Naval Wargaming on the Patio

Phil Dutré
Schild & Vriend Gentlemen’s Wargaming Society

If you have ever read a copy of HG Wells’ Little Wars, one of the things that stands out are
photographs of Edwardian gentlemen kneeling on the lawn, moving toy soldiers around and playing
a wargame. Garden wargaming is a longstanding tradition - and one can find numerous photographs
on websites and blogs of fellow wargamers setting up a game in the outdoors. The advantages are
obvious: a huge gaming area, the ability to crawl around and in-between your troops, a sense of
freedom that comes with not being tied up to your gaming table, and a little bit of grandeur.

When I acquired my current house a couple of years ago, it came with a patio featuring a rectangular
grid of blue-greyish flagstones. It did not take a huge leap of the imagination to envision that a naval
wargame should at one time be played on this surface that looked - at least in colour - like a whirling
seascape. But, as with many good wargaming ideas, the idea was shelved and never materialized.

Last summer however, everything suddenly fell in place. The patio got its yearly scrubbing, the
weather forecast told us to expect a few hot and sunny days, and it was my turn to host a wargame
that week. It all came together. Now or never!

Ships and scenery

My first job was to find some model ships. When wargaming in the garden - or in my case, onthe
patio - you actually do walk on the playing surface. That is part of the fun, but also comes with the
danger of collateral damage when not being careful. Moreover, other species of four-legged
mammals belonging to the household might suddenly want to join the game and inflict a little
damage on the troops themselves. Hence, some cheap but visually attractive ships were needed.
Years ago, I bought a whole series of cardboard ships from the Pirates of the Spanish Main
constructible strategy game (at the time published by Wizkids). A quick search in the garage turned
them up, ready for action. There were enough ships-of-the-line available to set up a large naval
game for the age of sails period.

The advantage of naval wargaming is that you do not need a lot of scenery. However, since naval
games tend to be manoeuvre games, it is always nice to have a couple of islands you will have to
navigate around, or that can serve as the objective for a scenario. Finding scenery items that can
serve as islands in a naval setting is not too difficult: use your hills from the regular gaming table. In
my case, a few of the larger Hexon hills and mountains (from the Kallistra terrain system) did the job.

Rules
For outdoors wargaming, it is a bit cumbersome to walk around with a bunch of papers, tables and
rulebooks in your hand – not to mention a cold beer. The rules therefore need to be simple, such
that they can be memorized in a few minutes. The idea should be to create an immersive evocative
game that captures the essentials, rather than a detailed simulation.
I decided to write a simple ruleset around the following three core design principles:

1. The game is played on a rectangular grid, consisting of an array of 9x26 flagstones, each
measuring 45x45 cm, for a total playing area of approximately 4x11.5 meters. Due to the
size of the squares and the size of the ships (most of them between 5 and 7cm long), it
makes sense to organize ships in squadrons, with one squadron occupying one square. A
squadron is represented by 3 or 4 ships, and the number of ships also indicates the number
of “hit-points” for each squadron. This minimizes bookkeeping, since the strength of a
squadron can be easily visually deduced from the number of ships left.
2. One of the aspects that makes an age of sail naval wargame fun and challenging is the
continuous struggle with wind direction, and the effect it has on movement. Thus, the
movement rules should reflect this. Using a rectangular grid implies we will use 8 possible
directions for the wind.
3. Another well-known attribute of most naval games for this period is the sailing formation of
ships. Common wisdom says that ships should sail in line for maximum fire power. The other
formation is an “irregular” formation: less effective in combat, but faster in movement.

Force Organization

1. Every side consists of 3 to 5 squadrons, counting 3 or 4 ships each.

2. All ships of a squadron occupy the same square. The models should be placed within the
sqaure oriented in one of the 8 possible heading directions, and it should also be obvious
from their placement whether they are sailing in line or an irregular formation. If a squadron
only has one ship left, it always counts as being in an irregular formation.

Turn sequence

1. At the start of the turn, roll a D6. If a 1 is rolled, the wind direction changes by 45 degrees.
Roll a second die to determine whether the wind changes clockwise or counterclockwise.
2. The squadrons that are furthest downwind move first, irrespective of what side that
squadrons belongs to. Squadrons closest to the wind move last. Ties are resolved by rolling a
die. This is similar to the movement system used in other naval games .
3. After al squadrons have moved, a new turn starts.

Movement

1. Movement is counted in squares. The number of squares a squadron can move depends
both on its bearing relative to the wind and its formation (line or irregular) at the start of its
action.
2. A squadron can move a maximum number of squares as indicated in the accompanying
diagram, showing the relative wind direction. When sailing in an irregular formation at the
start of the turn, maximum movement is increased by 1 square. E.g. a squadron in line, with
the wind at an angle of 90 degrees, can move 2 squares. A squadron sailing in an irregular
 formation with the wind coming from behind at a 45 degree angle, can move 3+1 = 4
squares.

3. The minimum movement distance is always 1 square (except when sailing directly into the
wind, in which case the squadron cannot move at all). The first square moved must always
be in direction of the current bearing. After each square moved forwards, the squadron can
rotate 45 degrees in either direction.
Not allowing an orientation change before the first square moved forces player to think one
turn ahead when positioning their squadrons. Moreover, this rule implements the idea of
“movement drift”.
4. If the squadron moves its entire turn only in the forward direction (i.e. no 45 degree turns
are taken), it gains an additional movement square, but ONLY when moving along an
orthogonal direction to the grid. If a squadron sails along a diagonal grid line, this bonus is
not awarded.
This is a simple rule to compensate for the fact that on a rectangular grid, diagonal
movements cover more distance than orthogonal ones. Since the total movement distances
are small, this rule turns out to be remarkably accurate.
5. Sailing directly into the wind is not allowed. When a squadron turns directly against the
wind, it stops immediately and assumes an irregular formation.
6. Instead of moving at all, the squadron can spent its entire turn re-orienting on the spot
facing any possible direction as a result, but assumes and irregular formation when doing so.
This rule allows squadrons that are stuck into the wind to spend one turn getting into a
favourable orientation again.
7. A formation change from line to irregular or vice-versa is possible, but never when there is
an enemy squadron present on the same square. Changing from irregular to line costs 1
movement point; line to irregular is free. The squadron keeps the same orientation when
doing so.
8. If a squadron in line sails 3 or more squares, there is a 1 in 3 chance (roll a D6) for the
squadron becoming irregular. This also applies when a squadron in line enters a square that
contains another friendly squadron.
It is harder to keep all ships in line when sailing at high speeds or when having to sail through
other ships, no?

Combat

The combat rules are simple and fast, and involve a traditional hit-and-save mechanism. The
modifiers on the dice rolls are kept limited, such that the game can be played without referring to a
summary sheet. Also, modifiers depending on the status of your own ships are applied to your own
dice rolls, not the dice rolled by your opponent. This speeds up play, because players need not to
cross-reference the status of other player’s squadrons.

1. Whenever a squadron moves in a square in which one or more enemy squadrons are
present, combat is resolved immediately, after which the squadron can keep moving if it has
any movement points left (and might get involved in another combat in a subsequent
square). Combat is resolved simultaneously, all squadrons in the square participate in the
fight, even if they did fight before during the turn.
2. Every ship rolls a D6, a 4+ results in a hit. If more than one enemy squadron is present, the
attacker has to specify which squadron he is targeting. The following modifiers on each die
roll apply:
+1 if the squadron the firing ship belongs to is sailing in line.
+1 if the squadron the firing ship belongs enters the square in a direction 90 degrees relative
to the defender.
This simulates the well-known tactic, famously used by Nelson at bTrafalgar, of “crossing the
T”.
3. For each hit inflicted, a saving roll can be made. A roll of 4+ nullifies the hit.
-1 when sailing in irregular formation.
-1 for each combat previously fought this turn.
4. Any remaining hits result in sunken ships, one ship per hit.
5. After combat is resolved, all squadrons in the sqaure assume an irregular formation. The
active squadron can continue its movement if it has any movement points left.

Additional thoughts
Playing any naval wargame, whether indoors or outdoors, always has the edge-of-the-table
syndrome. Therefore, whenever a player deemes it necesssary, all playing pieces can be translated 1
or 2 squares in any direction, to create some additional manoeuvring room. Additional islands can
appear at the newly created playing area, using a simple randomized placement system.

There should be a purpose to the game that goes a bit further than just wanting to eliminate the
enemy, hence some good scenarios are in order. I will not describe here the different scenarios we
played, but a quick survey in some commercial rulesets can provide interesting ideas: escorting a
convoy ship; a rendez-vous between two friendly forces taking on an enemy force; a search-and-
destroy mission etc. In any case, the initial positioning of the various squadrons relative to the
starting wind direction can make or break a good scenario. I found it best to pre-deploy all
squadrons and islands, and fix the wind direction, and then letting the players choose which side
they wanted to command.

The decision to use squadrons of 3 ships each, and use the number of ships as a visual reminder of
hit points per squadron, was influenced only by the relative size of the model ships vs. the size of the
tiles, and hence the visual aesthetics of the game. There is no objection against altering these
numbers. E.g. when using smaller ships, the number of ships per squadron can easily be increased,
or single ship squadrons can be used when using bigger scales. Also, the number of successful hits
needed to destroy a squadron can easily be increased or decreased, depending on your preferential
playing style.
We also did not make any difference between different ship types or nationalities. Again, this was
motivated by making the rules as simple as possible, and preventing having to walk around with a
summary sheet of modifiers and statistics during the game. If your gaming group insists, some
simple modifiers on movement, or to the to-hit and save rolls can easily be introduced.

Overall, this was a fun experiment. We managed to play 3 scenarios during a single hot summer
evening. Although we had a limited number of players, a fair amount of players can easily be
accommodated due to the increased playing area. I already have a lot of volunteers signed up for the
game I plan to run next summer. Throw in some barbecue food and some cold beers (the latter is a
prerequisite for Belgian wargamers), and you have the perfect wargames evening!

Finally, I would like to thank my regular wargaming companions Bart Vetters and Eddy Sterckx for
keeping an open mind and participating in this unusual setup.
Pictures
Photos showing the game in action

A squadron sailing in an irregular formation.

A squadron sailing in line formation.

3 squadrons sailing towards the straits some islands. Note how the squadron at the right sails in an
irregular formation. Squadrons should always be oriented in one of eight possible directions.
A full game in action. Note that some squadrons are already reduced to two ships due to previous
combat engagements.

Photos showing people playing the game

I think these photos really show the scale of of the playing surface, and are illustrative for how the
game can be enjoyed.

Veteran wargamer Bart Vetters taking a break from his obsession with the Great Northern War, and
taking command of some sailing ships.

Bart Vetters and Phil Dutré (the author) discussing finer naval tactics. Crawling around the
wargaming miniatures evokes a specific joy and pleasure not present at the regular gaming table.
Phil Dutré (the author) using a small telescope, trying to imagine what a real-world admiral might
have seen when sailing the seas.

Admirals Eddy Sterckx and Bart Vetters pondering their next moves. The sword is used to indicate
what squadron is currently active, and is shifted perpendicular to the wind direction to determine
the next squadron to move.
In a traditional beer country like Belgium, a themed-style beer for a wargame is a must.