WWI NAVAL RULES:
WWII NAVAL RULES:
General Quarters

My former group in LA ran many campaigns using them - all worked. The rules are quick to learn, quick to play, and give a good result. We even played several games with large carrier strikes, and those rules worked too. (It is a good idea to have one player as the air commander with big strikes.)

I especially like the torpedo rules. I hate moving masses of toothpicks all over the table for several turns. GQ has you estimate where the enemy will be, which to me is the basis of shooting torpedos. Adjust for range and speed if you guess right, and roll dice. It is quick and gives a realistic result.

We found that we could play major fleet battles, air battles and - a favorite for shorter games - the Graf Spee. My friend Dan and I have played that game 20 times, have subsituted the Alaska for the Graf Spee, used U.S. for British, etc. Good set of rules.

Gunnery is abstracted into an attack factor/defense factor type of combat, and then you roll on a simple odds chart to determine damage. To be sure, these rules are not for "techno-geeks" who want to know where each and every shell lands, and how many cups and saucers are broken in the officers' wardroom. Much like Heart of Oak (the finest Age of Sail rules ever written) the empahsis is on tactics and maneuver, not "Do I fire CPC or AP rounds this turn?"

We have played many large-scale WWI and WWII scenarios with these rules (including Jutland), and they have always stood up to the test. I highly recommned them to anyone interested in moderate- or large-scale fleet actions.

I recommend this set of gaming rules. General Quarters is a fun and quick game system that gives enough historical flavor to make it worthwhile.

If you keep the game limited to destroyers and cruisers, a 9' x 5' gaming table is plenty big. Battleships tend to dominate as would be expected as there isn't enough maneuver room to get out of their way.