Campaign Rules

War at Sea Campaign Rules

Overview

This campaign system is intended for two or three players and is intended to produce 80-300 point per side War at Sea battles within a simple campaign system that provides some context to each battle.

Game Start

Each side begins with 1000 points to purchase units. 

Build Restrictions:

• All published WAS units are available and count as published. 

• Units in Forumini Navies and Navies Expanded Deck may also be used but do not count as published until used.

• The United States may choose one of the following penalties:

• 20% increase in cost of all units

• 10% increase in cost of all units and all units with torpedoes count as having the Flawed Torpedoes SA

• For each Battleship or Carrier built, one Cruiser and two Destroyers must also be built. 

• No more than one Submarine may be built for each Battleship or Carrier built.

• For Battleships and Carriers, you may not build a second ship within a class (e.g., Bismarck class) without building all published ships in the class.  If other ships in the class are not available due to Year, then the “not yet built” unit may be ignored for this purpose.

• If a Battleship or Carrier is unique (per WAS), a second may not be built without building another ship of the same WAS class (e.g., Battleship or Carrier).  Where no such units exist (i.e., Graf Zeppelin), this rule may be ignored.

• Points may be spent toward future builds, as if spent on turns 0, -1, etc. This allows units which are available after the game start year to be built in time for their year of availability.  See Spend Production Points section for more details.

• Up to 50 points may be saved in the bank.

            Exceptions:

• Escort Carriers (carriers with only a base of 1 and 3 or fewer hull points) require only one destroyer (instead of 1 cruiser and 2 destroyers)

• Escort Carriers, as defined above, do not count toward allowing corresponding building of submarines

• The Germans may build an additional submarine for every 3 Battleships or Carriers built.

Each side begins with a number of production points in their bank as if they had collected Production Points on Turn 0.

Campaign Maps

 2-Player

 3-Player

Turn Sequence

1. Spend Production Points
2. Deploy Aircraft
3. Move Ships
4. Commit Aircraft Strikes
5. Tactical Intelligence
6. Combat
7. Regroup
8. Deploy New Production
9. Collect Production Points
10. Move Timeline

Spend Production Points

Each player secretly spends the Production Points in their bank.  No more than 20% of these points may remain unspent; any excess are wasted.  Units cost an amount equal to their War at Sea cost.

Units with a cost of 15 points or less are produced in one turn; when purchased in the Spend Production Points phase of a turn, they are deployed during the Deploy New Production phase of the same turn. 

Units with a cost of 16 points or more take one turn per 15 points or fraction thereof.  To build these units, the player must spend 15 points or half (rounded up) of the outstanding/remaining cost, whichever is greater.  No more than 15 points may be spent on a unit in one turn.

Example: The HMS Repulse costs 33 points, so would take 3 turns to build.  15 points would be spent on the first turn and at least 9 points, but no more than 15, on the second turn.  The balance would be spent on the third and last turn.

For each Battleship or Carrier for which production points are spent, points must also be spent on at least one Cruiser and at least two Destroyers.  For each Escort Carrier for which production points are spent, points must also be spent on at least one Destroyer.  This rule still applies for points spent out of the initial spend pool for future builds (see Game Start).

For each Submarine for which production points are spent, points must also be spent on at least one Ship (not Auxiliary).

Only units that can be produced in the current year can be scheduled for production, though units that are available in the future may have their production begun.  Units which are available in a year may be produced during the FALL of the prior year, as they are not available for use until SPRING of the year of their availability.

Battleships and Carriers (but not escort carriers) may only be produced at the CAPITAL.  All other units may be produced at either the CAPITAL or at a LARGE BASE.

Deploy Aircraft

During this phase, each player secretly deploys all of their aircraft to bases or carriers.  The basing capacity of bases and carriers may not be exceeded.  Any excess units are placed in the CAPITAL, but may not be used in combat.

            Basing Capacity

• CAPITAL               12 aircraft
• LARGE BASE             8 aircraft
• SMALL BASE             5 aircraft
• LARGE NEUTRAL BASE     6 aircraft
• SMALL NEUTRAL BASE     3 aircraft
• Carrier               As listed on card

Move Ships

Ships may move a number of sectors on the map equal to their movement value.  Units may not move through sectors they do not control but may move into them.  For units with Slow x, a die is rolled to determine allowed movement in the same manner as in combat.  Crippled units may only move one sector.

On the first turn of the game, for the purposes of ship movement, the ships are considered to be in a sector adjacent to their desired destination.

Movement is secret; the results are not discovered by opponents until the Tactical Intelligence phase.

Commit Aircraft Strikes

Land-based Aircraft, except Patrol Bombers, and carrier-based aircraft desiring to do a ‘Carrier Strike’ must have their movement committed during this phase, in a similar manner to the ship movement.

Patrol Bombers with loiter have unlimited range.  Patrol Bombers without loiter have a maximum range of 4 sectors.  All other Aircraft have a maximum range of 1 sector (i.e., an adjacent sector).

Aircraft do not need to be committed during this phase to participate in battle in their own sector.

Patrol Bombers do not have to be committed at this time but if not are limited to combat in their same or adjacent sector, a decision made during the Tactical Intelligence phase.

A ‘Carrier Strike’ is the commitment of aircraft from a carrier to an adjacent sector.  Carrier aircraft committed in this manner retain the use of the Carrier SAs of their home carrier, but those SAs can only be applied to aircraft launched from that carrier.

A ‘Carrier Strike’ has a risk because if the sector with the carrier is attacked, then the aircraft may not rearm – after their attack, they merely move off map and do not return.  The aircraft do not count toward victory points, for either the aircraft’s battle or the carrier’s, but the standard survival roll must be made for the aircraft if their carrier is destroyed in that battle.

The number of re-arm turns for Aircraft should be considered when committing aircraft.

Aircraft Type	Range	Re-Arm Markers
Land-Based	0 (same sector)	1
Land-Based	1	2
Land-Based (Patrol Bomber only)	2	3
Land-Based (Patrol Bomber only)	3	4
Land-Based (Patrol Bomber only)	4	5
Carrier-Based	0 (same sector)	0
Carrier-Based	1	2

Tactical Intelligence

During the Tactical Intelligence phase, each player must share with his opponent information about his deployments (i.e., the results of Move Ships) in every sector that is adjacent to one of his sectors.  This information must include the following:

• Number of Battleships
• Number of Carriers
• Number of Cruisers
• Number of Destroyers
• Number of Auxiliaries

The numbers of Submarines, Aircraft, Patrol Boats, or details on what types of ships in each class are not disclosed.

After disclosure of intelligence, each player may choose where to deploy their Patrol Bombers, within the restrictions listed in the Commit Aircraft Strikes section.

After disclosure of intelligence, each player simultaneously declares whether they are remaining in the sector or choose to flee.  See Regroup phase for limitations on fleeing vessels.  At this time also, players declare if any crippled ships at bases are participating in potential combat, remaining in port to be repaired or are fleeing.

Combat

Combat occurs on a standard WAS map with three 25-point objectives and random terrain.  Each battle lasts 12 turns with the victor the one with the most Victory Points at the end of the battle.  Due to this, the Night Fighter SA is changed from turn 4 to turn 8.

No side may retreat off the map until Turn 6.  However, a side may choose to retreat prior to combat, but suffers a restriction (see Regroup).

If the defending side had any ships that remained in port for repairs and the attackers wins the battle (and control of the sector) then all such ships are scuttled by their commanders and destroyed.

Regroup

Ships which lose a combat must retreat to an adjacent friendly sector (no closer to the enemy’s capital).  If no such sector exists, they must move to the nearest friendly sector and are not available for use during the next turn (they are effectively, in transit, escaping to friendly seas).

Ships which win combat may choose to remain in that sector or retreat to an adjacent friendly sector (no closer to the enemy’s capital).

Ships which flee before combat, must retreat as if they had fought and lost, but may not make an offensive action (moving into an enemy sector or launching a carrier strike) on their next turn.  If lack of adjacent sector makes them unavailable for use during the next turn, then this restriction is delayed until the subsequent turn.

Land-based Aircraft return to the base from which they launched.  If this base is no longer under friendly control, they must go to the nearest friendly base, regardless of base-limits.  Any such base-limit violations must be resolved during the next Deploy Aircraft phase.

All non-crippled units repair one point of damage.  Any unit which has spent the entire turn at a friendly BASE (of any type) and did not engage in combat (i.e., remained in port to be repaired) is fully repaired.

Deploy New Production

All completed production is secretly placed during this phase.  All Battleships and Carriers (but not escort carriers) must be placed at the CAPITAL.  All other units may be placed at either the CAPITAL or LARGE BASE.  Ignore base-limits for aircraft at this time; they will be resolved during the next Deploy Aircraft phase.

Collect Production

Add up Production Points earned from all friendly areas per the following table:

Sector Type	2-Player Game Value	3-Player Game Value
CAPITAL	150	150
LARGE BASE	40	50
SMALL BASE	25	25
LARGE NEUTRAL BASE	N/A	40
SMALL NEUTRAL BASE	N/A	20
EMPTY SECTOR	10	10

Move Timeline

Each year is divided into two turns, the SPRING turn and the FALL turn.  Typically, games will begin in the SPRING turn of the selected year.  At the end of each turn, the timeline moves to the next season (SPRING or FALL), with the Year incrementing as needed.

Specific Unit Notes

The UK may use the Greek Proteus to represent early Submarines.

All official revisions in the Forumini Repaint Reference are used.