The Jane Naval War Game

General orders may be given verbally before the action only. During action the admiral calls coded signals (e.g. '8 S.P.'), captains answer or reply 'Not understood', and the admiral calls 'Act on signal'. Verbal directions outside the code are known to any enemy in signalling distance; ships without masts or halliards cannot signal; maximum signalling distance 10,000 yards.

If any verbal directions are given, other than by signal code, they are to be known at once by any enemy within signalling distance.

Shooting targets are unnamed so recognition depends on the enemy's knowledge, and disguises may be adopted if marked on the target. Submarine players plot speed, depth, distance and direction on paper; ship players are ignorant of their existence and even a destroyed boat's fate is not revealed.

The ‘shooting targets’ are not named: recognition of a ship is left to the enemy’s knowledge.

Clear daylight sighting 10 miles, moonlit night about 5 miles, dark nights 1,000 yards or less. Torpedo boats at full speed are visible at 2,500 yards on clear nights, 1,500 on dark, with even chances of not being sighted 500 yards nearer. Searchlights have 3,000-yard range; observers gauge a lit ship's distance by a d6 error table.

Both ships and boats shall always have even chances of not sighting for 500 yards nearer than the ranges mentioned.

Large games use an umpire per side plus a chief umpire; umpires follow the spirit over the letter. In the strategical game the umpire marks all moves on a private chart, determines contacts and passes all information between headquarters and ships. Player mistakes in their own favour count as engine room breakdowns at umpire option.

The umpire should have access to all charts and mark all moves upon a private chart of his own. He can thus at once determine when hostile vessels meet.

Should a flagship receive heavy fire where the admiral is stationed (assumed the forward conning tower), even chances decide whether he is hors de combat, in which case he relinquishes command; shifting flag takes full time as directed by the umpire.

Should any flagship receive a heavy fire where the admiral is stationed, even chances should be thrown as to whether he is placed hors de combat.

For each big gun the player strikes once at the enemy's shooting target, chosen according to range; quick-firing guns are struck in rapid succession without checking results. Targets are drawn to scale so a gun muzzle has roughly its true chance of being hit, and at 45 degrees only the near half counts, at 60 degrees one quarter. The pin is nearly but never quite central, removing certainty.

To fire, a player strikes at a shooting target of the ship fired at, with one of the strikers provided, using target according to range. For each big gun separate shots may be made.

Each ship has an ammunition allowance by type chosen beforehand; one ticket is dropped per A, B or C gun fired, on the firing square, naming the target. Tickets must be ready a move in advance and changing projectile needs reload time. Non-QF 10-inch, 6-inch and 4.7-inch guns fire every two moves; strategical ammunition is 10-20 rounds per gun.

A player wishing to fire drops one of these for every A, B, or C gun fired, while he is moving, and on the particular square he fires from, at the same time indicating the ship fired at.

Ships are divided into 25-foot vertical sections numbered from the bow and lateral decks; damage is scribbled over the area centred on the hit point, limited along a deck only by bulkheads or armour, with overflow scored on decks above and below.

Damage is scored by scribbling over the area affected; the centre of the damage being always the point hit on the shooting target

Ships under 6 knots or turning with engines are fired at as 1,000 yards nearer; ships passing at a combined 30 knots fire with the target for 1,000 yards greater; sun, lee sea, night and rolling ships also shift to targets 1,000-2,000 yards farther. Inferior gunnery can be represented by using targets 1,000 yards greater.

Ships passing at a combined speed of 30 knots or over will both fire at each other with the target for 1,000 yards greater than the actual.

Armour grades run from aaaa (proof except very close) through aaa=30in iron to f thin armour; deck slopes count double, coal improves one grade. Armour-piercing shell penetrates two grades less with A-C guns; HE/common shell four less for A down to one less for E; impacts over 30 degrees lose one grade, over 60 three. Under 1,000 yards solid shot gains a grade, and A guns at 700 yards penetrate everything.

With High Explosive, or Common shell, four grades less for A guns, three less for B, two less for C and D, one less for E.

Two penetrations of armoured deck or belt per 1,000 tons sink a ship (20 for 10,000 tons). Destroyed bow waterline sections submerge the forward part one deck; if the stern is also destroyed the whole ship sinks a deck and penetrations equal to half the remaining sections capsize it. Personnel loss is five men per gun disabled; guns need ten men to maintain rate of fire.

Two penetrations of armoured deck, belt, etc., per thousand tons of displacement, shall be considered sufficient to sink a ship.

Ship torpedoes hit at 500 yds 1 in 6, 400 yds 2, 300 yds 3, under 300 yds 5 in 6 (foreign submerged tubes worse); ships under 5,000 tons torpedoed are sunk, larger waterlogged. Loaded above-water tubes may explode when their section is hit. Submarines plot courses on blank squares unseen, are tracked by the umpire, and are detected on the surface by double sixes by day.

At 500 yards one in six 400 yards two in six 300 yards three in six Under 300 yards five in six

Fire with guns that would not bear counts as a miss. Raking: common and AP shell count double and shot damages every section until stopped by a bulkhead; at 45 degrees shell gets half again and shot three times. Ships in the line of fire may receive the fire on a coin toss.

Common and Armour Piercing shell count double. Shot damage every section all along unless stopped by a bulkhead.

Any rammed ship sinks, and bow-to-bow rams sink both; damage to the rammer is umpire-settled. As a general rule at least 6 knots superiority of speed is needed to ram. Boarding is decided by the umpire from the men available on both ships.

Any rammed ship is sunk. If ships ram bow to bow both are sunk.

Submarines have an underwater endurance of twelve hours, or twenty-four when starting from harbour. To take air the boat must surface; coming up or sinking counts as a move, and taking air costs four moves for each hour of air wanted. It cannot sink again in under two moves while taking air, and taking air in weather above 3 swamps it. If a boat is without air for more than twelve hours its crew are considered dead, so the umpire tracks the clock for the hidden boat.

When taking air, it cannot sink in under two moves. If without air for more than twelve hours, its crew are considered dead.

With helm only, drop a red or green buoy; on the second square after, turn four points (counting as a square), and keep turning every other square while the buoy is down. With one engine reversed turn eight points but lose four squares. Larger circles are noted on pieces; going astern needs two extra squares per four points.

A piece desirous of turning must drop a red or green buoy according to whether it desires to turn to port or starboard. On the second square after that on which the buoy was dropped it may turn four points

3 knots = 1 square per move up to 30 knots = 10. Typical speeds: first-class battleships 15 knots, cruisers 18, destroyers 24-27. Diagonal moves should be measured when problems are worked seriously.

1. Each square represents 100 yards long by 100 yards wide.

A ship reversing engines stops dead in one complete move (a 15-knot ship on the fifth square), then goes astern 1, 2, 3 squares on following moves; from stopped it gathers way one square the first move, two the second; under way it can increase one square per move up to maximum.

A ship under way can increase its speed one square every move up to its maximum speed.

Troops are embarked or disembarked at 100 men per hour (ten hours per 1,000 men, per the strategical time table). This time comes out of the strategic clock, and troops that suffer bad weather in transit have only half value for the next 24 hours. Moving troops or landing parties costs one hour per three miles.

Troops are embarked or disembarked at the rate of 100 men per hour.

One penetration disables a turret, barbette or casemate; any gun hit is disabled; HE bursts put guns out for five moves. Speed falls 3 knots for bow waterline loss, funnels or uptakes, or a fallen mast; one shot in engines halves speed, a second stops it. A penetrated conning tower or aft protective deck prevents steering for three moves.

If conning tower is hit and penetrated the ship may not steer for three moves.

The scorer shows the ship divided into 25-foot sections with armour and gun positions; penetrations and section damage per projectile are printed on the sheets. Temporarily disabled guns are noted with the move they may fire again.

Sheets are provided with all the normal penetrations printed on them, as well as the amount of damage; there is therefore no occasion to learn the figures here given.

Forts carry up to 150 points of guns, have twelve 25-foot sections per 100 yards, ten men per gun, and are destroyed by a magazine hit. Unfortified towns are destroyed by projectiles worth half their value over set times. Long-range bombardment strikes at a blank plan showing only visible landmarks; disappearing guns are secretly placed on the scorer.

If the range is over 10,000 yards, the firer must strike with closed eyes.

The umpire prepares weather in six-hour periods on a 0-9 scale with barometer trend. Low freeboard ships lose 3 knots in a head sea; main-deck guns may not fire into a head sea in dirty weather; rolling ships use targets 1,000-2,000 yards farther and in very bad weather players may strike with eyes shut. Tides add or subtract 3 knots.

if the weather is very bad the umpire may direct players to use the shooting targets with their eyes shut.

Captains mark courses on sketch maps in six-hour runs; ships within sighting are moved on 1,000-yard squares in 10-minute moves, and when leading ships are 5,000 yards apart the tactical game is set up and played out, then strategic movement resumes.

So soon as the leading ships are 5,000 yards off each other, the board must be set up with the proper pieces, and the tactical game played with the squares representing 100 yards.

It is an essential condition that no player has more than one piece. The strategical game adds 'government' players who manage costs and supply, admirals directing strategy, captains fighting single ships, and a player for colliers and merchantmen.

It is an essential condition of the tactical game that no player should have more than one piece.

Each side's points pay for ships, docks, coal and soldiers, e.g. an A round costs 5 points, a day's coal 1, a fort 200; towns lose points if bombarded. Merchant freight points double per 100 miles and can be captured; one side may lose food points daily. Exhaustion of reserve points means defeat; using three quarters of coal reduces waterline armour one grade.

The exhaustion of reserve points on either side thus makes a defeat of that side.

Minefields are charted on blank squares with buoyed (and bogus) squares; observation mines may be fired at will, sinking the ship, while other mines give even chances of escape. Countermining takes twelve hours per square per ship. Brennan wire-guided torpedoes move nine squares per move and sink any ship hit.

If the mines are observation mines, they may be exploded at will. The ship is sunk and blocks that square. If the mines are not observation mines, a ship has even chances of escape.

Each square is 100 yards and each move one minute of time, which the players should also not exceed in real time; the Strand article notes counterfeiting the 'hurry-scurry' of battle as essential. Big guns are fired at the end of each move in the order firing tickets were dropped.

Each move represents one minute, and should not occupy more than that period of time

Moves are simultaneous (sometimes in simultaneous fractions measured from the bows), and at the end of each move big guns fire in the order tickets were dropped; a disabled gun may not return fire and a ship sunk before its torpedo is scored cannot score it.

7. Moves must be simultaneous.

Torpedo hits, tube explosions, admiral casualties, submarine detection and searchlight range estimation are expressed as chances in six or double sixes, thrown by players or the umpire.

the chances of an explosion thrown with a dice every time the section containing the tube is hit: one in six for shot, three in six for shell, four in six for High Explosive shell.