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The Rules Directory only works if you help. Write a review. Get the review template here. |
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TITLE: When The Navy Walked AUTHOR: Robert M. Adams PUBLISHER: The Arm Chair General PUBLICATION DATE: 2010 WEB SITE/SUPPORT FORUM: Player support can be obtained on the publisher’s forum. PRICE (with date): $30.00 (in 2011) REVIEWED BY: Mark “Extra Crispy” Severin PERIOD COVERED: Science Fiction: Victorian and Edwardian (Alternate history from roughly 1850-1920). THE BOOK: WTNW is available either as a printed book or a PDF. The publisher supplied me with a PDF. It includes lengthy background, rules and numerous army lists as well as some scenarios. SCOPE: When the Navy Walked is designed to fight larger battles in a late 19th and Early 20th century science fiction setting. ARMY SIZE: Units are moderate in size, and the number and scale of figures is not relevant to game play. In 15 mm, an army of 100-150 figures would be reasonably substantial in size. BASE UNIT: The base unit for ground troops in the game is a battalion sized unit. Artillery is in batteries, landships individual vehicles. GAME SCALES:
BASING SIZES:
TURN SEQUENCE:
GAME MECHANICS: Command Points: Each player rolls one D6 for every two units in play. He then adds in his leadership bonuses - the result is his command point total for the turn. Command Points are “spent” to move units, change formation, fire, etc. Units may conduct more than one such action (move and fire, for example) provided the player has enough command points to spend. Units have a command rating and costs are usually a function of this rating. Movement: The movement rules are minimal. Ground units must be in one of several formations (wedge or line for example) and may wheel up to 45o. Wheels greater than this count as a formation change. Formations may confer bonuses or penalties in fire or melee. Fire Combat: Ranged fire is resolved in order of command rating, so units with a higher command rating shoot first. Units with equal ratings fire simultaneously. Unusually, this means that troops that are hard to control (higher command ratings means it costs more command points to use them) shoot before higher quality troops. The army lists assign a number of dice per stand for each unit type. Further, each unit type has a given hit number. Artillery units, for example, are hit on a 4, 5 or 6. Simply roll the number of dice for each firing stand and determine how many hits are inflicted. This is compared to the target’s Threshold score. For every hit above the unit’s Threshold value, they take one casualty. Cause enough casualties and the target loses a stand. Ground units, for example, remove a stand for every three casualties regardless of the number of figures on the stand. For vehicles, instead of stand loss, they roll on the Internal Hits table. The results can cause the vehicle damage to different systems. Multiple hits on systems can permanently destroy them. Charges and Melee: At the start of the Charge Phase, each player secretly allocates command points for charging units, and records their targets. No pre-measuring is allowed. As with fire, units with the highest command rating charge first. For each charging unit 2D6 are rolled. On a 10+ the unit has failed to charge and becomes shaken and disordered. Otherwise the chargers move a full move toward their target. The target then may attempt to fire into the attacker. They must pass a moral check and if they do so, they may fire. Casualties are assessed, and the attacker may fight a melee. This melee is one sided - only the attacker rolls dice. Units use their melee rating and roll for hits as with firing. However, if charging the attacker may re-roll 6’s to score additional hits. Note that this is a special melee available only to units that have successfully charged. Normal melee occurs simultaneously between units in base to base contact. Each side rolls for hits. The side scoring more hits is the winner of the melee. If you score twice as many hits as the loser, they retreat and are disordered. Three times as many and they are routed. Otherwise both sides remain locked in combat and will fight again next turn. Morale Checks: To rally from disorder or rout, units must pass a morale check. The player rolls 2D6 attempting to roll under the unit’s Morale Rating. Units outside the command radius of their commander must roll 3D6. Units must also check morale when they have suffered losses of 50% or more of their stands. Sabotage & Espionage: In the Sabotage phase, each player secretly allocates Command Points to carry out Sabotage and Espionage. Units have a Sabotage rating, and may conduct “attacks” against specific enemy units. To conduct such an attack each side rolls the appropriate number of dice based on the unit rating. The side with the higher total has won. If the defender wins, the attack has been foiled - there is no result. If the attacker wins, the target must roll on the Sabotage Results table. There are different tables for different target types. Results can confer temporary advantages, cause hits or casualties, or even get captured and give your enemy an advantage! Flaws and Edges: In addition to the normal ratings - Melee, Fire Combat etc. - units in the army lists may also have an Edge (special advantage or ability) or a Flaw (special weakness or limitation). In the army lists there is a points system for building armies. Units may purchase an Edge (for extra points) or take a Flaw (which makes them slightly cheaper to buy). Example Edges include: Extra Ranged Attack (may attack more than once per turn), Superior Ammo (unit gets to re-roll 1s when shooting). Flaws include such items as Green (add one to all morale die rolls), Outdated LLAD (machine may either move or shoot, but not both). ARMY LISTS/SCENARIOS: The rule book includes a wide variety of army lists, giving unit and points cost ratings for each. There are no specific scenarios included, but there are some generic “Missions” which describe general scenario types, suitable for tournament play or a quick pick-up game. REVIEWER’S COMMENTS: Overall WTNW is a clearly written, well illustrated set of rules. I think the layout has some nice features. For example, early on they provide a summary of unit types listing all the main rules that apply to them. The author has also laid out the various game concepts and jargon very thoroughly. I think some of the rules sections could use a bit more to them. Movement, for example. Can units retrograde? If they wheel how is movement measured, etc. To very experienced gamers these will not be a problem, but for gamers used to moving individual figures the lack of some depth here may cause confusion. PLAYER’S COMMENTS: Not played. |
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