Last Updated February 4, 2007

TO HIT MODIFIERS Director Down -2 Firing Ship turned this turn -1 Target ship turned this turn -1 First time firing at this target -1 More than one ship firing at the same target -1 Not under fire this turn +1 Gnr is normally 1D10 for German and good British. 1D8 for other British and all other nationalities. TURN SEQUENCE   Move orders for this turn for squadrons in "Line Astern"  Move orders for other squadrons with enemy within 6"   Move orders for NEXT turn for squadrons not in line astern and no enemies within 6"  Declare targets for torpedoes  Move all ships  Move torps from original fire position to final target position  Fire guns simultaneously  Resolve Torpedoes

WEAPONS EFFECT TABLE Weapon Short Range Medium Range Long Range To Hit Dam. Multi Weapons To hit Damage <5.5" 1 - 2 3 - 6 7 - 8 2D8 + Gnr Low + 1/2 per barrel rounded up + 1/2 per barrel rounded up 5.5" - <7" 1 - 3 4 - 8 9 - 12 2D8 + Gnr Medium 7" - 9" 1 - 4 5 - 10 11 - 18 2D8 + Gnr High +1 per barrel 7" - 9" 1 - 8 9 - 16 17 - 24 2D8 + Gnr Low + 1/2 per barrel rounded up >9" - <11" 1 - 12 13 - 24 25 - 30 2D8 + Gnr Low 11" - 12" 1 - 14 15 - 26 27 - 33 2D8 + Gnr Medium 13.5" - 15" 1 - 16 17 - 28 29 - 36 2D8 + Gnr High +1 per barrel Torpedo . 0 - 10" . 2D6 + Gnr All +1 per torpedo +1 per torpedo  Green light weapons can only fire at DD and CL ships. Blue heavy weapons can only fire at armoured cruisers and heavier. Torpedoes may fire at anything but unlikely to hit a fast target Short range reduces the to hit by 2. It has no effect on damage  Long range increases the to hit by 2. It has no effect on the damage.

CRITICAL HITS TABLE Any capital ship rated A.C. or heavier receives a critical hit on any throw that includes "Doubles" or "Triples" (so long as it does also hit the target) Triples Magazine Hit Ship is destroyed whatever nationality Double 8 Turret Explodes British Battleships and German battlecruisers 1in D6 of blowing up. British battlecruisers 2 in D6 of blowing up. (2 turrets = 50% no effect) Double 7 Director Destroyed -2 to hit from now on Double 6 Bridge Destroyed Give no orders for 2 turns Double 5 Rudder Destroyed Need a 5,6 on 1d6 each turn to fix. Until then jammed either left, right or straight ahead.

SHIP CHARACTERISTICS TABLE Ship Type Speed + / - Turn Turn Cost To Hit Dam Reduc Dam Boxes Destroyer 8-9" 4 1 17 1 20 Protected Cruiser 7-8" 4 1 16 2 30 Armoured Cruiser 6-7" 2 2 16 1 30 Battlecruiser 8-9" 3 2 17 2 40+? Battleship 5-6" 1 3 15 3 50 Dreadnought 6-7" 2 3 16 3 70 Super Dreadnought 7-8" 2 3 16 4 80 Torpedoes run a distance of 10" for one turn and are then lost. All guns on one ship of one calibre fire as one battery German capital ships have a turning cost of 2

NOTES

These rules are based heavily on the Silent death fighter combat rules. (1990 version) I recommend you to buy these excellent rules. You should be able to play this game without purchasing Silent Death though.

SHIP SCALE
C.A. and heavier models represent 2 ships, whilst DD's represent 4 ships and CL's represent about 3?
Don't get too hung up on ground scale, but I work with roughly 1" = 1,000 yards

TURN SEQUENCE
Battlefleets manouvered in formation, and for good reason. It is important to somehow penalise those fleets that do not follow this dogma. In wargames terms it is always easy to move your ships around like little racing cars, this is just not accurate. So to simulate the superior command and control of ships in a line astern formation at the beginning of the turn you right down a movement plot for the squadron and then execute those orders later in the same turn. To simulate local initiative the same is also true if any enemy warships are within 6" of your ships no matter what the formation. If however your ships are out of formation and not in close proximity to the enemy you have to write down your movement plot, but it doesn't take effect until next turn. Later this turn you either use the movement plot from the previous turn, or if there isn't one, keep moving at a straight line at same speed.

Once movement has been plotted declare targets for any torpedoes you intend to fire this turn. No need to keep this secret as all ships plots have already been written down. Put small counters on the board to represent the firing point of the torpedoes. Important as the firing ship will probably have moved during the turn as well as the target.

Move all ships simultaneously according to plot. Check for collisions.

Fire all guns simultaneously, any sequence you like. All ships ought to say what their targets are before the firing commences but up to you whether you bother with this.

Check the range between the initial firing point of any torpedoes and the current location of the target. If the current difference is 10" or less than the torpedo may have hit, roll the dice to see. If the current range is >10" then the torpedoes automatically miss.

HOW TO FIRE GUNS
Gunnery uses the system from Silent Death. Basically each calibre of guns fires once (no matter how many guns in a battery), they then roll 3 dice to determine if they hit anything. Which dice are used are determined from the Weapons effect table. For Example a good quality British Queen Elizabeth class ship firing it's 8 X 15" guns would roll 2D8 + 1D10. The result of this roll is adjusted up and down dependant on the to hit modifiers, the range to the target, and the number of barrels firing. e.g. for number of barrels firing our 8 gun battery is 7 extra barrels divided by 2 rounded up, or +4 on the to hit dice.

Take this final adjusted figure and compare it with the to hit figure for the target ship off of the Ship characteristics table. Note that a battlecruiser needs a score of 17 or more to hit it, whilst a predreadnought needs only 15. This is to simulate that battlecruisers are much faster and more agile targets than pre dreadnoughts.

If the resultant score is sufficient to hit the target then determine the damage done.

WEAPONS EFFECT TABLE
An important principle behind these rules is that destroyers would not try to attack dreadnoughts with their guns, nor would a dreadnought use it's primary weaponry on a destroyer. As such weapons are grouped into two primary groups. The small calibre guns can only attack destroyers and light / protected cruisers. The larger calibre can only attack armoured cruisers and heavier. Please note the 7"-9" line duplicated is not a typo! Guns of about 8" calilbre should be allowed to fire at both categories of target, though note that ranges and damages done are different.

DAMAGE
Low - the lowest of the three to hit dice rolled is the number of points of damage inflicted. If two dice were equal lowest add them together. If all three were the same count them all.
Medium - the middle of the three to hit dice rolled is the number of points of damage inflicted. If two dice were equal middle add them together. If all three were the same count them all.
High - the highest of the three to hit dice rolled is the number of points of damage inflicted. If two dice were equal highest add them together. If all three were the same count them all.
All - Add all three to hit dice together to determine damage done.

Remember when determining the damage to then add on extra damage caused by multiple barrels, those that cause high or all damage add +1 per barrel, others add +1/2 per barrel rounded up.

Once the total damage is calculated refer to the ship record card and deduct the "Dam Reduc" damage reduction value, basically armour, from the damage. e.g. if 10 points of damage are inflicted on an otherwise undamaged Queen Elizabeth class super dreadnought reduce this damage by 4 to only 6. As ships are damaged their Dam Reduc vallue is reduced, this represents the failing armour and hull integrity of the target.

Mark off the number of points of damage on the ship record card, see example cards (not yet written in July 2002). Assuming the target was hit and it is at least an armoured cruiser look at the critical hits table. Critical hits are not applied to lesser escort vessels.

SHIP CHARACTERISTIC TABLE
This table is intended as a general guideline to generic ship classes. Each ship should have it's own record card that reflects it's own personnal characteristics.

"Ship Type" - fairly self explanatory. Protected cruiser and light cruiser are the same thing. Armoured Cruiser is the same as heavy cruiser. Battleship means pre dreadnought battleship. Super dreadnoughts generally carried 15" guns

Speed - this is basically 1/3 of an inch movement per knot of real speed, normally rounded up or down to nearest whole number. Many late model pre dreadnoughts could steam at 18 knots (6 inches) whilst I believe HMS Dreadnought could manage 21 knots (7 inches)

+/- Turn is the amount a ship can accelerate or decelerate by per turn. Pre dreadnoughts in particluar could not change speed rapidly because of their coal fired boilers. Oil fired dreadnoughts had a significant advantage here. This should make relatively little difference in most games

Turn Cost - This is both the number of inches of movement it costs to make any turn up to 60 degrees, and the number of inches you must then travel in a straight line before making another turn. If you don't like this use a turning circle I recommend a turning circle of 4" diameter for ships with a turning cost of 1. 8" diameter for turn cost 2 and 12" diameter for turn cost 3, and just run your ship around the turning circle. Most British capital ships have a turning cost of 3 whilst Germans are only 2. Why? This is not a ship characteristic but a training one. German capital ships practiced running away more than British ships did! (Despite my slight bias showing there, it was a valid and very useful tactic that probably saved the German fleet from destruction at Jutland).

To hit - This is the roll that has to be achieved on 3 dice to hit the target. Smaller faster targets are harder to hit than big slow ships. Of course the nippy little ships generally could not take a pounding when they did get caught. Speed is normally not an adequate counter to big guns and armour.

Dam Reduc is basically the armour value of the ship, this is the amount of damage discounted per battery hit. i.e. if two ships each fire their 8 gun batteries at a Queen Elizabeth super dreadnought, both ships roll one set of three dice, determine if they have hit her and calculate the damage. Each ship then reduces 4 from the total damage inflicted. Not 4 per gun, or 4 between the two attackers, basically 4 per battery of a single calibre that fired on her from a single attacker.

Dam Boxes - This is the number of boxes of damage the ship can take before it breaks up. Increased damage on this table will lower the ships armour value, lower the ships speed, and eliminate secondary battery guns (primary batteries on light cruisers and smaller). It will not reduce the number of primary batteries on the ship. These can only be destroyed by critical hits.