The year is 1941 – the Fascist Italian Regia Marina prowls the Mediterranean sea around the allied base of Malta, seeking to cut supplies to the air and naval forces stationed there. The fleets of the commonwealth and British Empire, headed by the Royal Navy, have been escorting supply convoys into the island. In this game of WWII naval surface combat, players will take command of either the prowling Italian raiders or the Royal Navy escorts- will the convoy survive? All are welcome, no experience needed and everything supplied at the table.
Here I am happy to post some of the rules and GM how-to guides for my Raiders of the Malta Convoys game! With this game I wanted to do two things 1) have a combination of a strategic map with aircraft, subs, and ships followed by a tactical engagement at the cruiser/destroyer level that was zoomed in and 2) have a fun, easy naval combat game that actually tells a story.
I’ve played a number of naval wargames, and they can tend towards the crunchy- lots of tables, plotting courses, resolving percentile tables and so forth. Distances are huge, action is slow, and decisive conclusions rare in a 3 hours convention game. My friend introduced me to Nimitz and Halsey- a paired campaign and tactical game system that was much faster, decisive, and quick (https://sammustafa.com/nimitz). Things are relatively abstracted and fast, but you still have ship cards with stats, different classes, and weapons- the kind of thing that makes Navies fascinating to people.
This is also a really interesting period of WWII history- the British Empire vs Fascist Italy in the Mediterranean. In Early 1941, Operation Barbarossa had not yet started and Pearl Harbor was far in the distance. The empire stood alone versus the Axis. Malta, part of the British Empire, was perfectly positioned to be a thorn in the side of the Italians just due to its positioning- subs and planes operating out of Malta could have a huge impact on supplies headed to Africa. The Axis formed a blockade on Malta, aiming to starve it out. It was quite brutal- of course the material of war was cut off, but the people suffered and starved as Malta was not self-sufficient. Submarine runs and airlifts tried to keep vital supplies going, but for things like fuel tankers were needed. Many convoys braved the blockade into Malta, such as Operation Pedestal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pedestal) and the stories are legendary.
This game is not a specific historical convoy but a what-if. Mostly the blockade was enforced by submarines and aircraft. The Supermarine of the Regia Marina was hesitant to commit its capital ships against the British. This fictional story of Force H starts with the assumption that the Supermarine has decided to be bold, committing its surface fleet to aid the subs and aircraft in enforcing the blockade.
The game consists of two parts. I aim to run these in a 4 hour convention block. It takes a while, so you need to be on the ball and keep things moving as a GM. Cut things for time if you need to.
Strategic Map- 3 turns where players control subs, air assets and escort task forces to harass each other and gain advantage. The main fleets proceed ‘on rails’ to force a tactical battle outside Malta.
Tactical Map- 4-8 turns of tactical engagement at the cruiser level
VPs are awarded after the strategic map phase- ships from the escort task forces can join the main battle. Strategic victory gives an advantage on priority rolls in the tactical game. Damage and spent torpedoes carry into the tactical game!
This game is for 6 players, but can be run for as few as 2- consider cutting some forces if you have fewer!
Strategic Map
You need: 1) the Halsey Rules 2) printouts of the aircraft, escort fleet, and ships , 3) the GM tracker and player ship plotter, 4) pens, tape, scissors, 5) markers for subs, ships and aircraft, 6) the big map and 7) letter/flag markers for the tokens.
Finally, you will need to tactical materials as well, as you may need the ship stats for the main fleet for defense when attacked!
The Tactical Game
For this, you need ship miniatures or cut outs! Your ship sheets can be generated here https://www.iandrea.co.uk/wargames/resources/nimitz/nimitz_ship_list.html
A mat is a great idea. Some islands are also fun to provide cover and obstacles even if a little a-historical – this engagement is taking place close to Malta! You use the main Nimitz Rules. Two tweaks I like. First, the civilian convoy ships can only be targeted if the Italians can draw clear line of sight that does not pass through a British base. While this breaks the core Nimitz LOS rules, it keeps the battleships from one-shotting the convoy and represents the pressing threat of intervening warships returning fire. 2) In the shooting phase, I let people put down torpedo tracks before gunnery. This way destroyers, even if sunk, sometimes get a final cathartic roll that players really like.
You need markers for 1) ships that fired, 2) ship speed (in main NIMITZ rulebook), 3) printouts of all ships 4) pens, rulers, D6
I hope you find this fun, and consider retweaking this for your ship collection! Excited to see what you all can come up with!
-BS