"Distant Guns" - The North Sea Conflict, 1915-1916

I have suggested a multi-player campaign based on the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War but perhaps that conflict is so esoteric it has limited appeal. Norm Koger created another computer naval game, probably even more impressive than his first. It is called "Jutland" and was originally designed to handle the war in the North Sea in 1916 and included a campaign which starts on 1st January 1916. He then made a Dogger Bank add-on and a 1915 campaign which starts - as you might have already guessed - on 1st January 1915. I personally would have liked to have seen an August 1914 campaign but that never happened.

We have the options therefore to fight the North Sea campaign in 1915 or 1916 and they are quite different with the 1915 campaign offering the Hochseeflotte a more balanced starting position as regards ship strength.

"Jutland" in addition to sweeps by the main fleets offers submarine patrolling and warfare, auxiliary cruiser patrols, a German mercantile raider, Zeppelin operations, minelaying, shore bombardments and coastal patrols. The scope of the campaigns are so great that several players on each side would be ideal. The German Kreigsmarine would offer roles for:

1) Admiral Reinhard Scheer (or his 1915 predecessor Admiral von Ingenohl) would assume overall command.
2) Vice Admiral Hipper would assume command of the Scouting Forces
3) A third player might command the home defence forces (fleet?) and patrols
4) A fourth player might command the U-Boats, Zeppelins and long range reconnaissance operations.

The British Royal Navy might provide the following roles:

1) Admiral Sir John Jellicoe in overall command
2) Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty in command of the Battlecruiser Fleet
3) Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt commanding the Harwich Flotilla
4) Commodore Roger Keyes commanding submarine flotillas
5) Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly commanding the Channel Fleet
6) An overall commander of coastal patrols and auxiliary operations such as minelaying, the Dover monitors and Dover aviation assets
7) Vice Admiral Louis Pivet in command of the French Channel squadron of armoured cruisers and destroyers, plus coastal patrols and submarines

If any kreigspielers are interested in taking part in what in effect would be a PBEM campaign but which might include zoom meetings while online battles are resolved, and subsequently video reports of the battles, please announce your interest below indicating which side you would prefer.

Many thanks.

I'd be Interested for Participating on the British side.

Just letting everyone know that this campaign is now up and running on Marshall Neal's new International Kriegsspiel Society Discord forum. I have 8 players involved and the actual game clock will start running at 12:00 noon GMT on Sunday 11th July. I will post news here and links to the videos of the encounters if it is of interest to people.

Bravo Diggers. Yes please do post.

I have often thought about buying this game for the campaign element, so it would be interesting to see it in action. I love Rule the Waves, but that offers a different take.

Martin J

Thanks for your support. One thing I always lamented was the lack of a 2-player or MP campaign where both sides issued orders real time on the strategic map and when opposing forces encountered each other it dropped the players into a 3D battle space for an MP battle. That would have been so very, very awesome but I don't think Norm Koger ever envisioned that sort of interest.

I bough the game when it came out in 2009 and owned the Russo-Japanese version before that which was 2006 IIRC. Both are just superb pieces of software. They have their limitations of course, especially the AI in some cases but on the whole I've never found a better 20thC naval simulator for the big gun era (air craft carriers and missiles don't do anything for me so my interest wanes quickly after the 1930s).

These two games are probably the ones I've got my most money's worth out of, other than ArmA and the DayZ spin off which I've also played for obscene numbers of hours but which isn't capable of any form of KS!

I to have both programs they were amazing. I recall having 4 players doing some of the scenarios. It was amazing. I thought though Jutland wasn't playable on modern machines with windows 10. Let me know if you need any other players who would love to get involved.
Can I get an invite to the discord channel, sir?
Rick

Here is the Discord link.

https://discord.gg/rXfAyAUF

Our game is full but you are welcome to join either one side or the other as an observer. If anyone drops out, the observers become active players. The RN already has one observer. There is also an open discussion channel in which I post public information.

Should I install Jutland sir I guess? Sorry first go at a campaign

Thanks, Rick

Unfortunately the game is full and the software is not required. I think I see you in the Discord server already. All comms there from now on so we don't fill this KS Society board with non-applicable comms!