Rochester Gamers Community

Modern Naval Battles: Global Warfare (MNB:GW) is a card game portraying combat between modern ships, submarines, and aircraft. It is one of those games that, while not being extremely detailed or complex, are a reasonable simulation that presents the players with many of the challenges, decisions, and results you would expect in the real world.

You won’t find rules for maneuver, searching or detection in MNB:GW. This game assumes that the opposing sides have found each other and are ready to slug it out, toe to toe. If you have played other modern naval warfare games, you probably already know that the speed and range of modern weapons make the movement of individual ships mostly irrelevant. Once the missiles start flying, the ships might as well be sitting dead in the water. Therefore, MNB:GW is all about launching enough hardware at your opponent to sink his ships before he sinks yours.

MNB:GW consists of 220 standard-sized cards printed in full, photographic color and quality. Half of the cards represent modern-era ships and submarines from 9 different nations: USA, USSR, UK, France, China, Argentina, Taiwan, Norway, and Japan. The other half of the cards are Action cards. Some think the cards are a little too thin and not very durable, but if you aren’t playing against a gorilla I think the cards will survive hundreds of uses. The game also comes with two six sided dice and a rules booklet.

In MNB:GW, ships in your fleet can be deployed in up to three rows. This is important because most weapons have ranges of between one to three rows, so hitting a ship in the second or third row of your enemy’s fleet will require long range weapons like cruise missiles. Similarly, ships that are only armed with guns better be in your first row because otherwise they won’t be able to hit any enemy ships. You can also protect your most valuable assets (like aircraft carriers) but putting them in your second or third row and screening them with one or two rows of small, “expendable” ships like frigates or destroyers. There is even a Screening Ship card that lets you shift damage from an attack from your opponent’s target to friendly ship of your choice.

Submarines and aircraft are handled a little differently, and can attack enemy ships in any row. This simulates the stealthy qualities of submarines and the mobility and range of modern aircraft.

Play is relatively simple. One player is the attacker and can play any number of Action cards (from a hand of seven, usually) against his opponent’s ships. There are Action cards for guns, missiles, cruise missiles, and torpedoes. Only one Action card can be assigned to each ship, and then only if the ship actually carries the weapon that the Action card represents. For example, if an Action card contains the symbol for a cruise missile, that card can only be used to attack an enemy ship if the attacker has a ship that also has a cruise missile symbol on it. Some cards, like Air Support, can be used without having to match a symbol on a ship card, but in general, the more ships you have, the more chance you will have to play Action cards from your hand to attack your opponent’s ships. Attacks are not resolved immediately because, once the attacker has declared all attacks, the defending player can play cards to try to prevent the attacks from being successful. Most Action cards contain a defensive capability against one or more types of attacks. For example, an Action card with a missile on it might be used offensively in the attack phase, or defensively to cancel out air attacks or other missile attacks. Some ships have an intrinsic defensive capability against some attacks. Once all defensive cards are played, all remaining attacks are resolved. It doesn’t take too many successful attacks to sink most ships – frigates and destroyers are likely to go down with only one cruise missile, while a carrier can absorb half a dozen or more before sinking.

When one player has finished attacking and the other has finished defending, both players draw cards to bring their hands back up to the limit. Play switches sides and the other player becomes the attacker and the first player the defender. That’s it. Very simple, but I’ve found that, as in most card games, the outcome of the game sometimes hinges on having the right hand at the right time.

I very much like this game. (Thanks to my RGC Secret Santa!) It sets up in a couple of minutes and plays in maybe 10-20 minutes depending upon the number of ships on each side. It can even be played solo by drawing a completely new hand each time play changes sides so you don’t know what cards the “other” player will be able to use defensively until it is “his” turn.

There isn’t much I don’t like about this game. What it tries to do it does very well. I wish the rules booklet would have provided a few more scenarios based on historical or hypothetical situations.

Overall, this game is highly recommended if you have any interest in modern naval warfare.

Modern Naval Battles: Global Conflict (MNB:GW) is published by DVG (Dan Verssen Games) and is a re-design of a game (and expansions) first published in 1989 by 3W (World Wide Wargames). Both were designed by Dan Verssen.

APPENDIX

For those who are interested, here is a primer on some of the weapons used in modern naval combat.

There are many nations developing and deploying many different weapons for ships and submarines, but they all tend to fall into one of four or five categories

Guns: These range from “small” rapid-fire guns that are useful against smaller targets at close range, including aircraft and slow-flying missiles to larger guns that are primarily used against other ships. Really big guns like those seen on battleships are rare but impressive in the damage they can cause, and can sink most ships with a single hit. However, even their range is short compared to missiles.

Missiles: Missiles can be used against other ships in surface-to-surface mode, but aren’t likely to sink a larger ship. They are primarily effective in damaging weapon mounts, radar antenna, communications systems, and other fragile structures mounted on the deck and superstructure of the target ship. Missiles in surface-to-air mode are used to shoot down attacking aircraft and slow-flying missiles. Cruise missiles have a very long range and pack a mean punch, but they fly slowly and can be shot down by other missiles or even aircraft. Some submarines can launch cruise missiles, too.

Torpedoes: Torpedoes have evolved over one hundred years, but they still rely on being hard to detect since they are fired from underwater submarines and they have an enormous warhead capable of sinking most ships.

Aircraft: These are more a weapons delivery system than a weapon. Fixed wing aircraft can be used offensively to attack ships and defensively to ward off attacking enemy aircraft and cruise missiles. Helicopters are often based on ships and are used to hunt and kill submarines. Aircraft that are involved in naval combat can be either from aircraft carriers or from land bases.