VICTORY AT SEA

Soulmage’s House Rules v1.4

Notes: These house rules have been written with an eye towards creating a more fun and engaging game. Where
necessary, this may have resulted in some changes that are not the most “realistic” possible. However, in the author’s
view, the Victory at Sea rules are geared more towards the casual player looking for a fun naval combat game, than
towards the strict simulationist crowd. Where appropriate, note sections such as this one have been added to explain
some of the rationale behind the changes. These rules are an amalgamation of the author’s own imagination, as well as
suggestions he has seen elsewhere.

INITIATIVE PHASE

Sequence
1. Roll for bad weather visibility range
2. Roll initiative

MOVEMENT PHASE

Special Actions
No command check is required to use any of the special actions available. However, some special actions have been
modified and may now have additional restrictions. The special actions available are:

All Hands on Deck!

+1 to damage control checks during the end phase. In addition, the ship may attempt to repair ALL current critical damage
(instead of just one effect).

Come About!
The ship gains +1 to its Turning score this turn. You cannot use Come About if your rudder has been damaged.

Create Smoke!
Place a smoke counter touching the stern of the ship after the ship completes its move. Smoke blocks line of sight. Remove
all smoke counters at the end of the turn.

Evasive Action!
The ship takes a –1 penalty to its maximum speed (to a minimum of 1). All successful to-hit rolls against your ship must be re-
rolled. However, all successful hits your ship gets AGAINST an enemy must also be re-rolled. In addition you may not
launch torpedoes when taking Evasive Action . You cannot take Evasive Action if your rudder is damaged.

Flank Speed!
The ship gains +1 to its maximum speed for the phase but suffers a -1 penalty to its turning score (minimum 0). You cannot
use Flank Speed if you have any current engine criticals or if your ship is crippled.

Civilian ships and crews are much less capable than warships and their crews. Civilian ships may never take any special action other
than Evasive Action.

Notes: The changes to special actions were introduced for several reasons. Command checks for some (but not all)
special actions added nothing to game play, consequently, they were eliminated. A ship crew will simply follow the orders
of its captain at all times. The speed penalty for Evasive Action! and the turning penalty for Flank Speed! were added to
make these special actions more of a trade-off than a no-brainer.

Ship Movement
Ships may not move through each other, nor may they overlap at any point during their move. Only the ship model itself
is considered. Bases are ignored.

If required movement forces a ship to occupy the same space as an enemy ship, the moving ship must stop short instead.
If a player has another ship or squadron with a legal move, the player must move that in preference to any ship that would
be affected by the stop short rule – unless the ship CAUSING the stop short rule has already moved for the turn.

Notes: These changes to ship movement rules have been created to simplify and clarify tabletop play of the game using
miniatures.
ATTACK PHASE
Sequence
1. Resolve prior turn torpedo attacks
2. Make radar/spotting checks
3. Shoot
4. Resolve gun damage

To-Hit Rolls
Sometimes a score higher than 6 will be needed to hit some targets. In that case, roll the attack dice normally. For any
rolls of 6, re-roll the dice and consult the following chart:

Second Roll Result

4 7
5 8
6 9

Notes: These rules allow for occasional “lucky hits” in situations where target scores are raised above 6. In the author’s
view, a ship being “invulnerable” due to shooting modifiers is a bad game design element. This allows all ships to be hit,
even if the chances of it occurring are vanishingly small.

Line of Sight
Line of sight is drawn from the center of the firing model to the center any point on the target model. If that path is
blocked, no line of sight exists, even if some other portion of the target ship is visible.

Ship models (do not consider the base) block line of sight. EXCEPTION: Destroyers block line of sight only to other
destroyers and subs. Subs never block line of sight.

Notes: The change to ships blocking line of sight is in conflict to the “assumed scale” of 1” = 1,000 yards. However, it
creates a more fun and tactically challenging game. If desired, it can be assumed that naval commanders wanted to allow
a certain margin of safety to either end of friendly ships when shooting past them to targets beyond.

Short Range
The +1 bonus to hit targets within 10” applies only to primary (turrets) and secondary weapons.

Extreme Range
The penalty to hit targets at extreme range is -3 instead of -2.

Notes: Without this adjustment to the rules it becomes very easy for battleships to hit each other at distances greater than
30,000 yards. (30”). Given that the longest-ever successful ship-to-ship shot was at 26,000 yards, it makes sense for the
extreme range penalty to be larger.

Shooting Primary Weapons (Turrets)

Gun directors observe shell splashes to determine where shots landed and use that information adjust fire. Therefore,
when multiple ships fire on a single enemy ship, it becomes more difficult to adjust fire accurately due to several different
sets of shell splashes.

Each time a ship fires one or more turrets at an enemy ship, place a splash marker next to the target (regardless of the
number of hits or misses). Each subsequent ship that fires primary weapons at the same target takes a cumulative –1 to
hit for each splash marker the target already has.

Secondary weapons do not take this penalty to hit as their more-direct trajectory and higher rate of fire make it easier to
compensate.
Notes: This is an important change that is lacking in the official rules. Without these rules, players have a tendency to
concentrate an entire fleet’s firepower on the biggest enemy ship. When that ship is sunk, they move on to the next
biggest, and so on. This isn’t very realistic, nor does it produce a very satisfying play experience. This rule encourages
fire to be spread around a little making the game more fun for everyone.

Shooting Secondary Weapons

Secondary weapons enjoy several advantages over their larger cousins. Firstly, the have a much higher rate of fire than
the slower cycling big guns in turrets. Secondly, their smaller mountings are able to traverse much faster than the ship’s
primary turrets. This makes it much easier to hit with secondary weapons than with primary weapons – especially against
fast moving targets.

Secondary weapons do not take the penalty for shooting at targets that moved more than 7” that turn.

Notes: This was adopted as an official rule in the Order of Battle supplement.

Shooting Torpedoes
Torpedoes will strike the first target they intersect. It is not possible to fire torpedoes through a ship to hit a target beyond.

The only To-Hit modifiers that affect torpedoes are +1 for firing at the attacker’s broadside, and any re-rolls of hits due to
Evasive Action on the part of the target.

All torpedo damage resolution is handled during the beginning of the shooting phase of the turn after they are launched.
There is no difference between the way long lance torpedoes at extended range or any other torpedo types are handled.

When torpedoes are fired check the range from the firing ship to the target. If the torpedoes are in range, place a torpedo
spread marker next to the target ship.

Since a movement phase occurs between the launching of torpedoes and resolving the torpedo attack, the target ship will
have an opportunity to maneuver in response to being targeted by a torpedo attack. The orientation of the torpedo spread
marker does not change as the target ship maneuvers. Therefore it is possible for the target ship to turn broadside to a
spread of torpedoes to take advantage of a torpedo belt, or for it to “turn into” the torpedoes in the hopes that they will
miss.

At the start of the shooting phase of the next turn, resolve all torpedo attacks from the previous turn. In this way there will
be no torpedo spread markers left on the table by the time ships start shooting and possibly launching new torpedo
spreads.

Note that torpedoes always inflict a critical hit on any damage dice roll that exceeds the target’s armor value. No
confirmation roll is required.

Notes: This rule make torpedo usage consistent with the line of sight rules and clarifies exactly what modifiers are applied
to shooting torpedoes. An earlier version checked range on the torpedoes again at the time the attacks were resolved.
While this added a little to realism, it had little practical effect other than to complicate game play. It is rare that a ship that
was in range of a torpedo attack on the prior turn, worked out to be out of range on the following turn. It can be
considered that the listed range of the torpedoes are the maximum range at which it is guaranteed that the target will not
be able to get out of range before being attacked. Under these revised rules, target ships are still afforded the opportunity
to turn into, or broadside to a torpedo attack depending on which way they think is more advantageous to them – adding
another tactical element to the game.

Resolving Damage
To resolve damage, compare each damage dice roll (with modifiers) against the armor value of the target.

If the modified roll is LESS THAN the armor value of the target NO DAMAGE is inflicted.

If the modified roll is EQUAL TO the armor value of the target 1 POINT of damage is inflicted.

If the modified roll is GREATER THAN the armor value of the target, 1 POINT of damage is inflicted and the target
also receives a CRITICAL HIT on a second roll of 5+.
A natural roll of 6 always causes damage. A natural roll of 1 is a dud shell that causes no damage.

*Torpedoes special rule – Torpedoes ALWAYS inflict a critical hit on any damage die roll that exceeds the target’s armor
value. No confirmation roll is required.

Ignore all references to crew damage. Crew is loss is not tracked.

Notes: This method for damage resolution also means that larger armor piercing shells are more likely to cause critical
hits than smaller regular or weak shells. In addition, more heavily armored ships are less likely to suffer critical hits than
more lightly armored ships. This promotes realism.

Using these damage rules also means no special critical rules are required for Weak weapons. Because of their -1 to
damage dice rolls, weak weapons will automatically be unable to cause a critical on anything with an armor rating of
greater than 4+ while still being able to cause criticals on more lightly armored targets. In my view this is a more elegant
solution to the problem of weak weapons being unable to cause criticals against lightly-armored targets.

Overall this system will create slightly more critical hits and results in a more exciting game.

After a significant amount of play we discovered that crew loss virtually never came into play. Ships would generally sink
long before or shortly after loosing a significant amount of crew. Therefore, to speed game play this rule has been
removed. Historically crew loss was not generally a major problem for warships in any event. This rule change requires
some changes to the critical charts and rules for fires. Those are addressed below.

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Critical Hits
These house rules require some changes to the critical hit charts. Here are the revised charts:
Critical Hits
2d6 Critical Location
2 Vital Systems
3-5 Superstructure/Hull
6-8 Engines
9-11 Weapons
12 Vital Systems

Superstructure/Hull
d6 Result Damage Effect
1-2 Fire +0 Fire starts
3-4 Multiple Fires +0 1d6 fires start
5 Hull Breach +2 Fire starts
6 Multiple Explosions +1d6 1d6 fires start

Engines
d6 Result Damage Effect
1-2 Turbine Damaged +1 -1 Speed
3-4 Props Damaged +1 -2 Speed
5 Fuel Systems Ruptured +2 -3 Speed, fire starts
6 Engines Disabled +3 Speed = 0, Target Score –1

Weapons
d6 Result Damage Effect
1-2 AA Mount Destroyed +1 AA weapons loose 1 AD
3-4 Secondary Wpn Destroyed +2 Secondary weapons loose 1 AD
5 Turret Destroyed +3 Random turret destroyed (or –1 AD to
secondary weapons), fire starts
6 Magazine Explosion +2d6 Random turret destroyed (or loose half
secondary AD), 1d6 fires start
Vital Systems
d6 Result Damage Effect
1 Bridge Hit +1 No Special Actions permitted
2 Rudder +2 1-2 Ship may only turn left
3-4 Ship may only turn right
5-6 Ship may not turn
3 Engineering +3 +1d6 fires, No Damage Control permitted
4 Fire Control +3 No weapons can fire for 1d3 turns
5 Severe List +3 Ship begins listing, takes –1 to hit on all
gunnery attack dice, and may not fire torpedoes. If this result is rolled
again the ship capsizes and sinks.
6 Catastrophic Explosion ----- Ship explodes and sinks

Notes: Some of the changes to the critical hits table were introduced due to changes elsewhere in the rules – such as
removing references to crew damage. Other alterations have been made to make rolling for critical damage more
exciting.

END PHASE
Sequence
1. Make damage control & fire checks
2. Pick up all splash markers & illumination counters

Damage Control – Fire Checks

Use the following rules for fires:

During the damage control phase, roll a command check for EACH fire. On a 7+ the fire is extinguished. On a natural roll
of 1 the fire has spread. Add 1 to the number of fires on the ship and re-roll the die. On a 5+ the fire has caused a critical
hit.

Notes: After a great deal of play, crew loss has been determined to almost never make a difference in play. In addition,
historically it was generally not a problem. However, fires should still be a significant threat to a ship at sea. In addition,
they should have a chance of spreading, causing magazine explosions, or damaging systems. Significant playtest of
these fire rules with several different groups has revealed that this rule makes fires a much more exciting part of the
game. Players roll their fire checks with dread while their opponents look on with undisguised glee.

ADVANCED RULES
Bad Weather
Bad weather has the effect of reducing visibility and effective range for ships in the storm/fog. When the bad weather rule
is in play, at the start of each Initiative Phase roll 2d6 + 10. That is the maximum distance in inches in which ships are
able to see one another.

Ships beyond that distance are considered to be hidden and may not be attacked except by ships with Radar. (see the
rules for Radar below.) (British ships have superior experience fighting in bad weather. See the Nationality Bonuses
below.)

Notes: Significant play of the rules found in the book found that the bad weather rules as written simply detracted from
the fun of the game by applying a general negative modifier to hit. These rules are intended to keep the game fast paced
and fun, and allow for increased tactical play with the unpredictability of visibility ranges.

Night Battles
At the beginning of its activation during the shooting phase, each ship must make a spotting check. Roll 1d6, on a 3+ the
ship has detected all ships within its spotting radius and may fire at them normally.

On a 1 or 2, the ship has failed to spot any targets and may not make any attacks unless there are illuminated targets to
shoot at (see below).

All nationalities have a spotting radius of 10”, except the Japanese. The Japanese have superior spotters and night
fighting skills and therefore have a spotting radius of 20”.

Ships that successfully pass a radar check (requires a 4+) are considered to have also passed their spotting check.
When using radar to fire at an enemy ship outside the normal spotting radius, the shooter does not gain the +1 to hit for
radar directed fire control and instead incurs a penalty of –1 to hit.

Star Shells
After making its spotting check a ship may attempt to use star shells to illuminate an enemy target outside its
spotting radius. Reduce that ship’s secondary AD by 1 for the turn.

Roll 1 die against the target number of any ship within range of the shooter’s secondary weapons. On a hit, place
an illumination marker next to the ship. A miss has no effect.

Star shells are fired before normal shooting, so a ship may illuminate an enemy ship with a star shell and then fire
its guns at it normally.

Illuminated Targets
Whenever a ship becomes illuminated, place an illumination counter next to it to mark its status. Ships that have
an illumination counter may be attacked normally as if the night battles rules were not in effect.
 Ships can become illuminated using star shells (see above). In addition, ships that are on fire are considered
illuminated.

Illumination counters are normally removed at the end of the turn, however ships that are illuminated because
they are on fire may only remove their illumination counters if all fires have been extinguished.

Notes: Our group found that the night battles rules contained in the main rulebook were confusing and cumbersome to
keep track of in large battles. Unfortunately, Order of Battle did not address them adequately in our view. The rules
presented here, while somewhat lengthy, create a much faster play experience with much less record keeping

The chance of shooting’s one’s own ships was introduced to reflect an element of naval combat that seemed to occur with
alarming regularity amongst American naval forces in the Pacific. This unpredictable element can certainly add to the
tension and excitement of the game and create more opportunities for tactical maneuvering as the Japanese try to exploit
this rule against the Americans.

SPECIAL RULES
AIRCRAFT
Follow the rules for Aircraft as found in Order of Battle.

In addition, at the start of the battle, total the number of spotter aircraft possessed by each side. The side with the largest
number of spotter aircraft receives a +2 to all initiative rolls for 1d3 turns.

Notes: This rule just gives a little benefit for all those spotter aircraft listed on the ship cards that nobody knows what to
do with anymore. It can be assumed that the side with the largest number of spotter aircraft was able to surprise the other
and put them into a defensive posture until the other side is able to recover.

NATIONALITY BONUSES
Some nations gain the benefit of special rules. These rules replace those found in the rulebook:

America
America has a tremendous industrial capacity that allows it to build and deploy ships faster than all the other
nations put together. During any battle where forces are selected by spending Fleet Allocation Points, American
fleets gain one bonus ship two or more levels lower than the scenario.

Scenario Level Bonus

Patrol None
Skirmish None
Raid 1 patrol level ship
Battle 1 skirmish or patrol ship
War 1 raid, skirmish, or patrol ship

Unfortunately, Americans sailors regularly suffered friendly fire incidents during night battles in the Pacific.
Whenever American ships make spotting or radar checks on a roll of 1 the opponent may choose the targets for
the American player’s primary and secondary weapons.

Germany
Germany’s warships were equipped with excellent optical range finders. Whenever a German warship uses
standard targeting methods (i.e. not Radar) it gains +1 to hit when firing at targets at long or extreme range.

German warships also gain the benefit of excellent engineering and damage control teams. When making
damage control checks, German ships gain +1 to their die rolls. This bonus does not apply to checks made to
extinguish fires.

Unfortunately, German radar was significantly inferior to allied radar. On successful radar spotting check,
German ships only spot the largest enemy ship (in terms of initial hull value) that is outside its spotting radius,
instead of all enemy ships.
 Great Britain
Great Britain has a proud naval history of combat in the stormy North Atlantic that stretches back centuries.
Whenever the bad weather rules are being used, Great Britain may roll a separate check for visibility range and
may use the better of the two results.

Japan
The Japanese had excellent night fighting skills. The spotting radius for Japanese ships is 20”.

Soviets
The soviet sailors live in a brutal regime that punishes failure severely. Once per turn a ship may re-roll a single
failed damage control or fire check.

Notes: The nationality bonuses in the main rulebook were a great idea on Mongoose’s part. We have expanded them to
add a little more to the game.

TORPEDO BELT
Ignore the rules in the book for torpedo belts.

Torpedo belts are only effective against torpedoes that strike the broad side of a ship. Hits to the fore and aft are not
affected by a torpedo belt.

A torpedo belt negates the automatic critical hits generated by torpedoes. Confirmation rolls for possible critical hits are
still required.

Notes: This rule was introduced to “fix” torpedo belts prior to the release of Order of Battle. Its worked very well for us
and gives torpedo belt equipped ships some additional protection from torpedoes, without the 50/50 virtual immunity or no
protection at all granted by the torpedo belt rules in OOB.

It also creates a tactical decision point for the attacker. “Should I try for a harder bow or stern shot and loose the to-hit
bonus, or should I fire at the broadside and accept that my torpedo effectiveness will be degraded somewhat?

RADAR
Ignore the rules in the book for radar.

Ships equipped with radar may make spotting checks at any time, not just during night battles.

At the beginning of its shooting phase, the radar equipped ship rolls 1d6. On a 4+ the ship may use radar to direct its fire
control.

Ships using radar directed fire control gain a +1 to hit.

Ships equipped with radar may instead make a radar targeting check to successfully attack ships that are hidden due to
bad weather or night battles rules. When attacking ships that would otherwise be hidden, ships with radar do not gain the
+1 to hit. Instead, they have a –1 penalty to hit for using only their radar to shoot at an enemy they cannot see.

Ships do not have to use their radar and may at their option use normal targeting instead. However, the decision to use
radar or not applies to all attacks made during the turn. Radar must be used for all attacks made by a ship or none at all.

Radar has no effect on torpedo attacks. Use the rules for torpedo attacks instead.

Notes: I’ve been through several versions of the radar rules now. This is the version I think that best preserves simplicity
as well as allowing for an interesting game.