Modern Naval Battles

Military-themed Card Game of Modern Naval Warfare
3-6 Players
30-90 Minutes
Designed by Dan Verssen & Alan Emrich
Published by World Wide Wargames (1989)


“Proximity to beer and pretzels impairs the judgement of fleet commanders in combat situations. For this reason, and for this reason alone, all ‘beer and pretzels’ should be removed from the bridge and stored in foot lockers prior to entering combat.”
Dan Verrsen (designer of Modern Naval Battles)

For some reason that is totally beyond my understanding, many people seem to put Modern Naval Battles into the ‘beer and pretzel’ class of game. I suspect that it may be due to having a physical similarity to the Avalon Hill game, Naval War. I know – they are both card games, they both give victory to the person who scores the most points from sinking enemy ships and they both have a military/naval-theme. Ferraris have four wheels and an engine and so do Volkswagen Beetles – Volkswagen Beetles must be sports cars.

To those of us who have played both, and thought about how we play the game, we know that the similarity ends the moment you read the rules. It’s a bit like saying that the meat pattie in a Big Mac is the same as a finely cooked piece of Rib-eye steak – they don’t look the same, they don’t feel the same and they certainly don’t taste the same. They are not really the same thing at all and nor are MNB and NW.

NW is a ‘beer and pretzel’ game – it is fairly simple and doesn’t take much thought to play and enjoy. IMHO, MNB is a totally different style of game that is relatively complex for a card game and requires the players to make many significant decisions throughout the game. I feel that this complexity is due to rather sophisticated integration of ships and weapon systems as portrayed by the game system.


“I want you guys to go out there and roll sixes!”
Chester Nimitz (during a planning meeting prior to the Battle of Midway)

To explain the game is simpler than to play it well. You start the game with seven ships in your fleet and you have to arrange them. You can have one, two or three rows of ships and your submarines are moored to the side. Ships have different weapon systems – guns, missiles, torpedos and aircraft. The weapons systems will have a bearing on how your fleet is deployed. Ships firing guns must be in the first row of your fleet (Main Attack Group) and is only allowed to fire their guns at the enemy Main Attack Group. Ships firing missiles must be in the Main Attack Group or in the second row of the fleet (Screening Vessels) and is only allowed to fire at enemy ships in the Main Attack Group or Screening Vessels. The third row are referred to as Screened Vessels. Screened Vessels may only be attacked by aircraft and submarines – normally aircraft carriers are placed in the Screened Vessels group. The bottom line is: where you place your ships is important as it has a direct bearing on how effectively they can use their weapons and how vulnerable they will be to attack.

At the start of each turn each player draws a card to determine turn order. The turn order will vary from turn to turn and it is possible that one player may have two turns in a row.

Each player then has their turn. They will roll a “fog-of-war” die to see how many actions they have for the turn – roll a one and you have one action, roll a six and you have six actions. Each action involves either playing a card or declaring a carrier-based air-strike.

After you have rolled your dice you have to select how best to use your options. During your turn you can use action cards to make attacks (gun attacks, missile attacks, torpedos, anti-submarine warfare, land-based air-strikes, bomber strikes and carrier air-strikes) or you can use defense cards as area defenses.

Defense Cards: there are different defense cards (evasive manoeuvres, electronic counter-measures, air cover and anti-submarine warfare) which will protect against various types of attacks. You can play the defense card during your turn as an action and it becomes an area defense (these cards will be discarded at the start of your next turn and before then will protect your entire fleet from the appropriate type of attack) or they can be held in your hand and played as point defense (played from your hand during other people’s turns – in this case each card will only stop one attack).


“I want you to hit ‘em hard, hit ‘em low and, if they move, hit ‘em again!”
George S. Patton (in the dressing room of the army football team prior to an Army/Navy match)

Gunnery, missile and torpedo attack cards have a number which represents the damage the attack will do to the target vessel. When the accumulated damage equals or exceeds the armour value of the target ship, it will sink and the person making the final attack will be credited with victory points. Air strikes amount to rolling dice and a hit will sink the target immediately. Carrier air-strikes normally need a one or a two on the dice to be successful. Land-based air-strikes have a higher chance of being successful against the Main Battle Group than against Screening Vessels and has less chance again when launched against the Screened Vessels. Before selecting your targets you should ask yourself, “How lucky do I feel?” Alternatively, if there is a small Main Attack Group you may be able to completely wipe it out, thus making the Screening Vessels the new Main Attack Group.

Submarines are interesting parts of your fleet. They can be Active or Passive. Active submarines are easier to sink than Passive submarines. Submarines have the option to target any enemy ship regardless of its location in the fleet. Los Angles and Alpha class submarines are more effective on the attack and harder to sink due to their greater speed and/or stealth.

Bomber strikes are handled differently – for each “Fog-of-War” point allocated to the strike the player will roll a die. For each 1, 2, 3 or 4 rolled they will sink a ship in a single enemy fleet.

There are also special cards that allow you to gain additional ships, to retreat for a turn, repair ships during combat and make your aircraft carrier crews more efficient.


“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist – but it does help”
Wernher von Braun (Father of the U.S. space Program)

The game has advanced rules which are quite sophisticated. Without going into details, the advanced rules create situations where defense systems become more integrated and the effect of this on game play is to give the players more decisions regarding which targets are easier or more difficult to sink.


“Do you want fries with that?”
(Nameless Employee of Large Multi-national Corporation)

The quality of the components is quite good. The game comes with 55 Ship Cards and 114 Action Cards. The cards are printed in multi-colours on thick, glossy cardboard. The two decks have different sized cards which makes it easy to sort them out if necessary. They would be better with rounded corners but this is a minor complaint.

The rules are only four pages long and are clearly written (unlike many other 3W games of this vintage).

The six player-order cards have neat summaries on their reverse side that make it easy for people to check when and in what situation they can play the basic attack and defense cards.

The game requires players to make a lot of decisions and the decisions will have a significant bearing on the game. This lifts it from being just another ‘beer and pretzels” game.

Weapon systems, particularly if using the advanced rules, are highly integrated, making the location of ships within fleets quite significant. At the start of each turn a player may move a single ship to an adjacent group, so your initial deployment is important.

The ‘Fog-of-War’ is an interesting concept that works in this game. Even having the right cards is not necessarily enough. As with many cards games, how you play the cards is more important than simply having the right cards.

The person who has 180 or more points at the end of a complete hand will win the game. The game does have an element of “let’s gang up on the leader”, but due to the complexity of the integrated aspects of combat this is not necessarily a big deal.

When you have had enough of ‘beer and pretzel’ games and want to play a real wargamer’s card game, please pull out a copy of Modern Naval Battles and deal me in.


“Dead Men Tell No Tales!”