About RO

About Strategic Naval Gunnery
(Historical naval gunnery action simulator. Gunnery action in the period from 1898 to 1944)

Game Modeling:

SNG modeling considers all of the gunnery contests between 1898 and 1944.
Switches seamlessly between strategic view and first person tactical level view. Perusing and ordering on the strategic map remains available during tactical engagements. This concept provides historical excitement by having battles derive from strategic operations. This creates battles where the forces, intentions, goals, and environment are not known. And, realistic behavior is achieved by having the consequences of the battles impact the continuing strategic situation.
Both strategic and tactical scenarios as well as a tactical scenario editor.
Capacity to handle unlimited numbers of ships and players.

Time Modeling:

Continuous time. SNG is not turn based, not hex based and not phase based.
Simultaneous ordering by all the players while time is running.
Time scales from 1/2 second to several years.

Geography Modeling:

Terrain without tiles. Ships navigate around land formations.
Manages all geographic scopes at various scales.
Distance scales from 1 yard to the entire world. All ship positions are modeled to the yard.

An Internet, multi-player design using DirectX.

UI design is dominated by information access from mouse movement only; clicking is not required to get information. Mouse movement over units and geographic features displays information without clicking.
Challenging solitaire play greatly facilitated by strong AI support.
User Interface is multi-threaded which allows all actions to be done at any time.
Team play with AI support as needed.
Advanced command and control modeling with AI officers conducting subordinate responsibilities. You make admiral level decisions.
State-of-the-art Client/Server architecture. Reliability through the use of state-of-the-art programming standards: Object Oriented Programming, MS Windows and the Microsoft Foundation Classes, multi-threading, and Client/Server architecture.
High Performance on small machines. SNG is tested on a 486-66.
Uses the standard Windows controls that many players are familiar and comfortable with.

Strategic Features:

Delayed information about the enemy.
Land modeled and presented worldwide. (There are numerous screenshots of the strategic maps in this site and at the SNG Forum.)
A full log of strategic events using colorful text for emphasis.
SNG models the key elements of sea power: convoys, invasions, merchant traffic, raids, and the basing of operations (with detailed fuel modeling).

Worldwide areas accessible to naval operations including merchant shipping lane areas, details like the Rufiji River, Panama and Suez canals, isolated replenishment areas, neutral ports and remote island anchorage's.
Navigating completely around the world.

Strategic orders can be given when time is running and at any other time (as during a battle) even when the map is not in focus.

Tactical Features:

An animated first person battle view. (There are numerous screenshots of the tactical views in this site and at the SNG Forum.) (See the recent example at the bottom of this page.)
- Key features of weather, sea state, visibility, lighting, wind direction, gun smoke, land, damage, and fire control are shown, especially animated, transparent funnel smoke.
A detailed tactical map with track charts and key events plotted. (There are numerous screenshots of the tactical maps in this site and at the SNG Forum.) (See the recent example at the bottom of this page.)
A full log of tactical events using colorful text for emphasis. (There are numerous screenshots of the event logs in this site and at the SNG Forum.)
AI subordinates manage the details as gunnery, torpedo, damage control and navigational officers.
Special Tactical Modeling:

Realistic naval chases are modeled, including machinery failures and machinery stress modeling.
Forts.
Accurate model for distribution of fire and the players' ability to take advantage of ships being not under fire.
Torpedo tactical options and spreads shown on the map and animated in the battle view.

Variable time acceleration.
Each shell hit is presented in detail in a log showing what happened.

"Strategic Naval Gunnery " is designed to re-create strategic level naval gunnery operations and the tactical battles that derive directly from the results of those operations. These web pages are dedicated to the fighting gun warships of the world. The intent is to draw you, the wargamer, closer to the experience of what it must have felt like to be directing strategic and tactical operations. In the 'Far Seas' scenario, you could be commanding "Kaiser's Pirates", (the fox) the ships that are hiding in the oceans of the world. You’d be waiting for opportunities to raid some important signaling station or just waiting for passing merchants to capture or to sink. And of course you could be (the hound) commanding dozens of ships and feeling the frustration of what it felt like to be searching for the needle in the haystack. Searching for that raider hoping to surprise her and sink her. Who will succeed, the fox or the hound? It’s your chance to find out. It’s your turn to be the Captain of the Emden, wondering if there will be another day or hour. The focus of this scenario is on the "Kaiser’s Pirates and the Entente ships that searched the world for these raider pirates with orders to sink them before they did too much political damage to the war effort. Ships like the Emden: even the common foot soldiers in the trenches of France and Belgium read about her and cheered her successes. You could be the next Captain of the Emden and decide whether to raid the Cocos Islands, or hide and wait for passing merchants. Or you could be the Captain of the Invincible searching for Von Spee and his Asiatic Squadron and perhaps being disappointed when your prey slips away in a squall. You choose. This scenario also features coaling operations, invasions and troop convoys.

But SNG is not just a strategic game about a few German ships that caused the Royal Navy headaches. It is a battle game with unlimited scenarios. You can play the full battle of Jutland. Yes I said the full battle. All 251 ships! The SNG play testers are, as yet, the only humans to ever re-experience the full Jutland battle in its massiveness and unpredictability. It will leave you physically and mentally drained when it's over. It is an incredible re-creation experience. The best part is that you don't have to play it alone. That's right! You can play over the internet with your friends (and enemies too, of course). The current battle scenarios are extensive, covering the Spanish-American War, the Russo-Japanese War, World War 1 and World War 2 (extensively in the Solomons). SNG has strategic scenarios available covering the Spanish-American War, WW 1 and WW2. There are more WW1, WW2 and Russo-Japanese War strategic scenarios in the works.

Recent SNG Battle View Example:

This view shows you 1BCS in action with the I SG in the morning twilight.

Recent SNG Battle Map Example:

This view shows you the action in a top-down view.
You can see the tracks of each formation.
The view sector of your selected formation is shown.
Wind direction is in the upper left corner.
There is also a torpedo spread.
Note the targeting lines from the BC squadrons showing whom they are now shooting at.