• Victory At Sea Pacific Mods

DISCLAIMER: (and the biased part)I have been a playtester for Mongoose Publishing for three years on both Victory at Sea and Babylon 5: A Call to Arms. I'm also involved in upcoming projects for VaS.

Victory At Sea Pacific Mods

SUBSIM Radio Room Forums Downloads Silent Hunter III Gameplay mods V-Mod (Victory-Mod) Mods, missions, patches, & files for every subsim there ever was! Welcome to the Victory at Sea homepage. Victory at Sea are open world RTS games of naval combat set during the Second World War.

But this isn't the first naval combat wargame I've played (I've been playing minatures wargames for 25 years) so I'm aware of the game's weak points. This is also the first review I've ever written.The Subject:Victory at Sea is a miniatures-based wargame (though counters are provided and acceptable for play) of WWII naval combat. It is fleet-based and a large number of ships can be payed as a force without difficulty. Miniatures scale can be anywhere between 1/6000 and 1/2000 though I've heard of players using larger, non-standard scale ships.The Package:VaS is a 96-page hardcover book that is shrink-wrapped with several pages of counters representing the fleets (UK, US, Germany, Japan, Italy, France) and their associated aircraft. Other counters include firing arc and turning templates, smoke, and torpedos. The images are high-quality with ship name and national flag.What's Inside:The game's rules (not counting scenarios and campaigns) are 19 pages with one additional page outlining fleet construction.

Campaigns and scenarios cover another 27 pages with 50 pages of fleet lists rounding out the book.Movement and Initiative:VaS Initiative is determined every turn with a die roll. Movement is one ship (or grouped sqaudron of ships) at a time, alternating between players. No game board is used, any flat 4'x6' or larger surface is good enough.

A fast destroyer will have a Speed score of around 7 inches, a battleship around 4'.Measuring is done with a tape measure and turning is done with a template that gauges the turn according to the ship's Turn score. Small agile ships turn better than big ones.Combat:Combat is resolved in initiative order the same as movement and all effects of damage are immediate (it's good to get the first shot).

All ships have a Target score that must be beaten to hit. A ships weapons have a number of Attack Dice and Damage Dice for each turret, torpedo, or secondary gun. Ships have AAA Attack Dice as well, some have depth charges. The number of listed Attack Dice (AD) are rolled, all beating the opposing Target score hit. Weather, smoke, manuvering and range will modify Attack Dice rolls. For each hit a number of Damage Dice (DD)are rolled that must beat the opposing ships Armor score in order to cause damage.

Critical hits are possible on good DD rolls and vary in effect from minor movement penalties to the ship going up in a big ball of fire (like the Hood). Fires can kill crew and repairs on crit effects are possible.Special Actions and Traits:Special manuvers can be performed wityh a sucessful Crew Quality (or Command) roll. Going evasive, laying smoke, and subs rigging for silent running are a few of the options. Weapons have traits such as Armor Peircing or Weak that simulate better or worse weapons.Advanced Rules:Aircraft, submersibles, torpedoes, weather and other factors are handled in the Advanced Rules section tough their implementation is pretty simplistic when compared to games like Seekreig or Command at Sea. Torpedoes hit in the end phase (or following end phase at long ranges when using Japanese Type 93 torpedoes), submarines are reresented by counter or minature but must be detected to be fired at with depth charges (or standard weapons if surfaced). Just a few examples but all of the Advanced Rules will be understood by experienced naval gamers after one reading, the non-experienced will catch on during their first game.Campaigns and scenarios:12 historical scenarios are given as is a 'what if' campaign system that is simple and highly playable. Generic scenarios are included as well.Fleets:Here's the 'meat' of the book.

Fleet building is very fluid and players are in no way constrained to historical battles. A Priority Level system is used rather than point values. A basic selection of British, German, American, Japanese, Italian, and French ships and aircraft are given. The basics are covered and there's a couple civilian ships in there too.Support:Mongoose Publishing has a couple of VaS articles in its' on line magazine Signs and Portents Wargamer every month. These have included the Soviet fleet list and the German Z-Plan ships. Lots of good.free. stuff.

There is an upcoming supplement with expanded fleet lists and new rules.My Opinion of the game:VaS plays fast and has enough detail to keep me playing. In a high Priority Level game you could easily play 20 ships and finish the game in 4 hours.

Thats's the biggest point for me, I can play as many (or as few) ships as I want without the game bogging down. The critical hits are something I like a lot with just enough detail to make it interesting. There's been some who have complained about the simplicity of the submarine rules but I like them. VaS is very playable, it's a game and not an excercise in deciphering naval technology.

I don't have to use a calculator to figure damage or use algebra to fire torpedoes. I can play whatever mix of ships I want, I don't have to use a fleet list from a published scenario in every game.All is not perfect though. Aircraft are underpowered offensively and torpedo belts are a little too good. Some of the Priority Levels are a little off. It is a ship game but the war in the Pacific was won with carriers, planes need to be better. A small number of the counters are mis-named.I would recommend this game to anyone that likes the thought of WWII ships doing battle. Experienced wargamers will like the playability, new wargamers will like the low learining curve.

It's worth a shot, 25 bucks is a good price for a naval game with rules and counters. Thanks for the Review, and also thanks for putting your bias in as well.I am one of those guys using 'larger scale models'. I got mine from Wizards of the Coast's Aixs & Allies: War at Sea. I bought the VaS rule set to replace the rules that came with the ships.

I know there are a lot of folks in my area who are also looking for an alternative set of WWII naval rules to replace the WotC ones.I agree with you on the issue of Aircraft and Torpedo Belts. I really hope Mongoose Publishing can ride the wave of folks looking for an alternative rule set for their A&A ships. Hopefully, they will quickly release either the new supplement or some official rules to fix the few small blemishes.Peace. I think what sets the game apart is a good mix of relative detail (19 pages of rules) with ease of play.

Things like Long Lance's and German rangefinders are simply stated from a rules perspective but have a noticable effect. The basics of naval warfare are covered in a very playable way. It's realistic in the way that a ship could be fighting on with fires on board, plodding forward with diminished speed, whatever. After you're familiar with the rules the feel of the more dramatic battles (I think about Cap. Evans at Leyte sometimes when I'm playing becuase the rules portray that kind of action) is there. This is acheived with a minimum amount of rules. Bear in mind this is an effect-based game not a hardcore simulation too.Brent, the rules dicrepancies will be dealt with.

I think you're one of many that is using those 'larger non-standard' models for VaS. I can never understand why things like laying smoke, evasive movement rig for silent running are decided by chance/luck die rolls, luck has nothing to do with a ships commander deciding to lay smoke, or silent running if being chased by destroyers. There are far better ways of simulating these basic actions without resorting to ludo style die rolls. The game could have been quite historically acurate but the easy option of 'oh just roll a die, erm.

Make it a 5 or 6' method spoils what could have been quite good with a bit more creativity. I can never understand why things like laying smoke, evasive movement rig for silent running are decided by chance/luck die rolls, luck has nothing to do with a ships commander deciding to lay smoke, or silent running if being chased by destroyers.

There are far better ways of simulating these basic actions without resorting to ludo style die rolls. The game could have been quite historically acurate but the easy option of 'oh just roll a die, erm. Make it a 5 or 6' method spoils what could have been quite good with a bit more creativity.Those elements you metioned rely on dice rolling because it's a dice-based game.

Lots of dice at that. There's diceless games out there and games that are geared towards more simulationist play with heavier rules, as you're probably aware. This is a fast-playing system, the modifiers for manuvers and smoke are a simple way of putting those real-world factors into game terms. More time spent of manuvering and firing, less time looking at charts. I can never understand why things like laying smoke, evasive movement rig for silent running are decided by chance/luck die rolls, luck has nothing to do with a ships commander deciding to lay smoke, or silent running if being chased by destroyers. There are far better ways of simulating these basic actions without resorting to ludo style die rolls. The game could have been quite historically acurate but the easy option of 'oh just roll a die, erm.

Make it a 5 or 6' method spoils what could have been quite good with a bit more creativity.Yeah, some of these command rolls do seem a bit goofy, especially in a one-off game. It does make a little more sense when you play a campaign, as each individual ship has its own command score, and a more experienced captain & crew might have an improved command score and be more likely to accomplish their actions than others. The 'Create Smoke!' Command, by the way, is automatic, as is the 'Flank Speed!' Having to roll to see if you could increase speed or turn on the smoke would indeed be very silly.Frank in L.A. I know this is a billion years later, but I thought I might take a stab at answering.I've played lots of Naval Minis games, Seekrieg, General Quarters, etc, etc since the early 1980's.Right now there are two games I play exclusively for WWII Naval, that is Naval Thunder and Victory at Sea.

Neither game is nuts-and-bolts technology obsessed, but what they do well is making a game that requires a fast decision cycle. More Grognard-ish games add a technical level of complexity that requires turns lasting 45 minutes to an hour in order to model a 5 minute decision cycle.Both Naval Thunder and VaS have a reasonable level of Historical Accuracy (I've played River Platte and Coral Sea and gotten results reasonably close to historical, given normal randomized critical hit results.)As I have gotten older I have decided that the human decision factor is the most critical element for victory, not whether your ship mounts 14' guns vs 16' guns.Also, both games are a ton of fun to play. You haven't lived until you fight the 'What if' of two carriers stumbling into each other (a la Coral Sea where they were only 70 NM apart at one point! We did a scenario where they ended up 35nm apart at dawn and had to scramble strikes while turning their carriers away behind a screen of guns and smoke!)For what it's worth!-Mike. I know this is a billion years later, but I thought I might take a stab at answering.I've played lots of Naval Minis games, Seekrieg, General Quarters, etc, etc since the early 1980's.Right now there are two games I play exclusively for WWII Naval, that is Naval Thunder and Victory at Sea. Neither game is nuts-and-bolts technology obsessed, but what they do well is making a game that requires a fast decision cycle.

More Grognard-ish games add a technical level of complexity that requires turns lasting 45 minutes to an hour in order to model a 5 minute decision cycle.Both Naval Thunder and VaS have a reasonable level of Historical Accuracy (I've played River Platte and Coral Sea and gotten results reasonably close to historical, given normal randomized critical hit results.)As I have gotten older I have decided that the human decision factor is the most critical element for victory, not whether your ship mounts 14' guns vs 16' guns.Also, both games are a ton of fun to play. You haven't lived until you fight the 'What if' of two carriers stumbling into each other (a la Coral Sea where they were only 70 NM apart at one point!

Another version I tried was taking controller and input assets from the GameCube version of Metroid Prime 2 and using them in the Trilogy instead of the ones it used. With mouse and keyboard I had a VB script that ran in tandem with the game that used Xpadder with a custom mapped 'hotswap' that changed the memory addresses in real-time. Metroid Prime Trilogy WII ISO (USA) Metroid Prime: Trilogy is a Action-Adventure/First Person Shooter game published by Nintendo released on August 24, 2009 for the Nintendo Wii. The acclaimed Metroid saga return, now with better controllers, now you can play all three Metroid Prime games with the amazing controllers from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on a single disc. There's a distinct lack of Metroid here in Stellaris, and with the recent announcement of Metroid Prime 4, I thought what a better time to make my own mod. This mod adds in music tracks from all 3 Steam Workshop:: Metroid Prime Trilogy Soundtrack (v2.2. In my spare time away from OoTHD and URA, I'm working on an HD texture pack for Metroid Prime Trilogy. Its quite early, but so far Samus and her ship are much shinier, Tallon IVs space view is stunning, and the stars are much better (and more plentiful). Metroid prime trilogy mods. Unfortunately, I never managed to successfully map the motion controls to anything (like I'd wanted to manage to map the up tilt to space to jump in Morph Ball mode), though it didn't make much difference in the long run as I can't play Metroid Prime 3 on my computer because it's a pile of crap.

We did a scenario where they ended up 35nm apart at dawn and had to scramble strikes while turning their carriers away behind a screen of guns and smoke!)For what it's worth!-MikeI mostly agree with you. Sometimes the differences in gin sizes IS the interesting part, though. I tend to like maneuver games and Sails of Glory is my go to for that. I am still searching for a set of WWI naval rules that 'floats my boat'.