NavTac

WWII Naval Miniatures Rules

Reviewed by Clifford Sayre Jr.

NAVTAC is a new set of rules for WWII naval miniatures authored by William Likens and published by Q-Games. The booklet is professionally printed in a digest format (51/2 x 81/2 inches), 32 pages long. The rules of play and gunnery tables only occupy the first six pages; the remainder of the booklet is devoted to ship data and national inventories of the numbers of vessels of various classes available for use. Minor countries (such as the South American navies) and vessels down to the size of minesweepers and patrol craft are tabulated. The data are in a format for playng so that preliminary calculation of ship cards is not necessary.

The rules are a range estimation system which the author has developed to speed up the play of the "shell for shell" damage resolution which has been typical of most Fletcher Pratt type rule systems. The distance scale is one foot equals four miles (1:2400) which requires a rather large playing area, although the rules suggest substituting centimeter for inches and the alternate distances are tabulated. The time scale is two minutes per game turn. The rules also separate hull damage, speed loss and gunnery damage into separate categories so that one does not experience the linear degradation of all functions as damage occurs. Damage is evaluated by lumping all of the guns in one mount into a single factor which tends to speed up the play, instead of resolving each shell in a salvo independently.

The concept is a good one, but I would take issue with the actual implementation and the effects which result. Gunnery damage and speed loss are only rolled for three times during the life of the vessel, when the points pass 1/4 , 1/2 and 3/4 of the total points for the vessel hull damage. A decimal die is rolled and there is a 30% chance of some speed loss or a 30% chance of some gunnery loss. Since there are only three such rolls for a vessel before it sinks, there is a 34% chance that it will suffer NO speed loss and a similar 34% chance that it will sink with all the guns firing. Ships are valued at one point per 500 tons. This means that a battleship might be worth 70 points. A 16" salvo is worth 11 points. Intuitively I would feel that the chances for producing some speed loss or reduction in gunnery by the time a vessel sinks should be better than approximately two chances out of three. At the same time, the ability to inflict such damage (to speed capability or gunnery) is tremendous IF the hit is effective. The BISMARCK has only three steps of speed reduction, which is the same as the German light cruisers LEIPZIG and NURNBERG. The U.S. light cruiser BROOKLYN, by comparison, has four steps of speed loss. It appeared at first that vessels were given a number of speed loss steps equal to the number of propeller shafts, although many ship values do not follow that pattern. Even if that were the case, speed is degraded, in part, by the additional flooding water and increased displacement, not just by hits which wipe out an engine room or fire room.

The turn sequence is: 1. Detection, 2. Surface movement, 3. Submarine movement, 4. Aircraft movement and 5. Combat resolution. The rules are very tightly written and could probably only be followed by someone who was familiar with other naval miniatures rules. There is not enough description and discussion (and no illustrations) as to how to implement the various procedures. For someone familiar with procedures the rules would provide a faster version of a range estimation game system than most of the rules currently available. Another good feature is that armor is divided into five classes, A-E.

Thus, penetration is easy to evaluate without resorting to compley nomographs or sets of tables as is the case in may rules, The range/penetration data are presented in a single table along with the point damage values for the guns. It would not take much fiddling to improve the speed/gunnery damage system as there are good examples in other rules systems which are currently available. One feature which would make the rules inconvenient for a novice is the fact that probabilities for damage are buried in the prose of the sections about the weapons or procedures (except for gunfire) rather than summarized in table form. Of course, the rules are short, so it does not take long to read back through them to find the needed information. There is no sample form or suggested format for a ship card. Although such an omission is not critical, since playtesters must have crossed such a hurdle, it is always nice to give the prospective user the benefit of their efforts.

In summary, the strong ponts of NAVTAC are the large volume of ship data provided in a form which is immediately useful for play and the relatively faster range estimation playing system. The weak points are tha lack of explanations or descriptions of how to implement the rules and the poor gunnery reduction damage/speed reduction resolution procedure. I would recommend NAVTAC for experienced naval gamers as a faster playing range estimation rule system. The novice will need tutoring from an experienced player (albeit minimal instruction) or another set of rules to describe how to play naval miniatures. The price Is $5.95.

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