Fire When Ready

NAVAL WARGAMES RULES FOR PRE-DREADNOUGHT ACTIONS

·         Current Edition: 2.0

·         Recommended scale 1/1200 to 1/3000

·         Complexity: 6/10

·         Level of detail: 6/10

·         Avg game length 2 hours

·         Dice required: D20, D10, D6

Fire When Ready covers actions with pre-dreadnoughts. They come with a set of rules for creating your game statistics for your vessels using published sources such as "Jane’s" or "Conway’s".

The rules features an choice of game systems. The "Duel" Game is intended for use with a small number of ships and each ship has a captain and crew generated individually. The "Battle" system is for large battles such as Tsushima and ships operate in formations, each of which has a Commander and ships' crew ratings are generated for a formation.

There are alternative gunnery systems offering simultaneous effects (which can be used with the "Duel" Game) or sequential effects based on initiative, in which shooting follows in order of initiative (highest scores shoot first) and where damage is applied immediately (this can be used in either game system).

The gunnery rules include the effects of "crossing the T" and other features. It is now possible to achieve significant amounts of damage and multiple special hits.

There are 10 scenarios and ready calculated ship data is provided so you can sit down and play any of them.

SUMMARY OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE BASICS: Scales; Equipment Required; Bases; Die Roll Conventions; Arcs of Fire

WARSHIP DATA: Maximum Speed; Armour; Defence Values; Armament; Destroyers and smaller vessels; Table of Guns by Type, Calibre and Nationality; Table of Generic Guns by Calibre and Nationality; Table of Torpedo Data by Calibre and Nationality

ADMIRALS’ RANKINGS AND CREW RATINGS

WEATHER, VISIBILITY AND GAME SET-UP: Weather; Tactical Visibility; Strategic Visibility (Optional Rule); Effects of Weather on Operations; Local Weather (optional); Weather effects on Combat; Game Deployment

FORMATIONS: Formation Structure; Independent Operation; Interaction between formations; Operating in Formation

ORDER OF PLAY

MOVEMENT: Movement Forward and Astern; Turning; Formation effects on Movement; Collisions and Ramming; Leaving the table; Transferring Commanders between ships; Effects of Funnel Smoke (Optional rule); Towing (Optional rule); Grounding (Optional rule)

SUGGESTED VICTORY POINT SYSTEM

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GUNNERY: Ranges, Lines of Sight, Arcs of Fire; Duel System Gunnery Procedure; Battle System Gunnery Procedure; ‘On Target’ rolls; Causing Damage; Effects of Above and Below Water Damage; Special Hits; Gunnery Example; Use of special ammunition (Optional rule); Combat involving Destroyers and small vessels; Effects of overloaded ships (Optional rule)

TORPEDOES AND MINES: Torpedo Procedure; Anti Torpedo Nets (Optional rule); Towed Torpedoes; Mines

DAMAGE REPAIRS AND MORALE: Repairs; Fires; Morale

ADDITIONAL RULES: Torpedo Launches; Spar Torpedoes; Submarines; Night Actions; Shore Installations

SCENARIOS: The Battle of the Yalu River; The Battle of Manila Bay; The Battle of Santiago; The Battle of Lemnos; Night Attack on Port Arthur; The Battle of Chemulpo; The Battle of the Yellow Sea; The Battle of Ulsan; The Siege of Port Arthur; The Battle of Tsu-Shima

WARSHIP DATA: Filling in the Ship Record sheet; China; Greece; Japan; Russia; Spain; Turkey; United States

GAME TEMPLATES

SHIP RECORD SHEETS