"There's Something Wrong with our Bloody Ships today!"
Wargames Rules for WW1 naval actions in 1/5000th

by Tony Cullen (c)Copyright 2002

ABBREVIATIONS
BB fastBritish Fast Battleships e.g. Malaya & Barham
BBBattleship
BCBattlecruiser
CAArmoured Cruiser
CLLight Cruiser
DDDestroyer

MOVE SEQUENCE

  • 1. Movement
  • 2. British Firing
  • 3. German Firing
  • 4. Launch Torpedoes

MOVEMENT
Speed
Ships move according to their maximum speeds from Jane's.
1 knot = 5mm
A ship may accelerate by up to 25% of its maximum speed each move.
It may decelerate by 10% of its maximum speed each move.

BBs, BCs & CAs may turn up to 45 degrees per move.
CLs & DDs may turn up to 90 degrees per move.
Turns are made mid-move. Move the lead ship of a squadron/division and conform the remainder to it.

FIRING
Each ship may fire once a move. Main Armament must concentrate on a single target. BBs and BCs have secondary armament equivalent to CLs, which may engage a different target to the main armament.
All targets must be in line of sight and not obscured by intervening squadrons or smoke.
The British fire first as they had a superior rate of fire, the Germans gain a +1 in firing to represent their superior fire control systems.

To fire, cross reference the firers class with the range to find the score needed on 1d10 to hit. modify the required score and roll 1d10 for main armament, and 1d10 for secondary armament for BBS and BCs

Ranges in mmShortMedium Long
Required Score1,2,31,2 1
BritishBB 4008001300
BB Fast4008001500
BC4008001200
GermanBB 4008001300
BC3006001000
AllCA 300600900
CL200400600
DD100200400

Modifiers for Required Score
Firer has lost over 4 DPs-1 Firing from Broadside (45 degrees)+1
Firer has lost over 8 DPs-2 Firer is German (not CLs or DDs)+1
First round of fire on a target (ranging)-2 Not under fire last move+1
Target making smoke-2 
Firer making smoke-3 

DAMAGE
Each Ship has 10 Damge points (German BBs and BCs have 12). Once a ship has lost all its DPs it sinks.
When a hit is scored roll 1d6 to find hit type then check the damage table to see how many DPs are lost:
1,2 = A
3,4 = B
5,6 = C
DAMAGE TABLE
Target
 
BB
BC
CA
CL
DD
ABC ABC ABC ABC ABC
FIRERBB 112 234 345 456 91010
BC 011 123 124 345 8910
CA 011 122 123 345 8910
CL 001 012 112 123 456
DD 000 000 001 012 234

In addition if a British BB or BC is hit by a German BB or BC main armament then;
roll 2d6 (Only 1 roll per ship per move no matter how many hits).
A roll of 12 for BBs, 12 or 2 for BCs indicates that the ship has blown up.

SMOKE
Only DDs may make smoke. This takes 1 move preparation to start, and lasts 1 extra move after smoking has finished. Lay the smoke along the course of the flotilla for the distance of its move. Remove last moves smoke before laying this move's.
The target must be Beam on (45 degrees) to the Firer.

TORPEDOES,br> Torpedoes may only be launched by CLs and DDs. CLs may not reload, DDs have 1 reload taking 6 moves to complete.

To Hit: Roll 1d10
The Required Score to hit is 7, modified as follows:
Range in CMs-? (cms)
Target is DD-3
Target is CL-2
Target's Beam not facing-2

Damage
Roll 1d10 and modify as follows;
Target is DD+5
Target is CL or CA+1
Target is BC-2
Target is BB-3

The result is the number of DPs lost from the target.

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