Queen Victoria’s Navy
© 1996–2000 by Joshua Howard & Bruce Biskup (v. 1.0 1/00)
Game Design: Bruce Biskup & Joshua Howard
Playtesting: Mark Gratkowski, Eric Cooley & Mark Eden
Available for purchase at Boards & Bits
Queen Victoria’s Navy is a nautical combat war game for two players which simulates the period from 1880–1906. The game scale is 500 meters per hex and about 5 minutes per turn. Capital ships are modeled individually. Complexity is medium. Time to learn is from 30–45 minutes.
Queen Victoria’s Navy comes with a 16 page rulebook, a 22×34 in hex map (16 mm on one side, 19 mm on the other), a reference card, a sheet of color counters (which players must cut out), several scenarios, and ship logs for ships from the British, French, German, Italian, Russian, and United States navies. See the photo above.
Check out BoardGameGeek’s info on Queen Victoria’s Navy; if you like it, go ahead and say it on their forums!
Free Expansions Available
BoneGames is committed to increasing the value of our games even after they have been released, and with that in mind we have published (and will continue to publish) free expansions for Queen Victoria’s Navy. Ownership of Queen Victoria’s Navy is required to properly use these expansions.
For advanced rules, historical scenarios, additional ship lists, and more, check out the following free expansions to Queen Victoria’s Navy:
- Admiral On Deck, the first free expansion, introduces several advanced rules to Queen Victoria’s Navy. Rules for crew and admiral quality, shore batteries, mines, and smaller ship classes such as torpedo boats are included. Admiral On Deck will allow players to play historical scenarios from the 1894–95 Sino–Japanese war and the 1904–1905 Russo–Japanese war.
- Ship List Pack #1: China/Japan/Russia (about 780 kb) is the second free expansion to Queen Victoria’s Navy. After numerous requests since the release of Queen Victoria’s Navy we have been asked to provide additional ship lists, and with Ship List Pack #1 we begin to deliver on that request. Ownership of Queen Victoria’s Navy and its free expansion Admiral On Deck is necessary in order to use these ship lists. Ship List Pack #1 includes ship lists for the Chinese, Japanese, and Russian navies as they were from the period 1880–1907.
- The Bombardment of Alexandria 1882 is the third free expansion to Queen Victoria’s Navy. This scenario has been designed by Roger F. Deal, Esq. Included with the scenario are additional map sections, ship lists for both sides (the British and the Egyptians), and the necessary counters (which need to be mounted).
A review of Queen Victoria’s Navy is available on RPGnet, written by Andrew Hind. If you are looking for a bit more information about the Queen Victoria’s Navy, Andrew’s review serves as a good description of the game. Check it out.
A scenario ship list PDF is available, listing out each force, ship by ship, for each scenario in Queen Victoria’s Navy. Note that there are some minor differences between these ship lists and the original game’s ship lists; these ship lists are the most correct.
The Final Release Notes for Queen Victoria’s Navy can be found as the February 2000 Designer’s Notes Column.