Friday 28 November 2014

Jutland: The Rules of the Game

Aside from being the title of a very good book on the subject the rules of the game is something I have had on my mind to various degrees since the beginning of this project. I have considered and discarded numerous sets - some homegrown, some commercially available - but have finally settled on what I want to use with a few 'tweaks'.

The plan is to use the original rules from the Avalon Hill game incorporating some of the subsequent amendments from the sadly defunct AH General and Boardgamer magazines. There will also be a further tweak in that the current 'light ships' rules will be modified to better reflect the scouting and screening use of such vessels.

The rules have the advantage of being designed to generate games from an operational map movement perspective - which I intend to replicate on 'Der Tag' in due course. I will need to type up the final version and to prepare play sheets etc as the published rules are a little in the 'dog's breakfast' school of rules layout with examples and a less than logical format making for a somewhat irritating experience in my opinion - especially when you start including advanced and optional extras etc.

The work starts now but naturally painting the models comes first.

2 comments:

Paul O'G said...

As you say, its a great book indeed. One of my favourites for the period.

I really like games which incorporate operational moves. I'll be watching with extra interest!

David Crook said...

Hi Paul,

I have always liked the Jutland search system - it is simple to understand and work and is very effective in my opinion. All I am doing really is to add a little 'chrome' to the light ships for tactical use - as well as for the scouting function for the cruisers.

More to follow in due course.

All the best,

DC