Q: Has the same system been used in previous Minden titles?
A: If you own or have played THE MIGHTY HOOD, BATTLESHIPS AT WAR: ATLANTIC, or ACTION STATIONS, you will be quite familiar with the game system used in BC. The system has been refined a bit, and enhanced, and, most importantly, expanded to include the pre-dreadnought era. Besides these refinements, the biggest difference between these games is the sheer number of ships included in BC. HOOD (from Panzerschreck #15) had about a dozen, BaW about 60, and ACT.STN rather more than 100, but Battleship Captain has over one thousand (1,200 if you count destroyers and merchants)... all individually rated, with their own counter, from all the different years. If you are curious about the BC game system, you could play any of the above titles, and you'll know essentially what to expect.
Q: How does BC compare with DREADNOUGHTS & BATTLECRUISERS?
A: They are two completely different games. D&B is simpler, and more quick playing. Many times in D&B, the result of fire combat will be either a "sunk" or a "no effect" result. In BC, hits are more nuanced, and the play routine a bit more involved. We are, however, making available a D&B VARIANT for use with Battleship Captain... enabling D&B fans to use the components (and ship ratings) of BC with the classic D&B system. In D&B, you have World War I naval combat... BC extends the theater to pre-dreadnought and World War II eras as well.
Q: I enjoy one of the eras represented in Battleship Captain, but not necessarily the other two. Do I need to buy everything, or can I just buy the eras that interest me?
A: Yes... we have a line of three stand-alone games, one each covering the three eras represented by the system. TSUSHIMA covers the pre-dreadnought era, GRAND FLEET covers the dreadnought era, and BATTLEWAGONS represents the WWII era. Note that these games contain approx. 80 ships each, rules, game markers, scenarios, and a Reference Card. However, be aware that buying BATTLESHIP CAPTAIN is much more economical if you decide to buy the entire system, since, for instance, with BC you'll have over one thousand ships, instead of only around 250 with the three individual era games. Plus BC contains more scenarios, more optional rules, more game markers, and so on, than the three individual games combined.
Q: Who will BC appeal to the most?
A: That's hard to say, as gamers have different tastes! But if you enjoy recreating surface combat, prefer playability over complexity in design, and enjoy quick games involving just a few ships, or an evening's gaming with fleets, then BC will most probably appeal to you. And "second guessing" is part of the hobby as well... if you like discussions involving things like "I can't believe they rated Bismarck a 14 in whatever category, I think it should at least be a 15!", then you'll have a field day with BC. Not because our ratings are not historical(!), but because there is always a subjective element involved when assigning game ratings, and not everybody weighs the different factors in the same way. Do you enjoy comparing ships and ship classes? Again, BC lets you see, at a glance, the key elements of a ship's strengths and weaknesses... which is neat in and of itself.
Q: Is BC a board game, or a miniatures game?
A: I don't think justice can be paid to warships if they must be maneuvered on a hexagon grid. But I don't think the joys of naval gaming has to be limited to those with miniature navies, either... which can be quite expensive. So, BC is neither... and both. It has elements of miniatures gaming (as ships are maneuvered on the floor or the table top without a board), as well as boardgaming in its general approach of using "counters" containing all ship ratings. So while you can use miniature ships to play the game, you have EVERYTHING you need, in one package, to play the game, via the rules, game markers, and historical ship counters.
Q: Anything unique about Battleship Captain?
A: We may mention a couple. (1) Most naval games emphasize armament and armor in ships... speed is often neglected. Why was it ship designers were so concerned with achieving just a bit more speed? BC attempts to give speed its due... the sequence of play is structured so that ships going the fastest move after slower moving ships (or groups of ships). So, even a one knot advantage can be particularly important when playing BC. (2) BC allows you to play ships from different eras against one another. Since the same basic system is used in each era, inter-era combat is easily achieved. See for yourself how Dreadnought fares against the older ships that all the experts say she made obsolete overnight. Look at the ship counters -- and their ratings -- and see at a glace their strengths and weaknesses; play one of the "Washington Treaty" battleships against something launched around the turn of the century, and see how lopsided the challenge would be. WIth BC, you get all of the major ships (and tons of minor ones!) from the SIX DECADES of building that constitute the age of the battleship. It's not like you have to buy additional games or modules... it's all here in a single, comprehensive package, with a unified set of rules. With BC, you will be able to recreate or create an almost limitless number of historical or hypothetical situations, using historically rated ships, and a game system crafted to allow gamers to concentrate on play, not flow charts and process. Do you prefer to see the "forest" or the "trees" when you play a game? BC, while not losing sight of the "trees", has its emphasis on the bigger picture, the "forest". And, remember, there are one thousand ships included!
Q: Any differences between how the three eras are represented?
A: Chapter I of the rules give the standard instructions (and optional rules) common to all three eras. Subsequent chapters (II, III, and IV) give era specific options and Game Tables and scenarios. There is a chapter devoted to "streamlined rules" for beginners, and Designer's Notes, and, finally, a chapter listing, in tabular form, all the ship ratings (by nation and class and era) used in the game. To give some simple examples, fire ranges differ according to era, plunging fire is applicable only in dreadnought and World War II scenarios, ramming and striking only in pre-dreadnought scenarios. and so on. The idea is, when you are replaying, say, Tsushima, you should approach it as Tsushima, not as Jutland "a decade early" (and visa versa!).
Q: Why no submarines, aircraft carriers, or land based aircraft?
A: Battleship Captain is a game of ship to ship surface combat, and no game provision has been made for interaction between subs and ships, and airplanes and ships. Bringing aircraft into the system would have affected WW2 alone, and there shift the focus from "ship vs ship" to "plane vs ship" combat which, while realistic for that era (in certain settings), would have changed the emphasis of the game. BC is a scenario game, meaning that discrete scenarios are played, and these situations are those where aircraft did not play a significant role. As such, BC models situations like Denmark Straight and the River Plate, not Midway, or the death ride of the Yamato. The same, essentially may be said about submarines and ASW. The emphasis of BC is not on destroyers and frigates vis a vis subs,,, or the effect of a U-Boat slipping undetected into Scapa Flow. BC simulates surface combat between capital ships during the age of the battleship, hence the emphasis is on that type of battle. Torpedoes are included in the game... but they are limited to those fired from ships.
Q: The ship counters are in black and white, on cardstock... why not color? Why not die-cut?
A: Production costs... especially when dealing with color counters and/or die-cut counters of such a size. The 2nd printing of the game is now being shipped on new orders, and corrects about a half dozen typos that existed on ship ratings. No ship rating has been changed, though, so the printings are fully consistent with one another. Instead of having different color counter sheets, the 2nd printing has a uniform blue cardstock for all ship counter sheets.
Q: You mentioned optional rules... such as?
A: Here's a list of some of the optional rules in Battleship Captain: Unusual Fire Progressions, Variable Visibility, Weather, Advanced Weather (from around the globe), Night Action, Ammunition expediture, Fire Control Coordination, Incremental Odds, Smoke, Advanced Smoke, Zigzagging / Combing, Crew Quality, Command Control, Docked Ships, Shore Batteries, Fire Rages (out of control fire started by incoming sheels), Scuttling, Destroyer Screens, Armed Merchants, Mines, Plunginf Fire, Striking, Ramming, Collisions, Underwater Protection (vs torpedoes), Flash Vulnerability, Wing Turret field of fire, more. Players can freely pick and choose what options they want to use.
Q. How do your new naval wargames (Tsushima / Grand Fleet / Battlewagons) fit into the picture?
A: To enable gamers to "wade in" to the game system inexpensively, we have published (April 2008) the three games noted. They deal with the pre-dreadnought era, the dreadnought era, and the World War II era, repectively. While fully compatible with the BC game system, and not containing anything that is not already in BC, the games do not have all the optional rules available in BC, nor, of course, nearly as many ships. But to try out the system, they may be ideal for gamers. Check them (and their expansion modules) out at the Tsushima /Grand Fleet / Battlewagons link.
We hope that you have found this FAQ page helpful!
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