Havoc - Moby Dick

I had the chance to go to Havoc for a day, so I took it!

Actually, it wasn't even an entire day, because I was too tired from working the night before to make it a full day, but I showed up for the first two blocks on Saturday.

The first game was a bit of a "fluke" as it were. Entitled "Moby Dick," the simple game comprised four (later five) players using eight (later nine) whaleboats to chase the legendary monstrous white whale. The whaleboat miniatures and their crews (harpooner, four oarsmen and a coxswain) were well done, and the white whale was suitably massive and deadly. Oh, yeah. And there were sharks.

The whale's movement and dives were purely random. Boats that got close enough and had the right position could toss harpoons. If your harpoon stuck, you went on a "Nantucket sleigh ride," which was worth more points of damage.

The boats chased the whale for 22 turns before he finally expired. I lost count of how many whale men went to Davy Jones' locker, but I think it was about three boats' worth, as at least two players started new boats after their existing ones were mostly de-crewed.

Most of us controlled two boats. I decided to try two different strategies. One boat, the "Peg Leg," was played very aggressively, charging the whale and closing at every opportunity. This boat succeeded in striking twice for about 100 points of damage, but ended up losing four crewmen before I replaced it with a new Peg Leg II. That boat also managed to get another hit for another 40 or so points.

The other boat, the "One Eye" tried a strategy of circling around the middle of the playing area trying to wit for Moby to move into position. This worked less well, with the boat only managing one harpooning during the whole game, which didn't even stick. It did 87 points of damage on the very last turn. On the other hand, that boat didn't lose a single hand.

Of the five players I ended up doing the second least damage, so I can't say that my guy's shares of the voyage would have been very high. It was fun, rather different from the usual wargame fare.