The Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet: The Great War at Sea 1914-18

About this board game

The Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet is a two-player World War I naval game with an approximate playing time of 240 minutes, covering the Great War at Sea from 1914 to 1918.

Using a refined version of the basic War at Sea system, the game returns to an era before the invention of radar and before air power. One player commands the Central Powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire—while the other leads the Entente Powers of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Russia.

Players move and fight with dreadnoughts, using these battleships to seize and control ocean areas. The naval contest is joined by U-boat campaigns, represented by placing U-boat counters that contribute Victory Points. Pre-dreadnoughts are included, although their effectiveness is greatly reduced, and the game contains no auxiliary ships.

• Players: 2
• Playing time: approximately 240 minutes
• Core focus: dreadnought movement, naval combat, area control, and U-boat campaigns
• Setting: World War I, before radar and air power

At the end of each turn, players score Victory Points during the Area Control Phase and mark the result on the Victory Point Track. The player whose marker is ahead controls the lead, making the struggle for ocean areas central to the game’s outcome.

The USA remains neutral until Turn 7, when it joins the Entente. Portugal and Greece remain neutral throughout. At the end of the July/December 1918 turn, the player whose marker is showing wins; if the marker is at 0, the Entente wins, although the Central Powers achieve a moral victory. The Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet offers a focused naval treatment of the Great War through battleship warfare, area control, and submarine campaigns.