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Copyright © 2018 Rory Crabb All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record or otherwise whatsoever, without the prior permission of the author. Permission is granted to print the PDF edition for personal use only. Unless otherwise attributed all photographic works are public domain.

A Supplement for NavalCommand

FAST ATTACK

Introduction ................................................................ 3

Design Notes ............................................................... 3

Section 1—Additional Rules

New Ship Classes ......................................................... 3

Small Arms .................................................................. 4

Damage ....................................................................... 4

Piracy .......................................................................... 5

Table of Contents

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Welcome to “Fast Attack” the first supplement for the

Naval Command wargame rules. The supplement

provides allows players to expand their games of Naval

command to fully incorporate operations taking place

within the coastal or littoral area involving small craft.

Missile Boats

Prior to the development of the anti-ship missile the

only way to increase a ships power was by the

development of ever larger calibre guns, these in turn

required larger ships as a stable firing platform. The

emergence of the guided missile as the primary

weapon for warships meant that a large ship was no

longer required, in fact missiles could be fitted to small

high speed craft favouring manoeuvrability over

protection.

These small, cheap but well armed missile boats allow

poorer countries to quickly build effective naval forces

without the massive investment required for larger

warships.

This type of vessel saw action during the Arab-Israeli

war in engagements such as the battle of Latakia.

Piracy, Anti-Terror and Anti-Drugs Operation

An important role for modern naval forces is anti-

piracy and counter-terrorism. This involves protecting

merchant vessel convoys from pirates and carrying

pout seek and destroy missions targeted at pirates,

terrorists and drug cartels.

Littoral Operations and Land Operation Support

In the modern world battles between vessels at sea are

extremely rare. Modern navies therefore are usually

used to support land based operations. This can involve

the transportation of forces and logistics, providing

carrier based air-support to land forces or providing

fire support with gunnery or long range cruise missiles.

This area of operations also includes carrying out

clandestine or top secret missions to insert and extract

special forces units into enemy controlled areas.

Introduction

Missile Boats

The missile boat is the direct descendant of the MTB,

instead of being armed with torpedoes these are

armed with anti-ship missiles (SSMs) and equipped

with modern electronic warfare systems.

This supplement adds a number of new element types

to the game. Most of these are sub-classes of the

Corvette and Patrol Boat classes from the core rules.

Motor Torpedo Boats [MTB]

These fast attack craft armed with torpedoes were

widely used during the second world war. A number of

modern navies still make use of MTBs especially in

confined coastal waters. Most navies have replaced

their MTB fleets with missile boats.

Littoral Combat Vessels

These are a relatively recent class of ship developed by

the United States Navy specially designed for

operations within the littoral zone (close to the coast).

They have similar capabilities to amphibious assault

ships (including a flight deck) allowing a small assault

force to be carried.

The primary design features emphasise high speed, a

shallow draught and the ability to carry out different

types of mission.

Element Types

RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat)

These high speed craft are used for landing small units

of troops during amphibious missions or can be used

to intercept enemy vessels while at sea.

Skiff

This class of vessel covers any small motor craft used

by pirates, terrorists or smugglers. Skiffs are usually of

local design and construction and apart from small

arms carried by the crew are un armed.

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Weapon Damage

Assault Rifles [1] General Purpose Machine Gun [1] Heavy Machine Gun [2] Gatling Machine Gun [3] Rocket Propelled Grenade [3]

Most ships will carry an array of small arms such

as ,machine guns and assault rifles. Although generally

designed as anti-personnel weapons these can cause

substantial damage to small vessels.

Small arms can only fire over a short range therefore in

the game all small arms regardless of their type fire

over a range of 1.

Resolving Small Arms Fire

The score required on 1d10 to hit a vessel with small

arms fire is denoted by the target vessel’s “target”

characteristic. If the fire hits the target a roll bust be

made to determine whether their fire causes any

substantial damage. The following list shows the score

required on 1d10 to cause damage to different target

sized. Note that cruisers and larger vessels cannot be

damaged with small arms fire.

• RIB/ Speedboat/ Yacht/ Skiff: 4+

• Patrol Boat/ Missile Boat/ MTB: 6+

• Corvette/ Frigate/ Destroyer: 8+

If successful the following table shows the umber of

minor damage points inflicted from each type of small

arms fire.

Small Arms

Any vessel small vessel (smaller than a corvette) or

civilian merchant vessel that comes under small arms

attack (whether damage is caused or not) must roll

1d10, on a roll of to 3-6 the vessel must immediately

make a move of 3 away from the firing vessel (moving

out of small arms range). This represents small craft

been driven off by small arms fire.

On a Roll of 1 or 2 the vessel will immediately

surrender and prepare to be boarded. These vessels

are removed from play.

Small Vessel Damage

Most small vessels are listed with only one damage

characteristic (rather than the usual three). This figure is

the vessels total damage capacity. Small boats do not

take heavy damage or become crippled. This is because

smaller boats have less ability to take and withstand

damage and remain afloat.

Damage Characteristics of Less than 1

Very small vessels such as RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats),

small speedboats and skiffs will usually have less than 1

damage point. This type of vessel can easily be

damaged and sunk by small arms fire.

The damage characteristic for this type of vessel is

displayed as a number in brackets such as: [4]. These

are referred to as minor damage points. Six minor

damage points make up one standard damage point.

During the game this type of damage is marked on a

vessel using a different coloured d6.

Damage Control

Any vessel with a total damage level of 1 or less can not

carry out any damage control during the game. When

small vessels receive damage they often sink or burn up

too quickly to effectively carry out repairs.

Damage

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The Piracy Problem

Piracy targeted at merchant vessels is a major world

issue, costing the global economy over $16 billion a

year. Piracy is most prevalent in the waters between

the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast,

and also in the Strait of Malacca and Singapore, which

are used by over 50,000 merchant ships a year.

The offshore oil industry has also been put at risk in

areas such as West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea

forcing oil companies to pay for their own security

services to protect their commercial interests.

Multi national efforts are now being made to combat

piracy and protect merchant ships in these high-risk

areas

Global Piracy Hotspots

The map below shows the main piracy hotspots around

the world from the late 1990s through to the present

day.

Piracy

Pirates in the Game

Various scenarios can be played involving pirates. These

are described in more detail in the scenario section of

this supplement.

Rules of Engagement

During anti-piracy missions a fleet must follow the

“Positive Identification” rules of engagement (see the

core rulebook)

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Type of Vessel Being Boarded Score Required

Civilian Yacht 2+

Merchant Vessel 3+

Merchant Vessel with anti-piracy

defences 5+

Merchant Vessel with armed

defenders 8+

Merchant Vessel with military

defenders 9+

Naval Vessel 10+

Offshore Platform 4+

Offshore Platform with anti-piracy

defences 6+

Offshore Platform with armed

defenders 9+

Offshore Platform with military

defenders 10+

Naval vessels cannot be taken under total control by

pirates. A naval vessel will simply stop moving and may

not carry out any further actions until the pirates are

defeated. Each turn after the ship has been boarded roll

1d10. On a roll of 4+ the pirates are captured or killed

by the ships crew and full control of the ship is regained.

Defences

There are various methods of defending a ship from a

pirate attack. Some of these are designed to kill the

pirates while others are only designed to prevent them

gaining access to a vessel or drive them away.

Fixed Defences (Barbed Wire etc.)

Merchant ships will often add protection such as barbed

wire and razor wire attached to the rails and bulwarks

on their decks to prevent pirates from climbing on

board.

Fire Hoses

Merchant vessels also rig fire hoses on their decks,

ready charged with water to be fired at pirate

attempting to approach and board the vessel. Although

not fatal the water jets are strong enough to repel

attackers and cause minor injury.

In the game an fire hoses can only be used if attackers

are attempting to board and works in the same way as

small arms, however successful hits cause no damage

and can only drive off their target.

LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device)

This is another non-lethal method designed to repel

would-be attackers. The LRAD uses directed high

intensity sound to repel attackers. In the game an LRAD

works in the same way as small arms, however

successful hits cause no damage and can only drive off

their target.

Boarding

Usually pirates will attempt to board a ship in order to

take its crew hostage and demand ransom money from

the ship’s owners or flag state.

During the game if a pirate vessel wishes to carry out a

boarding attempt it must move into contact with its

target (both miniatures must be in base-to-base

contact). Once alongside the target ship will try to

prevent the pirates boarding either by manoeuvring the

ship or physically fighting the attackers off.

While the pirate vessel is alongside roll 1d10. The score

required to successfully board are as follows.

If the roll is unsuccessful the pirates fail to board the

vessel. They may make another attempt during the

following turn. If the roll succeeds the pirates

successfully gain access to the vessel and take control.

Place some kind of marker beside the ship miniature to

indicate that it has been captured.

A captured merchant vessel, civilian yacht or offshore

platform is now under the total control of the player in

charge of the pirates.

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Boarding a Vessel Held by Pirates

In some situations special forces soldiers may be used

to re-capture a vessel that has been taken hostage by

pirates. Troops can gain access to a vessel either by

boat or by helicopter. While the special forces boat is

alongside or their helicopter directly above roll 1d10.

The score required to successfully board different

vessel types are as follows.

Type of Vessel Being Boarded

Score Required

From

Boat

From

Helicopter

Civilian Yacht 3+ 6+

Merchant Vessel 4+ 5+

Naval Vessel 4+ 4+

Offshore Platform 5+ 3+

If the roll is unsuccessful the special forces soldiers fail

to board the vessel. They may make another attempt

during the following turn. Each subsequent turn they

receive an additional –1 modifier to their dice role to

simulate that they have lost the element of surprise.

If the roll succeeds the special forces successfully gain

access to the vessel and take control, killing or

capturing all of the pirates.

Small Arms

While operating in high risk areas naval vessels will post

personnel on deck to operate small arms such as

assault rifles and fixed machine guns. Merchant ships

may also have armed defenders on deck either supplied

by a military force or hired as commercial armed

protection.

These follow the standard rules for small arms fire (see

“Small Arms” section)