Naval War

Naval War is a card game of ship-to-ship combat in which each player commands a fleet of warships drawn from the Second World War, including famous vessels such as the Bismarck and the carrier Enterprise. It was first published by Battleline Publications in 1979 and designed by S. Craig Taylor Jr. and Neil Zimmerer, and Avalon Hill issued a later edition in 1983. Players draw ships from a fleet deck and hold a separate combat deck of ammunition and attack cards, such as salvos, carrier strikes and torpedo attacks. The basic mechanic is that ships carry guns of different sizes and a player must match a card of the right ammunition size to fire and damage an opponent. It is a light system and does not try to reproduce real naval tactics, so ships of opposing navies can sit side by side. In the original edition the last player with ships still afloat wins, while the 1983 edition scores points for sinking enemy ships. The game was chosen for the 2007 book Hobby Games: The 100 Best.