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Welcome to Battlefleet 1915, a set of miniature wargame
rules which recreates the war at sea during World War One.
In
Battlefleet, many of the possibilities and realities of this time can be
recreated, with your abilities having a direct effect on the results. During
game play, your own range estimates of the actual enemy miniatures are used to
establish hits and misses. Hence, personal skills of the fighting fleets become
a tangible factor as you try to keep your ships afloat and in fighting trim!
| GAME SCALES |
| |
Small |
Medium |
| Recommend Scale |
1/6000 |
1/2400 |
| Measurement Format |
Metric |
Imperial (inches) |
| 1 kilometer |
85mm |
10½ inches |
| 1 nautical mile |
157mm |
19½ inches |
| 1000 yards |
78mm |
9½ inches |
| Each range bracket |
50cm |
5 feet |
| Maximum gun range |
150cm |
15 feet |
| 1 turn |
Three Minutes |
« 1.1 Game
Scales
Battlefleet can be played in one of two different scale
formats; small and medium. The small format uses metric measurement and is
designed for use with 1/6000 scale naval miniatures, allowing games to be
played on a dining table. The medium scale format is imperial (inches) based,
and is designed for use with 1/2400 and 1/3000 scale miniatures, which usually
requires a large playing area. All scale ship speeds for these three formats
have been pre-plotted on the Master Scale Chart,
which covers most speed ranges needed for Battlefleet ship logs.
« 1.2 Mounting
& Figures
There are many different scales of ship models
available for use with Battlefleet. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 |
| Above: The four zones
of a ship. The front and rear arcs are 60 degrees across, centered on the
fore/aft line. Any vessels being fired upon by guns from within their front or
rear arc may only use the second of their two armor values. |
Mounting - Small scale vessels should be mounted on
bases for ease of handling. The Battlefleet mounting standard for 1/6000 scale
is ½ x 11/8 inches (13mm x 30mm). Most
play-testing for Battlefleet was conducted using this scale, and within the
rules text, the term "vessel," "model" or "ship" also applies to any base upon
which that model might be mounted.
Each model has four zones into
which it is divided; a front, a rear and two beam zones. These zones are used
to establish whether a vessel is being "raked" or not during the fire phase.
Note that the front and rear arcs are not referred to as bow and stern arcs in
order to prevent confusing their definitions with those of the arcs-of-fire of
weapons. See Figure at right.
« 1.3
Equipment
Naval wargames are a bit more technically demanding than
some other forms of miniature wargaming and require a few extra tools. The
standard gaming equipment of tape measures (metric or standard), 12 sided dice
and pencils are definitely required. Players will also need to download the
Battlefleet Combat Chart, Ship Log, Gunnery Log and Arcs sheet. Cutting out the
arcs-of-fire and turning circles and mounting them on thin cardboard will give
them extra strength. A clipboard is also valuable for writing on the ship and
gunnery logs.
Combat Charts: Each player should have a copy of the
Battlefleet Combat Chart, which can be downloaded off of the Battlefleet page
in the WTJ Games section. There are two halves to the combat chart, a front and
back. Both sides are needed for game play, and include turn sequence, gunnery,
torpedo and damage charts. For related overviews of each section of the chart,
see More About Combat Charts, which
includes step by step illustrations of the charts.
Ship Logs: Each vessel used in combat will need to
have an entry in one of the ship logs. These entries are used to track
available speed, weapons and damage to each vessel. The information shown in
the Ship Values listings on the Battlefleet page has all the information needed
to fill out the ship logs for those vessels. For more detailed explanations,
see More About Ship Logs.
| TURN SEQUENCE |
- 1) Command
- Players issue basic movement orders for the
upcoming movement phase and attempt to send messages or order requests to other
commanders.
- 2) Movement
- Players simultaneously move their ships according
to the basic movement orders issued during the Command Phase.
- 3) Ranging & Gunnery
- Players simultaneously guess ranges to enemy ships
and record them on their gunnery logs. All ranges are then marked as hits or
misses.
- 4) Torpedo Launches
- All torpedo launches are declared and any resulting
hits marked.
- 5) Damage
- a) Check for ongoing fire and flooding
effects.
- b) Resolve hit damage.
- c) Attempt damage control.
- d) Test for sinking and uneven flooding
effects.
|
Gunnery Logs: Because Battlefleet uses a range
estimate system to control gunnery, players use Gunnery Logs to record their
range estimates. Each log contains two four-ship sections (most navy divisions
are composed of four ships), along with a command line at the far left of each
division. At the top of each gunnery log column, record the name of one ship.
In the columns below, record salvo targets and hits. The boxes along the top
edge of each division are for recording command arrows during times when
vessels are not firing salvos and/or out of range. These spare command boxes
eliminate the "wasting" of range boxes during preliminary maneuvers.
« 1.4 Turn
Sequence
Once all players have filled out their ship and gunnery
logs, placed their ships and arranged their formations, game play is ready to
begin. Each phase of the turn sequence is conducted by both players
simultaneously. At right is an outline of each turn sequence and its basic
elements: |
