fg&dn walkthrough

People have asked about Admiralty Trilogy games (Fear God & Dreadnought, Command at Sea, and Harpoon)‐ are they any good, are they too hard to learn, are they any fun… I guess my intent here is two‐fold: first describe a Fear God & Dreadnought (FG&DN) session that I played and counter some potential player’s fears about complexity with a more accessible walkthrough than the game itself provides.

To start, perhaps a brief discussion about what FG&DN is and isn’t. Yes it is a wargame, but possibly more appropriately described as a simulation. The designers did a superior job in modeling the equipment and time period and that flavor really comes through. It really comes though. This is not an Axis and Allies War at Sea – type game: this is not a move your pieces, roll buckets of dice for abstract damage counters, and repeat until one fleet is sunk. You will need a calculator, a protractor, and possibly a trigonometry textbook if you have any hope of torpedoes hitting their targets. And some aspirin… BUT you really get a feeling for naval combat in the early 20th century. With some appropriate background music (maybe the score to Hunt for Red October, or some Wagner) for these few hours you ARE on the bridge of a ship in harm’s way in the North Atlantic. It’s lovely! And for all that it is, it is complex. And it is accessible. Maybe it’s like ASL in that way and I did choose my words carefully.

Broken down to its simplest terms, FG&DN is turn based. Each turn represents either 3 or 30 minutes of real time, depending on relative distance between opposing ships and any potential combat. Players plot or write in advance of the turn the orders for each ship’s movement, fire, communications, and other actions. Then ships are moved simultaneously, detections are made, and dice are rolled in anger. See, simple isn’t it?

The rest of this article is a walkthrough/session report of the first scenario in the FG&DN scenario book. One German minelayer, a converted passenger liner attempts to sneak into British waters, lay some mines, and sneak out. A British patrol of two destroyers and a scout cruiser are patrolling, investigating reports of blacked‐out ship in British waters. Setup is by random roll, and it really favors the Germans this time. The Konigin Louise starts about 2nm east of the limits of the intended minefield, while the British start far north of the Germans, a good 14 nm. Given the cover of darkness in the scenario (0100 local time) and low visibility (10%), I was as optimistic as possible about the German’s chances for success.

Success, victory, and winning might have different meanings when one plays FG&DN with respect to other games. Be sure to read the victory conditions, and then read them again. Some naval and lots of other miniature wargames out there grant victory simply on the basis of ‘last man standing’‐ I rolled enough dice to kill 12 of your figures and you only killed 11 of mine so I win‐ kind of thing. Not FG&DN, and not by a long shot. According to the victory conditions, the Germans get a Tactical Victory for just for laying all the mines even if the minelayer is lost. A decisive victory can be gained by dropping all the mines and escaping. Now the British can earn a tactical victory by sinking or capturing the German minelayer, and a decisive victory by observing Konigin Louise in the act of laying mines sinking her. This should start the player thinking about how the game will progress‐ the Germans need to get all of the mines in the water, and then think about getting away. The British need to find the Germans first and

quickly, and then deal with her later. Any one of the British warships is more than a match for the German converted German passenger liner. Thus escape and evasion should be the German plan.

It helps at this point to write some Standing Orders for each side. A ‘Commander’s Intent’, if you will. This will keep both sides focused on the scenario goals, and if you are playing solitaire as I usually do it can guide your plotting for both sides and act as a kind of AI. Turns out, it works pretty well. The British Standing Orders are to maintain a line abreast formation, 1 nm between ships with the CS Amphion (my flagship) in the center, DD Lance on the right, DD Landrail on the left. 1nm is close enough to be signaled by the Amphion if I want to deviate from the Standing Orders as the situation dictates. The British will steam on a southerly course at 22 knots for roughly 10 nm, then turn west and head back into the harbor at Harwich. The German Orders are to steam west‐northwest into the designated minefield and commence the minelaying evolution. Once all mines are laid (the German tactical victory), she will turn south and evade at best speed.

At this point I have one completed ship form and one log sheet for each ship in the game, a protractor, ruler, and dice. Now, I should also mention that I’m playing this game on graph paper‐ no gaming table, no ship miniatures, no cotton balls or clear plastic shell splashes. I’ve played at conventions and these make for great games, but for your own enjoyment you can just as easily mark ship movement on graph paper and add sheets as necessary. Another great thing about this game…

Anyway, you can see the British starting formation in this picture. Amphion in the middle, with Lance and Landrail on the sides. They are to scale; I used one big box on the graph paper to be 1 nm. You can see how I update their positions every game turn (0100, 0103, 0106, …) Also, the wind direction and speed is noted. Always good information to have at sea…

The Konigin Louise starting position is shown here, along with her track for the game. You can see that it got pretty up‐close and personal towards the end. There’s a short segment of her track that I drew in red, starting at 0115 going through 0122. That was the line of mines she laid. The X in pencil and two lines that extend from it show the limits of the minefield that were part of the scenario setup. The Konigin Louise had to get inside this area to start dropping mines.

Game turn 1 (0100 local time)

Plotting Phase: British ships (in accordance with their Standing Orders) course 180, speed 22. German course 330, speed 12.

The question at this point is whether to use a 30 minute turn or a 3 minute turn. I decided to use the 3 minute. 30 minutes of movement would put the ships past each other at this course and speed, and the Germans only have to go a short distance (less than 30 minutes of travel at 12 knots) before beginning

the minelaying. If the scenario started with the ships further away, then by all means use a 30 minute turn to speed things up. You can also go back and forth between 30 and 3 minute turns too‐ keep the game moving…

Movement Phase: Update ships positions on the map.

Planned Fire: No plotted fire.

Detection Check: Can any of the ships see each other? The sighting range tables on page 5‐4 have a 10% Visibility table (visibility is from the scenario conditions). At 10% visibility, the Amphion (Size Class B) could see the Konigin Louise (Size Class C) at 3.4 nm. On my chart, the ships are still >12nm apart so there is no detection. For comparison at 75% visibility, i.e. daytime, Amphion could detect Konigin Louise at 25.5 nm. At nighttime though (10% Vis) the detection range is 3.4 (± some, but they still aren’t close enough anyway so we’ll calculate that later. It’s not even close right now, so don’t waste the time adding it up and rolling the dice. Keep the game moving…).

Reaction Fire: None

Resolution Phase: None


Plotting phase: No changes. Nothing happened to warrant changes to the Standing Orders, so I’ll just step through a few turns. Enough to get the Germans inside the intended minefield area.




Plotting phase: Starting the 0112 turn, the ships are about 7.5 nm distant. No detections have occurred, so our Standing Orders still govern the British plotting: i.e. no changes. The Germans want to start dropping mines over the side. Reading Chapter 11, Mine Warfare, we find two key rules in 11.2.6: one is that the British can observe minelaying in the same manner as a torpedo launch (see 5.2.2.4) i.e., they have to get REALLY close at 10% vis; and the other is that modified merchants with specialized mine rails (the Konigin Louise) can lay 6 mines per tactical (3 minute) turn.

The German Kapitän zur See has two options: one is to increase speed, pitch the lousy things over the side and get the heck outta dodge; the other sneaky option is to place the mines in a line between England and himself and hope any pursuers run into it, covering his escape. For that to work, we need to maximize the probability of a hit on a ship entering the minefield, and for that we need page 11‐3. The Mine Attack Table for contact mines shows the highest probability of a hit is for 50 yds distance between the mines. Time is of the essence though, so I opt for the 100 yds distance. Time to get out the calculator… If we drop 6 mines in 3 minutes with a space of 100 yards between the mines, how fast does the ship need to travel? Ugh… where is my aspirin? 6 mines x 100 yds/mine = 600 yards in 3

minutes. Thus our ship speed should be 600 yards (.3 nm) in 3 minutes; the Konigin Louise should lay mines at 6 knots. Unfortunately the Konigin Louise can only decelerate 4 kts/turn (page 3‐2), so we plot Konigin Louise to hold 330 speed 8.

Movement phase: update ships’ positions on the chart

Planned Fire: none

Detection: still too far away for detection.


Plotting Phase: No changes on British side; German order course 330 at 6 knots, commence EMA contact mine (the mines she is carrying) laying at periscope depth (to get ships and periscope depth submarines).


Plotting phase: no changes on either side.

Movement: ships move

Planned Fire: none

Detection Phase: The ships are much closer now, <5nm between the Amphion and Konigin Louise. We make a d10 roll for visibility variation and get a 10! On page 5‐5, cross a 10 roll with a sigma of 2 (from the 10% Visibility Table (±2) on page 5‐4) and we get a +2. So the atmospheric conditions at this time allow sighting to the 10% visibility table maximum distances +2kyd. All of the ships are now within sighting range and things will shortly get really interesting.

As an aside, you will no doubt determine that the Visibility Variation is, well, variable. Yes, you can lose sight of ships from turn to turn if you are at the maximum detection ranges on the visibility table and the variation rolls go against you. That can really mess with the gun captains… Just read and apply all of the appropriate modifiers. If you want to maintain visual contact, get close!

Reaction Fire: None, the Germans are too busy dropping mines and their Secondary Battery is almost useless at this range. The British are under orders to observe and inspect, not blast any target they acquire.


Plotting phase: German‐ British warships to the north are bad news. Order a course change 270, speed 6 to begin to open the range to the British and unmask the port Secondary Batteries in case the shooting starts. One more turn until the minelaying is complete. British‐ The formation maintains course and speed, although Amphion signals by flashing light to Landrail to board and search the new contact.

Ship to Ship communications are covered in 2.7. I really like this aspect of FG&DN. In an era of instant wireless data telemetry, it’s hard to imagine that they had to use signal flags or Morse code flashing lights. For the purposes of this scenario, signal flags are out because its night time; wireless could have been used to signal but it’s pretty primitive at this time. The table on 2‐14 shows there’s a big delay between pre‐1917 wireless message sending, message receiving, and understanding. Flashing light signals are the best option.

Landrail will receive the signal in the 0121 detection phase and understand it in the 0124 plotting phase, which means, Landrail doesn’t change her orders for this turn, but can (and will) move off to board Konigin Louise on the next turn.

Movement: Update ships’ positions on the chart.

Planned Fire: None

Detection: Another favorable Vis variation roll means all contacts are maintained.

Reaction Fire: None taken‐ no itchy trigger fingers out there. Play it cool…

Game turn 9 (0124 local)

Plotting phase: German‐ the minelaying will be complete this turn. Maintain course and speed. British‐ Landrail changes course to 200 and increases to 25 knots. Amphion and Lance will maintain course and slow to 14 knots. 5.2.4.1 Describes the Ship‐based searchlights available in the game. The British ships all mount forward and after 60cm search lights. Illumination will be important once the shooting starts, so Amphion orders the forward search light to illuminate the Konigin Louise.


Planned Fire: None (yet)

Detection: This is the last chance the British have to observe the Germans in the act of laying mines. 5.2.2.4 Covers sighting of torpedo launches and long story short, the Brits need to be inside of 1nm to see anything. Too far, too bad. There goes the Decisive British victory… All the ships are will within the detection ranges so everyone sees everyone else.

Reaction Fire: None


Plotting phase: Landrail changes course to 170 to intercept Konigin Louise, orders speed 15 knots; Amphion and Lance alter course to 200, speed 14 knots. The Germans decide it’s time to go. It would be nice to throw the rudder hard left and speed away with your foot on the gas, but ships just don’t sail that way. The Konigin Louise can accelerate at 3 knots per turn if she’s under half speed and only 2 knots per turn if she’s over half speed‐ also turns greater than 45 degrees incur a speed loss. That’s just physics, folks. Maneuvering data can be found on page 3‐2. For a merchant size class C, she will lose 3

knots for a 45 degree turn with standard rudder. She can accelerate 3 knots per turn for no net gain. The Germans really want to get some speed here, so we order a 40 degree left turn. Course 230, speed 9 (6+3). We can also guess that the jig is up at this point. Either the British board and find the minerails, or we run when they try to board and they guess we’re up to no good. Either way, it’s looking like we’ve got to shoot our way back to Germany so we’ll plot secondary battery fire at the Landrail using NHE ammo.


Planned Fire: As the Konigin Louise isn’t a proper warship, she doesn’t have a main armament as such. She sports a Light Battery (or Secondary Battery). Rules for these smaller guns are found in 6.1.6. I selected to shoot HE ammo rather than common (CP), giving up armor penetration for a nice HE punch. Range is short (<1.5 kyds), 40% to hit ‐2% Light Battery Rating, no other modifiers. To hit roll was 93, yikes. No hit but the Brits now are certain something’s up.

Detection: nothing new

Reaction Fire: Landrail will take reaction fire at Konigin Louise. Hey‐ they shot first, right? Reaction fire is defined in 2.2.4.6. Basically, guns will do half damage. I got excited and rolled before I calculated the to‐hit number and got an 80. No way that is gonna hit, so we move on.


Plotting phase: Germans‐ We want to keep turning to open the distance to the British warships and hopefully put the minefield between us and the rest of the squadron. Course 190 (remember the speed loss thing), increase speed to 13 knots. Plot Light Battery fire (HE) at Landrail again. British‐ The ex‐cruise ship won’t last long against three proper warships, so let’s just put the Konigin Louise on the bottom and sail home for tea. Amphion and Lance maintain course and speed, plot main battery HE fire on Germans. Landrail will come right to 190, maintain speed 15 knots. HE fire at the German Ship.


Planned Fire: All gunfire is simultaneous, so it doesn’t really matter what order things are done it. All damage is applied at the end of the Planned Fire phase. I must recommend at this point to purchase the Jutland Form 10s or to download the FG&DN version 1.1 Gunfire Tables. All of my calculations will be done with these revised tables.

Landrail‐ Gunnery Standard 2 at Short Range 50% to hit. Apply all of the appropriate modifiers in the table at we get a to‐hit number of 56. I rolled a 54. Smack. Amphion and Lance both missed, as did Konigin Louise.

Landrail did 9 points of damage to Konigin Louise, with 13 points remaining. Konigin Louise has no armor, so penetration isn’t an issue. Chapter 8 is all about Damage. The possibility of critical damage resulting from hits is always a danger, so a roll is made on the Damage Ratio Table (section 8.1.2) with the result being 4 critical hits. These four are rolled on the Critical Hit Table (page 8‐1),

Merchant/Auxiliary column. Konigin Louise suffers one Weapon critical, 2 Fires (always bad news), and one Engineering Hit. The effects of critical hits are spelled out in the chapter. Konigin Louise lost one minerail from the weapon hit, a total of 7% fire (just Minor, but not by much), and the engineering spaces hit. Fortunately, the boilers didn’t explode but we lost some top speed.

Detection: Nothing. Detection modifiers apply now, with the burning ship and gun fire. If there were other ships in the scenario, detection ranges would change with these new modifiers.

Reaction Fire: None, all of the guns that could shoot did.

Game turn 11 (0133)

The game is about over now. Konigin Louise cannot escape damaged like she is, though she did get the minefield laid. One more turn…

Plotting phase: Germans‐ damage has reduced the top speed of the ship, so we’ll limp away at best speed. Brits will continue to close and turn to unmask all batteries for a finishing broadside…

Movement: Update ships’ positions on the chart. Amphion just misses the end of the minefield laid but Lance isn’t so lucky. She sails right thorough unknowingly. Back to Chapter 11 and the Mine Attack Table. We laid contact mines 100 yds apart. Lance is size class C, which gives a 14% hit probability. I rolled an 08 and sweet revenge on the Royal Navy! Lance takes 34 points of damage from the mine which leaves 2 points remaining. That’s >75% damage and a d10 roll of 3 shows that the keel has been broken from massive damage and she will sink.

Plotted Fire: Landrail unloads into Konigin Louise for another 18 points of damage (all three barrels at short range) and that’s the end…

SUMMARY:

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how a FG&DN would typically progress. It is relatively straightforward: Plot, Move, Shoot, and Detect. The rule sections for each of these are pretty well done. I know some people want to ‘read the rules’ before they start, then complain that they are too inaccessible. This is, I believe, the way to learn the game. Set it up and play through it. Apply and read the rules for the phase you’re in. Hopefully I started you along that path here.

The scenario that I played here some might argue (rightly) was hardly balanced. The Germans were outmatched and outnumbered, with hardly a chance of a decisive victory. To which I would respond that you are absolutely correct. However, the Germans though losing their ship still achieved a tactical victory. Of course, the British did also by sinking the German minelayer, Win‐win, I guess… FG&DN (and the other Admiralty Trilogy games) do not waste time with game balance. War is hardly balanced or fair. Read the scenario victory conditions and act to either fulfill yours or deny the enemy theirs. Seriously, if you want exactly balanced forces and even probability of winning or losing a ‘game’, you could certainly design that. The Data Annexes contain every ship class to sail between 1914 and 1918 for sure, and you could absolutely make what you want.

fg&dn walkthrough

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