TM

By Robert DeHoff and Randall Bills

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 INTRODUCTION
GRAB A BERTH...
...and welcome to Leviathans! If you’re
here, you want to know how to be a
better player, and that means studying
tactics. It’s very easy to quote a bunch
of ancient dead generals/admirals and
say, “Now you know about tactics,” and
leave how to actually apply such pearls
of wisdom as “All war is deception”
and “To advance or not to advance is a
matter for grave consideration; but once
the offensive has been assumed, it must
be sustained to the last extremity,” to the
player to puzzle out.
That’s why this guide exists; to help the
player in translating concepts and theories
to the tabletop. This is to make you a better
player of the game, knowing that on this
turn, you want to swing your battleship to
face that way, and why. The maxims here
have been gleaned through three years of
playtesting and running Leviathans games
at major gaming conventions. This is what
“Bravery and courage will see us through, lads! Full speed fore!”
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has been proven to work, in actual play, with
actual people.
This guide isn’t the be-all and end-all
of tactical thought in Leviathans, however.
Weapon systems will change, new ships and
new capabilities will be unveiled, and maybe
a few things covered here will be turned on
their heads (players are encouraged to let us
know if they’ve developed superior tactics
not covered here). Napoleon himself, after
all, once said, “One must change one’s
tactics every ten years if one wishes to
maintain one’s superiority.” This guide is a
starting point. A place to build a foundation
of solid, game-proven concepts that you can
expound upon to fit your playing style as
you master these ideas.
What This Guide Is NOT
First, this guide assumes you have read the
Commander’s Manual found in the Core Box
Set; many of the terms used here are defined
in that rulebook and players may be confused
if they’ve not first digested that material.
– Capt. T.F. ‘Archie’ Gumby
Second, this is not a guide about
choosing fleet lists or developing a doctrine
for yourself. This guide exists to make you
a better ship captain who knows the actual,
in-game, nuts and bolts of driving your
ship. However, such knowledge will lend
itself to the task of developing the skills for
fleet building later on.
Finally, none of this takes scenario play
into consideration. Forced Withdrawal,
as well as scenario-specific rules (as
detailed in the Commander’s Manual),
can heavily modify the tactics covered in
these pages. Instead, these rules provide
the “straight up” ways in which to outfox
your appointment, annoy him into making
a mistake, and ultimately let you fly away
from any battlefield the victor. As with
fleet building above, however, these rules
will lay a foundation you can modify, as
appropriate, to take into account scenario-
specific situations.

A PLAN
As important as any specific advice is
making sure you have a plan before you roll
the first Initiative dice. The plan doesn’t
need to be complex. A general idea is often
sufficient: “I’m going to move forward slowly,
and when the British commit to their turn to
present their broadsides I’m going to try and
slide my fast and hard-hitting ships around
to their stern.” This leaves room to modify
or even abandon your plan as the actual
circumstances of the battle may demand.
The other thing to keep in mind when
making your plan is to ensure you have the
patience to carry it out. Ships in Leviathans
tend to be slow to maneuver, so be careful
when committing because it can take quite
some time to recover your position on
the board. The example plan above isn’t
something that would take shape in a turn
or two. More likely, it would require several
“Evasive maneuvers? We shall maneuver our guns toward the enemy!”
TACTICS
turns of movement and shifting of ships to
bait the British into forming a line pointing INITIATIVE
a certain direction, and then another turn or
There’s no real way to control your
two of movement to take advantage of that
Initiative results. You’re going to have to roll it
commitment. So don’t panic if your plan
every turn and learn to live with the results. It’s
doesn’t materialize right away.
knowing how to keep your fleet together and
Eventually, you’re almost certainly going
resisting the urge to panic when you do lose
to have to abandon your plan. The enemy
Initiative eight turns in a row (it’ll happen)
doesn’t usually make a habit of doing things
that will go a long way toward determining
exactly the way you want them to, after all.
your ability to win—or lose—the game.
Your pre-game ideas are simply going to
break down under the cumulative impact of
random chance, if for no other reason, and
losing the initiative
The primary thing to remember upon
the insight to know when to abandon your
losing the Initiative is not to get frustrated
previous plan is one of the skills that makes
(which can lead to mistakes). Very often,
a good player. It’s also something that
the best thing to do when you’re forced
comes with experience; every situation and
to move first is to move defensively. Don’t
opposing player combination is different.
launch your ships out on their own (not
Just be aware that it will happen—if your
that you should usually do that anyway);
opponent panics because he has to abandon
doing so opens you up to your opponent
his plan, and you don’t panic when you have
jumping your individual ship with several
to abandon yours, you’re quite likely to win.
of his own that move after yours.
– Capt. T.F. ‘Archie’ Gumby
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 The temptation to go for a decisive
maneuver that leaves a ship stranded on
its own is particularly strong in Leviathans,
because of the way movement is staggered
between Types of ships. You may see your
opponent leave the stern of his battleship
sitting out there just waiting to have its T
crossed by your fast cruiser...but if you move
that cruiser out there to take advantage of
the opening, the three destroyers he has
escorting that battleship—all of whom move
after you—will swarm you and potentially
take your lone ship down. Sure, you may get
your shot off and damage the battleship, but
you’ve likely lost a cruiser to do it.
winning the initiative
Winning the Initiative always beats the
alternative, but it’s hardly a guarantee of
victory. Make sure you know how to take
advantage of it. initiative (expanded)
The truly huge advantage in winning
the Initiative is that you get to move after
your opponent. Seeing what he’s doing
and moving to take advantage of that is
very difficult to overvalue. Nonetheless,
temper your expectations. It doesn’t matter
whether you win or lose the Initiative,
when it comes to your opponent getting
to move his cruisers after your battleships.
This is perhaps the single biggest trap in
Leviathans; the overwhelming temptation
to move forward decisively and offensively
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when you’ve won the Initiative, to lead the
charge with those multi-thousand ton steel- MOVEMENT
and-steam juggernauts. That triumphant
The following covers the tactics
feeling is almost always followed by a
surrounding movement in Leviathans.
swift slap in the face from the cold wet
fish of reality when your opponent swarms
around behind your battleship with a trio of
concentration
destroyers, or even cruisers, and latches on
of movement
As a general rule, ships should not operate
to your stern, reducing your now-impotent
on their own. The more ships you have in a
battlewagon to immobility at best, or, more
single area, the greater the concentration
likely, a crashing demise.
of firepower you can bring against a single
With this temperance in mind, you do
enemy vessel, by virtue of the phrase, “If
want to move offensively and decisively
that ship is in range, these other ships are
when you’ve won the Initiative, but do so
in range as well.” Thus, it behooves the wise
with the full knowledge that your opponent
admiral to move his ships in groups.
is going to get to move more of his ships as
An admonition here is that you will
well, and may well be trying to bait you into
generally want to keep your ships close
rashly exposing a large ship so a group of
together, but not too close. Keep 1-2 hexes
smaller ones can cut it off.
between each of your vessels to allow
them room to maneuver. There are few
things as frustrating as having a battleship
Found on page 61 of the Commander’s
condemned to move forward directly into
Manual, Initiative (Expanded) offers a
a spread of torpedoes because you’ve boxed
reprieve from the all or nothing nature
it in so tightly with your own ships that it
of Initiative in the base game that helps
cannot turn without overlapping one of
to speed turns along. Despite the tactics
those escorts at the end of its movement.
above, if players feel that Initiative is too
Just as frustrating is lining up your own
restrictive for their games, be sure to try out
ships in a way that stops the largest ships
this expanded rule.
from being able to move on a subsequent
turn; Steering Gear Slots help this situation,
but not all ships have that luxury (this often
occurs when Screening; see p. 11).
Stacking (Expanded) Sailing Abreast
As with Initiative (Expanded), Stacking
(Expanded) is found on page 61 of the
Commander’s Manual and helps to alleviate
this type of logjam. However, movement is
messier and more difficult to track on the
play area using this rule, and hence can
potentially increase the time a game takes.
As with all Captain’s Manual rules, players
should all agree to its use before play begins.

the Line of Battle

A fundamental disconnect exists in
Leviathans between the method by which
ships close with the enemy, and the method
by which they best engage the enemy. To
close into range, you’re required to put your
bow to the foe and steam ahead. However,
your best concentration of firepower is
almost always to the sides of your ship.
Therefore, when you’re in range, you want
your bows to be roughly perpendicular to
the direction in which you were moving.
Shifting the direction of your vessels
in this manner, from “directly towards”
to “perpendicular to,” gives rise to the
formation of the Line of Battle.
The diagram at top right shows a sample
Line Abreast formation, with several Type 2
and 3 ships surrounding a single Type 4 ship
in the center, all with bows pointed in the
direction of travel. Note the space between
each vessel. If the Type 4 ship wishes to turn,
it may have difficulty turning to starboard,
since the cruiser on the port side is so close.
The Type 4 ship would likely have to move
at least 3 hexes forward before it can turn,
and then spend 1 MP to make the turn. If
it has only 4 MP available, its furthest aft
hex would overlap the furthest forward hex
of the cruiser to port, and thus be an illegal
move. Seeing something like this on the
tabletop can give the wary admiral clues
as to which direction the enemy may plan
to move (i.e., the ships illustrated here will
most likely turn to port), and allow that
admiral to plan accordingly.
The reason to sail in a Line Abreast is to
ease the transition into the Line of Battle.
Ideally, the Line of Battle consists of several
ships tailing one another approximately
bow to stern. This allows all the ships to
point their entire complement of broadside
weapons (side gun batteries, as well as Bow
and Stern turrets) in the same general
direction.
Another important reason to turn into
the Line of Battle is that the bow Locations
of most ships are the second weakest, with
only the stern taking the top spot. Even
battleships need to be wary of too quickly
losing their largest gun batteries to a few
quick destroyed Slots because they kept
their bows pointed towards the enemy,
while that enemy had either very large gun

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 The Line of Battle
batteries or a slew of small gun batteries
ready to take advantage. The British in
particular run into this conundrum: does
the HML Leviathan plow forward through
gun battery fire or, more likely, a slew of
torpedoes, to bring its big gun batteries to
bear as quickly as possible? Or does it turn
to present its more armored flanks, at the
cost of slowing the ship’s advance for several
turns as it has to re-orient again on a future
turn? Every game, a player must make that
decision based on the enemy forces and
how they’re arrayed against his own.
In the case of the ships in the previous
diagram, the transition to the Line of Battle
should look something like the diagram at
right.
Note that the ships aren’t perfectly
nose-to-tail. If they were, that Type 4
in the center of the formation would be
completely unable to move during the next
turn, as it would overlap another ship no as they’d be taking fire from several enemy Countering a Line of Battle can be
matter where it went. Also note that the ships, all of whom can bring their complete difficult, particularly if the opposing player
Type 4’s movement is fairly constrained broadside to bear. plays on or near the board edge. Once the
in future turns here as well. While it has Slow, gun battery-armed fleets lend enemy has established the direction his
room to move forward, it will be difficult themselves best to Line of Battle tactics. In Line of Battle is going to go (once he’s
to make any non-Broach turn with a the Core Box Set, this tactic is the bread and turned from Line Abreast to the Line of
typical battleship’s Enter Hexes Before butter of the British navy. The line helps to Battle), a good tactic is to start dropping
Turn statistic (again, due to overlapping preserve their slower ships from the faster large numbers of torpedoes in the direction
friendly ships). In return for this lack of vessels of the French. A French cruiser that he now needs to move. If he chooses not
maneuverability, though, any enemy ships wanted to take a run at the stern of the Type to move, try sneaking into gun battery
in the top-right corner of the diagram 4 in the above diagram would have to deal range and taking advantage of his larger
would find themselves in very deep trouble, with the two cruisers to the Type 4’s stern. Location Dice to give you an advantage. If

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 Wolfpacks
he moves, of course, he exposes himself to
your torpedo fire.

wolfpacks
Wolfpacks are a way for ships with
greater speed and maneuverability to
engage the enemy from a position of
numerical superiority. The concept is
fairly simple: pick a target that’s slower
than you (usually a higher Type ship, just
to guarantee you’ll move after your target
does), put three or four of your ships in
close proximity to his ship, and blast the
hapless vessel into spare parts.
The popular image of a wolfpack consists
of several ships circling a larger one. Do not
be tempted by this; if you have one ship
in each of your opponent’s firing arcs, all
of his firing arcs can shoot back at you.
Instead, try to get all of your ships into
just one of his firing arcs. This gives you
two major benefits. First, it ensures that
all of your firepower concentrates in the
same Location, meaning you’re much more
likely to destroy all six Slots and/or cause
Breaking the Keel Rolls. It also means
your opponent can only shoot back at you
with one Location’s worth of gun batteries
(turrets notwithstanding), which means
he’s likely to damage only one of your ships.
If you’re damaging his one ship with three
of yours, and he’s only damaging one of
your ships in return, you’ll come out ahead.
Ideally, a wolfpack in Leviathans looks a
lot like the diagram at right. 7
 Crossing the “T”
Here, two French destroyers and a
light cruiser maneuver to stay in the
Stern Damage Arc of a British battleship.
Because the battleship must move before
the French vessels, they are guaranteed to
know where the Stern Damage Arc will be
pointing by the time they move, and they
can use their superior speed to ensure that
they stay there.
The difficult part of attempting wolfpack
tactics is convincing the enemy to separate
his ships from one another. While the
British battleship in the above diagram
may never be able to shake the pursuing
cruisers, if it had a few cruisers or destroyers
as escorts it could use them to defend its
Stern Damage Arc and “scrape off ” the
French vessels, or Screen (see p. 11).
A good tactic to try as the French player crossing the “t” for usually the biggest guns on a ship and the
is to wait until the enemy has formed a Line “Crossing the T” was the signature tactic all-important Engine Slots.
of Battle against you, and then fire a large of gun battery-armed ships prior to the This concept can be expanded to be the
number of torpedoes just ahead of the last proliferation of the aircraft carrier, and it is no primary tactic of an entire fleet. If a line of
ship in the line. With luck, the enemy will different in Leviathans. The concept is fairly three or four ships crosses in front of a single-
decline to move his ship into that firestorm, simple: a warship crosses in front of an enemy file line of three or four ships, the crossing
and will break off from the line (either ship, allowing the crossing vessel to bring all of ships can all bring their gun batteries to bear
by moving away, or by staying stationary her gun batteries to bear (due to the fact that on just the forward ship, causing crippling
while the rest of the line moves away). This the bow- and stern-turreted gun batteries can damage or even felling the target in a single
is when you send in several fast vessels to slew to port or starboard to combine fire with pass. Once that happens, even if the battle
pounce on that lone ship. By the time the the side-mounted gun batteries) while only then degrades into a free-for-all, the ships
enemy has turned his line around to help, receiving fire from the forward gun batteries that crossed the enemy’s T will have a decided
it should be all over for that ship, and your of the enemy. Additionally, attacks back at a advantage due to their superior numbers.
fast vessels should be well out of range, all ship crossing the T can’t strike into the bow Destroyers—either in a wolfpack or as
set to turn around and do it all over again. or stern Locations, which means protection a lone wolf—are also excellent for this as

8

they can usually close quickly, but very few
destroyers carry knockout-punch firepower.
Additionally, destroyers are rather weak
in the Breach Numbers and Structural
Integrity departments, meaning that while
they may be somewhat difficult to hit, they
can go down quickly. This is especially true
when bigger ships bring Bracketing Fire-
and Saturation Fire-capable gun batteries
to bear. Since a destroyer zooming close by
a battleship proudly displays its intentions
like giant semaphore flags waving madly in
the wind, players need to be a little more
circumspect. They can either use offensive
screening to protect the destroyer, offering
a more tempting target so the opponent
can’t resist it and ignores the destroyer, or
they can simply move the destroyer well out
of range and swoop in a large arc around
gun battery range and into a Stern Firing
Arc. However, this latter move, even with
the fastest destroyers, can consume many
turns. Often it’s better to use the previous
two options and get that destroyer in fast to
do its job on a stern.
Another angle to consider: being careful
of target ships that mount extensive and/
or powerful gun batteries on turrets in the
side firing arcs. In such instances, the player
should carefully consider how he lines up
to cross the T to ensure he’s not giving the
target ship a chance to fire gun batteries
that otherwise he wouldn’t be able to fire.
For example, in the diagram at right, three Crossing the “T”
British ships have lined up to cross the T of
the Jean Bart, angling for its Stern Location.
However, the Jean Bart has six 138mm gun
batteries on turrets along its flanks, all of
which can be turned to hammer into all but
one hex row of the Stern Firing Arc against
those ships.
To ward against this as best he can, the
British player tucks the HML Raven destroyer
into running exactly along the same hex row
as the Jean Bart. While the HML Raven will
only get its Bow-mounted 3 IN gun battery
into firing position—as opposed to the two gun
batteries along its side—the Jean Bart can’t fire
at the destroyer at all.
For the next ship back, the HML New
Zealand, the British player carefully
maneuvered the light cruiser so its Bow hex
is lined up with the hex row occupied by the
Jean Bart, bringing its full Port Firing Arc into
play for the attack, giving it a four gun battery
broadside into the Stern, while only the Jean
Bart’s three 138mm gun batteries in the Fore-
port and Aft-port can return fire; a better
trade for the British player.
Unfortunately, the British player was not
as careful with the last ship in his wolfpack,
the HML Hertfordshire, which is “hanging
out” on both sides of the hex row occupied
by the Jean Bart. This means while the light
cruiser still has a great broadside of its own
into the Stern Damage Arc of the Jean Bart,
the battleship in return can choose to attack
it with all six 138mm gun batteries from the
Fore-port, Aft-port, Fore-starboard and Aft-
starboard Locations; the British player’s only
saving grace is they’re all at long range...but
that simply means some Bracketing Fire is
likely to occur, and the HML Hertfordshire is
going to lose some Slots for its trouble.
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 While crossing the T is a wonderfully effective Crossing the “T”
tactic, there are several problems with it in game play.
First, it’s such a wonderfully effective tactic that it
tends to be the first thing on everyone’s minds. Given
that, it can be very difficult to cross the enemy’s T with
more than a single ship at a time because everyone
knows what you’re trying to do; with the speed at
which leviathans move, it can be extremely difficult
in practice to move multiple ships into position
without the enemy seeing exactly what you’re doing
and maneuvering to foil your effort. Thus, unlike in
real life where a procession of slow, stately battleships
attempts to steam past a foe’s bow, the best ships to
attempt this tactic are fast ships mounting large gun
batteries, of a Type less than that of the ship they wish
to target. If you wish to cross the Jean Bart’s T, for
example, an excellent British ship choice is the HML
Courser from the James’ Fighting Leviathans: Excerpt
from the 1910 Edition PDF, which has good firepower
and good speed for its size. Of course, a Courser would
be advised to cross the T to Jean Bart’s Stern, as there
are far fewer gun batteries mounted there to shoot
back at the British ship.
The second major problem with crossing the T as a
tactic in Leviathans is simply the unavoidable fact that
it is physically impossible to cross the bow of an enemy
ship at a right angle, due to the hex grid upon which
the game is played. Because of this, ships must always
approach at an angle to their target. This makes it far
easier for enemy ships to attempt to cross your T to your
stern because you cannot hold the range open between
your ships and theirs as efficiently. The angle forces you
to either close the distance between the fleets, or give
the enemy the chance to turn inside your angle and
10 cross your T to the stern.
 The diagrams on pages 8 and 10 show how
this may look during actual gameplay, and also
serves to illustrate an important point to keep in
mind while employing this tactic.  While both
diagrams show a crossing of the T on a hexgrid,
the diagram on page 10 is a “better” crossing of
the T because all of the incoming fire is hitting
the Bow Location of the target ship.  The
incoming fire shown on page 8 is split between
the Bow Location and a side Location, which
will, in most cases (see If Firing At Multiple
Locations During a Turn, What Order?, on page
17), dilute the effectiveness of the attack.
SCREENING
Screening is, essentially, how you generate
terrain on the table, only unlike a mountain or
stand of trees, it’s terrain you can place where
and when you desire.
Defensive Screening
Most people consider defensive screening
to be moving a ship to block Line of Sight
to their damaged vessel. However, the player
is really making a choice to sacrifice a ship to
protect another, more valuable ship. While
your screening vessel blocks Line of Sight
through its own base, there’s nothing at all
stopping the enemy from blowing the heck
out of the ship actually doing the screening.
And by definition, if the ship you’re protecting
is in range to be hit by the enemy, the ship
doing the screening is in range too.
There’s a cold-blooded calculus to be done
here. Don’t be afraid to screen a ship with a
less valuable one. Having a battleship get its
Saturation Fire gun batteries back on-line is
almost always going to be more valuable to you
than having one more destroyer on the board.
What you don’t want to do is screening just for
the sake of screening. Make sure there’s always
a good reason why you’re throwing away a ship
to protect another one. As long as you can
answer that confidently in your own head, it’s
probably the right decision.
Screening vessels block Line of Sight both
ways, so be okay with losing your fire from that
firing arc while being screened (or if there are
no gun batteries left and you’re just buying time
for repair crews to do their thing, that’s okay
too). This is why you don’t want to screen your
large ships without good reason. It’s entirely
possible to use a cruiser to screen a battleship,
and then watch helplessly as an enemy destroyer
scoots across the firing arc you’ve blocked with
your screening cruiser.
Also be aware that screening will impact your
movement in future turns. A battleship being
screened on the bow by a destroyer may have its
movement options limited severely in the next
turn, because it may not be able to generate
enough MP to get around the screening ship
and still turn. This means you are likely to
attract torpedoes (since your opponent will
have a firm idea where you’ll be in the next
turn), with the resultant headaches those bring.
Offensive Screening
Offensive screening primarily serves as a
way to reduce incoming fire at your ship by
hiding behind another, larger ship. If you’re
using an enemy vessel to screen your ship
from an even larger one, don’t forget that the
ship you’re hiding behind can still shoot you.
Offensive screening reduces firepower against
you, but rarely eliminates it.
Offensive screening can be quite useful,
however. Torpedo-armed ships on the far
side of a Line of Battle from the enemy can
fire their torpedoes through their own line,
have the Line of Battle move forward out of
the way, and then dart forward to catch up
with the larger vessels and declare offensive
screening on their own ships (thus hiding
behind their own Line of Battle).
It’s also possible to use offensive screening
to escort a valuable vessel in close to the enemy.
A particularly effective French tactic is the
technique of “sandwiching” a powerful, short-
range vessel that attracts a lot of firepower
(such as the Pontbriand) between two Type 3
vessels with good long-range weaponry. The
three ships fly in tight formation with the
center ship declaring offensive screening in the
direction of the greater concentration of enemy
firepower. The outboard ships fire their forward
gun batteries and throw around their out-
facing torpedoes as they close. Once close in,
the outboard ships split away and the hitherto-
undamaged center ship goes sailing into the
middle of the enemy formation, gun batteries
firing in all directions at point-blank range. 11

Ramming
Unlike in actual history, ramming can be
an effective tool on the tabletop, as the ranges
are sharply truncated for ease of play. Players
should remember two important things
regarding rams, however, both of which
sharply limit the tactic’s utility.
Most importantly, rams are subject to
Initiative order. No matter what you do, a
battleship without significant Initiative-
modifying effects will never be able to ram a
mobile destroyer. As long as the destroyer is
capable of movement, it will always be able
to avoid the ram. Because of this, your most
effective ships at ramming tactics are always
your smaller craft. It doesn’t matter whether
you’ve won or lost Initiative; by the time
your destroyer’s movement comes up, the
battleship you’d like to ram has already moved
and is thus a legitimate target.
Second, rams are subject to the morale
roll to see if the captain of the vessel has
the nerve to follow through with the choice
to actually run his vessel into another ship.
Your odds of passing the morale check
are only about 1 in 5, so you need to be
“A leviathan is a bloody weapon! In a battle you use a weapon! Ramming speed!”
12
prepared with an alternate plan when—not
if—the ram attempt fails. Further, recall
that the roll doesn’t actually occur until
the ramming ship is adjacent to the target;
if you fail the roll, you’re almost certainly
going to be within short range of a ship
that will not be particularly happy to have
you in close proximity, and will likely make
its displeasure known via the delivery of
several tons of high-velocity ordnance.
No destroyer wants to be within range of
a battleship’s Saturation Fire gun batteries,
and at point-blank range, it’s even worse.
And then there’s the presence of escorts...
So why ram? It’s a way to get a last gasp out
of a ship that has no effective firepower, for
one. Less obviously, the displacement effect of
a ram can be far more devastating than the
actual damage. Imagine the effect of ramming
a destroyer into a battleship safely ensconced
behind a screening destroyer, and pushing
that battleship away from its protector.
Once weapons fire begins, you’ve just made a
potential trade of a few Slots’ worth of damage
to your destroyer for the ability to target the
openings that the screening destroyer was
so desperate to protect. Another interesting
effect of ramming displacement occurs when
an opponent fires torpedoes and declines to
move his ship off of the Torpedo Launch
markers. As long as he remains on top of the
counters, the torpedoes will not strike him,
but by ramming the launching vessel in the
Location opposite the Location from where
the torpedoes were fired, he will be displaced
into his own torpedoes’ Line of Sight and
struck in roughly the same Location to which
you just dealt damage from the ram (simply
be careful to place your ram in such a way that
you don’t end up entering the hex containing
the Launch markers; you’d be struck by the
torpedoes yourself!). Finally, if your opponent
forgets all the movement rules for creating the
Line Abreast and Line of Battle and instead
has several ships adjacent, a single successful
ram can cause a cascade of subsequent rams
and damage across all such ships.
Remember, ramming is unlikely to outright
kill any craft. It’s only a few Slots’ worth of
damage, and while you’re likely to lose a few
Slots (especially if there’s a big size difference
between the ships), you’re unlikely to actually
cause a Breaking the Keel Roll for yourself
unless you’ve taken quite a bit of damage
already.
– Capt. T.F. ‘Archie’ Gumby
TORPEDOES Herding movement
Herding consists essentially of putting
footprint on the game board, and so it
is relatively easy to predict where that
torpedoes blatantly in areas where you don’t battleship is going to be.
Torpedoes can be one of the more
want the other guy to go. Most people will If you depend on direct torpedo fire as
difficult aspects of the game to master,
avoid moving into an area where they know a strategy, you need a LOT of torpedoes,
being both far harder to use than gun
torpedoes will be, because they don’t want to not just 2 or 3 launchers across your whole
battery fire, more limited in their utility,
take damage. Herding is a way to force the force. The more torpedoes are on the board
and at least partially dependent upon your
enemy to go roughly where you want him to. (see Torpedoes and Sportsmanship, p. 15),
opponent moving to where he gets hit
The occasional enemy will say something the scarier they get for two important
with them. Once mastered, though, they
pithy (usually some variant on “Damn the reasons. First, it becomes geometrically
can be incredibly fun and very effective.
torpedoes, full speed ahead!”) and essentially more difficult to track where each torpedo
Note that unless you’ve got a very good
ignore your attempts to herd his forces is headed, so it’s far easier for your opponent
excuse, it’s always best to place Torpedo
in a general direction. This is perfectly to make an errant move and get hit. Second,
Target markers at their maximum possible
acceptable, as he is choosing to cause himself torpedo effectiveness varies wildly due
range. The more of the game board their
damage. Since damaging your opponent’s to their 3DRed Breach Roll, which has a
line of travel covers, the more likely they
ships is your erstwhile goal, thank him for much larger variance in its results than
are to hit something, even if by accident.
the assistance. gun battery fire. While the average result
Finally, the best possible word to use with a
may technically be an 16 or so, it is not
torpedo-heavy fleet: patience. As described
Direct Fire statistically unlikely to get long strings
under the Lave (see p. 24), ships with good
The popular vision of torpedo fire, this of lower or higher numbers and thus not
speed and torpedoes can actually surge
tactic consists of firing directly at enemy make successful Breach Rolls. Therefore,
forward to lay down the initial volley of
ships with the intention of causing damage. the more torpedoes you throw down on the
torpedoes, but then fall back towards the
However, there’s a lot of room to maneuver board, the greater the chance that something
edge of the playing area, using every hex
up in the sky, and this is usually a waste will prove effective.
row to maximum advantage to ensure the
against anything of more than about 6 MP, Finally, when laying down a lot of
torpedoes have all the time in the world
unless you’re devoting a lot of torpedoes torpedoes against a target, try to ensure
to do damage while your opponent doesn’t
to the task and can box your opponent in. that you’re overlapping the Lines of Sight
have a single gun battery yet in range.
Remember to fire where you think he’ll as much as possible, so whether a ship tries
need to be, not where he actually is. This to move forward or sideslide right or left
method of torpedo usage tends to be the (if it mounts Steering Gear), at least some
big equalizer when it comes to destroyers of the torpedoes will strike the target no
versus battleships. Many battleships have matter what occurs, even if the ship simply
serious problems clearing their own hex doesn’t move.

13
 Torpedo Example

14
 In the example diagram at left,
the French player has just laid
down five torpedoes from his fleet
of the Lave light cruiser, La Gloire
destroyer, Jean Bart battleship and
Montcalm destroyer against the
British HML Medusa battleship.
Instead of stopping with the
Torpedo Target tokens placed
directly on the battleship, the
player has pushed them past the
battleship from both directions,
creating a skein of overlapping Line
of Sight that works to guarantee
the best possible outcome. Even
moving forward 4 hexes, several
torpedoes still strike the battleship
(not to mention it would put its Bow
into a potential lethal crossing the
T scenario), but the less it moves
forward, the more damage it takes.
Even if the ship somehow mounted
Steering Gear (which it doesn’t)
and tried to sideslip left or right,
several torpedoes are going to find
the ship.
In this instance, likely the best
move of the British player will
either be to throw some ships in
the way to take the torpedoes, or
to turn and allow the bulk of the
torpedoes to hit the ship, but to do
so along its most heavily armored
Locations.
Torpedoes and
Sportsmanship
Torpedoes can heavily slow
down the game as players try
to pick a safe path through
them, and it only gets worse
the more torpedoes are on the
board. In your home group,
either come up with a way to
ensure that players don’t take a
huge amount of time to do this,
or play with the optional Fog of
War Torpedoes rule (see p. 61,
Commander’s Manual). During
convention play at Origins
Game Fair and Gen Con,
unless stated otherwise by the
specific rules of a tournament,
“official” Leviathans play will
use the Fog of War Torpedoes
rule for this reason.
FIRING
The entire purpose of movement is
to let you place your gun batteries in an
advantageous position and range compared
to your enemy. The Sky Captain who can
consistently ensure that his gun batteries are in
short range and targeting previously damaged
sections of an enemy vessel will find far more
success than the Sky Captain who lets his fire
be spread evenly over the entire enemy ship.
Pick a damage arc and keep hammering it
(depending upon the size of the ship, you may
need to damage two or even three Locations
heavily before you can fell a ship).
Shooting in General
Pick a target and kill it. A ship that survives
a turn or two of fire can often be fixed, albeit
usually at a slower rate than it can be killed
if you concentrate on it. Destroying a target
completely removes its counter-fire from
the battle, meaning you take less return fire
and now have fewer targets upon which to
concentrate fire, which accelerates the rate
at which you damage the enemy. Dropping
a ship also ensures the opposing player can’t
use it in a last ditch ram, or to protect a far
more important ship through Defensive
screening (see p. 11).
What ship should you target first? In
general, the first targeting priority should be
the ship you know you can kill this turn. If
15
 an undamaged ship is flying at close range to
you, and a heavily damaged ship is flying away
at long range, kill the damaged ship. The odds
of you actually destroying the closer vessel are
low, and since all fire is simultaneous, you’re
not going to be able to stop it from shooting
anyway. The damaged ship will sail away and
make repairs, and can come back and deal
yet more damage later in the game unless it’s
been completely destroyed.
There are, of course, exceptions to that
rule. A good one is when you’re preventing
larger gun batteries from reaching you. If
you have a battleship closing in on you and
showing its bow (and the Saturation Fire
gun batteries mounted there), and your
choice is to finish off a damaged destroyer
or fire at the battleship’s bow before those
Saturation Fire gun batteries get within
range, it’s better to shoot at the battleship so
as to try to remove the threat. The converse
is also true: if you’re driving a battleship,
make sure you don’t needlessly expose your
bow, lest you lose your biggest gun batteries.
Another general rule regards
concentration of fire. Always try to engage
the enemy at roughly 3-to-1 odds, with
equivalent ship Types, to have a good
chance of downing the enemy ship in a
single turn. On average, you should expect
a given ship to destroy 1-2 Slots of an
equivalent enemy ship (that is, Type 2 firing
at a Type 2) per turn. Therefore, if you have
three ships firing at one enemy ship, with
16
all of them hitting in the same Location,
you should expect to destroy most—if
not all—of the Slots within that Location
during that turn. Likewise, the odds are
good that one of those Slots hit will already
have been destroyed that turn, which means
a Breaking the Keel Roll. Two turns of 3-to-
1 fire almost guarantees wiping the enemy
ship from the sky. This is harder than it
sounds, since under most scenarios you and
the enemy will have a roughly equal number
of ships (achieving this ratio is where skilled
maneuvering of your ships really pays off ),
and the enemy will be trying to do the same
thing right back to you.
Finally, always know the range of your
gun batteries and the enemy’s gun batteries.
If you have 12-hex range gun batteries, and
the enemy only has a 10-hex range, he is
compelled to come to you. Through careful
maneuver, you can dance around the range
differential and score hits on him when
he is out of range to hit you. Be sure you
know how far the enemy can fire; there
are few things worse than having a 10-hex
maximum gun battery range facing a 12-
hex maximum range vessel, and ending your
move 11 hexes away with your bow facing
the enemy broadside. In such a case, it’s
always better to err on the side of being out
of range. You can always charge in the next
turn and, while you’d be in range of your
opponent’s gun batteries, at least you’re in a
position to shoot back.
As mentioned before, patience is a
watchword as you set your plan in motion…
yet don’t be so patient that you miss your
window when you needed to surge forward
and decisively end the game in your favor.
When to USE
Bracketing Fire
Bracketing Fire is a method of attack
where you trade the ability to hit multiple
Slots in exchange for a near-guarantee
of destroying a single Slot. Once you
link together 3 or 4 gun batteries, even
battleship-grade armor tends to be
insufficient to defend against such an
attack. Therefore, Bracketing Fire is most
useful early on in a fight when ships are
in good shape and still have Armor Slots
available to them. Bracketing Fire helps
minimize the effect of those Armor Slots,
by generating Breach Rolls results much
higher than even the Slot-modified values.
Always make sure you pair up Bracketing
Fire gun batteries from multiple Locations
to maximize the number of Crew Dice
that can be added to the Breach Roll. For
example, if I wanted to Bracket Fire two
75mm gun batteries off the Pelletier, I
wouldn’t choose the two in the bow, as that
would only get me one DGreen Crew Slot.
Instead, I’d fire one from the bow and one
from the appropriate side so that I could
roll two DGreen Crew Slots, keeping the
best one.
 Something else players should remember
is the effectiveness of Bracketing Fire
against Type 1 ships. Their defense
(Location) dice are often quite small, and
with their Miss Slots they can be extremely
frustrating to hit. Bracketing Fire neatly
overloads the benefit they gain from their
small defense dice through the sheer
number of dice being rolled, and Bracketing
Fire completely ignores a target’s Miss
Slots. If you can’t hit a destroyer any other
way, bracket them down.
Late in the game, however, Bracketing
Fire may not be the optimal fire mode.
Once the enemy has taken enough damage
that you no longer need to depend on
Bracketing Fire to defeat his Breach
Numbers (say, because he’s lost several
Armor Slots), it’s often better to fire
weapons individually, especially when at
close range. If an individual gun battery
stands a reasonable chance of beating the
target’s Breach Numbers, then it’s better to
shoot gun batteries one at a time so as to
destroy more Slots and/or generate more
Breaking the Keel Rolls.
Bracketing, THEN
Saturation Fire
when possible
As mentioned above, the advantage
of Bracketing Fire is that it hits single
Slots very, very hard. The sheer number
of dice being rolled means there are very
few Slots in the game with a sufficient
Breach Number to withstand three to four
gun batteries hitting them at once. The
downside is that they only hit one Slot per
attack (and there’s no extra benefit if you
beat the Breach Number by 1 or by 20).
Because of this, when possible, you want
to hit a ship with Bracketing Fire first in
a turn to destroy some Slots. Since the
Breaking the Keel Roll depends on whether
or not a Slot is destroyed, it is in your best
interest to destroy as many Slots as possible
before rolling those 2 Slot-dice Saturation
Fire gun batteries.
For example, the HML Leviathan
targets an undamaged enemy ship with its
12-inch gun batteries, and then fires a 4.7-
inch gun battery Bracketing Fire attack.
Each Saturation Fire Slot die hits different
Slots, and depending on the target’s Breach
Numbers, has a chance of being wasted
(since Saturation Fire attacks are much less
effective than Bracketing Fore attacks at
actually destroying Slots). In this example,
the shot destroys two Slots in that turn.
Then the Bracketing Fire attack occurs
and has a 33 percent chance of hitting a
destroyed Slot, giving a final tally of zero or
one Breaking the Keel Roll.
If the Bracketing Fire attack was fired
first, only a single Slot is destroyed on
the enemy ship. At this point, when the
Saturation Fire gun batteries attack, you
may generate anywhere from zero to four
Breaking the Keel Rolls; each Slot die
may hit that previously destroyed Slot.
By attacking with Saturation Fire gun
batteries after a Bracketing Fire attack,
you’ve given yourself a chance of causing
far worse damage than if you had reversed
the order of firing. The odds of actually
causing four Breaking the Keel Rolls are
low, but the possibility still exists, and at
worst, even if you cause no Breaking the
Keel Rolls, you still have the same chance of
destroying enemy Slots as when you made
the Saturation Fire attacks first.
If firing at multiple
locations in a turn,
what order?
If you’re firing at a target ship and
your attacks this turn will strike different
Locations, what order should the attacks
follow? This consideration is particularly
relevant well into a battle when ships can be
fully surrounded, with incoming fire hitting
almost every Location.
Always fire at the least damaged
Location first, working your way to the
most-damaged Location. A lightly (or
not at all) damaged Location rarely cares
if other Locations are damaged…only the
lucky Breaking the Keel Roll situation will
make a difference. However, with a heavily
17
 damaged Location and numerous attacks
incoming, the majority of the shots will
likely create Breaking the Keel Rolls. If it’s
a battleship and all you’ve done is destroyed
the stern, then the chance of splashing the
ship is nil. However, if that same battleship
is struck in every Location outside of the
stern this turn and every attack results in
one destroyed Slot, when the ship striking
the stern fires, it’ll have an additional +5
modifier added to any Breaking the Keel
Rolls made against the stern.
Stern, starboard and bow views of a British Leviathan-class battleship.
18
Repairs If none of your big gun batteries are hit,
look next at your torpedo, Steering Gear,
and smaller gun battery Slots. All of these
All other things being equal, always
have a roughly equal level of importance.
repair your engines first if possible. Engine
Ultimately, the specific order of repairs
damage is absolutely critical; if you can’t
will be determined by the role of the ship
move, you’re a sitting target for every
and the ebb and flow of the battle. For
enemy gun battery and torpedo on the
example, dedicated torpedo ships can
board. Tesla Coil Trim Tanks tend to have
usually afford to swap the repair priorities
the next highest priority, as their damage
of Tesla Tanks and Torpedo Slots, while
effect hurts every gun battery on your ship.
if the Jean Bart is already in range and is
If you have a damaged Location and it has
deciding between an Engine Slot and the
no damaged Engine or Tesla Coil Trim
powerful 274mm Saturation Fire-capable
Tank Slots, then your biggest gun battery
gun battery, there’s a good chance the
destroyed in that Location should be your
274mm Slot is more important.
priority. The purpose of a ship is to shoot
other ships, after all.
 fleet orders of battle
Ships are built to do a job. While all
ships are theoretically built to destroy the
enemy, they are in reality built to fulfill an
Admiralty’s particular idea (or doctrine)
of specifically how that enemy should be
destroyed. As such, each ship fulfills a role
in that doctrine, with the idea foremost that
when each ship in a given fleet is doing its
specific job, the fleet as a whole will operate
as one well-oiled machine and will destroy
the enemy through its combined efforts.
Some Admiralties, and some fleets, are
better at this than others.
Let’s get this out of the way right up
front: all ships are NOT created equal. Some
ships, competing with other ships in the
same fleet, are quantitatively worse at their
job than their competitors. This is done
to enhance the world of Leviathans and
reflect the accurate-to-reality missteps and
straight-up mistakes that navies invariably
make when designing ships. Moreover,
some ships are explicitly designed with
“A ship is a ship is a ship is a ship! Line ‘em up!”
Captain’s Manual rules—Crew Abilities,
and so on—in mind, and may be limited in
their capabilities otherwise.
What can the discerning player
concerned only with maximizing his win-
loss ratio do about such a development?
First, ships will be given a point cost.
The Leviathans Points Value System
attempts (imperfectly, as all things are)
to quantify the effectiveness of a given
vessel. The Open Beta is running right
now…download the free PDF, check
it out and join in the fun! A ship that is
flat-out worse than another ship will have
a lesser point cost. This is an extremely
common balancing practice found across
the gaming industry.
Second, when building your own fleet
list, simply leave out the offending unit(s).
Unless otherwise written in the scenario
rules, nothing forces anyone to take any
ship they don’t want to field.
Finally, while it can be the most
challenging, it’s also by far the most
enjoyable: learn to use those ships. There’s
fantastic satisfaction in watching your
opponent switch from mocking you at
the start of the battle as you field a less-
powerful ship to frustration as you drive
him from the sky. There may be times,
given a particular scenario or tournament
rule set, when you are simply forced to
include sub-optimal units in your fleet
list. This mirrors real life rather nicely;
Wilhelm von Tegetthoff would certainly
have preferred a stronger Austrian fleet
when he engaged the superior forces of
the Italian navy at the Battle of Lissa
during the Austro-Prussian war. Instead of
bemoaning his fate and lesser ships, he took
what he had available and, through the use
of clever and aggressive tactics, managed to
lead his inferior and outnumbered ships to
a decisive victory.
It is for this last purpose that we created
the second part of this guide.
– Capt. T.F. ‘Archie’ Gumby
19

“Her Majesty’s Ironworks”
HML Raven
The prototypical gun battery destroyer
(compared to the more common torpedo
destroyers in the Core Box Set), HML Raven
has the misfortune of being 2 Slots away
from true greatness. While she can bring a
relatively useful and accurate double 3 IN
Bracketing Fire attack to either side, her 4 IN
gun batteries languish on her broadsides with
no crew to assist them. Their longer range
doesn’t especially help them when they cannot
hit their target. The extra Armor Slot in the
side Locations helps keep the ship alive, as
does the excellent Structural Integrity score,
and the ship’s relatively speedy movement
rating helps it be in the right place at the right
time. The trouble is that the Raven has a hard
time actually doing much when she gets there.
Unless the Raven, through other rules, is given
the ability to Bracket Fire gun batteries of
20
CORE BOX set: BRITISH FLEET
different calibres together (in which case she
becomes a potent gun battery platform capable
of taking down the mighty Pontbriand), she is
merely, “a ship designed by an idiot…full of
sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
HML Trafford
Lightly armored and slow, the Trafford has
no business anywhere near the gun battery
range of an enemy ship. Its sole purpose in
life is to be an inexpensive torpedo-delivery
platform for the British fleet. Use this vessel
to support your fleet from afar, keeping the
enemy on the far side of your Line of Battle
and putting torpedoes where you can. Hanging
a half-dozen hexes back and to the side (in the
5 o’clock position) of the tail ship in your Line
of Battle can be profitable, as you can lob your
torpedoes behind your rear-most ship with
no worry about accidentally hitting a friendly
vessel and causing fits for those fast destroyers
that want to zoom up and behind that same ship
to tear at its engine. Only close to gun battery
range if you have absolutely no choice, or are in
the final stages of an engagement where a trio
of 3 IN gun batteries on a platform barely 16
percent faster than a French battleship might
just turn the tide.
HML Anfield
A much more complete vessel than HML
Trafford, the Anfield manages to achieve a
good balance of firepower, durability, and
speed for a ship of its size. The Anfield’s gun
batteries are more accurate with the addition
of a DGreen Crew in the side arcs (and it can
repair its torpedo launchers!), and while it loses
2 points of Structural Integrity and a Armor
Slot off the sides, in practice the difference
is not really noticeable. What it gains from
this reduction in durability is an extra 2 MP.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it greatly
increases the flexibility of the ship. With 8
MP, the Anfield can keep up with the HML
Leviathan’s top movement speed and make a
facing change, and still have 3 MP left over to
perform screening as appropriate. This makes
it far more useful than one might otherwise
expect. The Anfield isn’t a show-stopper, but
it’s definitely the top of the supporting cast.
HML Essex
The signature British torpedo cruiser,
HML Essex is essentially identical to HML
Hertfordshire, but swaps out the useful 4.7 IN
gun batteries for torpedoes. While this is a
rather irritating choice (ripping out the 3 IN
popguns, if structurally feasible, would have
meant Essex lost nothing of value while still
giving the British Fleet some durable torpedo
projection), this decision at least means that
the Essex adds a torpedo platform to the
fleet. Unlike British destroyers, this torpedo
platform can actually mount a reasonable
defense with her bow and stern 6 IN gun
batteries. Her Steering Gear is also a rarity
among the British fleet, and gives her the
useful ability to turn her side toward the
oncoming foe to use her torpedoes, and then
use her Steering Gear’s sideslipping ability
to help keep the range open and keep her
torpedoes and turrets on-target.
HML Hertfordshire
The Hertie is one of those unfortunate ships
that terribly misses the presence of advanced
rules. If given the ability to Bracket Fire gun
batteries of different calibres together, she can
actually muster up a pretty good punch. As
she is, she suffers from “calibre schizophrenia”
and is really best used as a mobile screening
and anti-destroyer platform, sticking close
to a more valuable ship and using her bulk
to screen her compatriot (which at least lets
her get the most use out of her relatively high
side Breach Numbers). She pairs well with
the HML Leviathan for this purpose. Don’t
forget that she has fairly long-range gun
batteries; she can hit with every gun battery in
her broadside out to 8 hexes, and loses almost
nothing of consequence in the range shift
from 8 to 10 hexes.
HML Leviathan
Don’t spread it around, but the Leviathan
has a terrible, terrible weakness. The complete
lack of crew in her stern makes her incredibly
vulnerable to attack from that direction. Her
weak Stern Breach Numbers and lack of
repair ability there means even a single turn of
fire can reduce her to barely making headway
or even immobility (usually followed by
every enemy torpedo on the board smacking
her around next turn). The Leviathan’s
gun batteries are terrifying, and can swat a
destroyer out of the sky in a single salvo, but
you need to guard her well. Consider devoting
a slow light cruiser to screening duties by her
stern rather than a destroyer; parking a 3-hex
long cruiser across her stern can block Line
of Sight to her engines from every possible
direction, and give the benefit of delivering
that light cruiser’s broadside into whichever
French ship manages to sneak back there.
21

BRITISH FLEET BOX
HML Beagle
A British destroyer that can fight her French
counterparts on their own terms, the Beagle
matches up quite well against the Pelletier.
She has good speed and a vicious broadside,
with a bit of advantage in practical protection.
The French ship is a hair faster, but the Beagle
has longer-range gun batteries, making for an
extremely interesting fight. The Beagle also
works well as an escort for larger ships in a
Line of Battle, being just tough enough to
spend a turn defensively screening a ship and
have a chance of living through the attempt,
while also having a long enough range and
enough useful throw-weight from her gun
batteries to contribute against cruisers.
22
HML Crow
HML Crow is primarily a vessel intended
for screening other ships. She has a perfect
movement profile to keep up with HML
Leviathan, make a turn if necessary, and still
spend the 3 MP to screen. Her heavier Breach
Numbers and Structural Integrity work in her
favor as well for this task, and the (rare for the
British) ability to sideslip lets her maintain
separation from the ship she’s meant to protect
so that ship has room to turn, and she can easily
“tuck in” adjacent to the vessel when needed.
With crew in all Locations, her gun batteries
tend toward good accuracy when using a full
broadside’s Bracketing Fire, but it’s still only a
trio of 3 IN gun batteries. Be happy when the
Crow destroys one enemy Slot per turn.
HML New Zealand
The New Zealand is overall superior to
the Hertfordshire. With the exception of
pumping out a large volume of (inaccurate) fire,
everything the Hertie does, the New Zealand
does better. She’s faster, with (for practical
purposes) the same Breach Numbers layout
and maneuverability, and gains a matched pair
of 4.7 IN gun batteries on her flanks. With that
change, the New Zealand gains the ability to put
Bracketing Fire in two groupings of calibres out
to 10 hexes. She gives up a touch of Structural
Integrity and drops a few Breach Numbers by
1, but if slightly decreased protection is the price
to pay for being able to project useful firepower,
then so be it. A great general-purpose cruiser.
HML Medusa
If the Leviathan wasn’t all that scary,
the Medusa is. This ship trades out the
mismatched small-calibre side gun batteries
of her Leviathan­-class sister and mounts a
matched armament of 4.7 IN gun batteries
down both sides of the ship, plus she loads
a pair of torpedo launchers on the forward
quarter-arcs. Nothing else is changed; she
gains range, gun power, and the ability to
be extremely flexible about Bracketing Fire
from her side arcs. This makes getting behind
her to attack her still-vulnerable stern much
dicier than getting behind HML Leviathan,
though the stern remains a weak spot. Finally,
those glorious 12 IN bow gun batteries are
unchanged. Drive the Medusa straight down
the center of the board, with somebody to
screen your stern, and you’ll absolutely force
your opponent to deal with you.
 CORE BOX set: FRENCH FLEET

“LA BRUIT, LA FUREUR, LA VICTORIE.”

Also be aware that while her sides are tough,
she has a severe glass jaw; her Bow and Stern
Breach Numbers (like all the Grenouille-class
destroyers in the Core Box Set) are very low
and unaugmented by armor. Have your T
crossed at your own peril.

grade 138mm gun battery strapped on the

Pelletier
The Pelletier is notable among the ships
in the Core Box Set for her dual Crew Slots
in the side arcs. While those crew won’t
help you shoot any more accurately than
a ship with a single crew, they do provide a
series of entertaining options under Captain’s
Manual rules. They also provide a great deal
of redundancy; by the time the Pelletier stops
fixing itself in combat, it will have been so
blown apart that there’s no point. Aside from
the extra crew, the Pelletier is a well-designed
gun battery destroyer that can basically always
bring a pair of the famous French 75’s to bear.
It should be noted, however, that only one of
the fore-mounted 75mm gun batteries is on
a turret. The Pelletier is fast and with tough
defenses on the sides, but her actual broadside
throw-weight is lower than you might think.
La Gloire
This destroyer is purely a torpedo-delivery
system. She is extremely fast, lightly armored,
extremely maneuverable, and aside from her
bow arc has no gun battery armament to
speak of. As a general rule, La Gloire has no
business being within a dozen hexes of an
enemy ship as long as her torpedo launchers
are functional.
Montcalm
An interesting Grenouille variant design,
the Montcalm’s claim to fame is the cruiser-
bow in place of one of the 75mm cannons.
In order to mount that monster gun battery,
the Montcalm is relatively slow as French
destroyers go, but still usually fast enough
to have an edge on British D-class ships.
Importantly, the 138mm gun battery is fixed
forward; it cannot fire to either side, and so
the skipper of the Montcalm must make the
choice whether to turn to bring his torpedoes
and 75mms to bear (the latter for Bracketing
Fire), or to fly the ship like an air-superiority
fighter and have the 138mm trained on the
foe at all times. In play, the Montcalm makes
an excellent “second-shell” unit: throw her into
a melee after the initial volley when bigger
ships have bigger targets to worry about,
and she’ll tend to rack up large amounts of
damage relatively unnoticed.
23
 Lave
The Lave is a dedicated torpedo ship.
While she mounts the same 138mm-turreted
gun batteries in her bow and stern as the
Pontbriand, her best use is to deliver paired
torpedoes to a single target—a capability
possessed by no other ship in the Core Box
Set. Use her Steering Gear liberally to make
very fast turns and keep those torpedo
launchers trained on the foe. More than
most ships, the Lave can attempt retrograde
tactics by facing perpendicular to the enemy,
firing her torpedoes, turning and racing away,
and turning back to perpendicular at the end
of her movement. Done correctly, she can
generate 6 hexes of additional range; since
most British cruisers have only 6-8 MP to
their names, the Lave can do this for a long
time. Moreover, this retrograde tactic allows
you to bring the bow and stern turrets into
play once the enemy does catch up with you.
Pontbriand
This is a very scary ship that can do
damage all out of proportion to its size.
Moderately armored and with a blistering
short-rang broadside weapons array, the
24
Pontbriand is most at home while zooming
around to attach itself limpet-like to a larger
ship’s stern, blowing the ever-loving Teddy
Roosevelt out of it, and moving on once
the target is immobile and easy prey for the
Lave’s torpedoes. The limited range of her gun
batteries is her primary handicap (and it’s not
much of one, given her speed); she has to close
in to be effective. As a rule, the Pontbriand has
to spend one turn being shot at by bow and
side-mounted weapons before she reaches
her target’s stern. Make that single turn of
fire count, because if the Pontbriand crosses
your stern T, she can immobilize a battleship
in a single salvo. As described in the Tactics
section, this is the prototypical wolfpack ship.
Jean Bart
Faster and more maneuverable than the
HML Leviathan, the Jean Bart gives up a lot
to attain those qualities. Her gun batteries
are shorter-ranged and hit much less hard
than the British 12-inch gun batteries, and
she gives up a few points of average Breach
Numbers and a bit of Structural Integrity.
The temptation is to take the Jean Bart into a
mid-range duel with a corresponding British
battleship. The problem is getting there. The
Jean Bart’s gun batteries actually function
best when the ship is lined up nose-to-side
against a large enemy ship; the side-mounted
138mm gun batteries can be brought to bear
from both sides of the ship and supplement
the Saturation Fire-capable 274mm gun
batteries in the bow. The problem comes
when the enemy shoots back; the Jean Bart
does not have particularly good Bow Breach
Numbers, and given that the sort of target
you want to use your full firepower against is
a battleship, you’re likely to have Saturation
Fire-capable gun batteries coming right
back at you. Which means you’re likely to
lose several Slots, and losing the 274s is bad
news. A better tactic is to hang back with the
Jean Bart, keeping your forward quarter-arcs
facing the enemy and using your Steering
Gear to alternate between them as necessary
(which has the benefit of bringing your oddly
positioned torpedo launchers into play and
gives you time to make repairs). Once your
vicious little destroyers and cruisers have
immobilized an enemy vessel, then move up
and pound it with the Jean Bart while your
fast ships go swarm another target.
french FLEET BOX
Grenadier
The Grenadier is very similar to the
Montcalm, mounting a large forward-fixed
gun battery along with port and starboard
torpedo launchers. The primary difference
is the additional Armor Slot mounted on
the Grenadier’s bow, giving it extra resistance
against Bracketing Fire and Saturation Fire
while it bores in on its target. In return, it
loses a touch of speed. Use it exactly as you
would the Montcalm; in fact, pairing the two
ships up with the Montpellier into a three-
ship squadron is a good idea.
Montpellier
The Monty is another French destroyer
that fights best by putting its nose at
the enemy. By mounting the port and
starboard 138mm gun batteries on turrets
and attacking an enemy that is turned away
from you, you can usually bring both 138s
to bear on the target (so long as the target
is Type 2 or larger), plus add in the 65mm
bow-mounted popguns. The Monty’s crack
Crew Slots also make her highly accurate;
solo, she is a highly effective hunter/killer
of British D-class ships. Squadroning her
with the Montcalm and the Grenadier is
recommended, since all three ships have
near-identical speed profiles; don’t be afraid
to split the Monty off of the squadron once
things get to close range, though. She doesn’t
mount Steering Gear and those large side
gun batteries make her less maneuverable
than the other two vessels.
Dupuy de Lome
Probably the most general-purpose French
cruiser, the Dupie has a gun battery for every
occasion. In a single turn, she can drop
torpedoes, engage in Bracketing Fire from
her well-crewed side-mounted 65mm gun
batteries, and drop Saturation Fire from her
bow and stern 100mm turrets. It’s extremely
uncommon to find Saturation Fire-capable
gun batteries on a platform this small, and the
small calibre of the gun batteries means they
won’t hit as often as one might like (a short-
range attack is only rolling 2DBlue plus the
target’s Location die), but the gun batteries
do provide useful critical hit seeking once
some holes are opened in the enemy ship and
you’re trying to generate as many Breaking
the Keel Rolls as possible. The Dupie pairs
well with the Ardent from the James’ Fighting
Leviathans: Excerpt from the 1910 Edition
PDF; the ships have matching movement
profiles. Keep them side by side and pass an
enemy with the Ardent at 3 hexes range and
the Dupie at 4. This gives them the optimal
ranges to bring all of their guns to bear on the
same target at short range. 25
 Paris
The temptation of the Jean Bart is to
fight her broadside-to-broadside against the
British battleships. The Paris has a chance at
doing it Slower and less maneuverable than
the Jean Bart (because she lacks Steering
Gear), the Paris adds an additional stern-
mounted, turreted 274mm gun battery,
which gives the vessel the best broadside
throw-weight in the French fleet. With
moderate luck, she can blow every Slot off
a Location in a single salvo of her main gun
batteries, and still have seven more Slot Dice
worth of attacks (and seven more Breaking
the Keel Rolls!) to roll. Her side-mounted,
turreted 138mms are unchanged from the
Jean Bart, but work perfectly well when firing
from a broadside, and have the added bonus
of being able to attack British ships trying
to cross her T. Perhaps most interesting
are the additions of aft-quarter mounted
75mm gun batteries that are Saturation
Fire-capable. Intended as anti-destroyer
weapons, they don’t pack a lot of punch, but
like all Saturation Fire gun batteries they
completely ignore the Miss Slots that make
26 firing at destroyers so frustrating.
 TM

Before tackling the Core Box Set, jump into the epic Leviathans universe and game system by downloading the free Lieutenant’s Manual:
Quick Start Rules PDF. You can also grab more Ship Cards for your games with the two James’ Fighting Leviathans PDFs from
www.battlecorps.com/battleshop or www.drivethrurpg.com.

TM TM TM

The Lieutenant’s Manual is a 32-page
PDF offering a complete introduction to
the new, innovative Leviathan’s game
system, including playing maps, ready-to-
cut-out-and-use Ship Cards and counters.
All a player needs to bring to the table are
a few sets of polyhedral gaming dice (D4,
D6, D8, D10 and D12s) and in minutes
they’ll be scouring the skies at the helm
of several thousand tons of war-forged
metal looking for the tail-tale sign of
enemy smoke on the horizon.
James’ Fighting Leviathans: Excerpt
From 1910 Edition is an 8-page
PDF that includes four more ships
ready-to-play with the Lieutenant’s
Manual. The PDF includes full-color
illustrations and histories of all 4
ships, Ship Cards and cut-outs for
putting these leviathans into play on
your gaming table. The HML Beagle
and Montpellier are variations on the
D-class and Grenouille-class vessels
found in the Lieutenant’s Manual. The
HML Courser and Ardent, however,
are two new Light Cruiser classes.
James’ Fighting Leviathans: Excerpt
From 1910 Edition Part Two is an
13-page PDF that includes four more
ships (two each for the British and
French fleets) ready-to-play with the
Lieutenant’s Manual, including unveiling
Type 3 Ships. The PDF includes full-color
illustrations and histories of all 4 ships,
Ship Cards and cut-outs for putting these
leviathans into play on your gaming
table. Also included are two ready-to-play
scenarios for instantly fielding these
ships (and others), including rules for
Steering Gear and turrets! 27
 TM

Leviathans is a trademark of InMediaRes Productions LLC. Some content licensed under a Creative Commons License (BY-NC-SA); Some Rights Reserved. © 2012-2013.