General Quarters 3 Play Aids

Here are some ideas and an accessories for new players of GQ3 which was released fall 2006. For example, ship log is enlarged 200% for easier reading. You can buy the GQ3 rules at ODGW. I have written the considerations I could think of and then followed it up with "what I decided".

I couldn't figure out the GQ3 turn system so I consulted the General Quarters Yahoo list and OGDW's forum. They kindly straightened me out. Another thing I don't really like is using tape measures (especially for odd scales like I ended up using i.e. .5cm=100 yards).

What I Decided: I have made a combination Move & Turn Indicator in Adobe Illustrator for the 3 scales of GQ3 (line #3 in the scale chart towards the top of this web page). It is the same as Turn Indicators that come with the game (9-up, in color, on a cardstock sheet, which are based on 1 CM/Knot) but here are the differences:

1. A 40-knot ruler is attached so you can measure straight moves, turns or both in one measuring device.
2. There are 3 scale options below, corresponding to lines 2-4 on the chart (move down for Floor/Table Size discussion). Even though I'm only using 1 scale, I might in the future want one of the others and figured other gamers could use them now!
3. Reminders of movement-related rules are noted on the ruler.
4. The background colors are Teal or a darker Blue; the print is white.

My understanding from the OGDW forum is that turn costs start at 36 degrees (the 2nd tick mark, which is 4 knots & 3rd is 6 knots etc.) and no cost for turns under 36 degrees (other than the 1st tick mark which is 1 knot--which is the actual distance covered and thus no turn cost per se). To get a PDF file, click on the scale and background color you want to print:

Background Color >
Chart #, below) Scale	Blue	Teal
2) 1 cm = 100 yards	GQ3ruler1cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3ruler1cm=100ydsTeal.pdf
3) .5 cm = 100 yards	GQ3ruler.5cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3ruler.5cm=100ydsTeal.pdf
4) .4 cm = 100 yards	GQ3ruler.4cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3ruler.4cm=100ydsTeal.pdf

Be careful to measure the 40 knots before cutting it out; if 1 cm = 1 knot (100 yards) then the 40 knots should be 40 cms long. Or if .5 cm per knot, the 40 knots will be 20 cms long, or if .4 cms/knot then 40 knots=8 cms. If the printed item doesn't measure the full distance, your Page Setup or Print settings may have an option checked that causes it it shrink pages. Be forewarned, the .4cm/100 yard version has fairly small print even when printed correctly.

The 1cm=100 yard version may not be printable by most people with smaller printers that have Legal or Tabloid size as their maximum; it's on 12x18" (or larger) stock because the actual ruler is just over 17". Why not make a ruler for the 1 inch per 100 yard scale (# 1 on the chart below)? It would be about 7.5" wide & 44" long and handling it would be about as convenient as a 2-handed sword!

I suggest you attach this ruler to cardboard or sheet styrene. Just be sure to use material that you can readily cut to make the rounded end.

For those who want matching Turn Gauges (only without the rulers) or a different scale than those included with the GQ3 rules (1 cm/100 yards), here are some PDF's in 2 colors and 4 scales. To get a PDF file, click on the scale and background color you want to print:

Background Color >
Chart #, below) Scale	Blue	Teal
1) 1 inch = 100 yards	GQ3turn1inch=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3turn1inch=100ydsTeal.pdf
2) 1 cm = 100 yards	GQ3turn1cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3turn1cm=100ydsTeal.pdf
3) .5 cm = 100 yards	GQ3turn.5cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3turn.5cm=100ydsTeal.pdf
4) .4 cm = 100 yards	GQ3turn.4cm=100ydsBlue.pdf	GQ3turn.4cm=100ydsTeal.pdf

Ship Labels

I was thinking of labeling the little 3x6mm tabs on the back of 1:6000 ships and wanted to know what you thought of this:

1. Blue background, white type
2. Ship Type/Initials/Knots
3. Axis ships underlined & Allied ships "over" lined (accomplished by resetting the preferences of the underlining feature in InDesign)

Example: CA GS 26 = Graf Spee or CL Exe 32 = Exeter

My question is, when do the Ship Classes matter at a glance, if ever? If not important to see, is there any other bit of info I should add? If not, then I'll just spell out more of the name.

I assume the speed is the most important thing since every new player wants to know "how fast can I go?"

I'm still thinking of adding a little dot for nationality on the underline (leftmost German, center Japanese, rightmost Italian etc.)

What I Decided: responses from the GeneralQuarters Yahoo list is that the name and nationality are the only important details to try to cram in. Speed changes anyway and type (CA, CL etc.) isn't generally significant.

I plan to paste the full name on the bottom of the stands with the iron-impregnated paint for making kid's walls 'magnetic'.

River Spee Scenario featuring Adm. Graf Spee

You can download a scenario with oversize 3x5" ship logs: River Plate 12/13/39 featuring the Graf Spee. (Thumbnail picture above) Want to make your own? You can make the 3x5" cards 2 different ways:

I. On a copier with reduction/enlargement feature, enlarge the parts of the printed pages with desired ships 200% onto cardstock, cut apart. Cards will be more like 2x5" but c'est la guerre. (Or paste down some 1" wide, removable correcto-tape underneath or over the ship to allow a margin.)

II. The digital method. From the PDF OGDW download of the ruleset (that you get access to after you've bought it) this way:

1. Enlarge the view in Acrobat to 800% (ship log will fill the screen); this allows you to get more image detail so it will print sharper.
2. Click the Snapshot Tool button, select the ship closely to its boundary (image will be copied to clipboard)
3. Paste image into a program (I use Illustrator but other programs like Word etc. might work) and reduce it to 25% of size (it will be double size net and almost 5" wide)
4. If 2 cards are turned at 90 degrees, 5 cards will fit on a letter size page or (6 on legal size). Laminate if you want to use rub-off markers.
5. If the ship you need is of the same class but different name than the example on the log sheet, you can place the correct name over the class name and match it with the following attributes: A) Arial Bold, B) 18.5 point C) -10 tracking. I added some little touches but I did NOT make my PDF to fit on the Avery index card (product #8388) which only accommodates 3 cards per page. The random reinforcement roll noted there was something I just made up to remind myself to consider 'what if' possibilities. For example, I included a card for the Cumberland which showed up too late for the battle.

Floor/Table Size Needed
at Maximum Range for 4 scales:

Those new to fleet operations ought to consider their space requirements. This was a puzzle for me because I own ships in 3 common scales and have never played any naval games! Maybe this will help other new players consider their options before they've bought a lot of the wrong stuff.

GQ3 suggests 2 scales (shown on the chart as line 1 & 2 respectively): 1"=100 for 1:1200 scale ships and 1 cm = 100 yards for tinier ships (i.e. 1:2400, 1:3000, 1:4800 & 1:6000). On line 3, I have added another commonly used scale: "half centimeter", again per 100 yards.

Finally, the 4th line of the chart is for those wanting to use a common scale reduction from GQI & II days where they used centimeters instead of inches (which were then 250 yards and thus equivalent to line #2), that could be described as 4 mm per 100 yards (or more simply, 1 cm per 250 yards) and thus their seascape scale would be equivalent to 1:22,860. When used with 1:6000 ships, this is only a scale distortion of about 4 to 1. Typical land based wargames (like the excellent Command Decision: Test of Battle) use 1:5000 ground scale and 1:285 miniatures and thus a scale distortion of 18 to 1! A German ship's maximum fire distance of 45,000 yards would then be 5.86 feet.

Nautical miles being 2025 yards would be 20.25" in inch scale, 20.25 cms (or almost 8", 7.96" to be exact) in centimeter scale etc.

With the greatest firing/sighting distance being 45,000 yards, this sets how large a table (or room with 1:1200's inch scale) you might want to allow. However, weather conditions rolled for may indicate that the average battles take place at around half that level and the majority +/- 10,000 yards. So a table 72% of the sizes shown might be plenty big (especially since extreme range shots are not worth it). The other issue is to allow room for maneuver. See the Old Salt's advice at lower right for how to handle battles that "wander' off the table.

*This example is not to say that you couldn't use 1:2400 @ .5cm/100 yards or 1:6000 at 1cm/100 yards etc.

All of this can help you with making decisions about table/room size. Another consideration is the game's charts are expressed in "thousands of yards". Meaning with 100 yards per cm per inch or centimeter, you just drop 2 zeros. But with the scales on line 3, it's not that simple. You can find remade PDF's at the ODGW site that shows the number of centimeters for each range band. I have not yet seen a reworked PDF for the scale on line 4.

If you are going to make measurement sticks, my buddy, Ix, has made them from acrylic rods available from a plastic company called Tap. The clear rods come half round, fully round (least expensive and also available in blue), square. You can get 6' rods but they cost more to ship so I had them cut them in half (a normal request to avoid the non-standard shipping charge from UPS). You can see what Ix has done for his .4cm scale game by clicking here. Actually, the easiest range stick to get would be to buy some 3/8" (or whatever size you like) square dowels from the hardware store; they usually come in 36" lengths. See above for Move & Turn Indicators (rulers).

Dice both D12 & D6 are needed for GQ3

The rules suggest a half dozen D12 & several D6 of different colors. Don't forget some tiny damage markers (D6): blue 5mm Dice. They cost $.15 or $.12 each for 100! Here's a nice source of dice: Gamestation.net. Lots of blue tones (& mottled combinations for the D6).

What I Decided: I bought a bunch!

Mini-Naval Sites of Interest

Litko Plywood/Magnetic/Flex Steel (and soon clear acrylic) Bases, Ship Names, More Scenarios, Ix's GQ site , Manley's Play Aids, Accurate Colors for Ships, Ship Flags (I think 1:1200 scale & WWI but at this size most will work for bases of smaller scales instead). Sources of miniatures follow... those offering on line ordering are shown first before those requiring fax, call or email:

1:6000 Ships On line: War Times Journal, shop #2 accepting PayPal & Visa/Mastercard credit/debit cards. Non line: Scale Model Specialties, Noble Minis (the manufacturer), The Last Square,

About Me

I was a founding partner of Judges Guild and made a modest contribution to our effort to make Dungeons & Dragons more accessible and popular. My main gaming interests involve CD: TOB, Great Battles of World War II, GQ3, a few boardgames, designing full color maps and accessories using Illustrator & InDesign plus punching out hexes in a variety of widths with a precise die-cut process.

For example: see www.game.fan.org/~bill for set of 10 D-Day era Normandy maps, each 23x35". This was a 7-year-long project that ended up with a 6x15 foot map of the beaches & the Cotentin Peninsula. You can see the now 4 different scales (1 mile per hex, 1 kilometer per hex, 600 yards per hex & now 300 yards/hex) at www.cafepress.com/judgesguild.

Contact
Type my email address:
entered as an image to keep spammers from harvesting my email address (using the font, Crappy Wehrmacht Typewriter, & saved as "Outlines" in Illustrator; with it, you can pretend to have a manual typewriter in your "radio room").

"Seascape" ideas:

Terrain is much easier with naval wargames than the land equivalent! But still worth taking a moment to think about. Typically people buy a blue bed sheet or piece of felt because they are big and relatively cheap. So be it.

Another idea is to paint or carpet your table (or floor) blue. Felt just doesn't seem right to me (you don't need the fuzzy texture that's great for land games' ground turf and contour flexibility) and subject to Coca Cola spills etc. Painted or carpeted surfaces are easier to clean. Depending on your ship's bases, fabric surfaces could be snagged by metal basing.

You can buy a specially made SeaScape 6x8' [see below] for 82.38 British Pounds (or about $150 US per 12/06 conversion) + Postage. It looks pretty nice and they will quote for non-standard sizes... it would seem that a ping pong table's 5x9' size might be priced similarly (45 square feet vs. 48 square feet).

I was considering a big piece of Navy-colored vinyl [below], called Tonneau:

for making pickup truck bed covers; comes in 78" wide rolls; most are only 54". Narrow material can be seamed together and my preference is to avoid seams. But first, see at right see the reaction of one reader who feels felt feels best for various practical reasons...

At $19.99/yard I will need 3 yards long for a Tonneau 78x108" modified ping pong table (I'm thinking of an 18" x 9' extension that could be added... or rolling up the extra 18" for a lateral stern chase as noted at right). This is based on the scale of 1cm = 200 yards. Add about $29 shipping, the stuff will cost about $89 but last for a long time. If you must enough for 2 tables' worth then it's getting a bit expensive. At least that was the plan... but the experienced players, at right, don't go for this. So I kept looking around. Click for a source of the material.

If interested in Tonneau, the website says it is "dimensionally stable and easily cleaned. It has exceptional tear strength, is marine treated as well as UV stable." I was thinking it's a bit dark but my friend pointed out: "The texture looks neat and it is a little dark, but it may work well—I’m thinking it will be good that the ships, being so small, stand out so they can be seen easily.  No matter what shade of grey the ships are, they would still stand out well on the dark."

GQ3 doesn't require hexes but if you want a hex grid on your vinyl mat, I found listed: Megamats - Lt Blue with 1inch Hexes (34 inch x 48 inch) $26.38 at the rpgshop.com. MKP (see at right) also has a hex-gridded blue sea felt.

Reaction from an Old Salt who has a million times as much experience as I do:

I like the idea of using vinyl for sea scape, too. Long ago I found a piece of vinyl that was a *perfect* dark blue-green color, but unfortunately I ruined it while trying to put a grid on it. I've never found that color again. One further suggestion: keep around at least 2 large pieces of seascape. Naval battles are forever wandering toward the edge of the table, and it's easiest to move the whole mat without touching the miniatures and just lay another one down on the now-bare part of the table surface. Using this technique, you can keep a fleet-level stern chase going across multiple table lengths.

My own seacloths are felt. I agree about the disadvantages of fuzz, but the color was okay and the price was better. Felt is thick and heavy enough to smooth over some of the bumps in the underlying table surfaces. Compared to vinyl, felt has a few other advantages: it's lighter, folds can be smoothed out with a lot less effort, it's easier to acquire, and it's easier to cut. It turns out that the tendency of felt to "grab" things is sometimes an advantage: islands and shorelines stay put, metal-bottomed miniatures don't accidently slide around as easily, and other felt items sorta "stick" in place.

Here are some more fabric idea excerpts from
http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=92462

"crushed nylon...

blue felt sprayed with several shades of darker and lighter blue, grey, and white, from a distance, in random patterns. It makes a wonderfully mottled seascape...

photo-backdrop" looking cloth. It comes in light blue, dark blue and gray blue. Best of all its dirt cheap...

cloth of various colours cut to represent various depths or just different colors of water. Then, a sheet of clear vinyl is placed over this..

Monday Knight Productions makes a felt seascape [pictured below] in mottled blues that is quite nice and should fold any way you'd prefer. I just sent off for a Terrain Mat Seascape for home but I've had great use out of my MKP felt and it will probably remain my travelling mat of choice..."

MKP warns ironically (for a naval game) on their website: "mats are very durable EXCEPT to water! If you spill something on your mat, just dab it up with a paper towel (or towels). DO NOT LET IT SIT!" They look nice and a 4x6' mat is about $37.50. You could buy 3 or 4 and be able to accomplish the stern-chase "seascape swap" my buddy, the old salt, describes above.

Muslin

Here's an interesting section on making photo back drops made from Muslin. This could be helpful since photo backdrops need to big and inexpensive also. You can buy Muslin backdrops already made and died blue 10x12' which is enough for (2) 6x10' cloths for about $165. But it's a lot less to do it yourself ($3-5 per yard depending on width like 45-80" or more but how far in the table width can you reach?!). Click here for Rose Brand a theatrical supplyhouse source. And a description of how to DIY.

What I Decided: I found a 59" wide piece of blue cloth at Wal Mart for $1/yard and at this price I could afford to experiment with spray paint etc. Big spender that I am, I bought 10 yards, the equivalent of 3 ping pong tables (plus some for the self-adhesive floor tiles that Ix suggests you use for bringing off-board formations on to the board). Here's a picture of a 1:6000 scale Graf Spee on the cloth: