JUTLAND. Sample file NAVAL WARGAMES RULES FOR THE DREADNOUGHT ERA BY GRAHAM SHORT EDITION 1.0

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1 1 JUTLAND NAVAL WARGAMES RULES FOR THE DREADNOUGHT ERA BY GRAHAM SHORT EDITION 1.0 First Published by A&AGE 2004 Download Edition published by A&AGE 2005 Copyright 2004 Graham Short and A & A Game Engineering All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record or otherwise whatsoever, without the prior permission of the publisher and author. Permission is granted to photocopy the Counters and Record Sheets for personal use only. Not to be copied, resold or otherwise distributed (see Terms and Conditions)

2 2 INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION Acknowledgements The Battle of Jutland The Forces at Jutland Distances and Scale Base Sizes Squadrons Game Set Up Definition of Ship and Aircraft Types GAME SEQUENCE, ORDERS AND INITIATIVE Orders and Initiative VISIBILITY, WEATHER AND SPOTTING Visibility Weather Changes Aircraft and Weather Spotting MOVEMENT Basic Movement Evasive Manoeuvres Ramming and Collisions Grounding Submerged Movement Minefields Aircraft and Airships COMBAT Firing Arcs Naval Gunnery Gunnery Hit Location Effects of Shell Hits Armour Gunnery Critical Hits Torpedoes Underwater Critical Hits Mines Applying Hull Damage Critical Damage Effects Slim Chance Anti Aircraft Gunnery Bombs Depth Charges Air to Air Combat Combat Examples INTRODUCTORY SCENARIOS Cruiser Action The Battle of Dogger Bank SHIP CONVERSION FOR USE WITH THESE RULES SHIP DATA TABLES Austria Bulgaria France Germany Great Britain Italy Japan Russia Sweden United States AIRCRAFT DATA TABLE SHIP CLASSES, ARMOUR AND DAMAGE...9 GUNNERY ARC TEMPLATES...20 COUNTERS AND TURN TEMPLATE...35 RECORD SHEETS...36 An A and A Game Engineering Download Product

3 3 1 INTRODUCTION These rules have been designed to allow the playing of dreadnought naval games from the start of the period in 1906 with the launch of HMS Dreadnought to the end of WWI, though they can be used up to about The aim is to give a fast game while maintaining the feel of the period. They are for single ships up to fleet actions of vessels a side to be completed in 3-5 hours. There is quite a lot of dice rolling for those who enjoy rolling buckets full of them, but it does not get in the way of the game. Ship movement is generally by squadron as in most cases a group of ships, in this period, would follow the lead ship of the squadron due to the poor communications available. Battleships and most cruisers would have had radio by the end of the war, but at the start only battleships would have it everyone else would use flags or semaphore. Often the basic tactics to be employed would be determined long before the engagement started. The rules are based upon the fact that battleships were well armoured and had good guns. Smaller vessels had a similar balance, and therefore could hold their own against vessels of similar size but not those larger. The fire control had caught up to the ability of the guns, therefore accuracy was improved significantly over pre-dreadnought times. Despite this typically only 5% of shells would hit the target. Pre-dreadnought period vessels suffer a penalty to hit to reflect that problem. There were some battleships classed as "semi-dreadnought" during this period. In these rules they are treated as dreadnoughts. The gun director was usually used to control the largest secondary in addition to the primary ones, but for ease of use the director is only considered to be working with the primary armament. Most small vessels did not cope very well with bad weather, and night time fighting was still problematic. Torpedoes had advanced from their early beginnings and so two types are included in the rules. Naval air power while in its infancy was not common even towards the end of the war, (being almost totally absent at the start of the period). The first purpose built aircraft carrier was laid down in Movement is either simultaneous by written orders or in ascending order by initiative dice. Firing is always simultaneous. The accuracy of gunnery in this period, though significantly better than that earlier was still poor. These rules make the play more interesting as well as quick and bloody by improving the chance. The fleet lists provided with the rules are not a definitive list of the ships of the period, so the rules include the mechanism to convert the statistics for any vessel of the period for use within these rules. Aircraft are abstracted so the effect on the vessels can be noted without lots of extra rules. Two introductory scenarios are included with counters to allow you to start playing without having to buy miniatures. 1.1 Acknowledgements The following people have all contributed to the design and testing of this rule set. Ian Scott, Mark Hutton, Davie Young. Thanks also to the Glasgow and District Wargames Club where the play testing took place. Also thanks to my wife Ann who endures my wargaming stoically. 1.2 The Battle of Jutland Here is a very shortened account of the battle to give you a flavour of actions during the period. It is larger than the sort of action that these rules were designed to simulate and play within a day, but the rules could hardly be named after the battle without a short description of it. The battle was the largest battle during the period and happened between the British Grand Fleet led my Admiral Jellicoe and the German High Seas Fleet led by Admiral Scheer. On 30th May 1916 the battle took place in the North Sea approximately 80 miles from the west coast of Denmark just off the Jutland Bank. While the large, decisive set piece battle longed for by Admiral Jellicoe never took place, Admiral Scheer engaged the British and avoided confronting the whole of the Grand Fleet. Before the Battle Intelligence reports had reached the British prior to the 30th to indicate the German fleet was putting to sea. Hence the Grand Fleet set sail from Scapa Flow on the 30th at 20:30 hours, a force of 24 battleships, 3 battlecruisers, 8 armoured cruisers, 12 light cruisers, 51 destroyers and a minelayer. This was followed by the 1st Battlecruiser Fleet and the 5th Battle Squadron under Admiral Beatty from Rosyth at 23:00 hours, a force of 4 battleships, 6 battlecruisers, 14 light cruisers, 27 destroyers and 2 seaplane carriers. The Germans under Admiral Scheer sailed from Wilhelmshaven at 01:00 hours on the 31st with a force of 16 battleships, 8 pre-dreadnought battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 11 light cruisers and 61 destroyers. Admiral Jellicoe steamed to intercept the group from Rosyth before engaging the Germans. The Battle The initial contact was at 14:25 between British and German cruisers, scouting ahead of their respective fleets. This was soon followed by the battlecruiser screens opening fire on each other at 15:48. The British battleships joined in at 16:08, but the Germans had to wait until 17:00 before they were in range. It may seem from these timings that the British were in a much superior position. German armour and gunnery proved to be better, the British battlecruisers Queen Mary and Indefatigable were both sunk without reply during this time. Despite these losses Beatty had continued to manoeuvre his vessels to lure the Germans onto the Grand Fleet to bring about the long awaited encounter. While Scheer s battleships had been steaming in line astern to engage the enemy, Jellicoe had steamed his in 6 lines of 6 ships each to find the Germans. Now knowing their position he deployed his fleet into line at 18:15 to cross the "T" of the unsuspecting German battle line. In the ongoing engagement a further British battlecruiser, the Invincible was lost. (Germany 3, Britain 0). Now at 18:35 the decisive phase of the battle took place. With the British battle line concentrating their fire on his lead ships Admiral Scheer was in trouble. To escape he ordered the fleet to do an "all together" reversal of course. A difficult manoeuvre, but successfully executed. Half an hour later he was in the same position. This time he withdrew under cover of a smoke screen and torpedo attacks from his destroyers at 19:18. Admiral Jellicoe turned his battle line away to avoid the torpedo attacks at 19:23 and lost contact with the enemy. Now even though he had inflicted superior losses on the British, Scheer fled for the safety of his home port rather than risk further engagement. This was not the end of the battle. Before the Germans reached the safety of their minefields the Frauenlob, Elbing and Pommern were sunk along with the British Black Prince. The British tried to hold the Germans by deploying a destroyer screen between the High Seas Fleet and their base, but poor communications allowed the Germans to pass without major loss. Not to be copied, resold or otherwise distributed (see Terms and Conditions)

4 4 The Aftermath The final count was Germany 6, Britain 5. Hardly a decisive victory for British naval power, but she was left unchallenged by the German High Seas fleet for the remainder of the war. After the battle Admiral Jellicoe was criticised for not pressing the attack against the High Seas Fleet at 19:10. As he was given the heavy responsibility for maintaining British command of the seas, he did not wish to lose battleships to torpedo fire, which could have tipped the balance of the battle in the Germans favour. Play Notes This was a huge battle involving over 250 vessels between the two sides, and is outside the scope of these rules to be played in a single day. At least a long weekend would be required. In play testing the scenarios based on the various squadrons in action during the day the British tended to do better than happened historically, managing to sink more German vessels, but still did not achieve a definitive outcome for the whole action. Though no submarines were involved in the action, an interesting scenario is a German torpedo boat attack on the British line of battle. In pressing home the attack we found most, or all of the torpedo boats were sunk, but the loss of a single British battleship gives the Germans victory. A list of the respective fleets is given in the appendix. 1.3 The Forces at Jutland German High Seas Fleet 1 st Battle Squadron K Ostfriesland (Vizeadmiral E. Schmidt), Thüringen, Helgoland, Oldenburg, Posen (Konteradmiral W. Englehardt), Rheinland, Nassau, Westfalen 2 nd Battle Squadron K Deutschland (Konteradmiral F. Mauve), Hessen, Pommern, Hannover (Konteradmiral F. von Dalwigk zu Lichtenfels), Schlesien, Schleswig-Holstein 3 rd Battle Squadron K König (Konteradmiral P. Behncke), Grosser Kurfürst, Kronprinz, Markgraf, Kaiser (Konteradmiral H. Nordmann), Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, Friedrich der Grosse (Fleet Flagship Vizeadmiral Reinhard Scheer) 1 st Scout Group K Lützow (Vizeadmiral Franz Hipper), Derfflinger, Seydlitz, Moltke, Von der Tann 2 nd Scout Group K Frankfurt (Konteradmiral F. Bödicker), Wiesbaden, Pillau, Elbing 3 rd Scout Group K Stettin (Kommodore von Reuter), München, Hamburg, Frauenlob, Stuttgart 1 st Torpedo Boat Flotilla K G39 (leader), G40, G38, S32 2 nd Torpedo Boat Flotilla K B98 (leader), G101 G102, B112, B97, B109 B110, B111, G103, G104 3 rd Torpedo Boat Flotilla K S53 (leader), V71, V73, G88, S54, V48, G42 5 th Torpedo Boat Flotilla K G11 (leader), V2, V4, V6, V1, V3, G8, G7, V5, G9, G10 6 th Torpedo Boat Flotilla K G41 (leader), V44, G87, G86, V69, V45, V46, S50, G37 7 th Torpedo Boat Flotilla K S24 (leader), S15, S17, S20, S16, S18, S19, S23, V189, V186 (returned to base with engine trouble on the morning of 31 May) 9 th Torpedo Boat Flotilla K V28 (leader), V27, V26, S36, S51, S52, V30, S34, S33, V29, S35 British Grand Fleet 1 st Battle Squadron K Colossus (Rear-Admiral E. F. A. Gaunt), Collingwood, Neptune, St Vincent, Marlborough (Vice-Admiral Sir Cecil Burney), Revenge, Hercules, Agincourt 2 nd Battle Squadron K King George V (Vice-Admiral Sir Martyn Jerram), Ajax, Centurion, Erin, Orion (Rear-Admiral A. C. Leveson), Monarch, Conqueror, Thunder 4 th Battle Squadron K Iron Duke (Fleet Flagship Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, C-in-C), Royal Oak, Superb (Rear-Admiral A. L. Duff), Canada, Benbow (Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee), Bellerophon, Temeraire, Vanguard 5 th Battle Squadron K Barham (Rear-Admiral Hugh Evan-Thomas), Valiant, Warspite, Malaya 1 st Battle Cruiser Squadron K Lion (Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty), Princess Royal, Queen Mary, Tiger 2 nd Battle Cruiser Squadron K New Zealand (Rear-Admiral W. C. Pakenham), Indefatigable 3 rd Battle Cruiser Squadron K Invincible (Rear-Admiral The Honourable H. L. A. Hood), Inflexible, Indomitable 1 st Armoured Cruiser Squadron K Defence (Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot), Warrior, Duke of Edinburgh,Black Prince 2 nd Armoured Cruiser Squadron K Minotaur (Rear-Admiral H. L. Heath), Hampshire, Cochrane,Shannon 1 st Light Cruiser Squadron K Galatea (Commodore E. S. Alexander-Sinclair), Phaeton, Inconstant, Cordelia 2 nd Light Cruiser Squadron K Southampton (Commodore W. E. Goodenough), Birmingham, Nottingham, Dublin 3 rd Light Cruiser Squadron K Falmouth (Rear-Admiral T. D. W. Napier), Yarmouth, Birkenhead, Gloucester 4 th Light Cruiser Squadron K Calliope (Commodore C. E. Le Mesurier), Constance, Caroline, Royalist, Comus Attached Cruisers K Active,Bellona, Blanche, Boadicea, Canterbury, Chester 1 st Destroyer Flotilla K Fearless (Light Cruiser, Captain C. D. Roper), Acheron, Ariel, Attack, Badger, Defender, Goshawk, Hydra, Lapwing, Lizard 4 th Destroyer Flotilla K Tipperary (Leader, Captain C. J. Wintour), Acasta, Achates, Ambuscade, Ardent, Broke, Christopher, Contest, Fortune, Garland, Hardy, Midge, Ophelia, Owl, Porpoise, Shark, An A and A Game Engineering Download Product

5 5 Sparrowhawk, Spitfire, Unity 9 th / 10 th Destroyer Flotillas (combined) K Lydiard (Leader, Commander M. L. Goldsmith), Landrail, Laurel, Liberty, Moorsom, Morris, Termagant, Turbulent 11 th Destroyer Flotilla K Castor (Light Cruiser, Commodore J. R. P. Hawksley), Kempenfelt, Magic, Mandate, Manners, Marne, Martial, Michael, Milbrook, Minion, Mons, Moon, Morning Star, Mounsey, Mystic, Ossory 12 th Destroyer Flotilla K Faulknor (Leader, Captain A. J. Stirling), Maenad, Marksman, Marvel, Mary Rose, Menace, Mindful, Mischief, Munster, Narwhal, Nessus, Noble, Nonsuch, Obedient, Onslaught, Opal 13 th Destroyer Flotilla K Champion (Light Cruiser, Captain J. U. Farie), Moresby, Narborough, Nerissa, Nestor, Nicator, Nomad, Obdurate, Onslow, Pelican, Petard Attached vessels K Abdiel (Minelayer) K Oak (Fleet tender) K Engadine (Seaplane carrier) 1.4 Distances and Scale The rules have been written for 1/3000 and 1/6000 scale miniatures. The use of larger scales would make the ranges too long to be played on a normal sized table, though larger miniatures can be used if desired but without changing the ground scale. Time Each game turn lasts 6 minutes. On a normal 6 or 8 x 4 table there is no need for a longer turn time as vessels will be able to engage rapidly. The average time taken to load and retrain a large gun in this period was up to 6 minutes. Smaller guns could reload and retrain quicker, but are deemed to fire only once per turn. Distance One nautical mile is represented by 10cm and is abbreviated to nm within these rules. The scale was determined by the range of the guns. A larger scale would have allowed vessels with large guns to cover almost the whole of an 8 x 4 table if situated in the middle of it. To shorten the scale would reduce the range of the smaller guns to almost point blank only. For 1/6000 scale, 1 nautical mile is 5cm. Speed One knot is 1cm per turn. i.e. a vessel travelling at 6 knots would move 6cm per turn. For 1/6000 scale one knot is 0.5cm per turn. 1.5 Base Sizes The rules use a standard set of bases for vessels. This is based upon the use of a 1/3000 scale throughout. The base sizes have some flexibility to allow for the large variation in size of some of the classes of ships. Individual counters can be used to represent vessels that have not been spotted to add some of the fog of war to the game if required. If the forces are agreed and known in advance then this is not necessary. The enemy would usually know the approximate position (hence the larger base size) due to the smoke generated by the vessel. To save having to move several ships individually at long range a squadron counter can be used until the vessels have been spotted. The models will then be placed in the area occupied by the counter and the counter removed. A squadron counter can contain vessels of different types. To allow for hidden movement by submarines in a game that does not have an umpire use a squadron counter to represent a submerged submarine. 1.6 Squadrons The use of squadrons of vessels in the game is important to the game to provide a level of realism. A squadron would normally consist of vessels of the same type with similar capabilities i.e. destroyers, light cruisers, battleships. It would stay together as a fighting unit, as a single vessel would be quickly destroyed by an enemy squadron. Orders and initiative are decided on a squadron by squadron basis. Each vessel must remain within 1 nautical mile of another within the squadron or suffer initiative or order penalties. These are described later in the rules. Aircraft will also fly in squadrons with one counter per model. If required a single counter can be used to represent a squadron, with the number of aircraft being logged on the squadron record card. Their initiative suffers in the same way as that for ships. Base Sizes 1/3000 scale 1/6000 scale Battleships, Battlecruisers, Aircraft carriers Heavy Cruisers and Seaplane Carriers 1.7 Game Set Up 70mm x 20mm 60mm x 15mm 40mm x 15mm 30mm x 10mm Cruisers and Monitors 50mm x 15mm 25mm x 10mm Destroyers, Gunboats, Torpedo Boats, Minelayers, submarines at periscope depth 35mm x 10mm 20mm x 10mm Individual Counters 100mm x 40mm 50mm x 25mm Squadron Counters 250mm x 150mm 125mm x 75mm Weather In adverse weather conditions, rain, snow, mist or fog the locating and identifying enemy vessels happens at shorter ranges. To allow hidden movement squadron counters would be used to indicate the location of vessels. When the vessels are spotted the counter is replaced by the vessels. The rough location could be seen a lot further away due to the plume of smoke from the funnels. Initial Roll a d10 to determine the initial weather. A 1-5 is clear, 6-8 is light, 9 moderate and 10 heavy. If there is rain, snow or fog will be determined by the players or the scenario, bearing in mind the time of year and location. Flying will only take place if the weather is "clear" or "light". Where specific banks of fog or cloud are set out on the table aircraft and airships will not fly through the bank. There were no instruments apart from a compass to navigate with. Cloud only Weather Effects Modifiers on Game Play (Spotting) Type Clear Light Moderate Heavy Roll Rain or Snow Nil -¼ range -½ range -¾ range Fog Nil -¼ range -½ range Max. 2nm Cloud Nil -2nm -7nm -15nm Not to be copied, resold or otherwise distributed (see Terms and Conditions)

6 6 affects spotting from and to aircraft. Wind The wind is normally totally variable. The initial direction is taken by rolling a d8, and using 1 as North, 2 as North East etc. the direction is determined. The initial strength is determined by rolling a d8-1. This is the value on the Beaufort Scale. The effects of the wind are detailed in the table below. Halve the drift rates for 1/6000 scale. Wind Effects on Game Play Scale Effects 0-3 Smoke drifts at 1cm per scale point Aircraft and Airships fly as normal 4-5 Smoke drifts at 1cm per scale point Aircraft and Airships must take Ditching Roll to avoid crashing when taking off and landing at Wind Strength Smoke drifts at 1cm per scale point To Hit chances of Small calibre guns (A & B) reduced by 1 Aircraft and Airships Ditching Roll has a penalty of 2 8 No smoke screen possible To Hit chances of Small calibre guns reduced by 2, others by 1 No flying is permitted and Ditching Roll has a penalty of 4 9 No smoke screen possible To Hit chances of Small calibre guns reduced by 4, others by 2 No flying is permitted Ditching Roll has a penalty of 4 Aircraft and airships could not fly in high winds or even moderate winds. If they tried to take off or land in these conditions then there was always a chance of the plane ditching and sinking in sea. Airships would be blown far off course and balloons launched from ships on tethers could break free and be lost. Sea States The state of the sea has a dramatic effect on the ability of vessels to engage in combat. Many ships had very low secondary gun decks that would be awash in rough seas. Others because of their long thin shape had poor sea keeping qualities. The individual sea keeping qualities are not covered in these rules. They are determined by the size of the vessel. Fighting in rough sea is difficult, and can have a dramatic effect on Sea States Effects on Game Play State Effects 0-1 None on ships Aircraft and Airships take off and land as normal 2-3 None on ship Aircraft and Airships must roll to avoid crashing when taking off and landing at Sea State To Hit chance (guns) on Light Cruisers & smaller reduced by 1 To Hit chances for all torpedo fire reduced by 1 Aircraft and Airships Ditching Roll has a penalty of To Hit chance (guns) on Light Cruisers & smaller reduced by 2 To Hit chance (guns) on Larger vessels reduced by 1 Maximum movement rate on Light Cruisers & smaller is halved To Hit chances for all torpedo fire reduced by 2 All visibility reduced by 1nm No take off or landing and Ditching Roll has a penalty of To Hit chance (guns) on ships with Directed Fire reduced by 3 No firing for any other guns or torpedoes, all movement rates halved, visibility reduced by half No take off or landing and Ditching Roll has a penalty of 5 the outcome of a battle. Smaller ships do not cope as well as the larger ones. To randomly generate an initial sea state, roll a d6 at the start of the game. 1.8 Definition of Ship and Aircraft Types Ships. Battleship: a dreadnought battleship, post 1906 with a central gun director that is used to control the main guns of the vessel. Coastal or Old Battleship: a predreadnought battleship that lacks central fire control. Battlecruiser: a battleship sized vessel, with the same size guns and less armour, usually faster than the equivalent battleship. These are considered to be dreadnought type. Heavy Cruiser: a cruiser with a displacement of over 14,000 tons. This term is used to define a large vessel with armour similar to an Armoured Cruiser. It should not be confused with the WW2 definition of a Cruiser introduced in the 1920 s. Armoured Cruiser: a cruiser between 6,000 and 14,000 tons with deck armour. Cruiser: a cruiser between 6,000 and 14,000 tons without deck armour. Light Cruiser: a cruiser less than 6,000 tons. Seaplane Carrier: a vessel designed to carry seaplanes and launch and recover them by winching the planes on and off the water. Aircraft Carrier: a vessel designed to carry aircraft that can be launched and recovered from a flight deck. They could also carry seaplanes. Submarine: a vessel that can make a controlled dive and then surface. (all other ships can dive once it s called sinking!). Damage points are given for the submerged displacement. Speeds are given for surfaced and (in parenthesis) for submerged movement, which has only a speed for undamaged. When damaged the submarine must surface or sink. Mine Sweeper: a vessel designed to find and destroy mines. These usually had strengthened hulls in an attempt to negate the effect of hitting a mine. A mine sweeper will clear a path through a mine field at the rate of 1nm per turn. The path will be wide enough for a single ship to navigate. Other vessels are Monitors, Destroyers, Gunboats, Torpedo Boats and Mine Layers. Aircraft Reconnaissance: an unarmed aircraft, usually single engined, relying on speed and maneuverability to survive, with a pilot and observer. Fighter: a single engined aircraft with fixed forward firing machine guns and a pilot. There could be a second crewman manning a swivel mounted machine gun to the rear. Bomber: a multi-engined aircraft with several crew, carrying a number of bombs and defensive machine guns. Balloon: a hydrogen filled balloon with no engines, flown from a fixed point, usually unarmed. Airship: a hydrogen filled rigid balloon with its own engines, carrying multiple crew, bombs and defensive machine guns. An A and A Game Engineering Download Product