The Great War At Sea Mediterranean 1912 - 1923

A very welcome arrival to the collection arrived yesterday - an unpunched copy of the Avalanche Press board game: The Great War At Sea Mediterranean 1912 - 1923. I had been after this for sometime and was not disappointed. The only damage was that the box was a little bashed but everything else was in pristine condition. The game is a strategic and tactical level study of naval combat during the period at a ship to ship level. It is one in a number of games by the company that covers naval warfare - the others include the Russo Japanese war, WW1 in the North and Baltic Seas and various of the US Navy war plans in place against a variety of opponents. There are also a number of WW2 games that use the same system. Basically, fleets are moved on the strategic map (scaled at one square equals 32 miles) until contact transfers the action to a tactical map. The tactical rules use ship charts and firing is resolved by rolling a number of dice and scoring hits on a 6 which are then rolled on a damage table. There are also provisions for torpedoes, mines, submarines and critical hits. The strategic map covers pretty much all the Mediterranean and Black Sea with all the naval bases located and national boundaries are as at 1914. It is also in offset squares. The tactical map is in hexes. I wanted this game for a number of reasons. These are as follows:

1. I wanted a simple strategic movement system

2. I needed a good map of the area - these are really nice and would copy down to A3 sized

3. The scenario book covers some 70 actions - some actual and some hypothetical.

4. There are ships from 11 nations which would help me in constructing other fleets in 1/3000th.

5. I really wanted to see what ideas I could 'borrow' from the tactical system for my own use.

I am really excited about this as it will give me the information and tools I need for any campaign ideas I have going forward.

The first half of the map covers the Western end of the Med whilst the second (see below) tackles the Eastern end and the Black Sea. They are of course, fully connectible.

I shall report more on this once I have read through in detail the rules and scenarios but the timely arrival of this should further the impetus on the 1/3000th paintfest I have planned over the next few months!