Naval battle

[Mr White]

Early 1918.

Standing atop your new ship's bridge, you look out on the fleet around you. This is new to you.
Coming from a mine sweeper, you were sure that your position was at a dead-end. But somehow the Admiralty felt that new blood was needed at the top, and your progressive and at times demanding ideas brought you to the forefront.

Walking to the bridge wing, you take in the harbour air. It is rank with inactivity!
The Admiralty has sent orders that the High Seas Fleet must do something soon, and something important. You are certain this has something to do with the upcoming events on land. While German troops are currently superior in numbers that will change soon enough with the Americans coming over in numbers. Something major is about to happen on the front, and apparently the fleet is supposed to distract the Royal Navy in the mean time.
The previous commanders were too timid to do something, or at least that is what the Admiralty thought, and now you are here.

Laying here in the port of Wilhelmshaven and in nearby Cuxhaven you have several dreadnought battleships, battlecruisers, light cruisers and some torpedoboats (you smile at this, the British call their torpedoboats ' torpedoboat destroyers' but experience has shown them to be evenly matched) of capable standards. Arrayed around in smaller ports nearby and in the two main ports you also have a host of pre-dreadnought battleships and outdated armoured and light cruisers acting as coastal defense, barracks, training and various other secondary duties. Perhaps it is time they resumed active duties?

Having stood in your own thoughts looking over Wilhelmshaven and the fleet you haven't appreciated the look of the ships themselves. The big ships look so clean and sleek, ready for battle. Small boats hustle about inside the harbour, tugs move a light cruiser around. A far off dry dock gives you a glimps of a new ship type near completion. Perhaps this untried ship may tip the scales in our favour.
You turn back inside the enclosed bridge and from there you walk to the antechamber to once again contemplate the upcoming events.

This is a naval game set in WWI based on fudge rules. I'm hoping for 6 to 10 players for a team versus team game.

Rules:

Spoiler

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Fudge game engine:
This game uses the fudge rules to determine results. Fudge uses ordinary words to describe various traits. The following seven-level sequence is used here (from best to worst): Superb, Great, Good, Fair, Mediocre, Poor, Terrible.

Ships
Before you can engage in naval combat, you are going to need a ship. A ship can be built by giving a value from poor to superb (terrible, poor, mediocre, fair, good, great, superb) where fair is average. There are 5 main Attributes for a ship as listed below.
• Hull: The strength of a ship's Hull. A better armored hull is more resilient to damage. If a Hull's level is ever brought below Terrible, the ship is sunk.
• Cannons: The number and caliber of cannons (or torpedoes in some cases) that can be fired at an opponent. For simplicities sake all cannons are assumed to have enough ammunition.
• Speed: How fast the ship can go. This is an abstract Attribute, and cannot be converted directly to knots.
• Maneuverability: How effective the ship is at changing direction. This Attribute goes hand in hand with Speed most of the time. A more maneuverable ship is a more dangerous one.
• Crew: The quality of the people manning the ship. Used to determine the quality of the captain’s decisions and the speed of gunnery and fast repairs.

You have 3 points to spend when designing your ships. Every stat starts at fair and raising a stat by 1 level costs a point. More points can be exchanged by lowering other attributes.
A few templates (not necessarily historically accurate):
• The dreadnought battleship is heavily armored and armed. This vessel can take a punch and gives plenty in return. King of the seas.
Great armor, heavy(great) guns, fair speed, mediocre maneuverability, fair crew (+2,+2,0,-1,0)
• Despite being outclassed by the new class of battleship, the pre-dreadnought still performed its defensive role more than admirably.
Great hull, great guns, mediocre speed, mediocre maneuverability, good crew (+1,+2,-1,-1,+2)
• A battlecruiser is fast and hard hitting. It carries the same guns as a battleship but sacrifices armor for speed.
Good hull, great guns, good speed, mediocre maneuverability, mediocre crew (0,+2,+1,-1,+1)

The combat
Everybody PM’s me their actions. The actions of every ship will happen simultaneous during the round’s resolution. You can give conditional orders if you want your actions to be dependent on the actions of opposing ships.

Every turn allows for at least one action. However skilled crews can increase their number of actions he can take by one or even two. Before making any actions, the captain of a ship can decide to risk doing multiple actions during his turn. The captain needs to make a successful roll against Crew. If the result is Good, he can make two actions in the turn. If the result is Superb he can make three actions. However if the result is Mediocre or worse, the captain made an error in judgment and loses all actions for his turn. So trying to take more actions is risky, but may be worth it.
Actions
• Move: You can either move away from your opponent or towards her. If the opponent doesn't want you to move relevant to her, you must make an opposed Speed roll, with the winner getting her way. Be aware that both will move relevant to the other vessels as well.
For simplicities sake, there are four ranges in this type of combat: "out of cannon range", “within extreme cannon range”, “within medium cannon range”, “within short cannon range”. A successful Speed roll will allow you to move from one range to the adjacent one. A ship can move from "within extreme cannon range" into either "within medium range" or "out of cannon range", but a ship that is currently "out off cannon range" cannot move directly into "within medium cannon range" in a single action. Regardless of how many actions a ship can take it can only move one range increment per turn.
• Sailing Away: Very rarely will you find two naval combatants willing to fight each other until both ships are destroyed; often one ship will try to make a run for it. In order to successfully flee naval combat, a ship has to stay out of cannon range for three consecutive rounds. After three turns it is assumed that the fleeing ship made it over the horizon and away from the battle.
• Maneuver: Make an opposed Maneuverability roll, with the faster ship getting a +1 bonus. The victor of this roll was able to out maneuver his opponent, allowing for a bonus on the victor's next action. This bonus equals the Relative Degree of the opposed Maneuverability roll.
• Attack: You can attack your opponent, if you are within cannon range. If you attack while moving, you’ll have a penalty of -1 as you have only a part of your guns aimed at your opponent. Your Guns roll must be equal to the Hull level of your target, and for every level beyond that you can take another level off of a random attribute. If the Hull ever drops to below Terrible, the ship is sunk. If the Crew is reduced to below Terrible, the entire crew is either dead or wounded, and will no longer be able to resist. If the guns are reduced to below terrible you won’t be able to attack anymore, …
The attribute attacked will be determined by rolling a 1d6 and using the resulting number as the area of the ship that was hit.The range plays a factor in the success of your attack. Shooting at far off targets will be more difficult than shooting at something extremely close.
- Within extreme cannon range: -1 to guns
- Within medium cannon range: 0 to guns
- Within short cannon range: +1 to guns
• Barrage: A barrage is a special type of attack. You can only perform a barrage when you can take multiple actions during the turn. By giving up the multiple actions, you get to add a +1 bonus for each action you could have taken to your Guns roll for this turn only.
• Make Repairs: The crew of a ship can make quick repairs on parts of the ship during battle. Make an unopposed Crew roll of Great or better to repair one Attribute of the ship, aside from the Crew itself. Each successful roll will repair one level of the Attribute; however these repairs can only bring up an Attribute one less its original. For full repairs a ship has to go to the docks.

Deciding victory
A side is considered victorious when it has sunk or driven off the opposing side and you can assume the force has taken control of the sea. This means that there should be a big enough difference in damage done and damage received. This is a subjective decision, like it was in real life. If neither have a clear advantage over the other than the battle is considered indecisive.

[Ramsus]

Seems interesting, I'll sign up.

[101jir]

I hate to sign up for a third game, but this looks so interesting I can't help myself. (perhaps you could make me feel better by joining Spy Wars ) I don't know how active I can be, but I will try it. Working on finishing reading the rules now. I am in.

What would be interesting in a later game, would be to have a fantasy naval battle where it is every ship for themself. Can't really come up with a story for it, but it would be cool.

[Mr White]

I'm looking spy wars right now ;).

Later games (if there is enough interest) can be set in any setting. I chose WWI for this one because it was the last war where battleships reigned supreme.
Besides while team tactics may be important, in the end every captain is on his own and make their own decisions.

[Trixie]

I chose WWI for this one because it was the last war where battleships reigned supreme.

I'm not sure if I agree with this claim.

But I'd like to try.

[Elder Tsofu]

Sure, I'm in.

[Mr White]

Great, 2 more and we can begin with reasonable sized teams.

I'm not sure if I agree with this claim.

But I'd like to try.

Sure, it’s debatable but at that point planes had yet to be able to reliably damage ships, submarines were mostly used near ports, …

[Trixie]

Sure, it’s debatable but at that point planes had yet to be able to reliably damage ships, submarines were mostly used near ports, …

Tell that to certain Otto Hersing

Eh, I think Battleships only went obsolete (or were 'obsolete' as early as WWI) after the WWII. There are a few WW wintage battles where carriers were sunk if they found themselves too close to even heavy cruisers (HMS Glorious vs KMS Scharnhorst, for example).

[Irbis]

In, please.

[101jir]

Hey guys, lets all think of some awesome ship names. I don't think it would matter, but just in case I won't post the name of mine until White confirms that it is not important in any way to keep which ship is your secret.

[Mr White]

The sign-up are going quite well. One more and we could start. I'll keep the sign-up open at least until monday. I'll then be able to gauge the interest and whether or not to look for anybody else.

Everyone who hasn't PMed me his ship build please do this as soon as possible. Add a ship type just for fun (it doesn't have to be historical).
I'll then pick the teams in order of what I think would work well together.

Hey guys, lets all think of some awesome ship names. I don't think it would matter, but just in case I won't post the name of mine until White confirms that it is not important in any way to keep which ship is your secret.

Ship names are alright. Seeing as this is set in a historical setting, ship names of the different sides were named quite differently but I won't be that strict. We're in the silly message board games section after all.

You don't have to post the traits of your ship. other's will find out soon enough.

[Ramsus]

Hmm Trixie's post gave me a silly idea. Can my ship be a Carrier and my "cannons" be planes? I mean...yeah I realize that technically that makes no sense but...it'd be amusing.

[101jir]

The sign-up are going quite well. One more and we could start. I'll keep the sign-up open at least until monday. I'll then be able to gauge the interest and whether or not to look for anybody else.

Everyone who hasn't PMed me his ship build please do this as soon as possible. Add a ship type just for fun (it doesn't have to be historical).
I'll then pick the teams in order of what I think would work well together.



Ship names are alright. Seeing as this is set in a historical setting, ship names of the different sides were named quite differently but I won't be that strict. We're in the silly message board games section after all.

You don't have to post the traits of your ship. other's will find out soon enough.

That's why I have 2 ideas.
German: SS Alpha
British: HMS Yorkie

[101jir]

BTW, I just figured it would be cool to post some navy anthems (Germany has more than 1) for the German and British navies.

German Navy
British Navy

Correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I kept getting when I googled it.

[Mr White]

Hmm Trixie's post gave me a silly idea. Can my ship be a Carrier and my "cannons" be planes? I mean...yeah I realize that technically that makes no sense but...it'd be amusing.

It's going to take some more work from me (not that much really) to integrate it into the story telling but I see no reason not to since this is going to be strictly fluff and nothing would change mechanically. I already made a template of a torpedo boat so who am I to tell guns should be cannons and nothing else.

What types of rolls are we going to use? 3d6? 3d6b3? d20?

Also, what is included in better guns, outside of better range which I am I sure I saw you post. More damage? Accuracy?

Does a better crew improve accuracy?

I was going to use the standard 4dF roll. I'm not sure this site features such a roll but a 4d6 roll can be converted just as easily.

Better guns means a better chance to damage an opposing ship, nothing more nothing less (so not a better range).
Also, Crew doesn't improve accuracy only the speed of repairs and the chance at doing multiple actions.

Examples:
- A ship with good guns fires at an opposing ship with a fair hull from short extreme distance. Every point above fair (hull trait) scores 1 point of damage to the same random trait of the opposing ship. Firing from extreme cannon range means a -1 to her guns, thus we could say that her fire is only fair. So the roll must be positive (more plusses than minusses) to do damage.

- A torpedo boat wants to make a run at a battleship but fears that at the current distance she won't be able to overcome the armor belt the battleship has. So she makes a roll against crew and gets a great result, meaning she can make 2 actions. She choses to barrage the battleship getting a +1 to her guns.

If there are any other questions, feel free to ask them.

P.S. I'm making badges and the likes for afterwards seeing as everybody likes trophies.

[Irbis]

Is the +1 bonus to every die roll?

And how we are divided? I'd like to know my country before picking a name.

[Elder Tsofu]

Eh, give it one name and if you end up in the opposing fleet you can always claim that you captured it from the enemy on the open seas.

[101jir]

Eh, give it one name and if you end up in the opposing fleet you can always claim that you captured it from the enemy on the open seas.

Its not as cool, though. Even sailors thought that, and renamed captured vessels to something they liked. (Like the Merrimack).

[101jir]

Hmm Trixie's post gave me a silly idea. Can my ship be a Carrier and my "cannons" be planes? I mean...yeah I realize that technically that makes no sense but...it'd be amusing.

Actually, just thinking, if you wanted it to be more accurate mechanically, you would have unlimited range (not exactly, but close to), Just change the word cannons to planes. However, you would not get an attack immediately after you launched the planes, you would have to wait for them to reach their target. However, instead of a hull check, it would have to be an opposed cannon check, and if the opposed check is successful, you would lose a plane. You would have plenty of planes though (look up a realitic historical number for WWI and go with it.) Sound OK?

[Ramsus]

It sounds interesting. I'd have to rework my build for that though and I don't really want to make the person running the game change the rules just because I decided to go for a silly flavor option. I'm fine with not technically making sense. If it really bothers anyone that my ship would not make sense I'd rather change my silly idea to something less silly than force more work upon the person running the game.

[101jir]

It sounds interesting. I'd have to rework my build for that though and I don't really want to make the person running the game change the rules just because I decided to go for a silly flavor option. I'm fine with not technically making sense. If it really bothers anyone that my ship would not make sense I'd rather change my silly idea to something less silly than force more work upon the person running the game.

It does not bother me. I was just pointing out some ideas in case Mr White didn't mind making mechanical changes or you didn't mind changing your strategy a little bit. Just putting ideas out there.

[101jir]

Also, I don't plan to do this, but if someone else wants to feel free (as long as Mr White is OK with it), we could have U-boats where the only change is they can move underwater, for a time. Problem is, without any preexisting mechanic for torpedos or depth charges, they become invulnerable underwater, so just a sketchy idea.

[Mr White]

First of all, I have no problem with fluff change at the moment. You want an aircraft carrier or a submarine, it's fine by me but I don't want to change mechanics just yet. I want to have a feel for this game in a larger battle scope before I insert more unpredictable factors.
If everything runs smoothly and there is enough interest for a second game, I might incorporate subs and carriers (in whatever setting).

Is the +1 bonus to every die roll?

And how we are divided? I'd like to know my country before picking a name.

I assume you mean the +1 bonus you get from outmaneuvering another ship. Then yes, you get the bonus to every die roll in that turn.

I'll divide the teams when I got the traits of all the 6 ships. That reminds me if you know anybody that would want to join, don't hesitate to ask. I would hate it if this game would fizzle out because we weren't able to start right away.

[Mr White]

How will ship formation be determined, can/should we send in a table with positions, random, or is there a standard (like the historical norm)?

Also, if someone were to get 3 moves, could they do a partial barrage? (Move, repair, etc, and combine the remaining 2 moves as a barrage against a specific ship?

Ship formation will be determinded by team decision. If no info is given on this I'll assume that all the ships travel in 1 line with the heaviest armoured ship in front.

You can Barrage and still do something else if you have 3 actions

[Irbis]

Ah, so each +1 is one to every die roll? Good.

When will this start?

[Mr White]

Ah, so each +1 is one to every die roll? Good.

When will this start?

Just imagine that you outmanouvered the other ship so that you're in a better position to hit her AND to run away afterwards for example.

I'm waiting for one more person but this game will start on friday no matter what.

[Mr White]

Trixie, Elder Tsofu and Irbis would you PM me your ship traits so I can make the teams.

Thanks

P.S. Trixie your PM box is full.

[Onime-no-Enishi]

signing up

[Mr White]

And that makes 6. We're officially OK for launch for friday.

I'll post the teams in a few hours (I'm at work after all) so you can already talk tactics and formation if you wish. This is a simplyfied game so this isn't strictly necesarry (you won't be able to cross the T).

I'm working on something for the visual aspect (mechanically unimportant), hope you'll enjoy it.

[Irbis]

No? You mean the feat 'Extra Weight of Broadside' at the expense of speed is pretty much worthless?