WWI navel wargames miniatures and rules

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Hi ladies and gents,

I’m looking for some help, my 11 year grandson who is autistic is fascinated by all things navy particularly WWI ships. He knows I wargame but has no real interest in the eras I am interested in. I’m trying to get him into naval wargaming but no nothing about the subject.

Any assistance on naval models, scales, rules would be a great help.
Thank the great give mind for any help it can give.

[ithoriel]

The first of my two current naval interests is Cruel Seas from Warlord Games, small boat action in the Channel, Med, Black Sea or Far East.

I do it in 1/600 with ships and planes from Tumbling Dice and Ros and Heroics but it is designed for Warlords own 1/300th scale stuff.

Pretty simple rules and quick to play.

The second is Sam Mustafa's Nimitz, a WW2 naval game that comes with a campaign system as well as the battle rules.

It covers the navies of Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The rules are intentionally simple and aimed at getting the right result rather than caring about the nuts and bolts of WW2 naval warfare.

I'm using 1/3000 scale ships from Navwar

[Kelly_]

For that period specifically, you could check out Broadside : Empires of Steel which is set in the runup to WWI.  The scale is 1/1500 and they have a large selection of stls covering ships from the major navies, with a web-based fleet builder for constructing forces if you are not using a book scenario...

https://broadsideempiresofsteel.com/

...the downside is that right now they are in-between Kickstarter campaigns, so no pdfs, and the only option for books currently is from their ebay (Australia) for physical shipping.  There should still be links from the fleet builder to purchase the ship stls direct or contact through their facebook page.

[has.been]

An oldie, but IMHO a goodie is General Quarters (both  WW1 & WW2 versions)
For ships try Nav War, &/or Tumbling Dice.

Pick up some stuff on e-bay.

[PhilT602]

I have Broadside, Fire at Sea, Grand Fleet, Victory at Sea and Nimitz, but for a fairly simple approach, I' consider Sam Mustafa's Nimitz. There are some WW1 ship stats on Facebook. Failing that I'd take a look at Victory at Sea (Wargames Vault) or Fire at Sea. 1:3000 ship models are pretty accessible and cheap, but 1:2400 rarer but nicer. 1:1800 really needs access to a 3D printer.

P.s. Might be worth looking for a copy of Avalon Hill's old Jutland, as the counters are all there, if modelling is not your thing.

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Thanks a lot guys, much appreciated once Santas been I’ll have a chat with the wee fella and see what we can decide on, simple rules are a must and I need to get models that he can actually see detail on as he has some sight issues as well

[pieface paul]

I recommend Junior General Jutland rules, I have used them and find them simple and fun...
https://www.juniorgeneral.org/naval/jutland.html

[zeppelfahrt]

Hi ladies and gents,

I’m looking for some help, my 11 year grandson who is autistic is fascinated by all things navy particularly WWI ships. He knows I wargame but has no real interest in the eras I am interested in. I’m trying to get him into naval wargaming but no nothing about the subject.

Any assistance on naval models, scales, rules would be a great help.
Thank the great give mind for any help it can give.

. 
JUTLAND by Avalon Hill.  I played this game years (and years) ago to my great delight.  We played it on the floor.  It is long out of print but several used copies are available on Ebay.  If you are really adventurous, the entire Grand Fleet and North Sea Fleet are available for 3D print in the correct scale. I think it might be right up your grandson's alley and I envy your opportunity to have someone to play this wonderful game with.  Good luck!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jutland_(board_game)

[carlos marighela]

For fairly simple but fun rules for WW1 naval I'd recommend General Quarters. They've been around since the 1970s and are still in print, which is a good testimony to their worth. You can use them for anything from small to fleet actions, when I gamed with them we could knock off Coronel and the Falklands in an afternoon.

[Inkpaduta]

Junior General Jutland is what I would recommend. They are made for kids.

[zeppelfahrt]

I need to get models that he can actually see detail on as he has some sight issues as well

PANZERSCHIFFE:  This source might be helpful.  Kind of pricey but you could start with very small engagements of just a couple of ships and build up from there.  It seems that these models would combine nicely with Junior General Jutland to give both the ease of play and detail that you are looking for. Maybe introduce some painting skills as well.   http://www.panzerschiffe.com/Catalog.html

[fastolfrus]

If he's autistic he might find some of the old hard-backed rulebooks interesting. There were a few books on naval wargames (mostly back in the 1970s so may be hard to find). I ran a school club for over a decade and we had quite a few boys who were on the spectrum but they usually liked the old books. More modern rulebooks tend to concentrate more on the rules but the older books often have simpler rules and occasionally chapters on things such as scratch-building ships from balsa.

[SteveBurt]

Naval Thunder is pretty good, and not expensive. For models 1:3000 scale is a good compromise; you can recognise the ships but they don’t take up too much space.

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Brilliant stuff guys thank you, I’ll look into the Jutland game mentioned by several of you and 1:3000 models. Just got to get him off the phone his parents got him for Christmas 🙄

[Admiral Hawke]

You have lots of great recommendations here, for both miniatures and rules.

The questions you should probably start with, in order, are:

• How big is your table? If your only available space is much smaller than 6ft by 4ft, you are going to struggle to fit lots of larger models onto your table.
• How big a battle do you want? Jutland is notoriously expensive and difficult to game because of it's sheer scale. I am guessing that you probably want to start with something small with a few ships each side. Coronel and the Falklands are a good starting point for a historical action, or the chase of the Goeben and Breslau.
• What scale models look good while also fitting your table, your budget and the battle you want to start with? You mostly get what you pay for, with finer models costing more, but international postage costs can be substantial.
• What rules suit the size of battle you want? Rules designed for Jutland, e.g. Avalon Hill's Jutland, often don't really work for battles with a handful of ships on each side.

I use Grand Fleets rules with 1/3000 miniatures from War Times Journal. War Times Journal, sadly, no longer sells miniatures, only digital downloads. Here's what a small German fleet in 1/3000 looks like on a 4ft wide table:


However, I am no longer 11. I suspect that I would have preferred larger models at that age (I loved 1/700 models at that age).

I recently stumbled across a new designer and manufacturer with a growing First World War range in a variety of scales: Thousand Worlds (https://www.thousandworlds.co.uk/ww1atseahome). I haven't ordered or seen any of the models, so I can't actually recommend them yet.

I hope that helps.