1 reply to this topic

[Aman]

If you are playing the role of an admiral or division commander, it is very unrealistic to be able to easily order and control every ship in the Division, it just wasn't like that. I'm now on my 5th memoir of the Guadalcanal naval campaigns, and the one thing that continues to impress me is how little control an admiral has over his fleet once the engagement starts. The best way to describe the night actions in Ironbottom sound is a gunfight in a dark foggy room with loud music playing. Nelson would've been quite at home.

The most realistic thing would be to have every ship or two commanded by a seperate player. Then restrict their ability to communicate with one another. This should result in a fair amount of confustion. I presented the rules to 6 new players, using a simplified version of the Battle of Cape Esperance. All players had ships that were identical, just about. I used the Detection / Acquisition rules I posted in another email.

For the USN Talk Between Ships (TBS), my historical research gave it an effective range of about 15,000y, and a chance of working out to 30,000y. Atmospheric bounce could toss it arond much farther, like in Leyte Gulf. Anyway, for game purposes, I permitted players to write their orders and then attempt to broadcast a TBS message to another ship by rolling <6 on d12 (so 50% chance). If successful, the desired recipient then had to roll the same to get the message. So two 50% chances results in a 25% net. The recipient could then change his plotting if he wanted. This also seems pretty realistic based upon my reading - TBS was often a confusing garble of various broadcasts stepping upon one another during an action.

For fleet actions, I'd like to go farther, however. I think that there should be more opportunities for ships to go astray once the action starts. How to do this, I'm uncertain. I was thinking that perhaps each Division should roll to successfully maneuver as a Division when firing / under fire.

Anyway, has anyone else developed house rules for this?

Btw, the group seemed to have enjoyed the rules and felt that they presented a reasonable balance of technical details and playability. Of course, I was also shepherding them thru the system.

[Cpt M]

If you are playing the role of an admiral or division commander, it is very unrealistic to be able to easily order and control every ship in the Division, it just wasn't like that. I'm now on my 5th memoir of the Guadalcanal naval campaigns, and the one thing that continues to impress me is how little control an admiral has over his fleet once the engagement starts. The best way to describe the night actions in Ironbottom sound is a gunfight in a dark foggy room with loud music playing. Nelson would've been quite at home.

The most realistic thing would be to have every ship or two commanded by a seperate player. Then restrict their ability to communicate with one another. This should result in a fair amount of confustion. I presented the rules to 6 new players, using a simplified version of the Battle of Cape Esperance. All players had ships that were identical, just about. I used the Detection / Acquisition rules I posted in another email.

For the USN Talk Between Ships (TBS), my historical research gave it an effective range of about 15,000y, and a chance of working out to 30,000y. Atmospheric bounce could toss it arond much farther, like in Leyte Gulf. Anyway, for game purposes, I permitted players to write their orders and then attempt to broadcast a TBS message to another ship by rolling <6 on d12 (so 50% chance). If successful, the desired recipient then had to roll the same to get the message. So two 50% chances results in a 25% net. The recipient could then change his plotting if he wanted. This also seems pretty realistic based upon my reading - TBS was often a confusing garble of various broadcasts stepping upon one another during an action.

For fleet actions, I'd like to go farther, however. I think that there should be more opportunities for ships to go astray once the action starts. How to do this, I'm uncertain. I was thinking that perhaps each Division should roll to successfully maneuver as a Division when firing / under fire.

Anyway, has anyone else developed house rules for this?

Btw, the group seemed to have enjoyed the rules and felt that they presented a reasonable balance of technical details and playability. Of course, I was also shepherding them thru the system.

Well, what you're getting at here is the problem of command and control. And while there is some value in including such rules, it has been my experience that they are about the most loathe things in wargaming (right next to rules for logistics). Anytime you place limits like 'you must roll x to perform y' command rules, most gamers will 'forget' such rolls. Besides, if my group is any indication, with everyone commanding separate units, we're usually pretty good at depicting botched commands, massive fog of war and the off chance 'Blue on Blue' incident (to say nothing of collisions) all by ourselves!