Saturday, January 28, 2012

Treading cautiously: modern naval war in the Straits of Hormuz

I've written about Dave Schueler many times in the past.  He is a good friend and a great gamer.  Daveshoe recently had one of his board games, U-Boat Leader on submarine warfare published, and that is huge news.  Congrats to him.  He is also one of my favorite co-conspirators.  We got to know each other well through our early dabblings with the WWII air game Mustangs, our work on the Golden Age Air Racing, Thunderboats and many other naval and air projects. Dave is a great teammate, he understands game systems, and there is no better designer of scenarios.
Cyber-Hobby LCS-4 is a highly detailed 1/700 model of a mine warfare version of the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship
In any case, Dave and I have been chatting up an Enfilade naval scenario.  We originally thought we'd rerun a WWII naval game we'd hosted at ConQuest several years ago.   We've been reconsidering this, however as the crisis with Iran becomes ever more topical.  While we've done an interesting Strait of Hormuz game in the past, we're considering another.  With the new Littoral Combat Ships entering service and miniatures available from P.T. Dockyard and Cyber-hobby models, the period is available to be gamed.  We'll offer a menu of ship choices to the United States and probably a combination of Revolutionary Guard and Iranian Navy vessels to the Iranian players.  There will likely be objectives beyond reducing one or the other side to splinters.
Throndor class missile boat test firing new Iranian missile
Frankly, I find the entire Iran/Straits issue quite troubling.  By the time of Enfilade, the advanced sanctions and potential boycott of Iranian oil will be nearing implementation by the European Union and the United States.  Threats of war and rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran are likely to be regular features in the print and electronic media.  Is this a topic we should avoid for a convention game, or is a good game just a good game?

1 comment:

DeanM said...

Kevin:

Wow - I must remember to congratulate Dave next week at the meeting. For what it's worth, and I'd love to playtest it - a modern Naval game might be pretty enticing for Enfilade! So many WW1/WW2 games already. I've yet to see a more modern one. Best, Dean