HISTORICAL NAVAL MAGAZINES:
Naval Gazette

The Naval Gazette started publication in January of 1997, and as I write this (May 1997) has already pumped out three issues - each larger than the last, which seems to promise even more good things to come.

This publication is aimed specifically at naval miniatures gamers, with a focus "...upon naval warfare up to 1960." So far, this has meant roughly equal coverage of the Age of Sail, World War I, and World War II.

What kinds of articles does the Naval Gazette have? This is to discuss a moving target, since the magazine is in the process of growing, but so far I'd categorize the content as:

The "ship profile" articles are seldom longer than a page, but manage to present not just the bare facts about that ship, but some of the historical context as well - how it was different from its predecessors, what its designers were trying to accomplish.

The Painting and Assembling 1:1200 Napoleonic Ships has been one of my favorite parts of the magazine - perhaps enough to finally tempt me into (yet another) period of gaming? Part One dealt with painting schemes, and offered some specifics while admitting that there were no hard rules. Part Two graduated to rigging and basing, and had a number of fresh ideas I'd not encountered before. Part Three had some brief pointers on making your own flags, plus a guide to flags from particular nations.

Others of my favorites have been the NavGame SitRep series of articles by Commander D. Hartsig USNR (Ret.), which I've classified above as "game design" articles. What the author does is throw out some technical topic (such as pattern of fire, or fleet maneuvering distances), go into it far enough to be over my head, then point out how some existing set of rules have got this all wrong. All of this has been very interesting, but I'm patiently waiting for Commander Hartsig to discuss rules a bit more modern than Jutland (1967) and Fletcher Pratt's rules (1930's)...

The background articles have been a mixed bag. Anyone interested in WWI has probably read many accounts of Jutland, so one more (condensed, mapless) article on the subject was hardly useful to those readers. The best part of the article was the final paragraph, "Comments (offered without proof)" which have sparked some good discussion in following issues. I'd have rather seen an entire article analyzing Jutland, with the assumption that knowledgeable readers would already know the battle, and that interested readers could seek the information elsewhere.

I had similar misgivings about the Nelson at Santa Cruz article (reprinted from Sea History magazine). I thought it was a terrific piece of history, describing an obscure event in naval history - Nelson's amphibious assault on a city in the Canary Islands, one of his greatest defeats as well as the battle in which he lost an arm. My frustration is that the article doesn't give sufficient information to wargame the situation, nor can I think of any rules which would cover such an amphibious operation! (I feel like the publisher is teasing me...)

The single scenario published to date, Duel off Skomvaer, has the utility of being unique (the only battlecruiser vs. battlecruiser engagement of WWII). The brief presentation includes enough history to set the stage, and the specific instructions are flexible enough to be used with many sets of rules. (The trick will be to find a set of rules which covers storm damage - a key ingredient to this fight.)

To sum it up: There's a lot of meat in these pages. The magazine is new, so if this is what you want to read, I urge you to subscribe and support this effort. I know I'm looking forward to the next issue...