Great War at Sea:
The Wine-Dark Sea

In one of the First World War’s best-known naval escapades, the German battle cruiser Goeben eluded her British and French pursuers in August 1914, escaping to Turkey and helping to widen the war into entirely new theaters. That would only be the first of many naval operations on the Mediterranean Sea and the adjoining Adriatic Sea with naval action continuing well after the official end of the war.

The Wine-Dark Sea covers all of the naval action in the Mediterranean between 1914 and 1918: the chase of the German battle cruiser Goeben, the sorties of the Austro-Hungarian fleet against the Italian coast, the Battle of the Otranto Strait. And the many actions planned but not executed, like the American amphibious landing in Dalmatia or Austrian plans for surface raids against Allied shipping in the Mediterranean.

It's a big game, with 280 double-sized pieces displaying major warships, and 280 more standard-sized ones for minor ships, transports, and fleet markers. All of the major powers that fought for the Middle Sea are here: Germany, Britain, Italy, France, Austria-Hungary, Spain and even Japan. The operational map, where fleets seek one another, cover the entire Mediterranean basin; the Naval Tactical Map, where play moves when the fleets make contact (or where play begins in battle scenarios) is a field of large blue hexagons.

The Wine-Dark Sea comes with 50 scenarios, that tell the story of the First World War in the Mediterranean. It’s all based on the new Second Edition of the Great War at Sea series rules, a complete revamp of the long-standing rules that we’ve used since the last century. Now it’s even easier to play.