I picked up a copy of the Cruel Seas rules from Warlord Games on a sale, and have a breakdown of the book following…
World War II Naval Battle Game – 108 pages – 9781911281467
Introduction, Credits – 5 pages
The design commentary does a good job of not only bringing to light not only the depth of small boat actions in WWII, but also why they should be brought to the table.
Rules – 41 pages
The rules section of Cruel Seas is broken up into multiple sections between basic and advanced levels of detail, including optional sections for moving beyond small surface actions to intersections with airborne and submerged units. Only 8 pages make up what is needed to start playing with the base set, and all of the other additional rules to bring out more gameplay are no more than a few pages, including art and examples, and seem to be very explainable.
Scenarios – 13 pages
Eight scenarios are included with varying levels of ships recommended, but none should not be adaptable to use with any two combinations of navies.
Art, Background – 14 pages
Besides the miniature photographs that accompany almost all of the rule sections, there are several full page spreads of both art and regional maps to illustrate the background of small boat actions.
National Backgrounds – 20 pages
Historical briefs on each of the major coastal powers in the book cover multiple pages, with enough details on force compositions by theatre to provide a good starting point for a collection.
Roster – 8 pages
Generic equipment costs are included for building out custom ships, as well as comprehensive statistics for six navies.
Campaign – 2 pages
The campaign section is the lightest that I have ever seen included, basically just a set of rules for hidden information at the start of a scenario. However, there is a good block of custom upgrades for ships that survive from one scenario to another.
Cruel Seas was built as a passion project, in the very best sense, as the care put into a very niche subject shows on every page. Warlord Games wanted this project to exist whether it would be a commercial success or not, and that shows through the multiple models from other ranges that are featured in the book as collection images. In fact, the 1/300 scale was chosen for an approximate range band to down-match existing waterline ship models. [1/350th is an established naval modeling scale… are perfect for larger ships, from light destroyers upwards… pg 6]
Most of the mechanics are built off of Black Seas, in fact Gabrio Tolentino is one of the credits, and depending on how many options are used, Cruel Seas should be a relatively fast paced game. If this makes it onto my table, it will most likely be with changing activation to the Armada / Black Seas style but that is just due to personal preference… otherwise I am glad to have bought these.
781010001
