The Game

War at Sea is a classic. It's that game that everyone has in the bottom of their collection, a rarity in the consim world--the war game which can be played in two hours. It's also rather ugly, and because of its age, is likely to be unfairly neglected.

War at Sea is a two player "simulation" of the Atlantic War in WW2. One side plays the Allies, including the UK, USSR, and the US. The other side plays the Axis: Germany, Italy, and Vichy France. It is a tactical game, with each counter representing a single ship, generally. A game lasts eight turns, each spanning roughly nine months. There are three pages of rules and two pages of play examples.

The Bits

The board is a depiction of Europe, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, with inserts showing the Americas. It's an ugly affair but quite usable. The counters, which come in three colors (Allied, German, and Italian) are very nice, oversized pieces with silhouettes of their ships on them.

Gameplay

Victory goes to the player with the most points at the end of the game. Points are earned by controlling the various sea spaces. Control is defined as having the only surface vessels in the area. German U-boats deny Allied control, but cannot gain control by themselves. Different sea spaces are worth different amounts to each player.

Control is important strategically as well. A ship can always move one space away from its harbor, but can only move two spaces if the first zone it moves into was not enemy controlled on the previous turn.

The Allies have to place first each turn, allowing the Germans to choose the most advantageous placement of their fleet.

There are some colorful additions--each side gets air strikes every turn, and the Allies get three convoys to escort, worth VPs if they arrive at their destination intact, but generally the game is a capital ship slugfest. Combat is done in rounds, each ship getting its own attack die, hits resolved by another roll of the die. After both sides get to fight, simultaneously, there is the option to disengage or keep firing.

Both sides receive reinforcements, but the Allies receive far more than the Axis. The Italian ships are largely worthless--most can't leave the Med.

To mitigate the difficult German position, undamaged surface ships get a +1 on all "to hit" rolls.

Review/Strategy

This game generates a lot of flagrantly unrealistic (but exciting!) fleet battles. The Allies have a crushing numerical superiority, but they have to cover every single sea space if they want to succeed. The German strategy is to mass forces in one area and make the Allies bleed. The North Sea is especially critical as denying Allied control there allows German ships to break out all over the Atlantic, further dividing the enemy's forces.

There's a lot of luck in this game. A lot. Even perfect strategy can be rewarded by a sunken fleet on Turn 2. You roll dice to see if your ships can move two spaces, you roll for air strikes, you roll to hit, you roll for damage, you roll to see if the Americans contribute ships, you roll to see if the Russian ships are active...

But that's why you own lots of dice, right?

As a simulation, it's tenuously connected to reality at best. Actually, I tried a game with no bonus for German captains, and the flow of that game was much closer to that of reality. I still lost as the Germans, but it was a more satisfying experience in some ways.

Always helps to have a good WW2 soundtrack...

Conclusion

I like War at Sea a lot. It's quick, fun, and atmospheric. I'd hardly call it an introductory wargame as it doesn't really introduce a new player to many typical wargaming concepts. But it is a tight little game which can be played in no time.

If you can find it, play it--don't let the dated graphics turn you off.

7.5 out of 10