Atlantic War, 1914-18 (2024)

A fairly fast abstracted World War 1 Atlantic war campaign game. Like Atlantic Convoys 1939-45, no grid necessary. (Max. of 3 convoy lanes plus Murmansk Run. Independent sailers ... sail independently, as does the hard-to-catch special Transport convoy.) 9 half-year turns. Half as many dreadnoughts and battle cruisers (in proportion) for playability. Convoy and Grand Fleet escorts linked as in the rationale for the Admiralty opposing convoys, until losses became so horrific in 1916, by which time there were more escorts/destroyers. So if destroyers are stripped from the Grand Fleet early in the war, German torpedo boats get that many free shots at British ships out in the North Sea. See descendant Nick Jellicoe's new book, Jellicoe's War: The U-boat Threat in World War One and the Question of Convoy. But if Britain starves, the German player wins a Smashing Strategic Victory worth 2 game wins. Plus, the British/Allied player must keep Russia in the war. Freighters/freight units can instead be sailed independently, but are subject to losses depending on the density of German U-boats, the raider, and battle cruisers which break out into the Atlantic or up against the Murmansk Run (and the British did get major tonnage to Russia in WW1, until the Revolution). Same surface warship combat result system without the "distraction" of air warfare. Trying to keep the German High Seas Fleet bottled up in the North Sea (which has a blown up chart for fleet battles) is a game in itself, albeit helped by Room 40 codebreaking. The second Damage result has a special little bright red blossom in it for British battle cruiser and even (to a lesser extent) battleship shell magazines. }:-) In 1917, the US Navy comes to save the British, and in 1918 sets up the can't-be-done North Sea Mine Barrage between the Orkneys and Norway which was unexpectedly successful - many U-boats just disappeared. —description from the designer