Ahh... Jutland, what a mighty game! Many years ago, on Sunday afternoons, after the furniture was pushed back, it was almost possible to smell the cordite in our "front room" as me and my Dad fought and refought this battle over and over again. The fury of those weekly engagements was matched only by the enjoyment we both had as we crawled across the floor, while commanding these two great fleets. Today...? The game still sits in my collection but my Dad is no longer with us. Players are no longer willing to spend a couple of hours crawling around the floor, moving little cardboard counters across the carpet, so it looks like these two mighty fleets will never sail again. But we always live in hope...
I have many fond memories playing Stratego with my Dad and remember that feeling of gaming bliss as I lost him a few years ago. Thank you for sharing about gaming with your dad. It brought back a few nice memories with my own. There are many wargaming conventions around the country and I think you very well might find someone who would be happy to set sail with one of those mighty fleets again. Thank you for watching. Cheers!
I played this once with a friend. I played the Germans, he played the RN. Eventually the fleets collided, but the 3 British TF's were able to quickly join forces. This resulted in the Germans being seriously outnumbered. I was able to sink a number of the more vulnerable British ships, as happened in the real battle, but then the sheer weight of British firepower began to wear down the German fleet, so I did the "Battle Turn Away" and got the hell out of there! As I recall, the British lost 5 major vessels and the Germans lost one....and the German fleet escaped. In other words, it turned out very similarly to the historical battle...a tactical victory for the Germans (in terms of material losses) and a strategic victory for the British (they maintained the blockade of the German fleet). It's a well designed game. The German fleet is not strong enough to fight the entire RN, so they had better destroy one of the small British TF's in isolation or just go home. The British must avoid that happening.
The odds of that happening are not great. The game does allow a draw if the German player has fewer ships than the British and the British player fails to sink any ships. Plus, the Search procedure allows to see ships in squares adjacent to your fleet. Hope this helps. Thanks for watching. Cheers!
