Where next? please give your idea's and feedback

So, with a lot of stuff nearing completion, I think it is time to start looking at where to head next.

Naval War is intended to be driven by community feedback and contributions, especially since supporting the game is done in my spare time (which is rather limited currently with two small kids running around). Please share your idea's for both the next OOB's and other expansions and area's where the rules could be improved or enhanced.

Current projects nearing completion:
- Guadalcanal Order of Battle
- Midway Order of Battle

List of idea's, suggestions and feedback:
- Improve the night and bad weather rules, maybe even introducing an order activation specifically for those engagements.
- Battle for the Atlantic OOB (Brits, German raiders & U-boats)
- Malta convoys OOB (More Italians and Brits)
- Pearl Harbor OOB (Old Battlewagons!)
- A campaign system
- More scenario's
- Expand on the Command stations; returning to the original idea of having a specific command station for each Order of Battle (this enables the command station to be more firmly linked to the specifics of a battle, campaign or period) ie. A more air-focused command station for Coral Sea and Midway lists, more sub- and raider focussed command station for the Atlantic German lists etc. The problem here is my own imagination, I've exhausted a lot of idea's coming up with the current 6 command stations, idea's here would be greatly appreciated.

Please list your own wishes and idea's in this thread, we can then discuss them. If there are members willing to work on a subject I can open a dedicated thread on the forum to get some focus on the effort.

Bezmozgu had asked earlier about a multiplayer system, and I had a thought:

What about a four player game, wherein the players are paired off in teams and there are two tables. Players build using separate lists within an OOB (I suppose you could impose ship limits for unique ships within the OOB). The bit that makes it interesting would be when rolling for support arrival, the player picks which board it arrives on. It'd also be pretty neat to find some way of making the scenarios happening interact in a way that makes it feel like parts of a larger operation happening simultaneously. Just a thought.

When I get the chance to read some more, I'd like to write some more scenarios for the Med, but I'm not sure when exactly that will be.

I don't know that I've ever seen an Aleutian Islands scenario done before, that might be really interesting as well.

Edit: Actually, there may be enough forces and actions in the Aleutians for a mini-OOB, or a string of scenarios/mini-campaign like the one Bezmozgu was wanting to do for Guadalcanal.

The more I read about the Aleutians, the more enthused I get. I'm currently doing some research on what ships were present/available, with the idea of maybe a mini OOB with one to two lists possible for each side. It wouldn't have to be what you decide to do next, so don't think I'm trying to push it as what you HAVE to do next. But I'd be happy to try to work on it for a while as time allows and turn it over when it's to a moderately finished level.

Sounds great. Feel free to open a topic to post any progress and idea's you may have come up with. I will occasionally check if there is anything I can help with, for instance copying your drafts into official Fleet tables and Orders of battle. If you've done the homework, there is not much effort for me to add the ships and OOB's to the database etc. You know how each part is structured, so if you just follow the examples we already have you might be surprised how fast we can compile an OOB supplement.

To summarize, for an OOB we need:

- Background, 1-4 pages depending on the campaign or battle(s)
- Map of operations
- List of classes and ships present
- List of aircraft involved
- Order of Battle lists
- Special Officers if applicable

Thanks for the OOB info requirements. I need to get a few more games in before I can offer suggestions for multi-player games as well as any rules suggestions.

I have been struggling to find a naval game that had the right balance of detail and playability and I am very happy I found Naval War. So far it is one of the most exciting WWII systems I have come across in quite some time. The rules are very concise and well written. It has almost everything that appeals to my taste. I love the air, submarine, and surface battle systems.

There are a few suggestions however that I would love to see incorporated into the system at some point because I prefer to play multiplayer operational/campaign style games. One crucial aspect of Naval war was detection and visibility and I feel this is something that needs further attention as perhaps optional rules. Although radar fire control is in the rules, it seems to be a bit underrepresented in the actual ship cards, is there a reason for that?

I do hope to see the game expanded with campaign style play possibly using area/map based system of moving fleets and task forces. Particularly for carrier and sub/convoy operations.

Hello Neuroranger and welcome to the Naval War community! Thanks for the kind compliment I hope you will have fun with the system and of course we all hope that you will share your experiences and suggestions here

I’ve incorporated scouting advantages into the initiative roll, and the bad weather/night rules have primitive visibility rules. However, everything in the game is subject to changes and improvements, so if you have any suggestions know they are very welcome.
One of the main things I ran into with detection etc. is the fact that many systems replace mini’s with unidentified counters until they are revealed or spotted, but this does not work for me. In Naval War the miniatures need to be on the table as much as possible to prevent the game from being too abstract. People have spent money and loads of time to painting and modeling their mini’s and I think a ruleset should facilitate the use of the mini’s. Many systems replace mini’s with unidentified counters until they are revealed or spotted, but this does not work for me. I would think that detection and such could be much better implemented in some sort of operational level upper layer of the game (which does not yet exist)

Currently most of the battles take place prior to the battles of 1944. The US, the British and the Germans had some sort of radar fire control, but it is quite easy to overstate it's usefulness. Mind you, it was used, but since it was an emerging technology most operators had a lot of difficulty using it even when it was available.

Washington was tracking Kirishima at second Guadalcanal for quite a while but she did not open fire until she had visual confirmation that she was aiming at the right target.

In a lot of other instances the technology was available, but commanders absolutely did not rely on it until almost at the end of the war. So I decided to put the radar fire control options in the command stations. This reflects the hit-and-miss nature of it instead of it being some ‘wonder weapon’ that makes every ship auto-acquire its target (even more easy with our ‘God eye’ view of the battle) From the command station, the radar fire control can be used for it’s tremendous advantage, but it can also let you down, exactly like it would be in reality. For the very advanced late-war ships like the rebuilt battlewagons and the Iowa’s I’ve included the ‘Advanced RFC’ special rule to synergize with the command station orders to represent their advanced systems. Other ships might qualify for the ‘Advanced RFC’ special rule (both Duke of York and Scharnhorst would use it in the battle of the North Cape), but I will add it on a case by case basis.

I would LOVE to have such a system  This could also incorporate some of the suggestions you mentioned above. Currently I’m revising the scenario’s and fleet lists to have more synergy (naval-war.com/navalforum/general-discuss...feedback-appreciated). This change could be a major step to such a campaign system. My own design work has slowed down a bit due to family time taking precedent with our youngest at 9 months of age currently (still not sleeping full nights). But I’m brainstorming already about maybe using the War at Sea map, one of the Axis & Allies games or something like that to function as a board in such a campaign system. The main point would be that it has to be simple and easy, to fit in with the rest of the game.

As I’ve said before though, any suggestions or drafts are very welcome!

A campaign System would be really a great addition to the rules. i noticed that my group of players loose interest in stand alone scenarios after playing 3 or 4 of them. A campaign might keep them interested. As i have some old cosims like Flat Top at home i would really like a coral sea campaign where my search planes try to locate the enemy fleet....tension rising until i find my enemys ships. I know that this will lead to battles where most likely Aircraft will attack an fleet but maybe with some elegant rules night time surface combat will also be frequently possible....i think about missions like Tokyo Express that you assign to your fleets.

Indeed, a campaign system is also on my wishlist, can I have a volunteer??

On a more serious note, a campaign system is my dot on the horizon I'm working towards. Especially in the 1.4 update the preparations for it are in full swing. The new scenario's and the scenario generator are tailored towards the different battles that come up during a campaign, with pre-defined fleet types. The officer cards and abilities have been redone to enable a future system of advancing the career of your officer with different abilities and promotions. All these things are already in the 1.4 update, so after that one is final, complete and tested, work can begin on the first Naval War campaign module.

Even the Excel fleet builder is designed to be easily expanded with ship and officer upgrades, to make the paperwork much easier.

we would be glad to help you test out a campaign system.
Your Ruleset restarted our ww2 naval gaming enthusiasm.
If you really need a group of german ww2 play testers don´t hesitate to tell us.