I think the VAS system is a great set of light weight naval combat rules (which borders on the medium level). Like many others our gaming group began to have its own ideas about a few of the rules. This is a run down of the house rules that we have incorporated into our VAS games. The explanation for any given rule change is in brackets.
Initiative Phase
Spotter planes still add +1 to your initiative but each side may only have one spotter plane in the air at any time (too many spotter panes cluttering up the table and slowing down play).
For some scenario’s, a ship may be assigned a special “fleet commander” trait that adds a bonus of +2 to the initiative roll (we wanted to reflect superior fleet command with an initiative bonus).
Movement Phase
The following procedure is used to activate and move all ships.
1) Nominate one of your ships.
2) Declare if that ship is going to attempt a special action this turn and make a command roll if required.
3) Decide how fast that ship will move this turn (between 0” and the ships current top speed). This becomes the ships set speed for this turn.
4) Move the ship straight forward ½ of its set speed.
5) Conduct a turn a number of points up to the ships turning score.
6) Move the ship straight ahead its remaining ½ set speed.
7) Agile ships may turn again as per step #5 above.
(this cleans up the abiguity surrounding movement and turning)
Attack Phase
Added a bunch of new modifiers for shooting.
-1 Obscured target (shooting through smoke or another vessel that is not a submarine)
-1 Ship on fire (the shooting ship is currently on fire)
-1 Multiple targets (main armament shoots at more than one target)
+1 Point blank range (targets between 0”-5”)
+1 Slow moving target (vessels which moved 3” or less in the current turn)
Submarines now have a target rating of 7+ (This is offset by the fact they usually count as a slow moving target).
Submerged subs never count as being in point blank range of anything.
Added a new weapon trait: Super Weak. These weapons suffer a -2 to their DD rolls. Applied this trait to destroyer guns, submarine deck guns and many other secondary armaments (we didn't want sufaced submarines blowing up a heavy cruiser with its deck gun).
Torpedoes were changed to Super AP weapons (getting hit by a torp should be pretty devestating).
Completely revamped the damage and critical hit system. New system is as follows.
-If a DD roll is less than the targets armour then it has not effect.
-If a DD roll equals the targets armour rating, then the hit is considered a glancing hit and 1 damage point is crossed off.
-If a DD roll exceeds the targets armour rating then the hit is considered a solid hit and 1 damage and 1 crew is crossed off. In addition any solid hit may also inflict a critical hit. Roll a D6 and add +1 for every for every point your damage roll exceeded the targets armour by. If you the total score is 7+ then a critical hit is scored. Example: Bismarck scores a hit on the Hood with her main armament. The Bismarck player rolls the damage dice and gets a 3, 4 and a 6. Each result is increased by 1 because of the AP weapon trait to become 4, 5 and 7. The total of 4 has no effect because it is lower than Hoods armour rating of 5. The total of 5 equals Hoods armour which counts as a glancing hit, so 1 damage in inflicted. The 7 counts as a solid hit so 1 damage and 1 crew are deducted. The Bismarck player rolls another D6 to see if this solid hit caused a critical. He rolls a 4 but also adds +2 to the result because the DD total of 7 exceeded the Hoods armour by 2. The total is 6 which isn’t enough to cause a critical. If he had rolled a 5+, then a critical hit would have been scored. (This change allows small, lightly armoured ships like destroyers to cause criticals against one another while still having no chance to critical the big tough ships. Also the big guns have a much greater chance of inflicting a critical hit against lightly armoured targets).
Made a completely new critical hit chart which can be seen on the reference sheet below (I think its more logical this way. I also included 2D6 rolls so I could play around with the rarity of certain criticals).
It is now possible to roll a 7, 8 or a 9+ on 1D6. First you roll a D6 and if you score a 6, then you have a slim chance. Roll the D6 again. If you score a 4+ then your total equals 7. If you roll a 5+ then your total equals 8. And on a 6+ you get a 9 (now targets that need a 7+ or better to be hit can now be hit).
If a ship is reduced to 0 damage points then it may either run adrift, sink or explode (see destruction table on reference chart. Just adds more flavour).
Damage Control Phase
Added this phase to handle all damage control rolls (wanted to keep this seperate from the end of turn stuff).
Normally each ship may attempt only 1 damage control roll. Putting out a fire is considered a damage control roll (ships may no longer attempt a repair AND put out a fire. If they want to conduct more repairs then they must take the "All Hands on Deck" special action).
Changed the "All Hands on Deck" special action (see reference sheet below).
End Phase
Added this phase to accommodate additional end of turn effects.
Slow-loading weapons re-load at this time.
Each fire deducts 1 damage and 2 crew at this time (fires are quite capable of gutting a ship as well as killing the crew).
Special Action Changes
Changed most of the special actions. Some of them were tweaked and others were re-vamped. No special action is automatic anymore, unless the ships command rating is high enough to make it so (see reference sheet).
Added a new Launch Aircraft special action (see reference sheet).
The Reference Sheet:
We will be tinkering and adding things to this list as we go. We are already thinking of adding a "Ramming Speed" special action (destroyers often attempted to ram surfaced submarines).
Initiative Phase
Spotter planes still add +1 to your initiative but each side may only have one spotter plane in the air at any time (too many spotter panes cluttering up the table and slowing down play).
For some scenario’s, a ship may be assigned a special “fleet commander” trait that adds a bonus of +2 to the initiative roll (we wanted to reflect superior fleet command with an initiative bonus).
Movement Phase
The following procedure is used to activate and move all ships.
1) Nominate one of your ships.
2) Declare if that ship is going to attempt a special action this turn and make a command roll if required.
3) Decide how fast that ship will move this turn (between 0” and the ships current top speed). This becomes the ships set speed for this turn.
4) Move the ship straight forward ½ of its set speed.
5) Conduct a turn a number of points up to the ships turning score.
6) Move the ship straight ahead its remaining ½ set speed.
7) Agile ships may turn again as per step #5 above.
(this cleans up the abiguity surrounding movement and turning)
Attack Phase
Added a bunch of new modifiers for shooting.
-1 Obscured target (shooting through smoke or another vessel that is not a submarine)
-1 Ship on fire (the shooting ship is currently on fire)
-1 Multiple targets (main armament shoots at more than one target)
+1 Point blank range (targets between 0”-5”)
+1 Slow moving target (vessels which moved 3” or less in the current turn)
Submarines now have a target rating of 7+ (This is offset by the fact they usually count as a slow moving target).
Submerged subs never count as being in point blank range of anything.
Added a new weapon trait: Super Weak. These weapons suffer a -2 to their DD rolls. Applied this trait to destroyer guns, submarine deck guns and many other secondary armaments (we didn't want sufaced submarines blowing up a heavy cruiser with its deck gun).
Torpedoes were changed to Super AP weapons (getting hit by a torp should be pretty devestating).
Completely revamped the damage and critical hit system. New system is as follows.
-If a DD roll is less than the targets armour then it has not effect.
-If a DD roll equals the targets armour rating, then the hit is considered a glancing hit and 1 damage point is crossed off.
-If a DD roll exceeds the targets armour rating then the hit is considered a solid hit and 1 damage and 1 crew is crossed off. In addition any solid hit may also inflict a critical hit. Roll a D6 and add +1 for every for every point your damage roll exceeded the targets armour by. If you the total score is 7+ then a critical hit is scored. Example: Bismarck scores a hit on the Hood with her main armament. The Bismarck player rolls the damage dice and gets a 3, 4 and a 6. Each result is increased by 1 because of the AP weapon trait to become 4, 5 and 7. The total of 4 has no effect because it is lower than Hoods armour rating of 5. The total of 5 equals Hoods armour which counts as a glancing hit, so 1 damage in inflicted. The 7 counts as a solid hit so 1 damage and 1 crew are deducted. The Bismarck player rolls another D6 to see if this solid hit caused a critical. He rolls a 4 but also adds +2 to the result because the DD total of 7 exceeded the Hoods armour by 2. The total is 6 which isn’t enough to cause a critical. If he had rolled a 5+, then a critical hit would have been scored. (This change allows small, lightly armoured ships like destroyers to cause criticals against one another while still having no chance to critical the big tough ships. Also the big guns have a much greater chance of inflicting a critical hit against lightly armoured targets).
Made a completely new critical hit chart which can be seen on the reference sheet below (I think its more logical this way. I also included 2D6 rolls so I could play around with the rarity of certain criticals).
It is now possible to roll a 7, 8 or a 9+ on 1D6. First you roll a D6 and if you score a 6, then you have a slim chance. Roll the D6 again. If you score a 4+ then your total equals 7. If you roll a 5+ then your total equals 8. And on a 6+ you get a 9 (now targets that need a 7+ or better to be hit can now be hit).
If a ship is reduced to 0 damage points then it may either run adrift, sink or explode (see destruction table on reference chart. Just adds more flavour).
Damage Control Phase
Added this phase to handle all damage control rolls (wanted to keep this seperate from the end of turn stuff).
Normally each ship may attempt only 1 damage control roll. Putting out a fire is considered a damage control roll (ships may no longer attempt a repair AND put out a fire. If they want to conduct more repairs then they must take the "All Hands on Deck" special action).
Changed the "All Hands on Deck" special action (see reference sheet below).
End Phase
Added this phase to accommodate additional end of turn effects.
Slow-loading weapons re-load at this time.
Each fire deducts 1 damage and 2 crew at this time (fires are quite capable of gutting a ship as well as killing the crew).
Special Action Changes
Changed most of the special actions. Some of them were tweaked and others were re-vamped. No special action is automatic anymore, unless the ships command rating is high enough to make it so (see reference sheet).
Added a new Launch Aircraft special action (see reference sheet).
The Reference Sheet:
We will be tinkering and adding things to this list as we go. We are already thinking of adding a "Ramming Speed" special action (destroyers often attempted to ram surfaced submarines).
