Buying the Rules
The Fletcher Pratt Naval Wargame (1933) is largely recognised as the third realistic naval wargame. Although now better known for his science fiction writing, Fletcher Pratt was well known in his time for his naval wargame. It was seen as reflecting naval reality by serving naval officers and there were variations of the game used by the American naval college just before World War II.The original rules were written to cover ‘modern’ naval warfare; modern being the 1930’s. They were largely based on the experience of World War 1, in particular the action at Jutland. The Fletcher Pratt's Naval War Game accurately reflected some of the problems and results of naval combat at the individual ship level during this period of history. This version of the rules ‘updates’ them for World War 2 by making a few logical extensions of the original rules. It also offers optional rules to improve the game, for example for aircraft, shooting by radar and the effect of smoke.
Naval wargames have a reputation for being boring. One of the main facets of the game, the gunnery, is commonly decided by dice. Therefore, games can seem to consist of large numbers of dice rolls reflecting the low hit-rates of long range naval gunnery. To many, the sheer number of dice can make the game seem dull. Pratt aimed to change this by using estimating ranges as a way of determining hits. He also experimented with shooting, darts and tiddle-winks against paper silhouettes as alternatives, but he settled on estimating as the final method. The inspiration of using estimating the range for gunnery accelerated the pace of the game and gave naval wargamers control of the most important aspect of the naval warfare, namely hitting the other side.
The original game was played on a grand scale with model warships on a ballroom floor. Historically, Pratt saw large encounters with 60 or more players on each side. They played using scratch built model ships of 1:1200 or 1:2400 scales. However, an entertaining game can be played with just two players. Alternatively, using the optional dice method of firing for one side included in these rules, a single player can play an entertaining solo naval game.
This edition of the Fletcher Pratt Rules (2006) are updated to include material not in the original rules, such as:
- Guidelines on how to play the classic naval wargame
- Commentary on the rules
- Solo tables including target priority list and dice rules to hit for use by the 'enemy' side
- 1930-1945 Gunnery ranges
- Optional critical hit table
- Updated Aircombat rules
- Optional rules for visibility, radar assisted gunnery, night fighting and dawn-dusk
- An evaluation of the rules versus historical reality
