Order of Battle Credits Lead Developer Erik Nicely Developers Richard L. Bax, Agis Neugebauer, Erik Nicely Wulf Corbett, David Manley Editor Nick Robinson Cover Chris Quilliams Interior Illustrations Sherard Jackson, Danilo Moretti, Mike Mumah Miniatures Gaming Manager Ian Barstow Print Manager Ed Russell Special Thanks Adam Gulwell, Peter Swarbrick of www.shipspictures.co.uk and David Page of www.navyphotos.co.uk Contents Introduction 2 3 Motor Torpedo Boats 8 Admirals 11 Advanced Aircraft Operations 15 Scenarios 22 Hunting the Beast 27 Expanded Fleet List 34 Royal Navy 35 Kriegsmarine 58 United States Navy 64 Japan 74 Italian 88 French 95 Soviet Union 100 Civilian Ships 110 Counters 112 Contents Order of Battle (C) 2007 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All significant art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. This material is copyrighted under the copyright laws of the UK. Printed in the UK. 1
Introduction Victory at Sea had a humble beginning as a bare-bones set of free rules in Mongoose Publishing s Signs and Portents online magazine. That initial free rules set proved to be popular and led to the development of the core rulebook, which was an immediate success. A loyal international fan base developed as Victory at Sea quickly earned itself a place as one of the standards of World War II naval wargaming. The rulebook covered the basics of naval warfare in all theatres, but only so much would fit within its pages. This supplement is an expansion for Victory at Sea. Changes for some of the rules and stat blocks from the original rulebook have been made in an attempt to increase historical accuracy. Player concerns that have come up on Mongoose Publishing s online forum have been addressed as well. New rules are introduced to cover many aspects of WWII naval combat that were not addressed in the core rulebook and air combat has been expanded and, of course, there are new ships. With the expanded fleet lists, players have the resources to play any historical battle as well as the option to build better fleets for what if games. Introduction This book was a collaborative effort that couldn t have been done without the input of the original Salty Seadogs playtest group. Many thanks to David Manley and Rich Bax, whose fleet lists form a large portion of this book. I would be remiss not to thank Agis Neubauer as well for his excellent work on the German Z-Plan ships. The newer playtesters proved their worth; Dan Martz and Darell Phillips gave many suggestions and often acted as my conscience when I wanted to blow through a rule in order to get to the next one, and I received good feedback from the other new guys. My personal gaming group at Game Towne in San Diego deserves mention - thanks dudes. Thanks to Matthew Sprange for giving me the opportunity to work on this project, and to my wife Amber for putting up with my occasional loud rants while putting it all together. 2
This chapter details some changes to the main Victory at Sea rulebook, and adds many new options for budding admirals to try in their games. These additional rules are by no means necessary to enjoy a good battle, but you will find they add a degree of realism and will provide you with many new tactical choices within a game. Official Rules Changes for Victory at Sea These are official changes to the Victory at Sea rulebook, adding a little more realism to the game and streamlining play. Moving: A ship must move half of its current Speed (not maximum Speed) before it can execute a turn. Flank Speed!: This Special Action increases a ship s movement by 1. There is no modifier to Attack Dice on ships that have executed a Flank Speed! Special Action. Attacking: There is a +1 bonus to all Attack Dice for all turret and secondary weapons to any target within 10 unless the target is obscured by smoke. Secondary Armaments ignore the -1 Attack Dice penalties when attacking vessels moving 7 or more. Torpedo Belts: Torpedo Belts only give protection to side hits - hits to fore and aft score damage normally. For every hit a Torpedo scores on the side of a ship with the Torpedo Belt trait, roll one dice. On a 4 or more, the Belt itself has been hit and the Attack Dice be re-rolled. Weak: Weak weapons incur a -1 modifier to all Damage Dice rolls, and only inflict Critical Hits on targets with an Armour score of 3 or less. Critical effects remain the same, but only one extra point of Crew and/or Damage may be lost due to a Critical Hit from a Weak weapon. Torpedo Attacks, Tubes and Reloads: No torpedo attacks may be made by a ship in the same turn that it executes an Evasive! Special Action. Torpedo reloads for submarines in all navies are limited to one extra salvo (two shots total). Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy with Slow Loading torpedoes have reloads for two extra salvoes (three shots total) while Japanese destroyers with Slow Loading torpedoes are limited to one extra salvo (two shots). The Slow Loading Special trait as described in Victory at Sea remains unaffected. Torpedo tubes will be treated as turrets when applying damage results due to being Crippled. They may never be fired through smoke. In addition, all damage scored on civilian vessels by torpedoes is automatically doubled. Observation Aircraft: Observation Aircraft are no longer represented on the tabletop during games, unless being used in an ASW capacity, and do not affect combat or Initiative. The Aircraft Special Trait may not be eliminated when a ship becomes Crippled (it is assumed that the ship has its planes in the air at the start of the battle). Observation Aircraft do not affect the launching/owning ship s Attack Dice and do not provide an Initiative bonus. They may be outfitted for Anti Submarine Warfare as detailed on page 16. For further uses of Observation Aircraft see the Hunting the Beast chapter, page 29. Smoke: Ships may fire through Smoke created by friendly vessels with the following restrictions: the ships firing must have the Radar trait, normal range penalties apply to the friendly firing ships, no AD bonus is given to ships within 10, anti-aircraft fire from friendly ships is subject to a -1 penalty to AAA Attack Dice, and torpedoes may not be fired through smoke. The rules for the automatic Command Check, placing and removing Smoke Counters, and enemy targeting through Smoke as stated in Victory at Sea remain the same. 3
New Advanced Rules The Victory at Sea rulebook presents the basic rules for playing the naval battles of World War II. The following offer an added level of realism (and lethality) to games, and players should consider them to be Advanced Rules to be used after they are comfortable with the basics. Shorelines, Islands and Shallow Water Dry land on the Victory at Sea gaming table can be denoted by table edges, lines drawn on the table or artistically produced terrain pieces. Dry land, however represented, will take the form of shorelines and islands. Whether land obstructs line of sight or not should be determined before play begins via common agreement or a scenario-specific rule. No ship with a starting Damage score of 6 or more can come within 1 of Land without running aground. The exception to this are any areas designated as being a harbour, where all ships are permitted to move. Ships running aground may not fire any weapons or execute any Special Actions, launch or recover aircraft, and their Speed is reduced to 0 for the rest of the game. Attack Dice gain a +2 bonus against beached ships. Shore Batteries Shore batteries in Victory at Sea represent artillery pieces employed against naval vessels. The size and number of shore batteries used against ships varied greatly and the rules below will allow players to include them in scenarios. Shore batteries are considered immobile ships for game purposes. They can vary greatly in their capabilities but all can be expressed in game terms using the following guidelines: Main Guns: All shore batteries are equipped with these. All have a range and AD based on size and number of guns, DD, and some will have the Weak, AP, or Super AP traits. file Guns Range AD DD Traits Less than 6 guns 12 1 per 4 barrels 1 Weak 6-8 guns 26 1 per 2 barrels 1 10 guns 22 1 per barrel 1 12 guns 26 1 per barrel 1 14 guns 28 1 per barrel Sample 2 AP 15 guns 30 1 per barrel 2 AP 16 guns 40 1 per barrel 2 Super AP Priority Level: Guns Priority Level 4 AD or Less Patrol 5-8 AD Skirmish 9-12 AD Raid 13+ AD Battle Hardened Gun Raise Priority Level by one 10-12 Guns Raise Priority Level by one 14-15 Guns Raise Priority Level by two Target Score: As Shore Batteries are hard to detect and hit, they all have a Target value of 5+. Armour: Open Gun: 4+, Shielded Gun: 5+, Hardened Gun (such as the Atlantic Wall batteries): 6+. The default armour for all shore batteries is 5+. Damage: 5 per Gun AD. -1 if the guns are weak, +1 if they are AP or Super AP. 4
Crew: Coastal batteries have no Crew score. Critical Hits: Critical Hits are determined normally but the results are determined on the following table; D6 Damage Effect 1 +1 All guns suffer -1 penalty on Attack Dice 2 +3 One random Gun is destroyed 3 +3 Each Gun can only fire on a 4+ 4 +4 No weapons can fire for 1D3 turns 5 +4 Roll for each Gun, on a 4+ it is destroyed 6 - Damage score to zero, entire battery destroyed Example Batteries Open 6 Coastal Defence Battery Armour: 4+ Target: 5+ Damage: 20 Patrol Weapon Range AD DD Special 8x 6 Guns 26 4 1 Hardened 15 Coastal Battery with 4 Guns Armour: 6+ Target: 5+ Damage: 24 Weapon Range AD DD Special Gun #1 (15 ) 30 1 2 AP Gun #2 (15 ) 30 1 2 AP Gun #3 (15 ) 30 1 2 AP Gun #4 (15 ) 30 1 2 AP Battle Night Fighting In the battles for supremacy of the oceans in World War II, conflicts happened night and day. Some of those battles, such as the Japanese attack on Savor Island, were an exercise in superior night fighting tactics. Whether a sneak attack or a brave defence of coastal assets, night-time battles were an aspect of war at sea that tested the worth of many naval commanders. In games of Victory at Sea target acquisition, whether by radar or other means, is the most important factor for engaging enemy ships. Illuminated Targets: Ships that are Illuminated are automatically spotted by all ships within 20. Any fire at an Illuminated ship ignores Attack Dice modifiers for night; the target is treated as if it were being engaged in daylight. However, the maximum range of 20 remains. Secondary Armament: Secondary Armament fired during night battles Illuminates the firing vessel. All ships within 10 of a ship firing Secondary Armament at night will automatically detect it. Searchlights: Any ship may Illuminate one enemy ship within 10. Ships actively using searchlights are also considered to be Illuminated and become legal targets for enemy fire. Searchlights are used at the start of the Attack Phase, before any shooting takes place. The player who lost the Initiative declares all of his searchlights first, followed by his opponent. Starshells: Starshells are fired by guns from the ship s Secondary Armament, using 1AD (so ships with only 1 AD of Secondary Armament must choose between starshell use and a normal attack). Starshells can be fired to any point within range of the ship s secondary armament (place an Starshell marker at the desired location) with no Attack Dice rolls needed. All ships within 3 of a starshell marker are Illuminated. Starshell markers are removed in the End Phase. 5
Radar (1943 or earlier): Ships with radar firing at night must shoot at the largest enemy ship within range (the ship with the greatest number of starting Damage). If two vessels with the same starting Damage are present, the nearest will be attacked. Fire control systems had advanced after 1943 to allow more effective direction of fire, so there are no limitations on radar in night games set in that year or later. Minefields The use of mines against ocean going vessels was an effective means of hemming in enemy ships or denying them passage. Besides being able to cripple or sink ships (both civilian and military), valuable naval assets could be tied up for long periods of time in minesweeping operations. Placement and Density Minefields are placed before play begins, paid for using the table below. Minefield Density Fleet Allocation Point Cost 10 1 Patrol point 11 2 Patrol points 12 1 Skirmish point 13 2 Skirmish points 14 1 Raid point The player deploying the minefields must then divide the playing area into 12 x12 squares. The player using mines must then record which squares contain mines. Before play begins, the opposing player rolls 1 dice for each square. On a 4 or more, the minelaying player must declare whether he has placed mines in that square or not. Navigating a Minefield Any ship in a square designated as a Minefield must roll one dice at the beginning of its movement. On a 5 or 6 the ship encounters a mine. Roll another dice, this time adding the ship s Crew Quality and Target score. If this equals or exceeds the Minefield Density, it avoids the mine and may move normally. If the roll is lower than the Minefield Density, a mine has struck, and the ship suffers a 3DD AP hit that is treated as a torpedo for damage purposes however, Torpedo Belts are ineffective against mines. Minesweeping Mine squares may be cleared by minesweeping vessels. To do so, a minesweeper must begin its movement within the square. A Command Check with a target number of 8+ must be made and, if successful, the Minefield Density in that square is reduced by one (to a minimum Minefield Density of 10). This change to Minefield Density is immediate and any ships moving after the minesweeper in the same Movement Phase benefit from the reduction. If the Command Check is failed, the minesweeper immediately encounters a mine and must immediately try to avoid it as detailed above. Any friendly ship within 6 behind a minesweeper gains a +1 bonus when trying to avoid a mine. No Special Actions may be used by a minesweeper while it is engaged in minesweeping, and any ship following the minesweeper loses its +1 bonus to avoid mines if it does so. 6