Why Play the Game
(and how to get the most out of it)
Special Problems of Air and Naval Games
Without belaboring the obvious too much I should point out that most gamers, when
forced to choose between games taking place on the land, in the air or at sea, will tend
to prefer the land games. Naval comes next, a distant second, and an even more distant
third are air games.
One would think that naval games would have a certain popularity given the long history
of naval warfare. Much of the history of naval warfare that people are aware of is a myth.
Most naval warfare in the past (and to a certain extent in the present and future) is
rather dull and prosaic. Up until about 200 years ago most battles consisted of large
groups of ships sailing or rowing into one another and then proceeding to attempt to ram
or burn down (or even better yet capture) the opponent's ships. This was not a very
elegant form of combat. And it was even less controllable than similar forms of combat
found in land battles.
These shortcomings can be gotten around somewhat by having a game that concentrates on
the operation of single ships. The individual ships certainly had an interesting situation
before them. They could maneuver and although they might have only one opportunity to ram
or lash themselves beside an enemy ship, the talents of a skillful seaman could be most
decisive.
During the latter half of the 18th century, naval fighting tactics were developed which
put a premium on organization and coordinated movement and action. The British were the
first to seize upon this idea in an organized fashion and this was a chief factor in
"Britannia ruling the waves" for the next 150 years.
Even with this new organized way of combat, the ships involved were still sailing ships
and were heavily dependent upon the vagaries of the climate and the weather. Individual
skill and seamanship were still paramount.
During the middle of the 19th century this changed with the introduction of steam
propulsion. Shortly thereafter, the armor plating of ships really got going because the
vessels now had the power to lug around all that weight. This was not the case when metal
plating was first introduced during earlier periods.
The introduction of the wireless telegraph early in the 20th century again
revolutionized naval warfare since it allowed coordinated strategic operations. Prior to
this, fleets would be sent off thousands of miles on missions of, it later developed,
dubious worth. Yet these missions had to be completed since there was no way of recalling
the fleet or informing it as to what was going on. Particularly during the 17th and 18th
centuries, sailing squadrons and fleets were sent all over the world. This led to some
curious battles being fought after the war was "officially" over.
The introduction of the submarine and the aircraft carrier drastically changed all
previous concepts of naval warfare. Up until World War I, naval power was still coming out
of the barrel of a gun. With the advent of the submarine, considerable power shifted to
torpedo tubes. Just as the war and merchant fleets had increased in size considerably with
the introduction of steam propulsion, so had nations become much more dependent upon the
trade that these merchant vessels carried and warships defended, or threatened. Submarines
quickly loomed as the most serious threat that trade. Naval warfare now became a battle
between unequal antagonists. Submarines were not really equipped to take on surface
warships, yet there were never enough surface vessels available to track down all of the
submarines.
With the coming of aircraft, the submarine was somewhat neutralized. Nuclear powered
submarines changed a lot of that from the 1960s onward. But all ships were now even more
vulnerable to destruction by aircraft. The aircraft carrier became one of the chief means
of this destruction.
As with aerial warfare, the importance of electronics and "electronic
warfare" increased evermore. Air warfare, more than any other form, quickly became
dependent on electronics, radar, antiradar devices. Air navigation depended on electronic
emissions. Even the weapons the aircraft used quickly became creatures of electronically
controlled instruments.
Aerial warfare itself is rather mundane. The vast majority of combats in the air follow
the "theory X" concept of battle. That is, one side ambushes the other. When two
aircraft spot each other simultaneously without one having the jump on the other, the
combat is usually inconclusive.
Current theory, however, holds that the lethality of electronically guided air-to-air
weapons is such that two aircraft, upon spotting each other, will almost automatically
destroy each other. Given the history of self-preservation among combatants and the recent
history of those aerial combats that have occurred, this theory of mutual destruction is
likely to be questionable.
As with naval warfare, aerial warfare can be most interesting and illuminating when
conducted on the individual aircraft level. Many games do just this. This is particularly
the case with the most popular form of computer wargame: the aircraft simulator. These
simulators never succeeded in manual form, there was simply too much detail for the player
to keep track of.
Naval games have also become relatively more popular in their computer incarnations.
Again, the highly technical aspects of naval warfare can more easily be handled with a
computer.
History
Chapter
4 - Designing Manual Games
Table
of Contents
Chapter 3 Table of Contents