My interest in naval warfare is quite high. although I do not try to memorize armor thickness or the caliber of tertiary armament. I especially favor the era devoid of aircraft carriers, radar and long range missiles, all the stuff that makes it all too complicated. So, it was with no little joy, that I read on the late, but little lamented Genie bulletin board, back in 1994, that Avalanche would publish a WWI naval game covering the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Knowing designer Mike Bennighof’s singular determination to raise the Habsburgs from their rather diminished position as deli owners …“Please, take a number if you want bagels or pastrami; sorry, we’re out of the in-bred corned-beef” … I thought, here’s my chance to sink Nikolaus Horthy, Flottenkommandant of the Austro-Hungarian Navy in World War I, and later infamous Reichsverweser of Hungary. The game went through at least three titles, although the basic game system was introduced via Bennighof’s Black Sea Fleet for Pacific Rim’s Just Plain Wargames line. It started out as SMS Goeben. Then, if I remember correctly, it became Deux Mare. [Ed. a name rather more reminiscent of a bad horse race than naval action, and certainly not one of the great “grabber” titles in recent memory.] Finally, Avalanche succumbed to reason and published it as The Great War at Sea, a far more fitting title than the two previous entries. Finally released at Origins ‘96, it proved an instant success, selling like lemons at Scurvyfest. The Great War at Sea covers all of World War I (plus the Balkan Wars and the Italo-Turkish War) at sea in the Med and the Black Sea in a staggering 41 scenarios, plus 9 tactical battle scenarios. The components, all done by Brien Miller, are outstanding. From the beautiful 1 inch counters with overhead views of individual capital ships, through the nice maps to the stylish boxcover, everything looks classy. The only thing I did not like is the fact that some of the tables are only found on the back of the Scenario Booklet (which also features a valuable bibliography). The rules booklet, including advanced rules, is only 8 pages. However, don’t be fooled. While GWSea surely isn’t a difficult game to learn, it isn’t that simple either. The rules book comes with only one illustration and very few examples of play, and it has three columns of dense text per page. The rules length would, probably, have been doubled if, say, XTR had done the layout … and it would have made learning GWSea a little bit easier. Great War at Sea is not one of those tactical games where you just refight historical battles (although you can do that with the 9 Battle Scenarios). The game is operational in nature. This means you assemble your ships into fleets in port - normally only fleet counters move on the strategic map - and then try to accomplish missions. If you establish contact with an enemy fleet, you then move those ships to the tactical map and fight a naval battle. Normally, the biggest problem in operational naval games is the god-like view the players have, thanks to the exigencies of board gaming. You see, all too perfectly, where the enemy ships are and happily steam in their direction. A Double-blind system is cumbersome, a fact which became rather apparent after several dismal attempts to breath boardgame life into it. So how does GWSea go about rendering this difficult question into a playable system? At the beginning of each turn, both players write down the orders for their fleets two turns in advance (e.g., in turn 4 you write down the orders for turn 6). Some readers probably now have decided to pass on this game because writing orders ranks in popularity somewhere down there with Root Canal, and your dentist is Doc Decision. However, ye faint of heart, be not dismayed, for, in GWSea, orders writing actually is very easily and quickly done. First, you have only a handful of fleets available, and, secondly, your expensive ships move only a maximum of 2 “squares” on the strategic map - the game forswears hexes for what you old-timers will instantly recognize as Lou Zocchi’s “staggered brick” map system - which reduces the amount of text per order. Lastly, a lot of the available missions (transport, bombardment, escort, intercept, minelaying, raid) demand that the entire movement of a fleet is plotted in advance at the start of the scenario (your fleets later move by autopilot). So everything in the writing department is quite manageable. The hordes of able, but somewhat overweight, seamen playing the game in Columbus had no quarrel with this mechanic; actually, they seemed to enjoy it! After orders writing, the fleets move on the strategic map and then check for contact, but only if opposing fleets have entered or moved through the same sea zone. If contact is made, you switch over to the tactical map and that sequence of play. The tactical map is divided into large squares within which you place your ships (nothing original here), move and then have gunnery and torpedo combat. Here, too, everything is kept simple. You roll one six-sided die per gunnery (primary, secondary, tertiary) or torpedo factor - basically a 6 is a hit. In the tradition of a lot of naval games, hull boxes are then crossed out for each hit on the Ship Data Sheets. There are also quite a few nice touches, showing the designer’s attention to detail, like colliers and fuel consumption, leaders, shore bombardment, minelayers, seaplanes, national cooperation or airships. But the best feature are the missions. In GWSea you do not simply steam out of port of engage the enemy battle fleet à la Jutland. No, in Bennighof’s Med, you have to perform specific missions like raiding, minelaying or transporting, to win. This adds a welcome dimension to the usual search and destroy flavor of previous games. Moreover, the 50 scenarios available practically ensures that playing GWSea won’t degenerate into the “been there, done that” staleness associated with far too many games today. It all works quite smoothly, but is it fun? It sure is, especially with its built-in “I’m clever than you” movement system. Great War at Sea is a nice addition to anyone’s games library. I fear that the only gamers who will be disappointed with it are the ones who have to determine the exact shell weight per minute; then again, there is the Captain’s Sleep Table and Captain’s Critical Sleep Table, both on Player Aid Card 18. Of even more value, the operational portion of the game should be a boon to miniaturists, with those 50 scenarios being great starting points for tactical battles fought with figures. Mike seems to have covered everyone here, and that’s good news for the gaming community. By the way, I wasn’t able to sink Horthy in Western Scenario 11, "Horthy Takes Command”, although I did manage to damage his Viribus Unitus [Ed. his what? Can we print that?]...too bad, too bad. It will be fun to try again, though. Capsule Comments Graphic Presentation: Excellent; the rules book could be a little bit more user-friendly. Playability: Very good; fast-moving, easy to get into and exciting. Minimal solitaire, though. Replayability: With 50 different scenarios, what do you think? Historicity: Good; a well-researched product with nice flavor. Creativity: Good; a nice mixture of familiar, but friendly, concepts. Wristage: Tactically, fairly high. Otherwise, very little. Comparison: Has the field to itself, as boardgames at this level are few and far between. Parenthetically, the reason for that is they have never sold well. Overall: Highly recommended. from AVALANCHE PRESS LTD. Two 19" x 22" strategic maps; one 17" x 22" tactical map; 460 counters; Rules Book; Scenario Book; various Charts & Tables Sheets. Boxed, from Avalanche Press Ltd., PO Box 4775, Virginia Beach, VA 23454. $42 Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 23 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. 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