Friday 12 June 2009

DBSA into the Great War Part 3

I have, after a good deal of consideration, revised the DBSA Great War Naval Rules to completely do away with the NIP system for command points. The rules will flow much faster in my my opinion which is an important factor when playing a large fleet action which is primarily what I am trying to achieve. Instead of using NIPs if a ship or squadron wants to perform either a costed speed increase or turn then it requires a successful dice roll to complete the action. On a d6 the score is 4, 5 or 6 with modifiers for superior or inferior ships being a plus or minus 1 respectively to the dice roll. The second such speed change or turn (where permissible) will require a base score of 5 or 6. I am also adopting the use of bow wave markers (made from tile spacers cut into a V shape) to represent speeds above cruising. One marker for one speed level above and two for two. The rules will be getting their first serious play test next Wednesday when the Italians take on the Austrians. There will be Dreadnoughts and all sorts having a bash at this and I am really looking forward to it. I have also more or less decided that the Black Sea Russians will be the opponent of choice for the glorious navy of the Sublime Porte rather than the Armee Navale of our Gallic cousins.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great blog! I have been a naval wargamer for about 37 years and have played a lot of different naval wargames rules. I'm intrigued by your Great War version of DBA. Would it be possible to get a copy from you?
Thanks!
Rob
sailing1958@yahoo.com

David Crook said...

many thanks for the support! I am fairly confident they will work overall - it is just in the detail should any little wrinkles need ironing out and hopefully Wednesday night will reveal any shortcomings. I have sent you a set so please check them out and let me know your thoughts. Bear in mind though that they are awaiting playtesting. All the best, Ogrefencer

El Grego said...

I wholeheartedly support your choice of the Russian Black Sea fleet as opponents to the Turks!


Greg

David Crook said...

It was a difficult choice especialy as I used to own a 1/3000French pre dread fleet in the early 80's and have very fond memories of using it! What really clinched it though was the fact that it would be relatively inexpensive (certainly when compared against he French)and also that as I would be expanding the Turkish and Greek fleets to include the various vessels they ordered but were taken over (see the earlier post for details)the 'what if' factor was greater. The Bulgarians were relying on the potential of Russian naval support hence their small navy so again from a hypothetical perspective it raises a number of potentially great scenarios e.g. Turkish and Russian Dreadnoughts in action in the Black Sea.