"General Quarters", or just plain GQ as it is commonly known, is one of the most popular sets of WW1 and WW2 naval rules. Written by L.L.Gill they are available in two volumes; vol. 1 (with the red cover) deals with WW2, vol. 2 (blue cover) deals with WW1, and includes amendments to the WW2 rules. They are quite abstract, with ships having damage boxes which are crossed off as hits are scored. Armament is dealt with by Armament Factors rather than detailing each weapon individually. As such they are not to everbody's taste, but there is no getting away from the fact that they do give credible results (although see some of the suggested rules changes below) and they are quick to play and easy to learn. This aspect makes them ideal for club games, and the campaign systems included with the rules have made them popular amongst the players of the Naval Wargames Society, for which they are almost a 'club standard'
The long-awaited release of General Quarters III is almost upon us! Planned release date is 1st September 2006. I have my copy on preorder already! The rules are available from Old Dominion Game Works, full details here: http://www.odgw.com
With the release of GQ3 I'll be updating this site to reflect the differences between the "classic" set and the new incarnation
GQ 1&2 Resources on the Net
GQ WW2 Ship Data - PDF format (200+pages)
Naval Nightfighting in WW2 - Scenarios and rules for GQ by Paul French
Think In Oceans, Shoot On Sight - a Pre-dreadnought GQ variant by Doug Thompson.
GQ WW2 Aircraft Data - expanded aircraft tables in .pdf format by Jimmy Sperling - NEW Version IV, posted 26/01/03!
GQ WW1 Aircraft Data - expanded aircraft tables in .pdf format by Jimmy Sperling
GQ MTB Data - Another excellent Sperling production! (pdf)
Towed Balloons - Rules amandments for towed and captive balloons, by Jimmy Sperling
GQ Helper - an SDS generation program for Windows 95 on the Web Grognards site.
GQ1960 - Expanding General Quarters into the 1960s (soon)
Small Navies - Pieter Roos' Homepage. Naval wargames in general, GQ in particular, and a very nice Command and Control system to boot!
Local Amendments to General Quarters - an article by Paul French.
1930s US Airships- History of the US airships Macon and Akron and descriptions in GQ terms, by Simon White
Revised Attack Factors - NWS member Stephen Welford gave me these.......
Revised Attack Factors - and Jimmy Sperling typed them up (pdf format)......
Star Shell Rules - Expanded
rules for night actions (pdf format)
Naval Campaign Packs
Downloadable zip files with details of several naval campaigns which I have run for the NWS over the last few years, including maps, orders of battle, GQ SDS tables, etc. Note that some of these are quite large and may take a little time to download.
Malaya 1941 - (308k) : Force Z vs the Japanese off Singapore
Koh Chang- Vichy French vs. the Thai Navy, 1941
Midway 1942 - (118k) : The popular Pacific carrier encounter, with optional additional forces
Ceylon 1942 - The Japanese foray into the Indian Ocean (650k, zipped pdf files)
Wake Island - (221k): Can YOU save Wake from the Japanese? (scenario pack by Jimmy Sperling)
Scenarios (courtesy of Jimmy Sperling unless otherwise stated)
Java Sea -
Convoy HX50 - Germans vs. the USN in the North Atlantic!
Torokina - Battle of Empress Augusta Bay
Sunda Strait - Classic WW2 surface action
Optional Rules, Suggested Changes, Additions etc.
No set of rules remains totally unaltered once the public have been let loose on them. The following pages list suggested changes which myself and others have thought of over the years. There are also some flowcharts and other bits and pieces which I have found useful in running GQ games and campaigns.
Range Effects and Speed Reduction
Submarine Attack Flowchart - a useful aide memoire for referees
Air Attack Flowchart - for use with GQ1
Submarine Tables - Jimmy Sperling has devised a set of tables for most classes of WW2 submarine (pdf format)
Modern GQ
Modern GQ - a collection of (unfinished) modern GQ rules and Falklands campaign notes from an NWS campaign (coming soon). I ran a modern game based on the Falklands Campaign at the NWS in 1995. I wanted a set of quick and simple rules which non-modern players could assimilate quickly, and so I created a set of modern GQ-based rules. This entry is a 'stake in the ground' - (warning: the rules are NOT fully developed yet!)
If you don't want to download all the Falklands stuff but still want the rules click here.
For sample ship data sheets (British and Russian) click here.
Supplementary Modern GQ Files
David St. Clair has sent me a the following complimentary files for the Modern GQ rules.