Federation Commander

[Jean]

The second edition of Battlewagon is now available on e23!

http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=ADB2011

Back in 1980, someone around the Task Force Games office saw a really great photograph of an Iowa-class battleship firing its guns and said: "That would make a great game cover!" Then someone else said "Since Star Fleet Battles [which we had published a year before] is based loosely on [the Avalon Hill game] Jutland, why don't we just re-reverse engineer it into a World War II battleship game?"

The result was Battlewagon, first published in 1981 as a pocket game, then republished in a larger 8.5"x11" format in 1984. This is the second (1984) edition, which corrected and expanded the rules of the original pocket game. (The scan includes 48 pages plus the counters and the hex map.)

The game is hex/counter-based and was not really intended for use with naval miniatures. It covers everything from the smallest destroyer to the largest super battleship, and covers World Wars I and II. Data includes Austrian, British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russia, and US battleships. Scenarios include (among others): Falklands 1914, Dogger Bank 1915, Jutland 1916, River Platte 1939, Denmark Strait 1941, and Guadalcanal 1942. There are rules to create your own scenarios.

Rules cover movement, maneuver, gun combat, ammunition quality, gunner skill, ranging, shifting targets, shell types, torpedoes, observation, visibility, star shells, coastlines, ship systems (bridge, radar, engine, floatation, rudder), damage, repair, fire, crippled ships, and sinkings.

Originally published by Task Force Games, ownership of this game transferred to Amarillo Design Bureau Inc. as part of the 1999 "divorce" between the two companies.
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[phdillman]

Guess We might now see an expansion to Battlewagon that will include CVs, fighters and land-based defenses? Maybe even the blimps and derigibles used to hunt down subs?
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Friendly Fire Isn't.

[brucesim2003]

Is there anywhere we can get the various articles about this game that were in the nexus magazines?

A copy of the countersheet would be good as well. I guess the odds of them still being in stock are all but zilch?

Cheers


Bruce

[Steve Cole]

I doubt there will be expansions, although all I can tell you for certain is that nobody in the office will design them. I guess if someone designed an expansion we could certainly print/post it.

Articles in Nexus. Well, I have a copy of all of the nexi but I'm not absolutely clear who owns the rights to them. Let me check on that.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander

[brucesim2003]

[Steve Cole]

Haven't had a chance to look. The broken leg has cut my hours back and priorities of new product work and Origins will eliminate any non-essetial work until July.
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The Guy Who Designed Fed Commander