Tabletop Game - Naval Battles (2004) [/]
Feb 27 2023
Naval Battles (not sure that's the exact name) is an old game that Dave S has a copy of and we've played a fair amount. Very simple WW2 naval combat and not actually all that interesting.
Dan Verssen made Modern Naval Battles (1989) which takes the concept and adds more complexity while moving it to modern naval units of the time. Naval Battles (2004) is another Dan Verssen design and brings it back to WW2 though not sure how the rules differ.
Each player creates their fleet with points (we played a three player game and I was Japan while the other two were Germany and USA). Then you put out your fleet in three lines. Draw five cards. On each turn you lay out your cards for attack then the defender(s) can play defense cards then resolve your attacks and draw back to five.
Most ships have guns of 5" to 18" caliber. You have ammo cards of different caliber so to attack you play an ammo card on a ship that fire that caliber. The ammo cards also say from which row you can fire from and which enemy rows you can hit. Smaller calibers you have to fire from your front row to hit front row enemy ships. Bigger calibers can fire from front two rows to hit front two rows. Third row can't fire and can't be targeted by guns. If a gun is not defended against via a card then it automatically hits and does the indicated damage on the ammo card.
Many ships have torpedoes and submarines have torpedoes too. For ships only front line can fire on front line. Submarines start out submerged and can't be attacked except by depth charge. Surface a submarine to fire a torpedo on any ship in any rank (one way to target that aircraft carrier in the back rank) but afterwards the submarine can be attacked by anyone until your next turn when you can submerge it again. Torpedoes are d6 roll to hit and any hit sinks the target. Since it's a d6 roll ships and submarines can have torpedo modifiers for better or worse torpedo platforms.
Aircraft carriers have one aircraft attack which they use for free each turn. They can target any ship and it's a d6 hit sinks target. But the farther back the target is the harder the to hit number (which is printed on the CV card so different carriers have different skills), if there is a defending CV it gets a roll to disrupt one air attack, and the target might have an AA modifier. Some action cards represent land-based aircraft that gives you one to three air attacks.
Besides ammo, torpedo and aircraft cards the action deck has various defense cards (e.g. negate any damage or cause a small gun (11" or less) to miss). There are reinforcement cards to bring in 5 or so points of ships (though that could mean more points for other players). There is a card to camouflage your fleet so you can't attack or be attacked for a turn.
Our player game was fairly fun with a bit of ganging up on the leader. You score points for sinking a ship (so kill stealing is a thing) and 15 points win the game. Losing all ships for a range of calibers is pretty rough and no CV when other players have CVs is also rough. But that also points to targeting strategies so that's nice.
Compared to the old Naval battles the 2004 version is better while still not being too complicated and giving the feel of WW2 naval combat. Still mostly a beer and pretzels game but entertaining nonetheless.
Dan Verssen made Modern Naval Battles (1989) which takes the concept and adds more complexity while moving it to modern naval units of the time. Naval Battles (2004) is another Dan Verssen design and brings it back to WW2 though not sure how the rules differ.
Each player creates their fleet with points (we played a three player game and I was Japan while the other two were Germany and USA). Then you put out your fleet in three lines. Draw five cards. On each turn you lay out your cards for attack then the defender(s) can play defense cards then resolve your attacks and draw back to five.
Most ships have guns of 5" to 18" caliber. You have ammo cards of different caliber so to attack you play an ammo card on a ship that fire that caliber. The ammo cards also say from which row you can fire from and which enemy rows you can hit. Smaller calibers you have to fire from your front row to hit front row enemy ships. Bigger calibers can fire from front two rows to hit front two rows. Third row can't fire and can't be targeted by guns. If a gun is not defended against via a card then it automatically hits and does the indicated damage on the ammo card.
Many ships have torpedoes and submarines have torpedoes too. For ships only front line can fire on front line. Submarines start out submerged and can't be attacked except by depth charge. Surface a submarine to fire a torpedo on any ship in any rank (one way to target that aircraft carrier in the back rank) but afterwards the submarine can be attacked by anyone until your next turn when you can submerge it again. Torpedoes are d6 roll to hit and any hit sinks the target. Since it's a d6 roll ships and submarines can have torpedo modifiers for better or worse torpedo platforms.
Aircraft carriers have one aircraft attack which they use for free each turn. They can target any ship and it's a d6 hit sinks target. But the farther back the target is the harder the to hit number (which is printed on the CV card so different carriers have different skills), if there is a defending CV it gets a roll to disrupt one air attack, and the target might have an AA modifier. Some action cards represent land-based aircraft that gives you one to three air attacks.
Besides ammo, torpedo and aircraft cards the action deck has various defense cards (e.g. negate any damage or cause a small gun (11" or less) to miss). There are reinforcement cards to bring in 5 or so points of ships (though that could mean more points for other players). There is a card to camouflage your fleet so you can't attack or be attacked for a turn.
Our player game was fairly fun with a bit of ganging up on the leader. You score points for sinking a ship (so kill stealing is a thing) and 15 points win the game. Losing all ships for a range of calibers is pretty rough and no CV when other players have CVs is also rough. But that also points to targeting strategies so that's nice.
Compared to the old Naval battles the 2004 version is better while still not being too complicated and giving the feel of WW2 naval combat. Still mostly a beer and pretzels game but entertaining nonetheless.