I am currently running a CaS sub game with three players. The referee part is relatively straightforward. It is run as though the players are present, using email to communicate, and so far we have played two sessions with all three players online at one time, both sessions lasting 5-6 hours. This worked because the players were having a good time, and because the action quickly became exciting. Recently we have averaged about two-three turns per week, occasionally delayed by one or the other of us having pressing home or work concerns. We have a coast to coast game going, with one player in Montreal (RCN), one in St. Louis (RN), another in the San Diego area (KM), and myself in Los Angeles. Most of the strategic rules are taken or derived from an old Avalon Hill General scenario generator for their game "Submarine," written by Mick Uhl. I have had to invent rules for weather damage to ships, modifiers for torpedoes running in heavy seas, and have spent a lot of time rethinking the radar and sonar rules as they pertain to subs. I have put down these rules on paper, but have promised the players access to all the documents used upon completion of the game. This way for the first playing, anyway, the game is as realistic as it will ever be, when no one knows exactly what is happening or what works - just like real life. Limited intelligence is the key element in sub warfare, and email is perfect for this. There is no way that either side can know what the other side does, unless I make a mistake in sending info. This particular period and especially the March 1943 convoy battles are very well-documented by historical analysis, anecdotal accounts, and declassified official data. We have found detailed stories of the battles and the performance of various sensors and weapons. I have used this data to modify the performance of important radars and sonars in the game. We have also had to create various ship classes not found in the current CaS supplements. It was surprising to find out how difficult it is for a layman to get at much of this ship information, not because it is unavailable, but sources conflict, and no one library seems to have everything you need, especially on that last obscure ship type. Though there are several books from Naval Institute Press and a few other publishers, it requires a devotion to research to find all the data. The strategic map is a standard hex map of the North Atlantic from Nova Scotia to England, with approx 36 nm to the hex. For the tactical map, I use 22" x 17" graph paper, with 10 blocks to the inch. Our current scale is 1"=1000 yds, so that 0.1"=100 yds=1 knot. This gives us an 11 nm x 8.5 nm space. It is conceivable that we may go to 1"=1 nm if necessary. I devised a map numbering system using letters, e.g., Aa, Ab, Ba, etc, along the x-axis and numbers along the y-axis. It is possible to go below the axes and use negative letters or numbers without any problem. At first I did not know whether I would need such a detailed map system for the tactical game. We have found it invaluable. This works for us, but a simpler system for locating ships on graph paper is to ignore the boxes and simply say that a datum is located 'n' inches perpendicular from the x-axis, and 'n' inches perpendicular from the y-axis. I emphasize that the graph paper has nothing to do with movement - it is only a reference system. We still move using protractor and ruler, and an engineer's triangular ruler is best. The players have been wonderful at helping me stay organized. Each message sent back and forth about the game includes in the Subject line the words "Sub game," so that those of us with filtering capabilities can identify messages and keep them in one place. Everyone has gotten into the spirit of the game, something which I heartily encourage other PBEM players to do. Send propaganda - Tokyo Rose in the Pacific, Lord Ha Ha in the Atlantic, or make up your own. Invent stories with dialogue about the vessels as intros to break up the dry "[your ship] on course [n] degrees sees [whatever]" format. Rather than a bunch of dots on paper, I find adding a descriptive component heightens my interest in the game. We know the names of all the warship and sub commanders, plus masters of the merchant ships and even some subordinate commanders. Players send messages in "official" style using the names of these commanders. I found a colloquial guide to German (running a bookstore at UCLA helps enormously here) entitled "Scheisse!" [Ed: This is a very rude word in German] which I plan on using to add "colorful metaphors" to the German dialogue. Of course, no commander should be without an appropriate rank, so we have our Admiral - knighted, no less, Rear Admiral, and Konteradmiral, along with the acronym of their historical commands, e.g., CINCWA, COMINCH C&R, etc. It is common for these acronyms to be as creative, or as vulgar, as possible. In a new PBEM game we have a PICSAPAC - Person In Charge, Southern Area, Pacific. Are these small details? Yes, and great fun. One thing that can completely scotch a good game is the dreaded NMR - a term from PBM days. No Moves Received is what many players inexplicably do when they lose interest, get too busy, or start to lose. It's best to jettison such a player quickly from the current game, and carefully monitor them should they show up again. If you start a game, with all the requisite energy that requires, and then someone just disappears, it hurts everyone. The referee must handle all the die rolls, since there is no other way to insure honesty. Also, I tend to keep my players in the dark about game mechanics, so that they will concentrate on tactics and strategy, instead of how to get an extra +1 to a die roll. The flip side of secret mechanics is to be completely fair and to maintain integrity. I keep a "Thoughts" file open on the desktop, which I use to record my die rolls, my evaluations of the two sides moves as they occur, and anything else of moment. As I said before, I plan on divulging all the rules to the players after the game, and I want them to know that I have treated with them fairly should they have a question about what happened at a critical point. I encourage them to keep "Thoughts" files as well, so we can all see what players were thinking about as they made their brilliant, or not-so-brilliant, maneuvers. These replays make for interesting reading, and have helped me in the past to learn from my own performance, good or bad. Hope this sparks interest in PBEM gaming. (Ed: Greg Kuntz is a long-time correspondent and Trilogy game supporter.) BT Back to The Naval Sitrep #14 Table of Contents Back to Naval Sitrep List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Larry Bond and Clash of Arms. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com