Sea of Iron:
Design Notes, Chapter One
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
August 2026

When it came time to convert Second World War at Sea: Sea of Iron from boxed format into a Playbook game, the scenario book needed revision as well. Switching the book from saddle-stitched (with staples in the spine) to perfect bound (with a glued spine and heavy cover, like a paperback book) meant a new layout. And a new layout is an opportunity for major revisions.

As I re-read the scenarios for Sea of Iron’s earlier editions, I found the individual scenarios very good, but they lacked theme and organization. They didn’t follow the story-arc format that’s become the standard for or games: the scenarios are now organized into chapters by theme and chronology, and are used to tell the story of that battle or campaign.

I also came to think that the earlier editions of Sea of Iron relied too heavily on hypothetical engagements. The story-arc format, at least for naval games, uses the scenario set to study not just what happened, but what could have happened, in the context of the actual events. So if the fleets went looking for trouble, but didn’t find it, we include the battle that might have arisen from contact.

And so I rebuilt Sea of Iron to more closely follow historical events: the operations that happened or were actually planned, and the battles that arose from them or seemed likely to arise from them. The first chapter of the new, rebuilt Sea of Iron Playbook edition takes place in September 1939, as Germany invades Poland and the Poles are left with few options.

During the pre-war years, the Poles spent a great deal of their desperately-needed hard currency to build a small fleet of destroyers, submarines, and a well-regarded minelayer. Knowing they would be out-numbered, the Poles built very powerful individual ships, greatly out-classing German and Soviet destroyers on a one-for-one basis. Non-Polish historians of the September Campaign have derided this decision as a diversion of crucial resources away from desperately-needed modern tanks and aircraft to a prestige fleet. That accusation is both unfair and untrue.

Poland faced a larger, more powerful enemy on either side: the rapidly-rearming Nazi Germany, and the deeply hostile Soviet Union. They considered war with the Soviets most likely; after all they had fought and defeated them in the early 1920’s, and knew that Soviet war planners considered Poland their chief future enemy. The Poles believed a war with Germany possible though less likely. Given the stark ideological differences between Nazism and Communism, they thought a war against a Nazi-Soviet alliance to be the least likely of all. The latter, of course, is exactly what they faced in the actual conflict.

The German fleet included battleships and cruisers, which the Poles did not possess, and their small destroyer flotilla, no matter how well-drilled, could not hope to defeat the Nazis in a naval war thanks to overwhelming German air power. And so the Polish naval command decided to send their flotilla to Britain in the event of war to carry on from there; a bitter choice given the British refusal to supply modern planes to Poland in the years just prior (the British did buy anti-tank guns from Poland, which provided some hard currency but none of the Hurricanes or Spitfires that might have defended the Polish fleet from Nazi Stukas).

That operation begins our first chapter. The Germans had an idea that the Poles might flee, and had their own forces poised to intercept. The Polish squadron commander had authorization to attack any German ship that “insulted the Polish flag,” which in practice meant that he could attack any German he wished. The Poles encountered two German forces along the way, but declined to fight them; the odds were not that bad and Lt. Cdr. Roman Stankiewicz considered fighting each of them, but veered away. We let you consider his chances on the game table.

The departure of three Polish destroyers left behind the minelayer and one destroyer suffering engine troubles. They ended up fighting the Germans at extremely long odds; we have that operation and battle of course, even though it ends up as an exercise in forlorn Polish valor.

Once the three fully-operable Polish destroyers passed through the Danish Straits, the Germans appear to have simply ignored them, not even trying to intercept them in the North Sea. Stankiewicz did not carry a reputation for aggression (he spent most of his career in the Navy’s training establishment), but the Germans don’t seem to have considered that the Poles might double back into the Baltic once they had weakened their forces there. We have that option included, which also allows the Poles to deliver a torpedo attack against the ancient pre-dreadnoughts Schlesien and Schleswig-Holstein.

We wrap up the chapter with a look at the conflict for which the Polish fleet had been built: a war with the Soviet Union, in which Poland had to protect its trade with the West from enemy attack. The Poles built their destroyers to defend their sea communications, just as the Soviets built their cruisers to enter the southern Baltic and disrupt this traffic.

That’s shown here with four scenarios: operational scenarios based on outbound and inbound Polish convoy traffic, while the Soviets try to interfere. And a matching battle scenario for each, plus one extra so you can use that Soviet battle cruiser.

That makes for eleven scenarios in the first chapter, which is quite a few as our chapters usually go. But the Polish fleet is not large, and neither for that matter are the German or Soviet naval elements. And only the Germans bring significant air assets to bear. Consequently, the scenarios aren’t very large, either: you’ll be able to play several in an evening. That also lets us tell the full story of the 1939 naval campaign without it dragging over a vast number of pages.

The naval side of the September campaign is usually told very briefly, as the Polish destroyers flee, the submarines wander about looking for targets and then flee as well (except for the one that went to Sweden to be interred), and the Polish leftovers fight a single doomed battle against the Nazis, who batter their ships to pieces with dive bombers. Also, an ancient Nazi battleship steams into a Polish port on a “peaceful” visit and begins the Second World War by opening fire on its hosts at point-blank range.

That assessment leaves out the question of why the Poles built a fleet at all. They had their reasons, and we give you the chance to use their squadron as intended.

Order Sea of Iron (full game) Here.

Order Sea of Iron (Anarchy) Here.
No rules! You’ll need the Second Edition rules from another Second World War at Sea game. Earlier edition rules will not work with this game.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife and three children.

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