Sister ship to the Bismarck, the Tirpitz was 2,000 tons heavier and thus the heaviest warship to have ever been produced by a European navy. She served in Norway and the Baltic Fleet acting as a potent deterrent. The Tirpitz became an obsession for the British. After the sinking of the Bismarck, the Tirpitz, as Germany’s most powerful warship, was destined...
The Type 1936 was a large and very powerful design mounting 5.9-inch guns, based on the general layout of the Type 1934. The intended twin turrets were not available in time, so planned armament was reduced to single mounts in some positions. As with the preceding class, an enlarged version, designated Type 1936A, was developed from the original. The Type...
The Alaska-class fell midway between a heavy cruiser and a battleship, and the United States Navy considered these vessels large cruisers rather than battlecruisers. They were designed as cruiser-killers, tasked with destroying post-Washington Treaty heavy cruisers. As a result, they were given 12-inch guns, significant armour protection, and could travel...
USS Hornet was a Yorktown class-carrier serving in the Pacific Theatre during World War Two. She launched the Doolittle Raid (the first air operation to strike the Japanese Archipelago) on 18 April 1942. She later participated in the crucial Battle of Midway as well as the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid. As part of the Solomon Islands campaign, USS Hornet was...
One of the largest battleships ever built. Based superficially on the South Dakota-class, the USS Iowa had heavier armour and was 200 ft. longer. It was also incredibly fast, due to increased output from the engines, and its greater size allowed it to mount more anti-aircraft guns, making it a formidable prospect for attacking planes. Invariably used as...
The Littorio class was the first new Italian battleship class for nearly a decade when design work began in 1930. Initially designed to remain within the 35,000-ton Washington Treaty limit, the final displacement was just over 40,000 tons. As well as being good-looking ships, the Littorio-class included a number of new features including high-velocity...
From book: Welcome to the latest chapter in the VBAM Series: the Victory by Any Means: Fire As She Bears! Edition. In these source materials we explore the exciting world of naval combat at the height of the Age of Sail. It is a time when England’s “Wooden Walls” kept her commerce alive and the armies of Napoleon at bay. A time when tall, proud warships...
Victory! Fighting & Sailing Instructions Age of Sail naval wargame rules usable with either model ships or counters to represent them. Bookkeeping is kept to a minimum and this is very much a landlubber’s set of rules - you don’t need to be a sailing expert to enjoy games using this set! Despite this unusual craft such as galleys and galleasses as well as...
Victory Under Sail (VUS) is a quick-playing miniatures game of fleet naval battle during the last century of the age of sailing warships. It is designed for a small number of players to recreate the larger battles of this era in a reasonable time. It is not an overly simple game, but it is designed to have simple and quick mechanics to speed play. Each...
Sailing into the Bay of Treasure, players move their ships over the tiles, collecting ones which construct treasure chests, or are used as events. Building a chest of your own colour scores more than tiles of your opponent's colours or plain brown ones. Complete a chest of 4 to 10 pieces, score it then start again. Events include flipping tiles on the...
The game is about attacking the settlements of other vikings, sink their viking ships and plunder their gold. To win, one must collect 2 golden treasures on one's own settlement or sink all competing viking ships. [translation of box cover blurb] Each turn, a player rolls two dice and moves either one of initially 7 ships a number of squares equal to the...