Second World War at Sea: Imperial and Royal Navy
Developer’s Preview, Part One
By Doug McNair
December 2008

Many years ago, I ran some Great War at Sea demos in the 119694_avalanche Press vendor booth at GenCon. It was a favorite operational scenario of mine involving Austro-Hungarian and Italian forces battling for control of the Adriatic Sea. In one demo I managed to strike a blow for the Dual Monarchy, sinking an Italian battleship by way of a daring torpedo run by Austro-Hungarian destroyers and torpedo boats. Celebrating my victory I informed Mike, who said, “The Old Man of the Adriatic would be proud of you!”

Fast forward several years and Mike is the Old Man of the Adriatic, as evidenced by his latest design: Second World War at Sea: Imperial and Royal Navy. In this alternative history module, Austria Hungary survived the First World War and is still a Mediterranean naval power at the outbreak of World War II. Three battle scenarios and seven operational scenarios explore how a belligerent Austria-Hungary could have affected the strategic situation in the Mediterranean (and even the North Sea and the Indian Ocean!) in the Second World War.

Imperial and Royal Navy is a module similar to our recent Black Sea Fleets, except that it comes in downloadable form instead of a book. It includes ten new scenarios and a sheet of downloadable counters representing the Austro-Hungarian navy and air force, but uses maps and other counters from other games: Bomb Alley, Arctic Convoy, Bismarck and Eastern Fleet. Below is a full list of all the scenarios, plus developer’s commentary by me. We hope you enjoy them!

Battle Scenario One
Otranto Strait
June 1940

No Italian government, even a fascist one, could allow the Austrian navy to dominate the Adriatic Sea again in the Second World War as it had in the First. Italian cruisers had rarely been seen in the Adriatic during the Great War, and their presence would have been heartening to residents of the peninsula's east coast. But first, they would have to get past the Austrians patrolling the sea's narrow mouth.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Bomb Alley.

Developer’s Commentary

A night action between an Austrian blockade force protecting the entrance to the Adriatic Sea and an Italian cruiser squadron trying to run the blockade. The Austrian DDs outgun the Italians, but the Italians get victory points for exiting ships off the north edge of the battle board so it balances out. The Italians can also exit crippled ships off the south edge, but the Austrians get victory points for Italian ships that are dead in the water at the end of play.

Battle Scenario Two
Zerstörer
June 1941

Nazi Germany worked for "superiority of type" in its destroyer designs, opting for an oversized armament that threatened their stability and sophisticated engines prone to breakdown. But on paper, where wargames are fought, they were formidable weapons, much like the big destroyers designed for other navies by former Austro-Hungarian draftsmen in the 1930s.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Arctic Convoy.

Developer’s Commentary

Another night action, this time between Austro-Hungarian and German light forces. Mike showed his pro-Austrian bias by giving the Austrians a light cruiser in addition to their DDs. Unfortunately, that meant the Austrians outgunned the Germans 14 to 9 and out-torpedoed them 22 to 18, and since the scenario takes place at night in bad weather (sighting range of 2) the fact that the German destroyers all have Secondaries made no difference. So I nixed the Austrian CL, leaving the two sides even on torpedoes and the Austrians only two ahead on gunnery factors. That makes it a much fairer fight.

Battle Scenario Three
Super Dreadnoughts
August 1942

The American fast battleships of World War II are usually considered the best of their type, with few matching their speed, firepower or toughness, let alone all three. Faced with ships of similar capabilities, the Royal Navy would doubtlessly have been pressuring the Americans to send a division of them to their assistance.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Arctic Convoy.

Developer’s Commentary

This one’s a pretty fair fight, with the most powerful ships the Dual Monarchy can muster going up against the best of the U.S. and Royal Navies. A player wins by sinking at least one enemy BB AND scoring more VPs than the enemy player. Any other result is a draw.

Operational Scenario One
Morning Thunder
June 1940

When Italy declared war on Austria in 1915, the Austrian Navy welcomed the Italian public to the war with a series of raids all along the peninsula's east coast. Had another war broken out 25 years later, there's no doubt the Austrians would have sought out the same opportunity.

Note: This scenario uses pieces and both maps from Bomb Alley.

Developer’s Commentary

Mike showed his bias again by letting the Austrians begin the game with a bombardment fleet sitting off the west coast of Italy. I felt that if war drums had been beating between Austria and Italy, the Italians would never have let an Austrian battle fleet get west of Sicily without a fight. So I put that fleet back in Corfu but let the Austrians start with a battle fleet at sea not too far from Taranto. I then let the Austrians score victory points by bombarding any Italian ports all over the Med, not just those on the west coast of Italy (otherwise the Italians would just wait there for the Austrians to come to them). But I also shortened the game to 70 turns to force the Austrians to split up their fleets in order to hit all the targets they need to for a victory before the end of play.

Operational Scenario Two
Clash of the Teutons
May 1941

Many Britons regretted their involvement in the Great War. Had a new war erupted between an imperial Austria and fascist Germany without participation by other European powers, the way would have been clear for the Austrian Navy to repeat its 1864 foray into the North Sea. This time the mission would be interdiction of German trade rather than its protection.

Note: This scenario uses pieces and both maps from Bismarck.

Developer’s Commentary

Mike originally designed this as a sort of reverse-Bismarck scenario, where the Kriegsmarine would shepherd a German merchant convoy bound for America all the way to the west edge of the board. I thought that was too predictable; the Germans would just put all their transports in the same task force with all their warships and send them off the west edge together.

Instead, since Germany isn’t at war with Britain, Norway, France or Spain in this scenario, I imported the rules from Arctic Convoy for coastal trade. A new German coastal convoy appears each day in a random port, and moves to a randomly-determined non-German port (if outbound) or to a German port (if inbound). The Germans score VPs for transports that unload at their destination ports while the Austrians score VPs for sinking them.

The Austrians get to act like the Germans from Bismarck in this one, with some of their warships setting up off board with Raiding missions and six oilers also setting up off-board with Supply missions. On the other hand the Germans get to act like the British from Bismarck, using the Off-Board Task Force Air Search Table to locate hidden Austrian raiders and attack them before they can hit German convoys. The Austrians don’t get to use any of the ports on the map, so ships that get crippled in combat or are unable to refuel from oilers can exit the south edge of the map if desired.

That’s all for today! Tune in next time for a preview of the rest of the Imperial and Royal Navy scenarios, which pit the Austro-Hungarian navy against the navies of Britain, Italy, Germany and even Japan!

Continued in Part 2.

Imperial and Royal Navy is now available — just Print and Play!