Seaman Apprentice Needs Assistance

[redleg]

Now hear this: New guy with micro-naughts – stand by for ridiculous questions.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about rules sets on the forum, but I’m still not sure which set will meet my needs for modern naval action. I’m looking for a set of rules that puts speed and playability over detail. (some detail is good, but I don’t want to get a calculator out every time I take a shot) I’d also like a rule set that includes surface combat, sub-surface combat, air-to-air, and limited amphibious action. Does such a rule set exist? I’ve heard harpoon mentioned as a possibility, but I’ve never seen the rules.

And has anybody ever attempted a play-by-email naval game? I’ve seen mention of it on some yahoo groups forums, but don’t know if it was successful or not. I prefer face-to-face games, but sometimes the drive to a game is longer than the game itself.

Thanks for the help.

-Mike

[groundlber]

Redleg - Harpoon Version 4(?) will probably be your best bet for covering most of your requirements. I used to play and referee an older version of the rules, although the 'gators existed mostly as targets or assets. My gaming time is too limited to voluntarily spend six hours running a bunch of landing craft up to a beach.
Harpoon did have two speed bumps to fast play. I needed a calculator to figure out the critical hits percentages, and following all the steps of planning an airstrike was only slightly less involved as filling out a tax form. So we changed the rules, figured out some standard loads for various aircraft, and didn't worry about how many gallons of fuel the aircraft would have left onboard when it got back to the base or carrier.
My two main opponents/ fellow referee's had both moved out of my area, so my miniature Red Banner Northen Fleet and it's NATO opponents have been mothballed for the last several years. Hopefully someone here will give a report on the current rules
One last comment. Despite my seeming gripes with the rules, they were the best of the one's we tried. And as I 've said before on this forum, Larry Bond is one of the genuine good guys in the game industry.
Groundlber

[av8rmongo]

Mike,
I would recommend Harpoon as well for the scope of what it covers. With experience a game can be run quickly but don't expect that out of the gate. Its probably the most common ruleset for play by email games. I was playing or running 3-4 games a year with mixed results. It takes time and life has a way of intruding. The larger the scope of the scenario the longer it will take and the more likely some real world "friction" will bog it down. But... PBEM is a great way to learn the rules.

Paul

[redleg]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I'm assuming that a PBEM game would entail someone (the referee?) having the board and ships actually set up and all the players e-maling thier moves and attacks in? Or is there some other method?

Thanks again.

-Mike

[av8rmongo]

PBEM games usually are more like moderated computer games. If referees use miniatures, which rarely happens, its more to add flavor or color to the turn results debrief. Usually the referee provides charts or pictures of what's going on. In a way its the worst of two worlds. It lacks the speed of a pure computer sim game and lacks the charm of an actual miniatures game. So what's the draw? Playing against a human is always better (IMHO) than any AI and its often the only game in town in a FoW/WH40K world.

Hope that helps. Disclaimer - I'm a regular contributor (uncompensated) to the Harpoon system so I'm a little biased.

Paul

[jb]

I've recently aquired a laptop just for the purpose of wargaming. PBEM is just one aspect of using it for gaming. I've always made my wargame maps by using Excel. This lets me use all the shapes, text boxes, and other features to bring the map movements to life. So far I've only used one computer in the game area. It was used for both sides.
For the last week we are playing a 1942 Solomon type game. The Japanese have a mission of bombarding Hederson feild for 3 turns. This force consists of 3 heavy cruisers and 2 destroyers. The US force consist of 3 heavy cruisers, 1 light Cruiser, and 2 destroyers. Their mission is to stop any Japanese ships from either supplying ground forces ( around Tassaforanga) or bombarding freindlies around the US ground defensive postions.
The Japanese are allowed to enter anywhere from the west end of the "slot". The USN is deployed with the 2 DDs in a patterned oblong "picket". The cruisers ae about 10 miles to the east.
This scenario started out very interesting in the fact that the Japanese steamed right past the DD pickets, but got picked up by the cruiser RADARs. This RADAR contact was to the "aft" of the Cruiser squadrons movement. So the scenario started off with Japs well to the rear of the US CA squadron. This of course made the USN come about, with the Japs not knowing they are being tailed, and the USN just having RADAR blips. Thats how the scenario got generated...
To resume on how I do this;
I plot all these ships with arrow shapes and an attached text box. The text box allows me to add; ship name,course, and any other pertinent info. I also use a circle to the map scale that represents the RADAR diameter(different diameters for different % of aquirement) of the ships that have RADAR(the Japs don't have any then!). To find out if there are any blips I click on the RADAR cicle move the center to the arrow that represents the ship using it, determine range and percentage of aquiring. I then roll and give out the results to the proper commander.
When using Excel I can make copies of the original sheet for each player, and a master for the referee. The Ref's copy of course will have both sides on the same map. The individual commanders will have their own sheets with their own pertinent info.
Now if playing by Email you need to make each player a copy, Not a sheet, with ONLY their own command, and put it in a file. This way each player will only receive their own intel. Of corse if playing by Email just send a copy from the file.
I also use 24" X24" 1 inch thick styrofoam tiles to game the minis on. This allows me to "scroll" the seascape which in turn allows us to use any size mapped scenario.

[av8rmongo]

jb et al,

There's another free product out there that helps automate much of the referee requirements in PBEM games, its called CICWarfare Plotter. It allows the referee to plot out all the units, aircraft missiles in flight or whatever then step through movement second by second if desired. You can hide/unhide units at will which allows you to sanitize plots for both sides revealing only what their sensors would show them. As a player it lets you step through as many possible courses of action that you can think up before deciding which one is the best one. While it doesn't do any kind of automatic detections you do get a good tactical plot of what is going on.

Paul

[jb]

Paul,
Thats a wonderful tool! I couldn't get the demo or "free" version to entirely run, so I purchased the product. Can't really lose for the price.
I hope things are OK in Japan.

[chrisswim]

Paul,
U are in Japan now? Where? How is the family.....
Chris

[av8rmongo]

Chris,

We're in Yokosuka now, moved about a month ago. Its pretty cool, I get to watch the JMSDF ships come and go every day. I've got some pictures I'll try to post of their Murisame class and their R&D ship that they use for weapons and sensor research.

Paul

[jb]

jb et al,

...You can hide/unhide units at will which allows you to sanitize plots for both sides revealing only what their sensors would show them...
Paul

Hi Paul,
How do you mask/unmask using Cin C?

[av8rmongo]

jb

I was just looking at my old files and maybe the hide/unhide was an overstatement. It looks like what I did was create a master file then copted it for each side - sanitized for what they could see. Sorry for any confusion.

Paul