Questions about NWS Naval Warfare: WWII

[Silverleaf]

Greetings,

I chanced upon this site when looking for miniature rules, having focused on systems like Seekrieg and Victory at Sea (I'm still investigating General Quarters 3 at this time).

I first found out about NWS Naval Warfare:WWII at BoardGameGeek, but the lack of images of the system left me puzzled so I came here and checked out the pdfs in the WWII section - including the CAP program and everything "looks" good.

I humbly submit though that I'm hesitant to invest the money into a system that has for what seems to me, to have little to zero coverage available for it.

Please, let me explain what I mean by "coverage".

Other systems like I mentioned above have various ACTIVE websites covering them and even have reviews posted about them. Here, I see few posts asking anything about the system, or for that matter having fans actively supporting/playing it.

So, with all of this in mind is there an online resource that has reviews of NWS WWII?

Are there fans of the system here whom could shed some light on how they have found the system to play?

Do you like it, does it work well for you and your gaming group?

Have any of you tried this system with miniatures? Results?

My apologies for all the questions, but this game has piqued my curiosity.

With regards,

R.S.

[Warship NWS]

Hi Silverleaf,

Wargamer had a review posted of WW1 and WW2 back in 2005,
http://www.austerlitz.wargamer.com/article/1898/Board-Game-Review-Naval-Warfare-Simulations-World-War-I-&-World-War-II?page=1

For the most part I found the review positive but strongly disagreed with the term of "game kit". The concept of the design was to allow ANY sized naval battle to be fought within a short amount of time yet give realistic results. We are presently in the process of upgrading the rules to v2.0 including the addition of floatation ratings and professional printing. We are aiming to launch v2.0 later this year or early next year. Presently the NW-WW1/WW2 rules are available as PDF print on demand downloads.

PaperWars Edition #50 also gave the series a positive review.

This year we are moving back into board wargame designs for all new publications.

Thanks.

[Silverleaf]

Mr. Dean,

I just searched through the BoardGameGeek listing and discovered the link at the bottom to the same review at The Wargamer - which was a dead link. Using the Wayback Machine I was able to capture the entire review - as you have so graciously provided.

Many thanks!

(Note, I've posted a copy of the new address to BoardGameGeek in the NWS Naval Warfare:WWII section - so that others may benefit from it. It is awaiting approval)

What I take from the review is what I've been searching for: a system that A) allows me to play solitaire versus the system- akin to what Carrier by Victory games allows and B) allows for Campaigning throughout a series of events, using a restocking option to provide both sides with ships for the next battle.

So, more questions, if you don't mind.

1) I take it with NWS Naval Warfare: WWII I could very well play the Japanese and let the system run the Allies?

If so, this is even a larger benefit to me, and to others looking for a system that is flexible.

2) In the review, Mr. Gade states:

Without special rules or historical background, I wondered if the Catalina patrol boats originated from the seaplane carrier Tangier, and thus would have been slated for pilot rescue and scouting as opposed to being loaded out with ordnance. I went with my gut and played it as such. (A follow-up question to the NWS team confirmed my suspicions on this issue, and they did offer up some optional rules for using the Cats as strike forces, with sensible and appropriate penalties for such use.)

Have these rules been made available to the general public?

3) Mr. Gade also mentions that:


I was struck by the lack of scenarios the titles offered, in the neighborhood of 20 for each, which is startling because each game features over 500 units and covers an entire war. Many units will sit unused without players researching and creating custom scenarios. Moreover, the scenarios that are included suffer from a lack of detail. There’s a dearth of accompanying historical information, ships listed in the orders of battle are called out by class rather than combining these callouts with the actual names of the ships involved (Essex class - Yorktown), and the inclusion of units like the Catalinas in the Coral Sea scenario beg special rules and explanations that clarify the manner in which they can be used. I’m not always in the mood to spend 20 minutes scouring the Web for historical clarification of the units involved.

Will Version 2 of these rules include a deeper appreciation of the historical relevance in the scenarios?

Do you plan to add more scenarios - other than those currently available in the game and via the pdfs here at your forum?

Will we see rules for the Catalinas ?

4) Have you considered coming up with better counter and map representations?

*****

I'll be honest and say, I'm extremely interested in your system, and come August will more than likely purchase it from you.

Will players whom purchase this current system recieve a discount on the updated Version 2?

Many thanks Mr. Dean for your time,

R.S.

[Warship NWS]

To SL, I am going to let WM take over from here as he wrote up the rules for the NW series.

Thanks.

[William Miller]

Hello,

Welcome to the forums. I am the primary designer of the 'Naval Warfare' series and will do my best to answer your questions:

***Information on campaigns for NW:WW2: A campaign is what I call 'extended operational' in time scale, and can last for a rather variable amount of time. Each campaign is made up of smaller modular portions (called "Battle Sets"), which are made up of individual missions and other events. The general flow of a campaign is as follows:

1) Choose which theater to play.
2) Choose the campaign length: Short, Average, Long
3) Purchase your initial force based on the number of points provided for by the appropriate table.
4) Roll the number of Battle Sets for the particular theater/campaign length you have chosen.
5) If both sides agree on the Battle Set location, then go to Step 6 – otherwise roll on the Battle Set Location Chart.
6) Roll on the “Number of Missions” chart for the initial number of missions in the first “Battle Set”.
7) Roll on the “Mission Type” chart for each battle.
8) Assign forces to ALL the battles that were determined in Steps 5 and 6. [The
first mission now begins, steps 9 through 11 below]
9) Roll on the Mission Intelligence Chart to determine what each side knows of the other sides force for the mission.
10) You may switch ships from the pre-allocated set for that battle for a certain PV cost. You can add additional ships to the battle for a greater PV cost. (These swapped/added ships may be selected from any ship in your available ship pool…)
11) Play out the first battle using the normal tactical combat system.
12) After the battle, you may repair any damaged ships from the last battle, and purchase new ships using your allotted pool of “Battle Points” for that turn. Repairing a ship requires the same number of points as VP gained by it being damaged, and requires an amount of time according to the Ship Repair Chart.
13) Repeat Steps 9 through 13 for each battle rolled in the first Battle Set.
14) If the campaign has more than one Battle Set, repeat Steps 5 through 14 for each Battle Set after the first.
15) The winners/losers of the Campaign is determined by comparing the point totals of each side (which are won by completing objectives and destroying enemy units).

The following campaigns are included: South Pacific Theater 1942, Mediterranean Theater 1942, and North Atlantic Theater 1940. The campaign in NW-WW2 is in a semi-historic, free-play format. The size of the forces involved for each campaign area would make the player the equivalent of commander of a major area of each theater, and who has several task forces at his disposal. You get to purchase your choice of ships/subs/carriers (with some limitations) at the start of the campaign, and decide what type of reinforcements you receive (again within certain limitations). This means the campaigns are not strictly historical (since your OOBs will differ if you so choose), but the mission types and mission locations are based on historic data for the campaign period and location.

There are solitaire tables that assist such play for tactical/strategic combat, but not for campaign play; frankly those would require a much larger set of rules/tables to do proper justice for solitaire campaign play. Your thus will need two (or more) human players for a campaign game. Note that 'strategic' scale in the game is not the same as 'campaign' scale; strategic scale is used for carrier-based scenarios and is 6 hours per turn as opposed to 10 minutes per turn for the tactical combat scale. Campaign games use a different mechanism to handle carrier portions of the combat.

***On the issue of the Catalinas; I really do not recall the details of that (it was over 6 years ago) but we take pride in being rather quick to post any reasonable detail or clarification that is needed or may be useful. Look in the download threads for our games for examples of this.

***Here is a typical example of a NW-WW2 scenario (in this case Coral Sea):

--------------------------------------------------
Coral Sea May 7-8th, 1942

Background: As a result of the Japanese attempt to invade Port Moresby, JP and US carrier forces exchange attacks in the first naval battle in history fought entirely without surface contact.

Forces:
Blue:

Division 1: 1 x Lexington CV [Squadrons: 1 x F4F-3, 2 x SBD-3, 1 x TBD-1], 2 x New Orleans CA, 1 x Portland CA, 3 x Farragut DD, 1 x Porter DD.
Division 2: 1 x Yorktown CV [Squadrons: 1 x F4F-3, 2 x SBD-3, 1 x TBD-1], 1 x Northampton CA, 1 x New Orleans CA, 4 x Sims DD, 1 x Farragut DD.
Search Group: 3 x PBY-5 (Offmap: located 6 hexes from entry hex A09).

Red:

Division 1: 1 x Shokaku CV [Squadrons: 1 x A6M2, 1 x D3A1, 1 x B5N2], 1 x Myoko CA, 2 x Fubuki DD, 1 x Shiratsuyu DD.
Division 2: 1 x Shokaku CV [Squadrons: 1 x A6M2, 1 x D3A1, 1 x B5N2], 1 x Myoko CA, 2 x Hatsuharu DD, 1 x Shiratsuyu DD.
Division 3: 1 x Zuiho CVE [Squadrons: 1 x A6M2 (10 planes), 1 x A5M4 (5 planes), 1 x B5N2 (5 planes)], 1 x Furataka CA, 1 x Aoba CA, 1 x Large Merchant (Fast) (1 ship).

Map: Strategic Map 1 Game Type: Air Superiority

Starting Positions:

Blue: Div 1 hex I13 heading 1, Div 2 hex I13 heading 1.
Red: Div 1 hex T12 heading 6, Div 2 hex T12 heading 6, Div 3 hex C04 heading 4

Environment: Day, Fair weather.

Intelligence: Blue= Fair, Red = Fair

Special Rules: Japanese Divisions each have one E3A1 squadron they can use.

Victory Conditions: Standard Victory Conditions apply.

Historic Outcome: A tactical victory for the Japanese, as they lost a CVE compared to the loss of a full CV for the US; but a strategic victory for the US as it halted the Japanese march to Australia and set the stage for the battle of Midway.
-----------------------------------------------
NOTE: I can find detailed background info on this (or any) WW2 naval battle in less than 5 minutes on the net, so IMHO adding additional paragraphs of background information is a waste of both time and money (as the page count increases so does the cost to print the rules). In the revision I plan to add web links to what we consider accurate background information for each scenario, that to me would be a useful addition and a good use of space. There are also good web links for OOBs/historical scenarios we could add as well.

***On counters and maps: Our new game designs (and revisions of past products) will have much evolved map and counter designs. We will have a good example available of this with the release of our "Modern Naval Conflicts" game within the next 2-3 months (and I expect we will post shots of the map and the counters before that time).

Thanks for your interest in our games; if you have any additional questions always feel free to ask.

[Silverleaf]

Greetings Mr. Miller,

Many thanks for the excellent information on the campaign system. This is what I call the meat of any Naval game that I would be interested in playing. While single scenarios always appeal to my sense, a prolonged campaign where refitting/restocking plays a critical element goes a long way towards satisfying my sweet tooth.

I've read through the rules, and combined with what you've posted here, it seems that this game has exactly what I'm looking for.


There are solitaire tables that assist such play for tactical/strategic combat, but not for campaign play; frankly those would require a much larger set of rules/tables to do proper justice for solitaire campaign play. Your thus will need two (or more) human players for a campaign game. Note that 'strategic' scale in the game is not the same as 'campaign' scale; strategic scale is used for carrier-based scenarios and is 6 hours per turn as opposed to 10 minutes per turn for the tactical combat scale. Campaign games use a different mechanism to handle carrier portions of the combat.

Totally understand the idea of needing 2 players for the campaign game, but I'm curious if you've considered adding in the "extra rules/tables" for a solitaire campaign as advanced or a much larger solitaire rules set.?

If its any consolation, I'd be willing to be a guinea pig for any such design. 8)


In the revision I plan to add web links to what we consider accurate background information for each scenario, that to me would be a useful addition and a good use of space. There are also good web links for OOBs/historical scenarios we could add as well.

Fantastic idea and one that I was thinking of as well. I do have some experience with printing costs and totally understand the need to save money and keep the game cost down - yet this addition should satisfy the purist and give them more historical background to "bring out the flavor".


***On counters and maps: Our new game designs (and revisions of past products) will have much evolved map and counter designs. We will have a good example available of this with the release of our "Modern Naval Conflicts" game within the next 2-3 months (and I expect we will post shots of the map and the counters before that time).

Again, excellent news and I look forward to perusing them once samples are made available.

*****

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, and really both you and the review that Mr. Dean posted helped alleviate any concerns I have. I can safely say in the coming weeks I'll be buying a copy of this game.

With kind regards,

R.S. Barker

[Warship NWS]

To Silver,

We will be posting copies of the PaperWars reviews also in PDF format shortly.. I have the issue #53 review of NW-WW1 and we are looking for our copy of issue #50 review of NW-WW2 right now. Stay tuned.

[William Miller]

I have posted the "Paper Wars" review of NW-WW1 to the "Naval Warfare : World War 1 - Information And Downloads " thread.

The direct downlaod URL is : http://navalwarfare.info/files/NW/NW-WW1_PW_Review.pdf

I am currently looking for the NW-WW2 review and will post it when I find it from my huge stacks of books/papers I have cluttering my office :eek:

[Silverleaf]

Excellent news Gents!

I've read the WWI pdf and am certainly impressed with the continuous glowing reviews your games receive. I've a feeling the same results will be forthcoming in the WWII review, so no doubt, this is a game that will be coming home to my gaming table.

Question:
Would it be okay to post the link to these reviews over at BoardGameGeek once available?

Cheers,

[Warship NWS]

Thanks for the support Silverleaf. :)

[William Miller]

I have posted the NW-WW2 review from paper Wars #50 to the "Naval Warfare : World War 2 - Information And Downloads " thread. Please bear in mind that this is from a scan of a copy of a copy of the original article so while its fairly readable it is not exactly 'pretty'. I am still looking for an original electronic copy I believe I have backed up somewhere...

Direct download URL is: http://navalwarfare.info/files/NW/NW-WW2_PW_Review.pdf

Thanks!

[Silverleaf]

Gents,

Just wanted to pass along my thanks for posting the 2nd part of the review.

With regards,

R.S.