GHQ Models Forums

Just wondering who here has GHQ's micronaut rules.
I've toying with the idea about getting into WWII naval wargaming and have looked at other various sites for some and just would like to get more info about the game.

Info as in, game play...how well does it play? Is it easy to grasp, is it fun, is it time consuming with charts and so on.

I have played the game. In my opinion, these are the best rule system out there for WWII naval combat. They are easy to learn and understand. The game handles even complex problems such as carrier battles and submarine warfare easily. You can download all the major navies that fought the war from the GHQ website. These include the transports and merchentmen of the time period! I wholeheartly recommend these rules to anyone interested in WWII naval gaming.

P.S.- GHQ is also working on a set of rules for the Great War period!

"You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Admiral Dewey to his Flag Captian at Manila Bay.

I have played the GHQ rules twice. But having only played one other ship-to-ship battle in my gaming life, I have very little experience with naval wargaming to provide a base of comparison.

I was not the game master in my games. So I can't say how well the ruleset reads. But I did find that it plays well.

Our games were fluid and fun. I managed to run a squadron of capital ships, including HMS Hood, PoW, and two cruisers in my second time playing. The vast majority of our time in the game was spent maneuvering and shooting, and our thoughts were on tactics, observation of our opponants, and efforts to coordinate between our plans and their observed behavior. That's a good thing! Far better than games where the majority of one's time is spent flipping through rules, debating the interpretation of arcane language, or scanning a small stack of "quick reference sheets" that each have 37 different charts or tables.

Our games were surface-action only. We had no airpower, nor submarines. But by the second game we had alreay used primary and secondary guns, torpedos, and ramming. So the games were fairly complex. Yet they played very well, and it never felt to me as if the rules were a burden.

Afterwards, when we put the AAR up on this forum, there was some discussion about the range of the guns. On that point I think the rules were fairly weak. It seems that the longest-ranged guns involved in our action, according to historical research, were the shortest-ranged guns according to the rules. So also some of the shortest-ranged guns historically were given the longest ranges in the rules. Specifically the German 11-inch guns of the sisters were actually very long ranged guns, while the British 15-inch guns, while respectable in tube performance, were in low-elevation mountings in many of the older British battle-wagons, giving them less than half the range of the 11-inchers in the sisters. Yet the rules simply give range by caliber, and bigger guns get longer range.

So I would rate the rules as fun and playable. If you want technical accuracy you may have to make some house mods.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Mk1. I found the AAR of the report you mentioned, and I like the comments about the ranges too. I think this is one set of rules that I may have to get too. Perhaps on the next GHQ discount sale...hopefully soon too

Edit
Looking at the pdf from the Free stuff...Battle of Cape Spada. Italians vs British around Crete. Small ship on ship action...mainly light cruisers and destroyers. Should be a good starter battle

Just wondering about what sort of scenarios are in the main rulebook?
Are they the same as what is in the Free Stuff section?

http://www.ghqmodels.com/pages/military ... micronauts

Yes, they are the same plus the bonus scenario which is not in the rulebook.

Overall the rules are a good introiudction to naval wargames. They are very good for gamers which have not a good knowledge of naval matters.

The advantage is that thay are complete with data sheets for ships, are easy to learn and play with fast and bloody results.

If they start your interest in naval matters and you will increase your knowledge you will find them lacking in details and may wish to move to more complicated rules. On the other side this lack of details is what make them so simple to use.

** CENSORED **, in more detailed rules you will find a lot of tables for guns, organised for nations and calibers, instead of one table only for caliber.

Thanks Tammy, I appreciate it