A boardgame without a board - a tactical game with more weight than Avalon Hill’s Jutland
The components - play sheets, move/damage record charts and counters. The rules are in the cover and are 21 single sided pages long.
Published in 1976 by Tabletop Games, the game was part of a series which included Napoleonics, ancients, Colonials, Sci Fi, WW2 naval, Napoleonic naval and I believe Medievals. Contained inside the cover were the rules, playing aids and record pads along with counters to represent the units. There were additional army packs available and for the Napoleonic naval version the fleet packs for Trafalgar. As I recall the WW2 naval version covered the Denmark Straits and the River Plate with an expansion covering Matapan.
For the WW1 naval edition the base game features ship counters for the Goeben incident, the Falklands, Dogger Bank and the battlecruiser actions from Jutland. The two expansion packs add the remaining ships to the Jutland order of battle. the rules were very much of their time - chart and factor heavy with written moves.
I remember playing many games with this system, including Jutland, with an old friend of mine using his lounge floor. It was great fun but limited as to the variety of ships available - British and German only. I never knew who designed this but I had many a cracking action with it. Would I use it again? Possibly for nostalgic reasons but as an inveterate rules tinkerer I would probably look to, ahem, borrow some of the ideas and put my own spin on it.
I would be really keen to reverse engineer the ship specs just to see how the designer got to where they got to.
My thanks to Mr Fox for passing this on to me - as ever much appreciated!
BTW, if any readers have any of the other editions of this series they no longer need then please let me know - especially the other two naval titles, WW2 and Napoleonic.
10 comments:
Ah, the generosity of Bloggers:)! I seem to have very vague memories of seeing these in magazine adverts, as they look familiar. Of course with advanced years I could be wrong! They seem to be a great and easy way to get into naval gaming for sure.
That looks interesting.
Hi Steve J,
A neat idea for sure. the rules are very much of their time but they do give a cracking game. I need to reacquaint myself with the rules - they have ship to ship and fleet level options - for old times sake.
All the best,
DC
Hi Mark,
A lot of fun was had with these for sure, back in the day!
All the best,
DC
Enjoyed playing the TTG sets in my youth... especially the MTB and Napoleonic Naval ones.
Interesting looking little games David….
TableTop Games brought out some cracking product back in the day…
I remember it as being one of the messiest shops I ever visited… But the owner Bob Connor was a star… One of the nicest people I have ever met in the Wargames ‘Industry’…
All the best. Aly
I didn't have any of the naval ones, but I played the Napoleonic and WW2 ones a lot, and in particular the WW3 one, "Ballistic Missile".
Hi Jim,
I remember playing the Napoleonic naval version and U Boat. I also tried some of the Napoleonic set which was quite fun.
All the best,
DC
Hi Aly,
Combat 3000, Laserburn, Rudis, Retinue, Staghound and others all featured back in the day - good times for sure!
All the best,
DC
Hi Martin,
I never played the W2 version, nor Ballistic Missile but plenty of the others.
All the best,
DC
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