When I got my first look at this game, I was a little nervous. The game has a complete page of equations, which scares me - I spent most of my class-time for math in a pool hall; improving my skill of sinking the eight ball rather than learning math solutions. So, TG-3 (Tactical Game) scared me a bit at first.
However, once I read the book further, it isn't so bad. In fact, it turned out to be an inventive way to handle naval combat in the 1890-1945 era.
The rules of TG-3 take up only 21 pages of the book. They cover everything from the basics (movement, gunfire, and fire arcs) to the optional rules (ramming, detection, etc) and a very inventive damage system.
Most of the booklet lists an exhaustive number of ships and their diagrams for use with this game. There are over 600 classes of ships included, for nearly every naval ship in the period. This includes all of the needed information to play the game with every ship in your fleet, in a simple diagram record.
Gameplay has a bit of a learning curve, but actually plays smoothly when you get it all down. Movement is a cinch, with every 4 knots of speed equal to 1" of movement. Shooting gets a bit trickier, because most ships can't bring all of their guns to bear on a target. Figuring out how many guns it can turns into a challenge for the first few games.
The most interesting part of this game is the damage system. It uses an ordinary deck of cards to determine damage. Each suite is a different section - spades are speed hits, hearts are flotation hits, clubs are weapon hits, and diamonds are misses. Aces through 6 are hits; 7 through 10 are misses. You then mark off the appropriate area on your ship record, and hopefully return fire!
The presentation of the game is pretty bare bones. Don't look for flashy graphics or pictures. Save the visuals for the miniatures. While this is not what many manufacturers push, it isn't distracting. The game is well laid-out and organized. The table of contents is very helpful when trying to find a rule, and the game includes enough examples (including a sample battle) to aid you in learning how to play.
My final take: a good game, with somewhat of a learning curve. TG-3 blends historical accuracy, realism and fun gameplay in a nice balance. A good way to play historical naval battles, and a good value for the money. It doesn't hurt to have an affinity for math with the game, but even math-challenged folks (like me!) will learn to breeze through the game.
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
