Russo-Japanese War at Sea, 1904-1905 &/or Jutland/North Sea 1915-1916

I have an idea for a possible PBEM game, using the PC simulation "Distant Guns" by Storm Eagle Studios (SES) which is the company Norm Koger is currently running. The computer game is exceptionally good with very accurate ballistics and damage models for the weapons and ships. The game comes with a full campaign which opens with the surprise night torpedo-boat attack by the Japanese navy on the Russian Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur in February 1904 and concludes with the arrival and defeat (or victory!) of the Russian 2nd Pacific Squadron in the late spring of 1905 (there is some variation on when it arrives).

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/Images/DG_1_5/DGRJW_Tsushima_Sneak_01.jpg

The naval war is all about the Japanese getting enough unarmed and unescorted merchantmen ('Marus') through from Japan to Chemulpo on the west coast of Korea where they land troops and supplies to form the land war effort in Manchuria. The Russian navy must sink these cargo and troopships and depending on how many or how few get through dictates how fast the Japanese armies can push north to capture Port Arthur.

http://i1-games.softpedia-static.com/screenshots/Distant-Guns_6.jpg

The land war being fully abstracted I thought this campaign would be a good candidate for a limited number of players (initially 4 on the Russian side and 6 on the Japanese side) with 2 more Russians to play the 2nd pacific Sqn needed much later. There is very good scope for limited information and fog of war and I think it would fall easily under the Kriegspiel umbrella.

Naval encounters would be played out by me, solo, as the game lets the human player command both sides, but I would respond to orders from the relevant players, or lacking such, follow standing orders that each navy's officers would be given on how to deal with a variety of circumstances.

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/Downloads/DG_1_5_Resources/DG_1_5_Screen_Shots/1440x900/DGRJW_08.jpg

We could possibly have a couple of private threads on here for the general communications of the two sides, lpus hopefuly a public thread where information from newspapers and military propoganda would be posted, to entertain anyone not playing. Much of the actual game communications would be done by telegraph, ship wireless (morse key) or ships lamp (flags being used for tactical orders) so we would use e-mail or forum PMs to cover communications.

This is therefore an interest check to see who thinks this is a good idea.

In addition to the above I also have SES' second title, 'Jutland' which as the name should make clear, covers the naval war in the North Sea in 1916 between the German High Seas Fleet and the Entente Alliance of Britain's Royal Navy and the French Channel Fleet. An add-on pack for the Jutland game introduces the earlier ships from late 1914 so 'Jutland' offers us two potential PBEM campaigns, one starting in January 1915 and one starting in January 1916.

http://www.stormeaglestudios.com/public/Images/Jutland/Jutland_Screens_02/Jutland_Batch_02_09.jpg

The 'Jutland' campaign is much bigger and more intense. It includes Zeppelins, submarine warfare, minelaying on a much more significant and effective scale than the Russo-Japanese War, mercantile war, blockade running by neutrals trying to get cargoes to Germany, shore bombardments and various other things but is generally a more static and subtle game of cat and mouse. A campaign based on this theatre could easily find jobs for up to 20 players with Kaisser Bill himself at the top of the tree on one side and Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty on the other with intelligence officers, and commands down to the patrol areas each side allocated, as well as the Naval Zeppelin Division on the German side.

http://www.marinesims.de/phpkit/inhalt/dgjutland/Screen_008.jpg

This post is a means to test the waters and see how many might be interested and in which campaign.

I would certainly be interested.

Martin

Thanks, Martin. Have you a preference for which war?

Happy to be guided by you, Digby.

I think you said on Sunday that you found the Russo-Japanese War strategic situation provided more interesting options, so it may be best to do that. Your own interest and motivation to keep running the campaign over the long haul is a legitimate factor. How long in actual time would you anticipate a full campaign would take, and how frequently would you issue reports, require orders etc?

Here's another idea for the best of both worlds. You could start with a pilot game set in WW1 in the North Sea, to test out systems for a full length RJW campaign. Perhaps just one sortie by the High Sees Fleet. They could be secretly tasked by you to carry out some action (eg bombardment of UK east coast towns or minelaying off a specified port etc). The RN would have to prevent this, but without initially knowing what the German objective is, and hopefully also damage the enemy fleet to boot.

Martin

Mr Digby I would be interested in any of those options. Happy to go with flow.

Hi digby- I would be intrested in joining this campaign- just keep me up to speed

alex