Last friday I had my first game of Victory at Sea (VaS) and an interesting one although I got wiped out without causing much damage to my opponent navy. VaS is a naval WWII game from Mongoose Publishing and we played it using 1:3000 scale ships from Navwar.
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| My collection of German ships |
The game pitted a good selection of British warships against a few ships of the German Kriegsmarine. Although I unfortunately forgot the British vessels (perhaps due to the tragic memory of the devastating defeat I suffered) that won't stop me from listing the German ships used.
German list: (5 pt raid)
- Scharnhorst
- Admiral Graf Spee
- Köningsberg
- Karlsruhe
- Z23
- Z25
- Z26
We had a third person set up the islands and then we placed our fleets.
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| Germans and British face off against each other near some small islands |
This was my very first game so it took a bit of explaining to get the rules, however they do appear quite simple to grasp, however mastering them is another issue as I soon found out.
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| Three German destroyers navigate some rocky islands preparing to assault the British. |
After playing some Dystopian Wars where the Prussian fleet is quite good at close range I quickly set all ahead flank and closed in on the British vessels. However, in VaS the Germans are best at a distance and once in close proximity I took a pounding from the British cannons that left me wishing that I had kept my distance.
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| The game in progress |
The game ended after about an hour when I lost my last ship, the Admiral Graf Spee to a duo of British coastal ships and their cannons.
Even though I lost I will admit that I find the game interesting and I will certainly be trying more of this. Also according to Mongoose Publishing a new version of VaS may be coming out in the late summer/fall, something I'll be watching closely.
