Great
War at Sea:
Black Waters
 During
the late 1800s, two emerging industrial powers
began to build large modern fleets: the United
States and Germany. Perhaps inevitably, tensions
rose between them. Each entered the imperialist
race very late and had to content itself
with the leftovers which the British and
French had passed by. When the United States
seized Spain’s colonial empire in 1898,
German jealousy raged hotly. Some German
business leaders lusted for the Philippines
and Puerto Rico, urging the Kaiser to purchase
them from the Spanish before the war ended,
or from the Americans afterwards.
German and American squadrons did not, as
legend has it, almost come to blows in Manila
Bay during the Spanish-American War — the
British spread that story, eager to cultivate
American public opinion. But the German and
American admirals on the scene did cultivate
an intense dislike for one another, and the
feelings spread to the top on both sides.
Black Waters is a 64-page book supplement
for the Great War at Sea series based on
American plans to fight Germany. Most of
the scenarios take place in the Caribbean
Sea, but some actions are also placed in
European waters.
There are 210 die-cut and mounted playing
pieces, the same pieces that originally appeared
in our now out-of-print U.S. Navy Plan
Black.
The Americans get ships ranging from three
examples of the South Dakota class
through the first American dreadnoughts,
the South
Carolina class, and the last of the American
pre-dreadnoughts, the Connecticutt class.
There are also a pair of light carriers based
on American plans to convert big armored
cruisers.
The Germans add three of the GK4531 battle
cruiser design and three representatives
of the GK4251 battleship. And of course Germany
receives an aircraft carrier, the proposed
conversion of the huge liner Imperator. Argentina
and Brazil receive part of their fleets,
and there are two hypothetical Mexican battleships
and small contingents from the Netherlands,
Venezuela and Colombia.
There are over two
dozen new scenarios, including the War Plan
Silver set based on Woodrow Wilson's very
serious threat to go to war with Italy in
May 1919, plus revised versions of most of
those originally seen in Plan Black.
 This is not a stand-alone game; ownership of U.S. Navy Plan Gold is required
to play most of the scenarios and Mediterranean,
Jutland and
Plan Red to
play all of them.
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