Catch My Drift Wood

By S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
October 17, 2003

Since most of our time these past few weeks has been spent putting the finishing touches on our new “beer and pretzels” card game, you’ll understand where my mind is and excuse the fact that this week’s column zeroes in on one and only one topic.

“Pssst!…Over here! Don’t be frightened; I always look like this, even before Halloween. Do you want to join a play test for an exciting new card game about World War One dreadnoughts? Of course you do. Have a seat and get comfy. Let me fluff up your pillow. The game is called BRAWLING BATTLESHIPS™ . Sorry, I’m out of beer but here’s a pretzel. Gnaw on it in good health. Settle in and I’ll go over the rules for you and these other nice people here.

“First thing, we deal the cards. You can’t have a card game without cards, can you? Everybody starts by being dealt six dreadnought cards and six playing cards. Bob, if you don’t shut up, I’ll deal you fewer cards - I’m the Publisher and I have the power! The dreadnought cards are laid out face-up in front of each player to form a “squadron” and may contain ships of assorted nationalities . Yes, Jeff, I know that’s not realistic but this game is definitely not rocket science. All the rules are on one large, intricately folded sheet of paper. Figuring out how to refold the rules is probably the hardest part of the whole game. Six playing cards form each player’s starting hand, which is kept hidden. The number of playing cards in the hands may change later, as the number is based on the number of unhit “bridge critical hits” in a player’s squadron of dreadnoughts. The information displayed on each dreadnought card provides locations to mark hits with markers and other information about the historic ship pictured on the card, as shown here, here and here (just look at the sample card).

“Now that you are familiar with your mighty dreadnoughts, it’s time to sortie out onto the bounding main. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the playing cards to sink and damage the other player’s dreadnought cards. Players take Turns, going clockwise around the table. The game can be played by two to six players. You could each play for yourself but, since there are four of you, we’ll form two teams—Bruce and Jim can play against Jeff and Bob (aliases are used to protect the innocent), with the team members seated alternately. A playing card is drawn at the start of a Turn and then at least one playing card must be played or discarded during a Turn, although more than one card may be played only if the player has one or more single-use cards. The playing cards are of two types. The single-use cards can be used for only one purpose, which is conveniently explained on the card, and these yellow-colored cards must be played immediately and cannot be discarded, no matter who they hurt or if they have no effect. After a player plays any and all single-use cards, a double-use card may be played or discarded. The tan or light green double-use cards, as you might surmise from the name, can be used in one of two ways, either as an open fire card to “fire” a dreadnought’s big guns at an opposing dreadnought (using the information in the brown stripe on the left side of the card) or in another way, which is, again, conveniently explained on the cards. Double-use cards with a light green background are reaction cards, whose other use may be used during an opponent’s Turn to counteract a specific card played by an opponent. Many cards require rolling a red die and a white die to determine a result and the rolls are read in that order (a “32” is shown in the example). A game consists of going through the deck three times and the team with the most victory points at the end wins. Whew! You can just wind me up in the morning and I’ll go on and on.”

It is time to get the game started. “You can all read what’s written on the cards, so, without further ado, let’s get your feet wet and get started. Bruce owns the game, so he goes first (that’s actually in the rules).” After an appropriate period of hemming and hawing, Bruce finally plays the Zeppelin part of a double-use card. Zeppelin cards are air cards (along with the single-use sea plane card) and it is kept in front of his squadron. As long as it is there, it will add a flotation hit to all firings of his squadron’s big guns. It’s an investment in the future. Going next, Jeff plays the submarine 26+ part of a double-use card, which enables him to attack any one dreadnought card in an enemy squadron. Jeff selects the French “Bretagne” in Bruce’s squadron as a potential victim and rolls a “45” on the dice. A “26” or more was required, so the “Bretagne” is sunk (worth 5 victory points) and is placed face-down to start Jeff’s victory point pile. Jeff makes suitably realistic gurgling and breaking up noises, to the intense annoyance of all. Jim goes next and plays a single-use storm card because he must, which causes his partner Bruce’s Zeppelin card to be blown to the North Pole and discarded, although no other storm affects happen to apply at this time. Jim, following the play of a single-use card, is allowed to play again and plays the open fire part of a double-use card against Bob’s squadron. Bob counters by playing a confusion reaction card, forcing Jim to fire at his partner, Bruce, instead of at Bob. Ah, “friendly fire,” the unkindest cut of all. The open fire card played has two gun boxes that will allow up to two ships to fire using that same card. It allows fire by a ship with tan square gun boxes (the smallest guns) and by a ship with green hex gun boxes (the largest guns) and, if “31+” is rolled, there will also be a bridge critical hit (as shown on the open fire card). No ship may be fired more than once and no ship may be a target more than once from a single open fire card. In non-team games, a confusion card forces a player to fire insanely at ships in his own squadron, so there is an additional rule: no ship may fire at itself. Jim rolls an “11” and misses with the “Rheinland,” the tan square gun boxes dreadnought he selected to fire, but rolls a “53” for the firing by the “Mississippi,” his only green hex gun boxes dreadnought, and scores four flotation hits and a bridge critical hit on the Turkish “Sultan Selim” (formerly the German battlecruiser “Goeben,” if you know your World War One history), which has markers placed as shown on the sample. The results of “firing” depend on the numbers in the firing boxes on the attacking dreadnought card (in this case, “Mississippi ”). The top line of a box shows the number or more that must be rolled with two dice and the bottom line shows the number of flotation hits that can be scored if that number or more is rolled. The numbers of hits in the boxes are added together when the higher numbers are rolled.

Bruce glares at Jim. “Some partner you are; your storm blew away my Zeppelin and you nearly sank my little Turkish treasure.” Hmm, there’s a little dissension in the ranks. Now it’s Bob’s Turn. Bob plays the reinforcement 41+ card (a roll of “41” or better is required to obtain the reinforcement) part of a double-use card a, rolls a “45” and gets to draw another dreadnought from the Dreadnought Deck. Thus, the somewhat less than mighty battlecruiser “New Zealand” is added to Bob’s squadron. Bob now has only five cards left in his hand (remember, he used the confusion card during Jim’s Turn) and ends his Turn by drawing two playing cards to bring his hand to seven cards to match the number of unhit bridges on his squadron’s seven untouched dreadnoughts.

Play rotates back to Bruce, who plays the coastal fort 46+ part of a double-use card and announces an attack on Jeff’s squadron, which enables him to individually attack every one of the six dreadnought cards in Jeff’s squadron. From the information on the playing card, every roll of “46” or more will score 2 flotation hits and every roll of “61” or more will score a fire critical hit. Bruce rolls well and scores two flotation hits each on “Westfalen,” “Repulse” and “Canada,” plus a fire critical hit on “Canada.” Just as he is starting to feel better, Bruce realizes he has to discard one playing card at the end of his Turn as there are only five dreadnoughts, all with unhit bridges, left in his squadron. On his Turn, Jeff defensively plays the lay smoke part of a double-use card in front of his squadron as protection against many types of attacks (all but mines, internal explosions, second rate leaders and submarine cards are ineffective) until his next Turn. Jim draws the second storm single-use card in the deck and has to play it. This time, the storm card ends the fire critical hit on the “Canada” and blows away Jeff’s smoke cover. Next, Jim plays the mines 56+ part of a double-use card against Jeff, which allows Jim to individually attack all of Jeff’s dreadnoughts that have hits, in this case three of them, and a roll of “56” or more will “sink” a ship. Jim rolls lower for the other two but a roll of “63” sends “Westfalen” into the North Sea Barrage and to the bottom in Jim’s victory points pile. Bob ends the round by drawing and playing the sea plane single-use card, and placing it in front of his squadron, which will add a flotation hit to all later firings. Bob can then play another card and uses an open fire card against Bruce’s squadron….

And so the game goes. I just wanted to use this article to give you a taste of how BRAWLING BATTLESHIPS™ plays. There are many other American, Austro-Hungarian, British, French, German and Russian dreadnought battleships and battlecruisers included in the game (the “Sultan Selim” is the lone representative of the Turkish navy, as it was historically). There are also many other types of playing cards. Single-use cards not mentioned include great leader and second rate leader cards (which aid or hinder firing - check out the second rater; his eyes seem to follow you around), internal explosions (which can destroy any ships, friendly or enemy, that have a fire critical hit), secret agents (randomly take two cards from an opponent’s hand) and a radio intercept card (take the top two cards from the discard pile). Double-use cards not mentioned include destroyer flotilla attacks (may attack two dreadnoughts), cruiser screen (a reaction card to block a destroyer flotilla attack), cruisers attacks (may attack all ships in a squadron with critical hits), armored cruiser (a reaction card to block a cruisers attack), destroyer anti-sub flotilla (a reaction card to block a submarine attack), minesweepers (a reaction card to block attacks by mines), pursuit aeroplanes (to eliminate enemy air cards), repairs (to repair flotation hits), duds (a reaction card to block open fire attacks), mutiny (to remove a dreadnought from play for no victory points), internment (to take an enemy dreadnought and add it to your own squadron), battle turnaway (a reaction card to block attacks by coastal forts) and reinforcement cards that can add two dreadnought cards instead of just one.

BRAWLING BATTLESHIPS™ will be available for shipment from us next week (see the advertisements elsewhere on this site). Don’t forget that we can also sell you a custom t-shirt with a picture of your favorite dreadnought card, to help you get in the mood.

See Also The Sum of All My Fears