is struck (plus the sum, if a large battery).  

The book then gives a series of four charts corresponding to different artillery tube sizes (75-99mm; 100-135mm; 136-175mm; and 176mm and up).  The sum of the two targeting dice are consulted on the corresponding table, and it gives the total number of AFVs, soft vehicles (listed as trucks), and dismounted Men that are killed in each square affected.  Simple, and fast.

Direct Fire - Tank and Anti-Tank
Considering the era that these rules were first published, and the rarity (at the time) of percentile dice, the method that the rules handle percentage-chance-of-hit for firing direct heavy weapons is rather clever.  Also, consider that for most WW2 land rules, the bread and butter is the tank-on-tank set of adjudication rules - and for Angriff this is no different.  They work well, and that is what makes the ruleset memorable.

First, the chance to hit with a weapon is determined from national weapon characteristics tables (in the appendices) that give a basic chance for each range bracket, for each weapon type.  That basic chance represents the typical chance to score a hit, with no significant modifiers.

The possible percentage numbers (resulting from the weapons/range chart), along with the hit numbers for 2d6, are:

Percent Chance	Hit on (2d6 scores)
78%	2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12
72%	3 4 6 7 8 10 11
67%	2 4 6 7 8 10 12
61%	4 6 7 8 10
50%	2 4 6 8 10 12
44%	6 7 8
33%	4 7 10
28%	2 6 8
17%	4 10
11%	3 11
6%	2 12

Second, look up that percentage on the Percentage Table (above).  This will then give a number of results on a pair of D6 dice (2-12).  If those results are added up, the percentage is approximately the numbers represented on the table.  Scoring any of those numbers on 2d6 (with one of them being red, more later on that) means a hit is scored.

The simplest modifier for this is that if the weapon is stationary (i.e. - did not move this turn) then the number 5 (in the 2-12 spread) is also counted as a hit (if you look at the above chart, you will see that 5 and 9 are never regular hit numbers).  And if both the firing weapon and the target are stationary, then the numbers 5 and 9 are added in as hit results.

If firing at a concealed target, the first time firing at it, the percentage table drops one category.

Third, determine the effects of a hit.  If against a towed weapon, it is automatically destroyed.  If against another AFV, then the red d6 comes into play.  There is a hit location table, for direct fire combat. It is divided up into five columns, corresponding to the facing of the target vehicle that the hit came in on.  It can come in on the Front, Side, Rear, or Front-Side (front corner), or Rear-Side (rear corner).  Then, the red d6 is consulted, and a location is generated.  These include:

• Gun Shield
• Front Turret
• Front Driver
• Front Bottom
• Track
• Side hull
• Side Turret
• Rear Hull
• Rear Turret

For each location, the national vehicle characteristics tables will give an armor thickness.  For each range bracket of a weapon, in addition to giving the accuracy of the weapon at that range, the amount of armor penetration is also given.  If the shot penetrates the armor, the target vehicle is dead.

Here is an example of the hit location chart.  Assume that the shot is coming in the front of the vehicle, and consult the red d6:

1. Gun Shield
2. Front Turret
3. Front Drive
4. Front Bottom
5. Front Driver
6. Track

This is a very elegant system, again from a time when percentile dice were not common.  Tractics, if I recall, tried to get away from a dice spread that was different from what you could easily do with d6s, and they used a random number generator that was based on 20 numbered chips in a bag, draw one to simulate rolling 1d20.

PzMkIV F1

Modification/Houserule: Rather than using the d6 system... you could just roll percentile dice against the number you have gotten from the weapon/range chart.  To this add 11% if  you are firing while stationary, and 22% if you AND the target are stationary.  Example: if you get 61% chance, then roll percentile dice, and on a 61 or less, you have a hit.  Of course you then have to roll 1d6 for hit location, and of course, that means that you will lose the charm of certain hit locations not happening on certain percentile rolls (because of how the 2d6 method works), but it means one less chart look up during direct fire adjudication.  This assumes that a modern wargamer could get, and want to use, percentile dice rather than the one pure die type - the sacred d6.

Example of direct fire AFV combat -
A Panzer Mk IV F1 tank is facing off, face on, against a T34 A.  The range is 1000 yards (20") and both tanks moved this turn.

The MkIV fires a 75mm/L24 gun, so we consult the German chart for that weapon, and find that at 1000 yards the 75mm/L24 has a 44% chance to hit and penetrates 51mm of armor.

The T34 fires a 76.2mm/L30 gun, so we consult the Russian chart for that weapon, and find that at 1000 yards, the 76.2mm/L30 has a 61% chance to hit, and penetrates 85mm of armor.

The firing is simultaneous.  According to the percentage hit table, the German tank will hit on 6,7, or 8 on the dice.  The Russian tank will hit on 4,6,7,8 or 10 on the dice.

The German player rolls, a 3 and a 5, with the 5 being the red dice.  A total of 8 means a hit, on location 5.  Looking at the Front table for hit location (above), we see that a 5 is the Front Driver position of the tank.  Looking at the Russian vehicle table, we find that the T-34 A has only 45mm of armor at that location, so the German gun (which penetrates 51mm) will score a kill.

The Russian player rolls a 5 and a 2, with the 2 being the red dice.  A total of 7 means a hit, on location 2.  Looking at the Front table (above), we see that a 2 is the Front Turret position of the tank.  Looking at the German vehicle table, we find that the PzMkIVF1 has only 30mm of armor at that location, so the Russian gun (which penetrates 85mm of armor) will score a kill.

T-34/76 A (1941)

Direct Fire - Small Arms
This system is, if anything, even simpler than the tank/anti-tank system.

It involves calculating the total number of firing points (from a chart) that are firing on an enemy target (which could be a single stand, a weapon team, a group of stands, or a vehicle).  These points come from infantry stands (1 pt per stand, if it represents 5 or more men), LMGs (2 points), HMGs (3 points), Mortars (2 points), and Flamethrowers (2 points).  there is a slight modification to the total number of points for the range.  Then 2d6 are rolled against a Kill Factor table, which gives a resulting number between 1 and 3.  Multiply the kill factor by the number of calculated points, and that is the number of casualties.  This is simultaneous.

If firing small arms at vehicles, the only which may be affected in this system are soft vehicles, and wheeled armored vehicles (such as armored cars).  Tracked AFVs are immune to small arms fire, in this sytem.  Against a soft vehicle, if the vehicle takes small arms fire, and that includes either rifles or MGs, then there is a 50% chance for a hit (roll 2d6, as above, with a hit on 2,4,6,8,10,12).  Further, if the results are either 2, 6 or 8, then it is a kill (otherwise a disable).  Against a wheeled AFV, this chance drops to 33%, so a hit is on 4,7,10.  No chance to kill a wheeled AFV, only disable it.

Close Combat
As with Small Arms fire, the close combat system is interesting, works well, and is based on a number of points of Attackers vs Defenders.  Infantry is easy, with 1 point per man involved in a close combat.  Vehicles get points for thickness of armor, and also for the number of machine guns.

The procedure is to add all the points for each side in a melee together (Note: a melee is when a group of attackers end their last move of the turn within 1 inch of the defender - this makes for an interesting twist on the turn order - in order to be the attacker you have to be Side A).   Compare the two points totals, and derive a ratio.  The attacker must have at least 1-2 odds in order to attack.  Then the attacker rolls 2d6 on a Melee Effects Table, and it gives a resulting letter.  Look up that letter on the Melee Losses table, and you will find what percentage of Attackers or Defenders have died, in terms of the points for their side.

The results on the loss table will be a percentage of loss for each side, and an indicator of which side (attacker or defender) has to retreat (which is a full move for vehicles, and Infantry must retreat 18" or to the nearest supporting unit).

Charging
Units can charge into combat, which they announce at the start of a turn, then move.  Vehicles get a whole move, and infantry gets 9".  If contact is not made, then the unit gets no further move that turn, but can engage in small arms fire at half effect.

If the charge is successful, then both sides can (possibly - 50% chance) engage in small arms fire before the melee.   This is at point blank range, and the chance is determined by rolling 2d6 (again, the percentage table is consulted, so at 50% success is at a 2,4,6,8,10,12 on the dice).  If this is successful (each side rolls separately), then the Defender can fire at full effect, and the Attacker can fire at half effect.  If the Defender is successful at the 50% test, then he may also introduce reinforcements from units within 6".

On turns after a charge, infantry can only move 2" and vehicles only 1/3 of their normal move.


Extras
The rules cover a number of extras including the following:

• Engineering (including entrenching, vehicle repair, laying bridges, demolition, mines and obstacle breaching, and laying smoke).
• Urban Warfar
• Morale (which affects campaign moves and committment to combat)
• Weather
• Capturing equipment

Thoughts
As you could probably tell from my review of the rules' sections above, I am a big fan of Angriff.  Yes, there is the problem of having to consult four different tables for each AFV firing (weapon table for the firer's chance and penetration, percentage table for dice chance, hit table for location, and target vehicle table for armor).  But this is no different from other rule sets.  Consider Overwatch, very similar.  But Angriff plays fast, and it gives great results.  It was relied on by the gaming groups I was in for many years as a means of providing reasonable Infantry (and other small arms fire) adjudication for other tank-centric games (like the already mentioned Overwatch).

Some of the problems in the system are the problems of scale - in some places, the scale is different for HO (or more commonly these days, 20mm or 15mm in addition to HO) and Micro scaled vehicles and ranges, but it is never clearly laid out (like the 9" move for infantry charges - is that only 4.5" in micro?).  But these are minor problems, and could easily be settled on by a group as a set of rules by practice, rather than rules as written.  It lends itself to all sorts of additional house rules (aircraft, parachuting operations, landings, etc) - but in the end it is a very solid set of move and shoot rules for armor and infantry, with reasonable artillery rules that play fast.

More modern rules might do things differently - for instance, I love the command and control rules in Blitzkrieg Commander.  Other rules might introduce a random factor for penetration (such as in Firefly, if I recall).  But as written, for a nice evening game, or a convention game where you want your gamers to know the rules after just a turn or two Angriff is still excellent.

My own house rule suggestions

• Angriff works great if you prepare vehicle information cards for each side, or a  simple vehicle information sheet, that has the vehicle and weapons stats JUST for the platforms used in your particular game.
•  Add in an extra factor to small arms and close combat for command stands/vehicles.
• Use the percentile dice system (described above) instead of the Percentage Table.

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General Quarters - review

This is another review in the Once and Future Rules series, of wargame rules that are out of print, but that got a lot of play at one time (at least, in the clubs and groups I played in since the early 1980s).

 This is the second set of naval rules that I am reviewing in this series (the first, was Seekrieg).  Please note that this review is of the old (1975) version of General Quarters. The new version (GQIII and the WW1 version, Fleet Action Imminent) from Old Dominion Gameworks are excellent games, but they are different enough (and improved in many ways), that I felt like a review of the old school rules was warranted.  Besides, the older ones are still popular in our club.

In 1975, L.L. Gill published General Quarters.  These were originally published by Brookhurst Hobbies, and then by C-in-C (the version I have of GQ1 is from C-in-C), and these days by Navwar (I believe that in spite of the new version from ODGW, that Navwar continues to publish GQ1 and GQ2).  From the cover, these are "Complete and Comprehensive Rules for Naval Wargaming".  It is hard to argue.  Although in comparison with the Seekrieg rules, they are certainly Naval Wargaming in a different language.  I came to these rules as the third set of commercial miniatures naval rules I ever read.  The first was Seekrieg.  The second was Heart of Oak (from FGU, 1978).  And then there was General Quarters.  I found them in one of several boxes of miniatures rules that were for sale at Campaign Headquarters.  Looking through them, they seemed so very simple.  I had played several naval wargames, by the mid 80s (when I came across GQ) - including Wooden Ships and Iron Men (Avalon Hill, at least the version I had), Battlewagon (Task Force Games), Fire when Ready! (Metagaming), and Fast Attack Boats (Yaquinto).  I had read several books about Naval Wargaming, as mentioned in the Seekrieg article - these contained several miniatures rulesets.  So, when I came to GQ, I did not have the newcomer's eye.  It looked very simple, and couldn't possibly be any good.  And what was that turning gauge all about? And the broadside indicator?

Finally, however, in the late 1980s, I got a copy of GQ, at the suggestion of a friend, to look at the torpedo rules.  Which had to be an improvement on the torpedo rules in Seekrieg. At least from the perspective of play-ability.  At this time, I had also written my own set of naval rules, covering modern small craft (river craft, hovercraft, and small patrol boats) for a modern warfare campaign.  I began to appreciate the essence of simplicity. And that was what GQ offered - sensible systems, that have the detail backed into the calculations and factors, that offered a quick game, with good (historical) results.  The systems worked so well, and lacked complexity, so that many aspects of WW2 naval combat could be very easily incorporated, where they caused heartache in other rulesets.  I became (and remain) hooked.

Scale
As with most naval games (but not all) a single model represents a single naval asset (ship, submarine, etc).  Very small craft (such as motor torpedo boats), and aircraft, are represented by a single model for a group.  Torpedoes (except a very few special cases, such as the Japanese Long Lance) are resolved in a single turn, so aren't marked on the tabletop.

The surface scale is 1" to 250 yards (8" to a nautical mile).  Not that this is half the size of the table top scale for Seekrieg, by comparison.

The time scale is 6 minutes to a turn (10 turns to an hour).  A quick mathematician will point out that a 30kt vessel, in 6 minutes, can travel 24" on the tabletop.  However, the ruleset has purposefully halved the movement distance of all the vessels in the game (so the 30kt vessel can travel a total of 12 inches), to keep people from steaming all over the place (and requiring a shorter turn, or smaller scale, as Seekrieg does).  Engagements are best played on a large-ish tabletop, or floor, with long range shots of 9-12 feet not being too extreme for large guns.  With smaller (more reasonable) guns, such as on cruisers and destroyers, a much smaller play surface would suffice, as would converting inches to CM, or halving everything.

A quick note about distances - the game gives distances (movement, and gunnery) in inches.  It is quick to mentally convert this to thousands of yards, or nautical miles, but as inches it makes it very easy to play.

Turn Sequence
The game is (thankfully) played without any movement plotting at all.  In fact, no written orders are required for anything (except aircraft operations, and torpedo runs).  So, because of that, there is an integrated turn sequence that works quite well.

1. Ship Movement
  a) Side A moves and lays smoke screens
  b) Side B moves and lays smoke screens. (the two sides alternate being side A)
  c) Collisions are resolved
  d) Ships in minefields are checked for detonation
  e) Mine damage takes effect

2. Torpedoes hit targets - those fired on the preceding game turn reach their targets (or two turns ago, if Japanese long lance torpedoes).  If there is an interception, then damage is calculated.  Immediate effects of damage.

3. Air attacks
  a) Air to Air combat
  b) AA fire against aircraft attempting surface strikes
  c) Surviving aircraft conduct strikes on targets
  d) Damage from all air strikes takes effect immediately

4. Gunnery combat
  a) Search lights illuminate targets during light action
  b) Gunnery attacks resolved for both sides
  c) Damage from gunnery takes effect immediately

5. Torpedoes are launched (for next turn) by both sides.

6. Repair
  a) Damage Control hits (Critical Hit #3) may be attempted to be repaired
  b) Fires in CVs, CVEs, AKs and AOs may attempt to be extinguished
  c) Stationary ships (i..e - non functioning engine room) may attempt to regain power
  d) Ships which sink this game turn are removed from the table

7. Smoke Screens laid the previous turn are removed. (we found it useful to have them be modeled as black cotton on the turn they are laid, and on this phase, remove all white smoke, and then turn all black smoke to white)

Movement
Movement is quite simple.  It is marked on the Ship Display as a number of inches, based on how much damage the hull (and, by extension, the engine room) has taken.  A ship may move that many inches ahead.

Turning is done by the use of a small gauge, that allows a 45 degree turn for each inch (or more) traveled ahead.  In practice this is a very simple procedure, and can be done without the gauge - although it proves useful for tight areas.  Very small craft (Motor Torpedo Boats) can turn on a dime, up to 180 degrees.

Acceleration and Deceleration is by 3".  This is 4" for small vessels (DD and smaller).  Note that this is based on the distance the ship moved last turn, so if the engine room gets severely damage, and the maximum speed drops from 12" to 6" in a single turn, the ship can still only decelerate by 3" (but will be forced to do so each turn, until it reaches it's new maximum speed, based on damage).

Ships within an inch of each other are in danger of collision (unless, one is attempting to secure a tow of the other).

Ships within four inches of a land mass are in danger of running aground (shoals and reefs, of course).  The referee can introduce any sort of terrain he desires - including additional areas where a ship can run aground.

Ships should be divided up into divisions of 2 to 8 vessels, and move either line ahead, line abreast, or in an oblique formation.  Ships must remain in a division, but can reform.  Special exceptions are when avoiding torpedo attacks, or because of the effects of damage, etc.

Small ships can use evasive action.  There are also detailed rules for collisions, towing, and smoke screens.


Gunnery
The rules for gunnery determine who may shoot (based on line of sight, line of fire, spotting, radar, and so on).  Each ship that is armed has one or more batteries (on large ships, there are main, secondary, and tertiary batteries - which may also be AA guns).  Fire against a target is by a complete battery.  It is probable that a ship has a secondary (or tertiary) battery that is identical on each side (port and starboard) of a ship.  The main battery, if it is comprised of center line turrets, is singular, although it may be split between fore and aft, based on whether the turrets involved are those before, or behind, the main superstructure of the ship.

The rules determine how to make sense of this battery stuff, although some knowledge of the layout of the ship is helpful - we found that a reprint of a WW2 era Jane's Fighting Ships proved invaluable (the sort that can be had cheap at a book store or Amazon).  I prefer Conway's to Jane's, but my copies of Conway's all disappeared years ago.  Sad tale.

Once you determine which battery is firing (which is really amazingly simple, I've spent too much time discussing it here), your ship data will have a note of the gun caliber, and also the AF (attack factor) for that battery.  Using the gun caliber, find the entry on the straddle table that represents the range bracket you are in, and a "to hit" number for a D6 is there.  If this number is rolled, on a D6, then your battery has scored a straddle (it hit the target).  There are a number of modifiers for this, and there are two sets of "to hit" numbers, one for day actions, and one for night actions, but it is extremely easy to understand (and, more importantly for convention play, to teach).

Example - The straddle chart is easy to read - find the column that corresponds to your battery you are firing.  Then find the row that lists the lowest range value that exceed the actual range you are from the target.  So, if you are firing a 12" battery, at a range of 88 inches (11 nautical miles) on the tabletop, consulting the table, we find that the lowest value that exceeds 88 inches, is a 96.  If this is a daylight engagement, we see that a dice score of a 1 or 2 is needed on a D6 to score a straddle at that range.

The Straddle Table

That is it.  Compared to the hit determination sequence in Seekrieg, this is fiddler's green.  In fact, most players will roll three dice at once - a white, a black, and a red.  The white dice is to see if a hit is scored, the black dice it to check for hull damage, and the red dice is to check for armament damage.

Damage
 Once you score a straddle, the next bit of gunnery detail is to determine if you have scored any damage.  This involves (first) noting from the straddle table, the entry of the range bracket will note an Armor Type that will be penetrated.  This is in (basic terms) of ship class, and it and all lesser ship classes are penetrated by that gun, at that range bracket.  So, for instance, given the example above, of a 12" gun firing at a range of 88 inches, we find that the entry on the straddle table (the 96" entry) states that a 12" gun at that point will penetrate CA (Heavy Cruiser) armor, or lighter.

If a battery scores a hit against a target that it cannot penetrate, it can still do damage, but it will be Non-Penetrating Damage.

The next step in determining damage is to see what the straddle did.  Compare the AF (attack factor) of the battery, against the DF (defense factor) of the target ship.  This will allow you to compute a ratio.  Round the ratio in the favor of the defender, and consult the Gunnery Combat Results Table.  Remember that you rolled three dice (white is "to hit", black is "hull damage" and red is "armament damage").  The black dice entry on the chart, for the ratio of AF to DF, gives the number of damage points to the target ship's hull.  The red dice gives the number of damage points to the target ship's armament.

SDS of a Japanese Cruiser - three rows of boxes - Critical Damage, Armament, and Hull

 These damage points represent boxes that are crossed off, from left to right, on the Ship Display Summary (SDS).  This is the box that represents the ship, and has the basic info for the game on batteries, movement, armor, etc.  Each point of damage represents a box crossed off, either on the Armament Row (which has attack factors for the main battery, and secondary battery, and torpedoes), or on the Hull Row (which has the current maximum speed listed in inches).  When all the Hull boxes are crossed off, a ship will sink.  When all hull boxes that have numbers in them are lost, but the ship has not sunk, then the ship may not move (although there are rules for emergency restarts of the engine room, giving a basic movement capability).

If the target ship's armor is NOT PENETRATED, then armament damage does not affect Main Batteries (but will affect secondaries and toredoes).  Also, if the ship's armor is NOT PENETRATED, then hull damage is halved.

If the hull dice (the black one) is a '2', this means that an additional dice roll can be made for a Critical Hit.  Roll 1d6 and consult the critical damage table.

Notice that critical hits number 4,5,6 have an (A) - that means that the armor of the target ship must have been penetrated for this one to take place.  If not, then there is no effect for these results.

Torpedoes
Torpedoes do require a small amount of record keeping.  When launched, a note of the position of the launching ship should be made, and also the target ship.  The player launching the torpedoes makes a note of how many, the target ship, and what his guess is to as to the maneuvering of the target ship over the next movement.  This represents the guess work that goes into leading the ship when firing, so that the torpedoes are on target.  If the player guesses right (his guesses are - Stay Straight, Move port, Move starboard, or Move Reverse - based on the location and bearing of the target ship when the torpedoes are launched), then there is a chance for torpedoes to strike.

The procedure is, if the torpedo run is on target, note the number of torpedoes, and based on some modifiers, roll a dice to see how many actually strike the target (there are modifiers for speed and range and some situational conditions).  Again, there is art (guessing the move of the target vessel) and science (determining how many fish strike home).  The rules also allow you to select a depth of run for the torpedo - which means that they will strike more effectively against some targets, but may pass underneath others.

Torpedo tables

Once you know how many torpedoes hit, for each one, roll on the Torpedo effect table, to see how many Hull/Armament boxes are lost, whether there is a Critical Hit, and/or whether or not the target ship is simply sunk.  It is all based on the DF (defensive factor) of the target ship.  Large ships are harder to damage with torpedoes.  Note the same procedure is followed for ships moving through minefields.


Submarines
Submarines have the ability to launch torpedo attacks.  There are rules for moving the submarine on the surface, and also what happens when a submarine finds a task force.  They really work much better in a campaign, but it is possible to include them in a set piece surface scenario.

Spotted submarines (either before or during the attack) can then be attacked by escorts, etc.  Surviving submarines can launch torpedo attacks.

Aircraft
Aircraft can fly several missions (search, CAP, bomb, torpedo, etc).  There are rules for launching and recovering float planes (used for spotting), and for carrier and land base operations.

Once strike aircraft find their target ship (usually this takes place in a campaign setting), then they are able to make an attack.  They first must survive attack by the defending CAP aircraft that might be patrolling.  There is a simple chart where the number of attacking aircraft roll a dice to see how many enemy aircraft are destroyed, or must return to base.  The same procedure happens with A/A fire.  Surviving aircraft then then roll on a bombing or torpedo run chart to see if any of their deadly payloads hit, and (based on the DF of the target vessel) how much damage is done.

These operations are very simple, but very sensible.  Knowing how many bombers and how many fighters to include in a mission becomes more of an art, because the science of adjudication is kept so simple.  Again, this is a subsystem of the rules that works very well.  It does require some record keeping - how many aircraft are on the carrier, what types are they, are they ready to launch, or arming.  When a mission is launched, what is the composition (4 fighters, 8 bombers, for instance).  But it is all pretty simple.

Additional Rules
There are rules covering minefields (and the laying/sweeping of same), motor torpedo boats, weather, logistics (including endurance of ships, and resupply), and so on.  For a little 5x8" book, there is a surprisingly comprehensive coverage of WW2 naval operations.

While a lot of this detail, and the extra weapons systems and situation rules, can be used in set piece battles and/or scenarios devised by a referee or based on history, the real strength of these rules shines in campaign play.

Campaign Play
The book gives two types of campaigns.  The full scale map campaign (that will cover weeks, if not years, of campaign time), and the mini campaign (that covers hours, and/or days of campaign time).  The former will have full blown naval operations, including long range planning, movement, logistics, and missions.  The latter will focus mostly on search operations, leading to surface engagements.  Again, the systems (such as endurance, map speed, air operations in searching, spotting enemy units, etc) are very straight forward, but this is where the gameplay shines.  And because surface engagements are so easy and fast to set up and adjudicate, the campaign works well, and is not bogged down by large tabletop affairs.

Thoughts, Conclusion
While I have an immense amount of respect, and fond memories, for all the games of Seekrieg I played (and I truly appreciate the herculean amounts of research that have gone into those rules), I really enjoy playing General Quarters.  There is a second book, GQ2, that covers (extensively) WW1 operations - including the vagaries of WW1 ship design (wing turrets?), and things like the difference between coal ships and oil ships in campaigns, plus airships.  But GQ2 also has more campaign rules, and additional rules for WW2 - including a more nuanced straddle table (and critical hit system) based on using a D10 instead of a D6.  To be honest, I like the purity of GQ1 - mostly because I like rolling D6s, and because it works.

Campaigns in this system really do work well, and I have fond memories of some one day map campaigns I ran, while living in South Carolina, at a monthly wargame club meeting.  We used maps from the Columbia Games Victory series, and there were two sides the British navy and the Japanese navy.  Both sides had goals and missions, and there was hidden asset map movement.  Both sides were trying to land troops and supplies at some islands in an atoll, and both controlled airbases in the areas - Japan had, for instance, the island of Palikai, while the British had a naval base inside Mina Bay - see the map below.  Things like fishing vessels would trigger false reports of enemy ships, and air operations were a lot of fun, when things like two float planes firing at each other (presumably with flare pistols?).  The Japanese players loved their submarines.

Map used for 1 day mini-campaign. Based on extra maps for Victory

The rules are simple and clean, but still preserve a lot of detail about the difference between ship classes, weapon systems, and resulting tactics.  I have seen some more modern rulesets that are even less complex, but I like GQ.  The new versions, put out by ODGW, are fantastic, and truly excellent examples of fine wargame rules, but I think I still like GQ1 (and 2).

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Seekrieg Fourth Edition - review

This is another review in the Once and Future Rules series, of wargame rules that are out of print, but that got a lot of play at one time (at least, in the clubs and groups I played in since the early 1980s).

I should preface this review by stating that I was very much interested in Naval Wargaming from early days.  While in high school, while I was threading my way through medieval wargaming and miniatures in general (and playing lots of boardgames, of the Avalon Hill and SPI varieties), I was luck enough to have at the local library, copies of the Barry Carter, Paul Dunn, and Paul Hague books that introduced naval wargaming.  I never (back then) saw the Featherstone one.  I also was a big fan of War at Sea from Avalon Hill.  In high school, I wrote my own set of WW2 naval wargame rules based on War at Sea, and a little book on the ships of WW2 (which gave speeds and ranges), and the Hague book.  It was great fun, and we played on a ping pong table.  But, as rules go, they were awful.  And we didn't have miniatures - we used paper cutouts of photocopies of silhouettes.  But it was a start down the road of Naval Wargming.  I wrote a history of the hobby for the Old Dominion Military Society blog.

This is a review of the fourth edition of Seekrieg, which was released in 1981 (I first came to the game, and played it, in the late springtime of 1984).  Seekrieg (the original) was printed in 1975, and went through a lot of revision, very quickly, to get to 1981.  These are a set of comprehensive naval battle rules, including rules covering ships and technologies from approximately 1890 up until the end of WW2 (1945).  The game has rules covering almost all tactical operations in surface engagements for that time period, plus air operations, and strategic games (map campaigns, searching, etc).  Written by Richard Sartore and Jack Joyner, they were published by Sartore.  The game was recreated/updated in 2004, as Seekrieg 5, which is still available for purchase.  Seekrieg 4 is available, graciously, for free download (a bunch of files, as you'll appreciate from below), on the Seekrieg website.

The set of the rules that I own is the second printing, which came out in 1984.  At the time, they were released in a handsome dark blue linen covered box, with a line drawing of a battleship on the front cover, and it contained two hole punched books, and a sheaf of charts on cardstock.  The two books were (1) the rulebook, and (2) the ship data book.  The ship data book covered the ships for the period in question (1890-1945) for the world's navies, but did not cover variants or conjectured ships that were either never laid down, or never launched.  There was supposed to be a volume 2 of the ship data book, covering such alternative vessels, but to my knowledge it was never produced.

The Box, picture from Boardgame Geek

Before I get into the various subsystems of the game, let me say up front that I played a lot of Seekrieg.  Lots of surface actions, campaigns, tournaments - both as a player and as a referee.  It is a very satisfying game, for the naval gamer that thrives on detail - which is de rigueur for rulesets of the 1980s.  But, internally, the rules themselves presented a bit of a conundrum (in design philosophy), which I will cover in my remarks at the end of the review.

The many charts included in the game

Scale
1 model ship represents one actual ship (this applies to boats, submarines, ships, etc).  Aircraft are frequently marked by a single marker for a squadron of planes.   Torpedoes are marked by a single marker for a salvo.  The surface scale of the table doesn't matter, however as all ranges in the game are given in (thousands of) yards, and speeds are given in knots.  With a turn/time scale of 2 minutes to a turn, and  the suggested surface scale of 2" to 1000 yards, that means 2 knots of speed is 1/4".  So a ship moving a stately 12kts, will cover a total of 1.5" in a turn.  A speedier vessel moving at 30kts, will be moving at 3.75".  Movement measuring sticks, marked out in knots, proved invaluable.

Turn Sequence
The turn sequence for Seekrieg is very simple - all movement and firing is simultaneous.  It is suggested that the physical moving of the miniatures on the tabletop be alternated each turn, to see who goes first, but since this has (usually) only minor impact on the decisions an opponent will make that turn, it doesn't matter too much.

Movement
As mentioned above, the movement is in knots per turn.  There are rates of acceleration and deceleration given, as well as rates of turning for ships (defined below).  The speed of all vessels is listed in a ship listing in the volume of ship data.  For maneuvering, a ship is allowed to turn up to 180 degrees in a turn.  Alternatively, if a ship has slowed to 0kts, it can then move in reverse.  But when a ship is actually turning, it has it's total allowable move (for it's allowable speed for this turn) divided up into legs, that will include turns of 45 degrees.  So if a ship wants to turn a total of 90 degrees, it's move will be divided up into 3 legs.  Move one leg; turn 45 degrees; move the second leg; turn another 45 degrees; and move the third leg.  Simple, and it does not require turning gauges, etc.  On chart B there is a nice set of movement measuring sticks for the suggested scale (of 2" = 1000 yards).

Target Bearing

Spotting and line of sight
Line of sight is a simple affair of a line between the firing ship and the target ship.  If another vessel is in between the two, it only blocks if it is as large, or larger, than the target ship.  This is determined by looking at the standard measure in the game reflecting vessel size - DP.

DP stands for Damage Points, and is calculated by multiplying the basic tonnage of a vessel by 0.033.  This is the total number of Damage Points that a ship has, once those are destroyed (by gunfire or torpedoes, for instance) then the ship is destroyed (possibly sinking).

Weather
There are (based on different sea zones around the world) a set of weather tables on chart B.  These will modify the distance at which you can spot another vessel.  This is based on the DP of the target vessel, the DP of the spotting vessel and is detailed on chart C. The reason that the spotting vessel size is involved, is because it is a general indicator as to how high up above the surface of the sea the spotting control center is located - it makes a difference, when you are trying to spot an enemy vessel at the limits of the horizon (based on the curvature of the earth).  All this is reduced to a simple spotter vs. spotting table on chart C, and gives the max visibility in thousands of yards (which then translates into inches on the tabletop).

Hit Determination
Here we get to one of the more interesting sequences of Seekrieg, at least for me (since I am a surface gunnery fan of Naval Warfare - torpedoes and aircraft are fussy things, and I prefer cordite and big shells).  First, it must be determined which of the firing ships' guns may fire.  This is based on the mounting of the gun (what kind of turret, or casemate, it is mounted in) and whether or not those guns can come to bear on the target.  This is based on the real life type of turrets, and also the era they are from.  Wing turrets from WW1 (an ill-conceived design concept) are not as flexible as center line turrets from WW1 or WW2.  Arcs of fire are printed on chart J2.  There are a lot of tables in Seekrieg, a list of them is below.  In a particular game, you will not use nearly all of them, but there are some that you will consult again and again.  Chart J2 is something you will consult once or twice when you are first using a new type of vessel, and then you will remember the arc of fire for that vessel's turrets, or mark them down.

Chart H1 - basic "to hit" - for landlubbers and other sad dogs

Now that the bearing guns are known, next (from the ship details in the ship description volume) consult what type of gun it is, what type of shells can fire, what type of fire control system the firing ship has, the range, rate of fire for the type of gun, and whether or not the target is close enough to allow rapid fire.  Once you have all those details (they are presented, all together, in the ship information block), you can begin consulting the firing tables.

Chart H2 - Advanced "To Hit" - for old salts and rum cullies

There are three types of hit determination in Seekrieg.  Basic, Advanced, and Range Estimation.  The group I played with almost always (like 99%+) used the Advanced method.  This incorporated the most historical details, but assumed that things like range estimation and salvo adjustment was being done by the fire control center, and gun crews of the vessels.  Some players (notably those of the older style games like Fred Jane's rules, Seapower III, and others) liked playing with range estimation, where you actually estimated the number of inches between you and your target.  Pshah, I say.  Fine for those who like it, but not my cup of tea.

The Advanced Hit Table was chart H2.  Basic hit table is chart H1. Best to ignore it, it is for those who are weak, and do not like strong coffee.  However, for the sake of completeness, it is described here.  Range estimation, for those members of religious orders that prefer to purge the soul through pain, can be found on chart H3.

The basic (chart H1) to hit method takes into account a positive or negative value for each of seven different categories of modifiers.

1. Target Size
2. Bearing from Target (this is determined using the overlay on Chart F - which is a basic overlay on the target, and the bearing from your firing ship to the target will tell you which bearing you have)
3. Fire Control System (a basic modifier based on the era of the ship)
4. Radar Assisted Fire Control (only for certain navies, and only from 1939 on)
5. Change of Target (if you change targets, you get a -10)
6. Range to Target (close is good, far is bad)
7. Speed of Target

Add up all those modifiers and you get a basic hit number.  The advanced to hit method (chart H2) works much in the same way, but there are 14 categories, and they have much more detail incorporated into them.

1. Target Size
2. Bearing from Target (3 categories, instead of 2)
3. Is the Firing Ship under Fire?
4. Over Concentration (too many similar shells from different ships on the target)
5. Fire Control System (not only the era, but also the type of Fire Control)
6. Radar Assisted Fire Control
7. Range to Target
8. Change of Target
9. Speed of Target
10. Spotter Aircraft (is your spotter up, and sending you targeting information?)
11. Evasive Maneuvers
12. Sea State (from weather)
13. Smoke Screens
14. Visibility (again, from weather, but also morning, evening, nighttime)

When we played, both players typically had a calculator in front of them, and would punch in the numbers from each category that applied (again, they could be positive or negative), and would result in a hit number.

We're just starting.

How many Shells
Once you have your hit number, determine how many tubes you have that are firing.  For instance, a broadside from the main guns on the Bismarck would mean that all eight of the main guns (which are 15.0"/47 guns - or in terms of Seekrieg, it is a type D1 gun) could come to bear and fire on a target.  Each gun has a rate of fire of 6 (maximum), but that will be based on range (for, you see, the game only allows you to fire as fast as your fire control teams can see the shells drop, and then adjust fire accordingly), and the max range of the big guns on the Bismarck is 39,600 yards, or a total of 79" on the tabletop.  All this information is easy to read in the ship information block, and a player would copy it all to a log sheet before a game, so all the data is in one place, and easy to look up during the game.

From the range (to see if rapid fire is allowed), and the type of gun, you have a maximum rate of fire.  Say, for the Bismarck, at a decent range of maybe 20,000 yards (well within the maximum range of the big 15" guns), we consult chart G3, and see that the maximum rate of fire is 3 (even though the guns could theoretically fire at a rate of 6 shells every 2 minutes, the range limits that to 3 shells each so that fire control could observe the fall of the shells, and adjust fire accordingly).  So, multiplying eight guns, times 3 shells, means we are determining a hit chance for a salvo of 24 shells.

Looking at chart I, we see that across the top of the chart we find a column corresponding to the hit number we calculated from chart H2 (or H1 for basic, or H3 for range estimation), and then look down the left side of the chart to find the number of shells fired.  The table only goes up to 10 shells, so we will have to consult it a number of times.  For each time consulting the chart, roll the percentile dice once, and it will tell you if (for that part of the salvo) if 1 or more shells hit the target.  At this point, we know that some shells have actually hit the target (or not).

Ship Data Block - the actual data block is at the bottom

Damage Determination
The next part of determining the hit results is in rolling to determine hit location - this is a simple percentile dice roll on chart G1.  This is based on whether or not the shot was short range (less than half maximum for the gun) or long range.  A roll will determine whether the ship was hit at the:
Deck
Sidebelt
Con
Turret
Superstructure

If the target was an aircraft carrier, then the hit locations could be:
Flight Deck
Hangar
Con
Island
Sidebelt

In both cases, there is a chance of getting a Dud (a shell that did not explode against the target).

Now, we look up the Shell type.  This is found on chart G2, and could be Armor Piercing Capped (APC), Semi Armor Piercing (SAP), Common Rounds (COM), or High Explosive (HE).  This would be allowed to different navies/ships at different eras (historical data).  From that chart, you would get a multiplier to the Penetration Factor, Damage Factor (if you do not penetrate), Damage Factor (if you do penetrate - much higher, of course), and the Probability Chance of a Critical Damage.  Also, there is a chance for Pass Through.  This last represents, against a ship with thin armor, the chance that the shell passes clean through the target vessel without exploding.

These factors are then used as multipliers for the numbers found on charts R1 or R2.  These are the Range/Penetration/Damage chart.  Chart R1 is the average penetration chart, which averages (based on range, and types of shell fall) both the Vertical (or plunging) fire and Horizontal fire.  Chart R2 gives the specific penetration values for either, based on which type of fire you are doing (plunging or horizontal).  Guess which table we used - of course!  R2.  Using penetration averaging was considered a sign of weakness, and anyone suggesting it was driven from the Naval Wargaming tribe.

The chart also gave the basic damage factor.  These numbers would be multiplied by the factors that were looked up on chart G2, based on the type of shell fired.   So you would end up with an Actual penetration value.  Then, based on your hit location, and the armor of the target ship at that hit location (from the ship information block), you would know if your shells actually penetrated, or only impacted on the surface.  In either case, you would use the appropriate damage multiplier times the basic damage value of the shell, and you would know how much DP to subtract from the target vessel for each shell.  You would do this (hit location, and penetration/damage calculation for each shell that hits the target).

Each shell would have a chance for a Critical Damage.  These would be rolled up based on chart N1 (for basic surface vessels) or N2 (for aircraft carriers), to see what the particular critical hit you scored, was.  Then you would look that up in the table, and find out that you (for instance) shot off a searchlight, or (for instance) flooded a magazine, or (for instance) destroyed a whole turret or gun mount.  This was where the interesting parts of damage came into play.

Damaging Ships
Subtracting DP from a ship has the effect of slowly degrading it's performance.  The ship information tells you, for each subsystem (speed, reflecting the engine rooms, and each type of gun or torpedo tube), how many you lose for each multiple of DP that the ship takes.  For instance.  The Bismarck has a total of 1,386 DP.  Once those are gone, the ship is ineffective, or sinking.  However, for each of the eight 15" guns, one is lost for every 173 DP that the ship takes.  Also, every 92 DP the ship takes means the ship's speed is reduced (from a maximum of 30kts) down by 2kts.  So as the ship takes damage, it loses (proportionately) guns and speed.

There are rules for fires, damage control, and several other aspects of the ship taking damage.

Extra Rules
There is a whole section on Air Operations, which I won't cover here.  But it is to the same level of detail as we see above in gunfire.  Also Torpedoes.  And there are rules for Evasive Maneuvers, Smoke Screens, loss of Radar, and other situations.  It is possible for a ship's crew to fail morale and surrender or leave the vessel.

Thoughts
Naval wargaming is often a mathematical affair.  This is good, and it appeals to certain players quite a bit.  Seekrieg certainly satisfies in this area.  As you can see, there is a great deal of detail that goes into determining if a hit is scored, how many shells strike, where they strike, the damage they do (based on shell type, hardness of armor, hit location, class of target vessel, etc etc etc).  This is a great system, and very detailed.

I mentioned earlier, there is (to me) a conundrum in Seekrieg.  And that is, that some areas are very well detailed, and some are glossed over.  In the rulebook it freely admits that different fire control systems should have been detailed separately, but this is beyond the scope of the game.  Really?  A factor for fire control couldn't be listed for each ship class?  This seems like a trivial thing, and could be based on historical performance of the ships as much as the other researched datum for each vessel was based on.

Similarly, the simple (but effective) DP system for determining damage to ships.  No modifier for different types of defensive structure and architecture?  A compartmented hull built in 1935 sinks at the same rate as a hull built in 1890?  Again, this is something that would add some great detail to the amount of research that was done, but could have been (like fire control) a modifier base don era.

In the end, the lack of these things does not matter, for the game plays well, gives good results, and satisfies the naval historian/wargamer who wants to know the difference in behavior between different ship classes, and how best he can make the operational decisions to operate a ship or squadron against the enemy.  For it's day Seekrieg was a fantastic ruleset, and it still has many fans.  I love it, but I don't know who I would get to play it these days.

This is the first set of Naval rules I am reviewing as part of this series, and I played the game a lot in the 1980s.  Probably my last frequent play of the game was in 1989 or so, after playing it a lot over a period of 5-6 years - totaling a few dozen games each year, maybe more (and campaigns, and tournaments).  But I changed over, during that time, to another system (that I will also review) - General Quarters.  I will draw comparisons between the two styles of game, when I write that review.

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