205.200.206.202 Order of Battle Credits Contents Introduction 2 Lead Developer Erik Nicely New Rules 3 Motor Torpedo Boats 8 Developers Richard L. Bax, Agis Neugebauer, Erik Nicely Admirals 11 Wulf Corbett, David Manley Advanced Aircraft Operations 15 Editor Scenarios 22 Nick Robinson Hunting the Beast 27 Contents Cover Expanded Fleet List 34 Chris Quilliams Royal Navy 35 Kriegsmarine 58 Interior Illustrations Sherard Jackson, Danilo Moretti, Mike Mumah United States Navy 64 Japan 74 Miniatures Gaming Manager Ian Barstow Italian 88 French 95 Print Manager Ed Russell Soviet Union 100 Civilian Ships 110 Special Thanks Counters 112 Adam Gulwell, Peter Swarbrick of www.shipspictures.co.uk and David Page of www.navyphotos.co.uk Order of Battle (C) 2007 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. All signifi cant art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. This material is copyrighted under the copyright laws of the UK. Printed in the UK. 1 205.200.206.202 Introduction Victory at Sea had a humble beginning as a bare-bones set of free rules in Mongoose Publishing’s Signs and Portents online magazine. That initial free rules set proved to be popular and led to the development of the core rulebook, which was an immediate success. A loyal international fan base developed as Victory at Sea quickly earned itself a place as one of the ‘standards’ of World War II naval wargaming. The rulebook covered the basics of naval warfare in all theatres, but only so much would fi t within its pages. This supplement is an expansion for Victory at Sea. Changes for some of the rules and stat blocks from the original rulebook have been made in an attempt to increase historical accuracy. Player concerns that have come up on Mongoose Publishing’s online forum have been addressed as well. New rules are introduced to cover many aspects of WWII naval combat that were not addressed in the core rulebook and air combat has been expanded and, of course, there are new ships. With the expanded fl eet lists, players have the resources to play any historical battle as well as the option to build better fl eets for ‘what if’ games. This book was a collaborative effort that couldn’t have been done without the input of the original Salty Seadogs playtest group. Many thanks to David Manley and Rich Bax, whose fl eet lists form a large portion of this book. I would be remiss not to thank Agis Neubauer as well for his excellent work on the German Z-Plan ships. The newer playtesters proved their worth; Dan Martz and Darell Phillips gave many suggestions and often acted as my ‘conscience’ when I wanted to blow through a rule in order to get to the next one, and I received good feedback from the other new guys. My personal gaming group at Game Towne in San Diego deserves mention - thanks ‘dudes’. Thanks to Matthew Sprange for giving me the opportunity to work on this project, and to my wife Amber for putting up with my occasional loud rants while putting it all together. Introduction 2 205.200.206.202 New Rules This chapter details some changes to the main Victory at Sea rulebook, and adds many new options for budding admirals to try in their games. These additional rules are by no means necessary to enjoy a good battle, but you will fi nd they add a degree of realism and will provide you with many new tactical choices within a game. Official Rules Changes for Victory at Sea These are offi cial changes to the Victory at Sea rulebook, adding a little more realism to the game and streamlining play. Moving: A ship must move half of its current Speed (not maximum Speed) before it can execute a turn. Flank Speed!: This Special Action increases a ship’s movement by 1”. There is no modifi er to Attack Dice on ships that have executed a Flank Speed! Special Action. Attacking: There is a +1 bonus to all Attack Dice for all turret and secondary weapons to any target within 10” unless the target is obscured by smoke. Secondary Armaments ignore the -1 Attack Dice penalties when attacking vessels moving 7” or more. Torpedo Belts: Torpedo Belts only give protection to side hits - hits to fore and aft score damage normally. For every hit a Torpedo scores on the side of a ship with the Torpedo Belt trait, roll one dice. On a 4 or more, the Belt itself has been hit and the Attack Dice be re-rolled. Weak: Weak weapons incur a -1 modifi er to all Damage Dice rolls, and only infl ict Critical Hits on targets with an Armour score of 3 or less. Critical effects remain the same, but only one extra point of Crew and/or Damage may be lost due to a Critical Hit New Rules from a Weak weapon. Torpedo Attacks, Tubes and Reloads: No torpedo attacks may be made by a ship in the same turn that it executes an Evasive! Special Action. Torpedo reloads for submarines in all navies are limited to one extra salvo (two shots total). Cruisers of the Imperial Japanese Navy with Slow Loading torpedoes have reloads for two extra salvoes (three shots total) while Japanese destroyers with Slow Loading torpedoes are limited to one extra salvo (two shots). The Slow Loading Special trait as described in Victory at Sea remains unaffected. Torpedo tubes will be treated as turrets when applying damage results due to being Crippled. They may never be fi red through smoke. In addition, all damage scored on civilian vessels by torpedoes is automatically doubled. Observation Aircraft: Observation Aircraft are no longer represented on the tabletop during games, unless being used in an ASW capacity, and do not affect combat or Initiative. The Aircraft Special Trait may not be eliminated when a ship becomes Crippled (it is assumed that the ship has its planes in the air at the start of the battle). Observation Aircraft do not affect the launching/owning ship’s Attack Dice and do not provide an Initiative bonus. They may be outfi tted for Anti Submarine Warfare as detailed on page 16. For further uses of Observation Aircraft see the Hunting the Beast chapter, page 29. Smoke: Ships may fi re through Smoke created by friendly vessels with the following restrictions: the ships fi ring must have the Radar trait, normal range penalties apply to the friendly fi ring ships, no AD bonus is given to ships within 10”, anti-aircraft fi re from friendly ships is subject to a -1 penalty to AAA Attack Dice, and torpedoes may not be fi red through smoke. The rules for the automatic Command Check, placing and removing Smoke Counters, and enemy targeting through Smoke as stated in Victory at Sea remain the same. 3 205.200.206.202 New Advanced Rules The Victory at Sea rulebook presents the basic rules for playing the naval battles of World War II. The following offer an added level of realism (and lethality) to games, and players should consider them to be Advanced Rules to be used after they are comfortable with the basics. Shorelines, Islands and Shallow Water Dry land on the Victory at Sea gaming table can be denoted by table edges, lines drawn on the table or artistically produced terrain pieces. Dry land, however represented, will take the form of shorelines and islands. Whether land obstructs line of sight or not should be determined before play begins via common agreement or a scenario-specifi c rule. No ship with a starting Damage score of 6 or more can come within 1” of Land without running aground. The exception to this are any areas designated as being a harbour, where all ships are permitted to move. Ships running aground may not fi re any weapons or execute any Special Actions, launch or recover aircraft, and their Speed is reduced to 0 for the rest of the game. Attack Dice gain a +2 bonus against beached ships. Shore Batteries Shore batteries in Victory at Sea represent artillery pieces employed against naval vessels. The size and number of shore batteries used against ships varied greatly and the rules below will allow players to include them in scenarios. Shore batteries are considered immobile ships for game purposes. They can vary greatly in their capabilities but all can be expressed in game terms using the following guidelines: Main Guns: All shore batteries are equipped with these. All have a range and AD based on size and number of guns, DD, and some will have the Weak, AP, or Super AP traits. Guns Range AD DD Traits Less than 6” guns 12” 1 per 4 barrels 1 Weak 6”-8” guns 26” 1 per 2 barrels 1 — New Rules 10” guns 22” 1 per barrel 1 — 12” guns 26” 1 per barrel 1 — 14” guns 28” 1 per barrel 2 AP 15” guns 30” 1 per barrel 2 AP 16” guns 40” 1 per barrel 2 Super AP Target Score: As Shore Batteries are hard to detect and hit, they all have a Target value of 5+. Armour: Open Gun: 4+, Shielded Gun: 5+, Hardened Gun (such as the “Atlantic Wall” batteries): 6+. The default armour for all shore batteries is 5+. Damage: 5 per Gun AD. -1 if the guns are weak, +1 if they are AP or Super AP.