Mike Hutchinson returns to the Osprey Wargaming Series with something a bit different. Previously, Mr. Hutchinson wrote Gaslands (which got an Osprey Hardback re-release which means it sold well) and the less well-received A Billion Suns. His other big Non-Osprey book is Hobgoblin which is a fantasy Mass Battle Game. Therefore, turning his hand to a historical, WWII, Naval combat game is a bit of a different look for him. I am interested to see what he comes up with.
I have always been interested in Naval combat. However, my interest is more Jutland than it was Midway. The Pacific Theatre of WWII seems especially.... popular? I mean, the Victory at Sea starter set focuses heavily on the Pacific Theatre, even if it is strangely missing the carrier elements. Therefore, this is an area of the war that has gotten a lot of attention in wargaming circles over the years, and much of it has been very dogmatic and rivet-counting focused. I am therefore interested in how Mr. Hutchinson takes a crack at the period and genre, as he often brings novel and simplified approaches to complex genres.
With that said let's fuel up our dive-bombers, clear the decks, and scramble all aircraft!
Things That I Liked
The book starts with a summary of key mechanics. This is something I have adopted recently in my own writing, and I find it makes writing and reading the rules much easier. You all ready know the Core Unifying Mechanics of the game before you read any of the details.
In this case, the core mechanics are that Task Forces are covered by Poker Chips, you do not reveal the actual ships until they have been uncovered by reconnaissance craft or moving into visual range. That is the heart of the game, revealing and discovering which chips are actual threats, and which are feints. In some ways, this reminds me of what I was going for with Aquanautica Imperialis: Force of Arms.*
Players also need to decide if they are using Offensive or Defensive air wings. These are represented by playing cards. Red and black respectively. You make this decision early in the turn and are committed to your choice through the turn. A key aspect of the game is deciding when to defend and when to strike. The game also uses Command points to allow different actions in the action phase. You can melt back into the Fog of War, launch a strike, or other actions. These decrease as task forces are revealed and lost.
Finally, it is important to note that the game used the 4Ms a bit differently. Air strikes are treated like Missile attacks. Meanwhile, surface gun battles are treated like Melee attacks. Ships other than carriers in a task force are essentially Armor or Hit Points that get melted away as the game progresses. These actions use dice pools of six-sided dice to resolve. I am always a fan of dice pools as it limits my bad luck with the law of averages!
You build stacks of chips that are composed of Task forces, Gambits and blanks. Therefore, you could use a weak Task Force to carry a variety of blanks to look dangerous and draw attention. You could also place multiple Task Forces in a stack for mutual support. Gambits are special events that help add to the Fog of War element of the game.
Things I Did Not Like
This is a bit silly, but I was disappointed that all the photos were from the Warlord Victory at Sea range. I was hoping to see some GHQ or some other manufacturers. I know, it is petty but that is how it goes sometimes. The artwork is the usual high Osprey standards.
When you roll Buckets of D6 you want to roll high, but when you roll 2d6 you want to roll low. Not a fan of the change in mid-game to what I want to roll. Plus, I am generally never a fan of rolling low in games as it strikes me as counter intuitive.
The game has a starter fleet list and scenario for you first game in order to help you get into playing. It tells you everything you need to know and lets you focus on learning the mechanics.
There are some rules for Air Bases on islands. This makes sense as they also played a big role in the Pacific campaign.
There is a fun action called a Shell Game. If two unrevealed stacks come into contact, you can reshuffle what is in each stack, even combining them into once stack if you wish. This helps add another element to the subterfuge.
The rules have three modes of play. The first is a set of historical battles for up to 5 engagements with lines of battle prepared and any special rules. These follow the major battles of the Pacific War. The second mode is an Arcade Mode which allows a less historical battle and freeform play of Fleet Lists and the like. This allows different 6 different missions, weather, fleets, etc. This mode allows a lot of replayability. The final method adds a campaign element to the Arcade Mode so you can fight your own version of the Pacific Theatre if you like.
Meh and Other Uncertainties
This game is designed to help recreate big battles. Therefore, the miniature aspect of the game is secondary and more for relative location than anything else. You could easily play this game without a single miniature and only use paper templates. However, it is also scale and model agnostic as all measurements are from the conning tower of revealed task forces, or the chip for unrevealed. As the Flagship of a task force is sunk, you can change the model representing the task force to new flagships, so a Carrier might become a Cruiser to a Destroyer. Go scour your neighborhood garage sales and thrift stores for copies of Battleship!
Osprey is providing some print-and-play terrain on their website for the key Island chains of the Pacific war. That allows you to play on more than just a flat blue matte and helps set the scale of the game. The scale is 1 inch equals 10 Nautical miles. However, terrain does not play a huge role in the game as it is zoomed out. The game is normally played on a 6ft x 4ft table.
There are a variety of Gambits and even Fleet Modifications that you can add to your games to add further depth and replayability to the game. These are also important for the campaigns, both Arcade and Historical.
Final Thoughts
This is a heavily abstracted game more focused on subterfuge and bluffing at a strategic level than you normally see in miniature-based games. Like A Billion Suns this could just as easily be played as a board game or without miniatures. It is trying to tackle the uncertainty of strategic operations and the scale of Naval combat and I think it does a successful job at it.
The scale of operations in Naval warfare has always been a challenge to fit on a tabletop. Carrier Warfare only made this issue worse. However, this game seems to do a good job trying to capture a game that should be handled by Maps onto a tabletop in a meaningful way.
Kudos to Mr. Hutchinson. Hutchinson is very good at boiling games down to their essential elements, and then making simple, yet meaningful rules for them. I am a bit jealous!
* = My Paid Patrons have access to all my Aquanautica Imperialis content including the core naval game, the submarine game, and the large scale Force of Arms game.
No comments:
Post a Comment