Frequently Asked Questions

This is the only official FAQ for this game. In all cases, the question has been answered by the game's designer.

Q: Does a ship with only tertiary armament suffer hull hits from primary, secondary, or tertiary hits after the ship's tertiary armament is destroyed?

A: Yes.

Q: If the weather is so bad as to reduce movement of TB/DD to 1 operational square in a turn, how is it handled if it was plotted to move 2 squares?

A: Continue to move the ships along their pre-plotted path, but at the weather penalty of one square per turn.

Q: In bad weather, a DD/TB moving on the tactical map moves as though it were a 1-move unit (and not a 2 or 2+)?

A: Yes.

Q: The mine laying rule says it takes 4 operational map turns to lay a field. At the time it was doctrine in both the Grand Fleet and the High Seas Fleet to cover a retreating main battle fleet with mines and both had minelayers attached for this purpose for most of the war. Can this be simulated?

A: Not very easily, but the High Seas Fleet found it didn't work in practice, either.

Q: The complete banning of torpedo and small guns firing in squall is a bit difficult to understand. Gale and storm yes, but squall?

A: The weather names reflect increasingly bad weather, not necessarily an actual "squall."

Q: When merchant ships are traveling a convoy route that goes through coastal zones (e.g. off Sweden) they do not roll every turn for potential grounding, correct?

A: The merchant routes reflect places where random enemy shipping is likely to be found, and is not represented by counters. There are no grounding checks for them.

Q: In "U.S. Navy Plan Red" all the British Destroyer Leaders (single ships) are printed as multi-ship counters. Is this correct?

A: Please refer to page 6 of the scenario book.

Q: Does Avalanche Press plan to do a sheet of counters to upgrade erroneous counters in earlier games, or are they going to include these counters in future games?

A: Replacement counters are periodically included in later games or made available on our Web site.

Q: In "U.S. Navy Plan Red," none of the battleships seem to have deck armor shown around the hull boxes. Some of the ships like the South Dakota class have had this armor listed before, and the newer and bigger battleships would almost certainly qualify. Please clarify which capital ships should count as having deck protection in the game?

A: All 3 Canadians, all British battleships, and all American battleships except New York, Texas, Long Island. But not battle cruisers.

Q: In "U.S. Navy Plan Red," why are Proteus/Nereus and AMCs listed as light ships? AMCs are capital ships everywhere else.

A: The game designer decided to go with light this time, though it's a tossup either way.

Q: In "U.S. Navy Plan Red," why are Omaha CLs listed as having coal fuel? They are oil fired in "U.S. Navy Plan Black" and "U.S. Navy Plan Orange."

A: These should be oil-fired.

Q: In "U.S. Navy Plan Red," why are 1914 Fast ACs given coal fuel and do their primaries have a range of 3?

A: They were designed as coal-burners, even though the USN was using oil for most warships by the time they would have been laid down. Possibly has to do with their commerce-raiding role (easier to take fuel from prizes). They were designed during the coal-to-oil transition but not approved, and could very well have burned oil by the time they completed but we went with coal. They are long enough for effective fire control and so should get the 3 range.

Q: "U.S. Navy Plan Red" - a couple of questions regarding the aircraft: sopwith cuckoo - are the bomb and torpedo factors the wrong way round? The cuckoo was only equipped for torpedo dropping. As it was a single seat aircraft with no guns, why does it have an air to air rating? Bombing/torpedo ratings: Do the circled values mean that these aircraft hit on a 5 or 6, as in air to air combat?

A: Land rating in bottom left, naval in bottom right. Circle does mean hits on 5 or 6. Postwar Cuckoos often had a machine gun, and they desperately need the minimal air-to-air rating.

Q: Rule 3.1. Do players have to use a fleet counter for fleets that start in port or off the Operational Map?

A: No, but they must record the location of all ships not in a fleet box, so that they can be placed on the Tactical Map for a battle if an enemy fleet enters the port.

Q: Rule 3.1. Do all ships that start the game in the same location (port or sea zone) have to be placed in one fleet box?

A: No. They may be placed in as many fleets as the player desires (up to the limit of the fleet counters).

Q: Rule 3.1. Are players required to plot two turns of movement for intercept fleets before the game begins? And what do they do if ships become available on a later turn?

A: Yes. And when ships become available on a later turn, players must immediately plot three turns for an intercept mission (all their movement for bombardment mission, etc.) and may begin moving them on that turn.

Q: Rule 4.4. Do you check for contact if two fleets remain in the same zone?

A: Yes.

Q: Rule 5.2 (Minesweeping) - Do you have to pre-plot detecting and removing minefields?

A: No. A fleet with a minesweeping mission may remain in a hex to detect and sweep mines, thus delaying but not changing its pre-plotted movement.

Q: Rule 5.4. Do you have to check for contact for a fleet that is in port, bombarding or unloading cargo?

A: No. Contact always occurs between a fleet plotted to bombard or unload cargo in the same zone that an opposing fleet remains in or enters. Contact always occurs if one fleet is in a minor port and an enemy fleet enters the port (See Rule 11.31).

Q: Rule 5.4. Do you check for contact with a raiding fleet that doesn't have its fleet counter on the map if it passed through a zone containing an enemy fleet?

A: No. Only if it has its fleet counter on the map or it ends movement in a zone containing an enemy fleet and is thus required to place its fleet counter on the map (See Rule 5.2 Raid).

Q: Rule 7.28, says an unmodified result of six (6) is a surprise sighting. What if the modifiers indicate that no contact takes place?

A: An unmodified contact result of six (6) is always a contact, regardless of the modifiers.

Q: Rule 7.2. Please clarify placement rules 7.21 through 7.24.

A: Placement. No more than eight ships of the same side may occupy one hex on the tactical map. No less than four ships may be placed in a hex unless the player has less than four ships in his fleet, in which case they must all be placed in the same hex.

All ships are initially placed face-down. Count multiple ship counters (Rule 9.0) as one ship each for placement.

Ships from the same fleet must be placed in the same hex or a series of adjacent hexes with at least four ships in each hex (thus, if the total number of ships in the fleet is less than eight, all must be placed in the same hex).

The player without the initiative must place a total of eight ships in one or two adjacent shaded center hexes before he may place any ships in hexes outside the shaded center hexes. If he has more than eight ships, he may place additional ships in any hexes that are adjacent to any ships that have been previously placed, and as long as no ships are placed closer to the numbered hexes on the map side from which the initiative player's ships will enter than the current sighting range (four hexes during daylight and two at night). All ships must be placed as close as possible to the numbered hexes on the map side from which the initiative player's ships will enter.

The initiative player then places his ships, starting in the numbered hexes along the side of the tactical map corresponding to the sea zone from which his fleet entered the sea zone in which contact was made. If the initiative player's fleet did not move during the turn, it may enter the tactical map from any side the initiative player chooses. If he has more than eight ships, he may place additional ships in any hexes that are adjacent to any ships that have been previously placed, as long as no ships are placed closer to enemy ships than the current sighting range (four hexes during daylight and two at night, modified by weather conditions).

Q: Rule 7.23. Can twenty-four (24) destroyers set up in one hex, since multiple-ship counters count as one ship?

A: Yes

Q: Rule 7.32. Do speed 2 ships move two hexes on the tactical map during their movement impulse?

A: No. All ship groups may remain in their hex or move one hex on an impulse in which they are allowed to move. The advantage of faster ship groups is that they get to move on more impulses.

Q: Rules 7.34 and 8.5. These rules seem to indicate two mutually exclusive conditions. Which rule should prevail?

A: Use rule 8.5

Q: Rule 7.37. Can players change the movement orders for all fleets that participated in combat?

A: No. The first sentence instructs players to correct the movement orders for fleets that had their plots altered by contact (rule 5.41) or exiting the tactical map (rule 7.33). The second sentence allows players to change the mission of fleets involved in combat to an abort mission and thus send it back to a port.

Q: Rule 7.5. Are ships only allowed to fire once each 20 step impulse sequence?

A: No. They may fire once during each of that player's gunnery and torpedo steps/impulses.

Q: Rule 8.3. Can Excess Damage harm another ship of a multiple-ship counter?

A: No.

Q: Rule 8.3. If Excess Damage calls for another hit of a type that no longer exists, what do you do?

A: Follow the Referred Pain (rule 8.6) rules to see what the hit becomes.

Q: Rule 8.6. If the Referred Pain rules refer the hit to something that has armor that can't be penetrated by the gunnery, what happens?

A: The hit is ignored.

Q: Rule 8.8. Can Plunging Fire damage another ship of a multiple-ship counter?

A: No.

Q: Rule 9.0. How do you handle fuel for multiple-ship counters?

A: Multiple-ship counters are treated as one ship for purposes of fuel consumption (rule 12.1) and refueling (rule 12.3). Note that a multiple-ship counter only has one set of fuel boxes on the Ship Data Sheet for the counter, not one for each ship.

Q: Rule 11.73. Are you supposed to add or subtract the die roll for search (contact) attempts?

A: Subtract

Q: Rule 12.0. What do the white and gray fuel boxes stand for?

A: White stands for coal-burning ships. Gray stands for oil-fired ships.

Updated: 09/25/2002