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View Full Version : War at sea minis, rules recommendations



Berthier
05-18-2013, 07:50
Well I know many of you have experience with WW2 naval miniatures and I have come into a lot of the Axis & Allies War at Sea 1/1800 ones cheaply. So, what rules systems can you recommend for them? The cards are nice but the system looks too gamey for my tastes, I'm sure David has written several sets of rules for WW2 so what's the go!!

Apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere but it's not easy to search forums for this sort of query, actually it's not easy to search forums full stop :happy:

Cmmdre
05-18-2013, 08:15
:clap: Congratulations on your inexpensive purchase. I'm always on the lookout for low-priced games at garage/yard sales locally. :thumbsup:

David Manley
05-18-2013, 09:30
I had a decent set of WW2 rules abou 30 years ago but they were lost in one of many house moves. Just recently I've been involved in work on Mongoose Publishing's "Victory at Sea" (helped with the WW2 set, wrote the WW1 set, slowly working on a pre-dreadnought set). You could give VAS a try, its pretty straightforward and fast playing.

Berthier
05-18-2013, 21:28
Thanks David, does the Victory at Sea work for all scales or is it set up for 1/3000, 1/6000 or something else?

David Manley
05-19-2013, 00:30
You can use it with just about anything. The "official" MGP models that are being released at the moment are 1/1800

Berthier
05-19-2013, 01:50
Thanks for the information David, have you seen the quality on those MGP minis?

Old Ironsides
05-29-2013, 20:10
I have played VaS as well and found it OK. Hopefully the revision will organize and fix a few issues. Probably the best set for WWII if you want to use air. Otherwise I am a huge fan of Naval Thunder for all periods pre- dread through WWII especially if you are looking for a gun fight.

Berthier
05-29-2013, 21:49
That rules set seems to be written by Harry Pratt, any relation to Fletcher Pratt?

David Manley
05-29-2013, 23:40
I have played VaS as well and found it OK. Hopefully the revision will organize and fix a few issues. Probably the best set for WWII if you want to use air. Otherwise I am a huge fan of Naval Thunder for all periods pre- dread through WWII especially if you are looking for a gun fight.

The Naval Thunder system is OK, although it does give some weird results every now again, and often doesn't encourage historical tactics. We've used it a lot recently for Russo Japanese games; it needs quite a bit of tinkering to the game system and the ship stats to make it "work".

I have a pipeline into the VAS2 project (and may, someday, launch the VAS - RJW/Span Am project for MGP if I ever get the chance and MGP are still interested), so if there are any issues with the original rules you'd like to be addressed let me know.

PS - I chatted with Harry (who is also involved in the VAS2 project) about whether he was related some years ago, but I can't for the life of me remember what he said!

Old Ironsides
05-30-2013, 12:11
Yeah opinions are going to vary and it really is to each his own. When you find a set of rules you like you stick with it. I have already vented my concerns with VaS to Ray as well as on the Mongoose forum. :wink:

One thing I forgot to mention is my set of large map house rules for War at Sea. Basically takes WaS system and adds on several features I liked form other rule sets as well as some stuff I came up with on my own. The biggest changes are the larger gaming surface and aircraft have movement so they do not magically appear in a sea zone.

When WaS first came out in 2007 it re-introduced me to Naval Gaming and provided a means to share it with my children who were pretty young at the time. It did not take long to realize that we wanted a bit more from the game which is where the large map and the house rules came into play. We then moved on to other rule sets like VaS and NT. A knock down drag out fight with WaS using the basic rules or our large map house rules is still a good time now and then especially when time is a factor.

They are posted on my blog along with a link to downlaod the file if you are interested.

http://rallyroundtheflag.blogspot.com/search/label/WAS

Here is another blog entry using WaS models for Battle of River Plate using NT:

http://rallyroundtheflag.blogspot.com/2011/05/battle-of-river-plate-naval-thunder.html