Game: 1898: The Spanish American War

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P47 Thunderbolt — 2007-12-20T01:12:28+00:00

Series Rulebook

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Scenarios Book

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Player Log Sheet

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Ship Data Sheet

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Operational Map-Right Side

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Operational Map-Left Side

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Light Ships

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Backs of Capital Ships

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US and Spanish Capital Ships

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P47 Thunderbolt — 2007-12-20T00:37:53+00:00

US Ships

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

XanderF — 2007-12-18T20:51:54+00:00

300% better!

EDIT: Now, quit picking on the Oregon! I'm partial to that ship. Pick on the...I dunno...TEXAS or something.

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

P47 Thunderbolt — 2007-12-18T15:48:23+00:00

How's this?

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Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

dude163 — 2007-12-18T13:32:19+00:00

(and clip those counters :P)

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

XanderF — 2007-12-18T07:01:10+00:00

Nice session report, but...yikes! you may want to check the white balance on your camera.

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

wargamer55 — 2007-12-18T06:33:04+00:00

I think this was a very reasonable outcome, similar to what you might get from a more detailed set of rules.
The special rules, while harsh, were the actual conditions that the Spanish ships would have faced. The standard scenarios in the game cut eh Spanish some slack by ignoring these historical factors.
(The Colon -- a brand new ship -- didn't have its main armament installed in time for the war. The Vizcaya was on a port cal in New York when the war started and never had a chance to have its fouled bottom cleaned during the early=war manuevering.)

Thread: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

P47 Thunderbolt — 2007-12-18T05:06:13+00:00

The Great War at Sea System is primarily designed as an Operational Game of Naval Combat. The tactical battle rules are simple in order to allow quick play of an Operational Scenario. But the Battle Scenarios can be much fun in themselves and are a great place to start in learning the game.

The Game System began with World War I. The addition of 1904-1905: The Russo-Japanese War and 1898: The Spanish American War, are a bit of a stretch for the system. These games have fewer ships in battle, the ships are slower, have far fewer guns, and are destroyed with far fewer hull hits. With just a few ships and guns firing, the luck of the die can become significant at times.

And 1898's second Battle Scenario is, I think, the smallest scenario of these smaller and earlier games. Actually, that tends to make it a good scenario to begin with if you haven't played before. Only Rules sections 7-9 from the Scenario Rules and pages 3-4 in the Scenario Book are needed to play the game.

So I recently set up the US B03 Oregon in the center of the board and the Spanish AC01 Infanta Maria Teresa, AC02 Vizcaya, AC03 Almirante Oquendo, AC08 Cristobal Colon and 2 Furor Class DDs in one hex on the left edge of the board.

The Special rules are harsh on the Spanish. AC02 and AC03 have fouled bottoms and can only move at 1-Slow. AC08 is missing its primary guns, so its gunery factors are 0-3-1. I decided to keep all the Spanish ships together, rather than running ahead with the DDs and allowing the Oregon to retreat before them and pick them off before engaging the Capital Ships.

The Spanish won the initiative rolls for all 3 rounds. On Round 1 the Oregon allowed the Spanish to close to range 2, where just the primaries could open up. The Oregon had 3 primary gun factors and the Spanish ships all together had 3 primary gun factors. On the first round each side lost a primary and a hull box.

On the second round the Spanish DDs first closed to range 1. Here the Oregon sank 1 (for 2 Victory Points). The second one decided not to fire its torpedo at range one with just a 1 out of 6 chance of hitting. It closed to range 0. Here the Oregon sank the second DD (2 more VPs) before it could launch its torpedo with a 1 out of 3 chance of hitting.

All the Spanish ships now closed to range 1. Primaries could now hit on rolls of 5 or 6. And the secondaries could also fire. The Oregon had 4 secondary gun factors, and they could destroy Spanish primaries and hull, because they were only protected with light armor. The Spanish had a total of 9 seconday gun factors, but they could not damage the Oregon's primary gun factors or hull, because they were both protected with heavy armor. But they could take out the Oregon's secondaries.

Each side lost a second primary. The Spanish lost 3 secondaries and the oregon lost all 4. Spanish AC01 lost a second hull box, dropping its speed to 1-Slow, and the Oregon lost 2 more hull boxes, tragically dropping its speed to "Dead in the Water."

On Round 3 the Oregon opened fire and destroyed the last remaining Spanish primary, and sinking AC01 Infanta Maria Teresa (for 17 more VPs). The 3 remaining Spanish ACs now moved into the same hex with the Oregon and each launched their 1 hull-mounted torpedo factor at the "Dead in the Water" Oregon, each having a 1 in 6 chance of hitting it. One 6 was rolled, and the damage allocation for the torpedo hit resulted in 2 hull hits, sinking the Oregon (for 31 VPs). Total was Spanish 31 VPs, US 21 VPs).

Here is a picture of the end of the scenario. I have flipped the sunk ships over to their silhouette side:

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This was a very close affair. If the Oregon hadn't been dead in the water, the Spanish hull-mounted torpedoes would have had no chance of hitting it even at range 0, and the Oregon could have launched its deck-mounted torpedo. The only remaing Spanish opportunity to sink the Oregon would have been to ram it. But not with AC02 Vizcaya or AC03 Almirante Oquendo, for the damage to either Spanish ship would have also sunk it and the VPs would have given the victory to the US. The Spanish would have had to ram the Oregon with AC08 Cristobal Colon. It could have sunk the Oregon and remained afloat (barely). But if one hull box had been destroyed previously, it too would have gone down from the ramming.

Thread: Battle Scenario 1 - Battle of Manila Bay

Neffchiro — 2007-08-24T03:29:07+00:00

1 May 1898

On the night of 30 April/1 May 1898, Commodore George Dewey's U.S. Asiatic Squadron slipped by the inattentive Spanish shore batteries and into Manila Bay. Spanish Rear-Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasaron had attempted to prepare, but lacked ships, ammunition and mines. The first battle of the war, though a small naval action, destroyed the Spanish fleet at little cost to the U.S. squadron, brought about the eventual transfer of the Philippines to the U.S. and immediately elevated the U.S. to the status of a world power. This victory produced nationwide celebrations in America and destroyed Spain's hope of European intervention on her behalf.

Spanish Forces
C03 Castilla
C05 Reina Cristina
C12 Velasco
C15 Don Juan de Austria
C16 Don Antonio de Uloa
C18 Isla de Luzon
C19 Isla de Cuba
GB04 General Lezo

American Forces
C03 Baltimore
C06 Olympia
C08 Raleigh
PC02 Boston
GB02 Petrel
GB03 Concord
RC01 McCulloch

Victory Points: In addition to the normal VP's, the Spanish player gains the VP value of any Spanish ship that escapes.

Historical Note: The Castilla, Velasco and General Lezo were unable to sail when the battle took place. For a more historically accurate scenario, but one even less fun for the Spanish player, treat these ships as dead-in-the-water.

Game Notes:

The Americans rushed the Spanish fleet, hoping to sail within range of their powerful battery of secondary guns. The Spaniards, on the other hand, decided to try an end-around, using the DIW ships as "bait".

After a few turns of movement (most of the guns could only reach ships in the same hex, and a scant few could reach the adjacent hexes) the shots rang out over Manila Bay. The heavy guns of the Olympia and Baltimore made quick work of the mighty Reina Cristina and she began to list to port, her hull shredded and sinking.

The chase continued and the Boston joined the fight, sinking the Isla de Luzon and Isla de Cuba with a fierce volley. A few moments later, the Americans fell upon the DIW ships like jackals. The Castilla hammered the McCulloch with well-placed round, dealing critical damage and sinking her. But the brave men aboard the Spanish ship had little time to celebrate, for the Olympia knocked out her guns and the Raleigh landed a barrage of tertiary rounds, all direct hits. The Castilla erupted in smoke and flame, her hull shearing in half and sinking rapidly.

The Americans quickly mopped up the remnants of the once-proud Spanish fleet and the game ended with the score: America 29 - Spain 2.

Thread: Re: User Review

Mykel B — 2007-03-03T07:14:46+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write a great review Xander. Gave me a lot of insight into the game.

Thread: User Review

XanderF — 2005-04-17T23:21:37+00:00

"1898: The Spanish-American War" is another game in Avalanche Press’s “Great War at Sea” series. This product was created as a special product for them, as it is one of the few in the series to included a mounted tactical board (not just a paper map, actually mounted!), as well as an operational map that is a glossy cardboard-like material. Very, very sharp looking, and a welcome change from the paper maps of other games in the series (although they are gorgeous as well, the maps in ‘1898’ are in a league of their own!)

As noted in my ‘1904’ review, I’m something of a fab of pre-dreadnought battleships, and so the art throughout this game is just incredible to me. The counter art is gorgeous, the maps are gorgeous, the silhouettes are incredible – even the ship art printed on the tactical map, box, and rules...all very nice!

The game box is full-sized (same box size as is used in Avalanche Press's "Bomb Alley", "SOPAC", and other titles) and you COULD fit 2 Chessex counter tray in it easily. I’m not sure why you’d need to, as all the game counters fit quite nicely in a single tray.

Included in the box is:
- 1 counter sheets with 180 counters
- One (8” x 22”) ‘card-mounted’ strategic map for the ‘operational’ portion of the game
- One (17” x 11”) mounted tactical map for the ‘tactical’ portion of the game
- Rulebook (20 pages, including cover, contents page, and 2 pages of tables)
- ‘Game book’ (2 pages game rules, 19 pages of scenarios, )
- Ship booklet (8 pages ship data lines)
- One sheet of two ‘fleet composition’ cards to lay out fleets in the operation game (one for each side, must be cut in half for use)
- Blank player log sheet (will need to be photocopied for play)

The game has two scales – an operational element, and a tactical element. In the 'operational' scale, fleets are moved on the strategic map with their contents unknown to the enemy unless revealed by coming into contact with an enemy surface fleet. In the 'tactical' game, combat between fleets that made contact on the operational map are resolved.

As with the other games in the series, players record their orders for their fleets in advance, and execute them simultaneously. For several missions in this era, orders must be plotted out for the entire game (or until the ship returns to a friendly port), and even ‘intercept’ missions need to be plotted out 3 turns in advance.

When two fleets meet, contact is rolled for. If contact is made, the game drops down to the ‘tactical combat’ system.

Here, each large ship (gunboats and larger in this game) has its own counter, while destroyers, torpedo boat and merchant counters represent several of the ships (up to 3 or 4 per counter).

The ship-to-ship combat in the game uses a minor variation on the ‘Great War at Sea’ rules. A few differences that pick up the feel of the period better are:

- Reduced weapons range. Instead of 3 hexes for primaries, primary guns in ‘1898’ can only fire 2 hexes. Secondaries fire 1 hex (vs 2 hexes in other GWaS games), and tertiary guns can only fire at ships within the same hex (vs 1 hex in other GWaS games)

- Fleets may ‘split up’. In most games in the series, all the ship groups are required to be in adjacent hexes – this is not the case in this game.

Ship stacking limits are 8 to a hex in this game, although this will rarely happen in this game (too few ships for most scenarios, and the ‘split up’ option allows for more flexibility). Ship counters are initially placed face down, so only a silhouette of the ship is seen, and only flipped over when within closer visual range of the enemy.

Combat proceeds much as it does in other GWaS games. Ships are rated for 3 gunnery types - primary, secondary, and tertiary (in addition to torpedo stats). Primaries can penetrate any armor; secondaries cannot penetrate heavy armor, but CAN penetrate light armor; tertiaries can only damage unarmored parts of the enemy ship. Roll 1 dice for each factor – modified by the effectiveness table - with '6's hitting, then rolling against the damage table for each hit.

Torpedo attacks roll on their own damage table, doing predictably more damage, but being much harder to aim (lots of penalty die-roll modifiers for battleships firing torpedoes). Torpedo combat in this era wasn’t HUGELY effective, however.

The game comes with a modest number amount of scenarios, however in a rarity for the series, a LOT of the scenarios require parts from other products! 8 Battle scenarios are included, but of those 1 requires ships from ‘1904-1905: The Russo-Japanese War’. 12 Operational scenarios are included, however, of these, only SIX are playable with parts from this game! Operational scenarios 7, 9, 11 and 12 require the map from ‘US Navy Plan Orange’; scenarios 8 and 10 require the Western Mediterranean map from ‘GWaS: The Mediterranean’; scenario 12 also requires ships from ‘1904-1905: The Russo-Japanese War’.

‘1898’ includes perhaps the most comprehensive campaign game in the series. It links together, not battle scenarios designed to replicate historical events, but a series of operational scenarios. Played throughout, the campaign game is LONG, but it allows for the flow of the war to change substantially by player actions – including various minor nations (Denmark, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico, and Venezuala – ships all included in the game) reacting differently to each of the two warring powers – from neutrality through closing ports all the way up to declaring war!

A LOT of the scenarios in this product are ‘almost was’ or pure hypotheticals, perhaps due to the nature of the conflict. Enough historical scenarios exist to likely satisfy the purist interest in an untainted reproduction of this war – but the extra scenarios ARE quite interesting. In reality, of course, Spain was unprepared for the war and caught off-guard by the professionalism and determination of the US attack. With better preparation, more allies, and better leadership (which some scenarios provide for) the conflict could come out much more balanced and interesting from a gamer’s perspective.

As it is, must of the balance comes from victory conditions, with Spanish ‘victory’ achieved performing goals like “the Spanish player gains the VP of any ships that has not been destroyed by the end of the game” or “the Spanish player wins if he sinks any US ‘B’ or ‘CD’ type ship, or escapes with one or more capital ships”. A grim game from their side!

The historical scenarios are interesting, but the lopsided victory conditions can sometimes be frustrating. The hypothetical scenarios are really where the game shines, though.

Thread: Re:Session Report

XanderF — 2004-09-25T23:37:24+00:00

wargamer55 (#54827),
I am aware that, by the victory conditions, the Spanish DID 'win' the scenario. OTOH, the US managed to sink the entire Spanish fleet. Didn't really seem right to give them a blanket 'victory' result for the scenario as a result. And, FWIW, I partially disagree with the stated victory conditions. The AC Brooklyn was specifically excluded as a victory condition, while the Texas was not - although they both had the same number of hull boxes (Texas armored heavier, of course, not that it mattered against primaries), and the Brooklyn having twice as many gunnery factors (at closer range, granted) and higher speed. To my mind, they were roughly equivelant ships - compared to the battleships present, anyway, and should *probably* have been equally excluded.

Thread: Re:Session Report

wargamer55 — 2004-09-16T02:36:22+00:00

XanderF (#53722),
Actually, based on the rules and your description the Spanish side won the scenario. Capital ships include The Texas, and the two armored cruisers as well, for that matter. Once the Texas took damage the Americans should have had the ship pull back. Santiago is a tough situation for the Spanish, as they are significantly outgunned, so they did very well to actually sink a major US ship.

Thread: In which the Spanish lose terribly...but still technically win

XanderF — 2004-09-12T22:49:16+00:00

Played a game of this last night with a couple of local wargamers I had recently met. Must say, my expectations of it were pretty high from solo play, but I was still surprised at how well the game played in a group - with neither participant previously experienced with it (I ref'd).

The game played was Battle Scenario 4 (Battle of Santiago de Cuba, 3 July 1898). Spanish fleet set up entering from the map's NE and had to disengage to the SE, SW, or W hex sides. US fleet did not have initiative (per scenario instructions), so set up in the map center.

Spanish player victory conditions were to sink any US capital ship (essentially excluding only the AC Brooklyn) or to disengage off the map. US victory conditions were to prevent both of these from happening.

Spanish player decided to try for a sinking, so both fleets made moves for each other immediately. Initial gunnery exchange favored the Americans heavily - but, then, they were firing 10 factors against the Spanish 4. Spain lost some weapons, but damaged the hull on the Texas heavily (it's a coastal defense ship, didn't take much).

Following turns saw the range close some more, as more Spanish guns got taken out and the Texas was sunk. It did not take long before the Spanish player decided to try and close into secondary weapon's range, and he was down to 1 or 2 primaries and the Americans were still shooting 8 factors. Secondaries didn't help much, as the Spanish only had 9 to start with (vs the 15 of the American forces after the loss of Texas). Still, Spanish player was trying for a second American capital ship, and the final condition of his fleet was not a victory factor to him (they were all older armored cruisers).

After some intense broadside exchanges at secondary's range, with the Spanish player definately taking the worst of it (losing the Infanta Maria Theresa and the Almirante Oquendo), the Spanish player decided to make a parting torpedo shot with his destroyer squadron and make for the map edge.

This part of the game dragged a little bit from the Spanish player perspective. He was down to 2 capital ships - Vizcaya and Cristóbol Colón, with no primary gunnery factors left between them - against the American force of the Oregon, Indiana, Iowa, and Brooklyn, the three US battleships still firing most of their primary guns (total of 8 remaining between them). Essentially, it amounted to the Spanish player edging closer and closer to the escape hexes while his ships got more and more shredded.

Finally, with the Spanish fleet down to one cruiser - Cristóbol Colón (a burning wreck with no weapons left, and damaged engines) - and only 1 hex to the border, the American fleet closed range for torpedo and tertiary weapon attacks. As luck would have it, a torpedo from the Oregon managed a hit, and, with a spectactular explosion, the Cristóbol Colón sank to the bottom.

So, the US fleet did prevent any Spanish ships from escaping...but lost the Texas in the process. As the ref, I called the scenario ended as a draw!

Definately an exciting game, and played using the rules 'out of the box'. Recommended!

Game: 1898: The Spanish American War

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Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Re: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Battle Scenario 2: Surprise Action

Thread: Battle Scenario 1 - Battle of Manila Bay

Thread: Re: User Review

Thread: User Review

Thread: Re:Session Report

Thread: Re:Session Report

Thread: In which the Spanish lose *terribly*...but still technically win

Thread: In which the Spanish lose terribly...but still technically win