Destroyer Captain Review
Review by Len Krol
After creating such games as Ironbottom Sound and The Royal Navy, Jack Greene brought out Destroyer Captain in 1979. In the previous two games, the role of the destroyers was to stand in the background and fire torpedoes at the big guys. Their firepower was weak and destroyers were fragile.
In Destroyer Captain, the greyhounds of the sea (along with a few Light Cruisers) are the stars of the show.
The game comes in a box with a nice picture of a destroyer in a night battle. This game contains a 33” x 22” map and over 200 counters, along with a rulebook, 5 combat aid charts, log sheets, ship information sheet and 15 scenarios. There is even a Kolombangara island cut-out. They provide two ten sided dice, but you have to provide the two six sided dice.
Each hex is 600 yards and each turn is three minutes.
You prepare for play by filling out the log sheet. The ship information chart will tell you how much firepower your ship has in which positions and their arc of fire. You will also write down how many torpedoes you have and their arcs. Also recorded is the number of hull boxes you have, you flotation rating, and silhouette. You have to look at the counter for the speed, which you will record. During the game, you will be marking off damage on your log sheet.
The ship counter has a side silhouette of the ships. In the lower right corner is the silhouette rating in Roman numerals (I-IV.) The ship counters has three speeds listed. The first number is for the first turn, the second for the second turn and the third for the third turn.
The turn sequence is:
Introduce reinforcements
Torpedo launching or reload
Movement
Gunnery Phase
Torpedo effect phase
Resolve all fires and waterline hits.
First you plan any torpedo attacks. Next, you look at the torpedo characteristic chart to determine if you are within range. You write down the target ship that you want to fire the torpedoes at.
For movement, this game dispenses with the “roll for initiative” nonsense. Initiative is based on national ability or leadership. Some nations have better training, better average officers and better doctrine. The nationalities are ranked with the first six being Germany, United States U.K. Japan, Netherlands, and Austria-Hungary. We can debate if this order is right. I do not know why Germany and the Netherlands are rated so highly, or why Austria-Hungary is rated better than Italy or France. The presence of a leader can change this order. In a battle, if the Japanese have a leader and the U.S. does not, the Japanese have the initiative until the leader is killed or sunk.
The side without initiative moves half their movement (fractions rounded up.) Then the initiative side moves their full movement. Then the other side moves his full movement. Lastly, the initiative side can change heading 60 degrees.
I prefer this system over simultaneous movement any day.
You are supposed to have only one ship in a hex, but the hexes are large enough for another ship to be in a hex. However there is a one out of six chance to have a collision.
Gunnery is next. First you check on the gun range chart to see if the guns are within range. If so, you roll the percentile dice, so thoughtfully provided, on the gunnery table. There are modifiers to the dice roll. Your nationality may add or subtract to this. This is on a separate page than the rest of the modifiers.
Example: The HMS Ajax with 33 fire factors is firing at four hexes away (-20) at night (WW II British: -03.) A -23 is subtracted from the percentile dice roll. If you roll a 50 (50-26= 24,) you have scored a hit. If you rolled a 30 (30-26=04,) you have scored five hits.
If you scored a hit, then the fun begins. You roll the percentile dice on the gunnery hit results table. Some guns can only fire HE, but most guns use SAP ammunition. You roll for each hit. The results can be anywhere from a dud to hull hits, or even cause fires. You may have to roll on Critical hit tables “A” or “B,” You may also receive a fire or a waterline hit. Critical hits are rolled for immediately, by the 2D6 that you provided, while fire and waterline hits are rolled for later.
The Torpedo effect phase is next. After you determine if the torpedo could hit, you roll 2D6 on the torpedo table. The chances of hitting are slim. On a broadside hit you need to roll a 10-12. These are slim odds. There are modifiers for range, target speed and certain torpedoes. If hit, you roll on the torpedo damage table. Cross index your flotation value by a roll of a 2D6. Flotation A is the worse value. You will most likely be sunk, or badly damaged. The other values are B-E. A ship with an E value has the best chance to survive.
In the last phase you roll on the fire table, or the waterline table. On these two charts, you roll 2D6. In some rolls, the fire is put out or the waterline is repaired. In other cases, there is no effect. However, additional damage may be inflicted that can sink a ship.
For the basic game, I picked scenario #9 “Destroyers off Port Arthur.” Here we have 4 Russian destroyers fighting 4 Japanese destroyers. You have seven turns and the visibility is seven. Both sides need a few turns to close into viable range. All of the ship’s firepower is weak. The Russians have 2 factors per ship, while the Japanese have three. A few hits are inflicted. On turn five, the two fleets are two hexes away and launch torpedoes. There are no hits. On the last turn, the two fleets have ships in the same hex and there are no collisions. The Russian flagship is on fire. He rolls on the fire table, and loses his last hull box and sinks.
The Japanese have two ships on fire and with one remaining hull box left. The general rule I use for all naval games is that if the scenario ends or if a ship can escape off the map. All fires are put out and flooding stopped. It is easy to do damage control when not under fire.
There are optional rules such as simultaneous movement for those who insist on it and a modification for torpedo movement. I don’t use these rules, but use the ones for smokescreens, starshells, searchlights, and breakdowns. The next scenario I played was #13, Malta night action. This one pits one British light cruiser again six Italian destroyers and torpedo boats in WW II. I expected the British to sink or seriously damage two or three Italian ships and maybe suffer a little damage. The results were different than I expected.
The HMS Ajax is not allowed to fire on the first turn and the Italians are out of visual range. On turn 3, the Italians put the Ajax under the glare of starshells. The benefit of starshells is that they do not give away your position. The disadvantage is that you have to plot one turn ahead and the ship firing starshells cannot fire in the gunnery phase.
On turn four, the British roll a “99.” I have to roll 2D6 on the breakdown table. There is an electric breakdown; my guns cannot fire next turn. On turn five, the Italians hit my MFC. Not only does this reduce my accuracy, but it destroys my radar and searchlights. On turn five the other three Italian destroyers come on the map. The British fire their torpedoes and all miss. The Italians start using their searchlights instead of starshells. Searchlights are limited in range to nine hexes. You declare whether they are on or off before gunnery. I have a house rule that the disadvantaged side declares if their searchlights are on or off first, than the advantage side. Now, I have three ships firing. The British score one hit, while the Italians knock off a gun position and score a waterline hit. I roll for the waterline hit. I am to lose 2 hull squares and two speeds squares until sunk. I can escape off the board. I try to make a run for it, but am slowing down. Now six ships are hitting me, and I am taking hit after hit. The Italians finally torpedo me. My slow speed makes it easier to hit me. The Ajax is sunk. The Italians win! This is not what I expected, but shows that anything can happen.
Destroyer Captain is not without flaws. I had a hard time with the Russian destroyers in #9. The color for the lettering is close to the background color. The Imperial German (WW I) names are written in small gothic script and I cannot read them. I fear I will never be able to play Scenario #15, “Death or Glory” because of this. The information and leader counters are well done.
The rules tend to be solid and easy to understand. I had to make a few house rules such as fire being put out after scenario ends, based on common sense. In a game this old, you are not sure the publisher or designer can be contacted to answer questions.
Overall this game is great fun. If your interest is in naval games, this is a must have. If not, this might get you interested.
Buy a copy of this rare game on eBay.