Newbie, who need guidance.

[Ian Wilson]

Hi,
First, thanks for letting me join the group. I have been a wargamer for 40 plus years but new to naval war gaming. I have a question about the best way to start with Victory at Sea. My interest is on the battle for the Atlantic and the war in the Mediterranean, i.e not the Pacific war. Would you recommend missing the intro box and going straight for the one of the proposed starter fleets and add to that. Or is the starter set the best way to learn the game?
One other question, has anyone played the game solo?
Thanks

[Shrokins]

Hi Ian,

I got into Victory at Sea and am really enjoying it. The challenge for Atlantic folks is this: the ‘Battle for the Pacific’ starter set is currently the only place one can get the rules booklet, the tokens/markers, and the turning gauges for the game. The full rulebook comes out in January, and can be ordered on its own or with a fleet. It’s entirely possible to play the game without the tokens/markers, so long as you keep notes and have some way to measure 45 degree turns. So the way I see it, your choices are:

1. Get the Pacific set and your Atlantic/Med ships; or

2. Get your Atlantic/Med ships, order the rulebook for January, and use notes instead of tokens/markers (at least until some kind of ‘Battle for Atlantic’ starter comes out). For example, get the RN fleet now, order the Kriegsmarine and rulebook pre-order bundle, and build and paint your RN fleet so they’ll be ready for when the enemy fleet and rulebook show up in January.

I hope that helps!

[Shrokins]

P.S. As for playing solo, the full rulebook isn’t out yet, so I don’t know what its solo scenarios will be like. So far, Warlord has released one solo campaign, “Tokyo Express”, which uses the ships from ‘Battle for the Pacific’ (https://www.warlordgames.com/victory-at-sea-tokyo-express-solo-play-rules/). If you’re easily amused like me, just playing both sides of a battle is interesting. The game is easy to learn/teach; this is the first wargame I’ve convinced non-wargamers to try where the non-wargamers actually had fun.

[Chimpy]

Hi Ian

It is possible to obtain the Victory at Sea rules booklet from Wargames Illustrated which is what I did. If they’ve still got hardcopies of the August 2020 edition this came bundled with a printed set. Or you could join Wargames Illustrated Prime and download a copy if this is still available for download. I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be though.

I’ve bought the Royal Navy and Kriegsmarine boxes plus the individual models of Warspite and Bismarck. All the information that you need to play is on the ship cards included.

The templates in the Victory at Sea starter book are at full size so I photocopied them and glued them to cardboard and cut out. The critical damage tokens I just typed in English into a spreadsheet, printed them out, laminated and cut out. They work fine.

Hope that this helps.

[Ian Wilson]

Thanks for the advice. It looks like the way forward is to but RN fleet and then buy Kriegsmarine starter set. I will do a work around on the templates and tokens.

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