Great War at Sea: Jutland – Baltic Sea

In 1905, the Imperial Russian Navy suffered a decisive defeat at the hands of the Japanese, with the Pacific Fleet (including much of the Baltic Fleet, sent around the world to reinforce the Far East) annihilated. In the years that followed, soaring economic growth allowed the Navy to begin rebuilding, a process that had not borne fruit when the First World War erupted in 1914.

The Russian Baltic Fleet never had the chance to fight the Germans on even terms, as the war came too soon. But what if the guns of August had waited, or the rebuilding program moved slightly faster?

Jutland: Baltic Sea is an expansion book for Great War at Sea: Jutland, looking at the naval building programs of Russia as well as Sweden and Germany. There are 70 new playing pieces: 50 of them double-sized ship pieces, 20 of them standard square pieces, and all of them die-cut and silky-smooth. And there are 36 new scenarios for Jutland so you can play with them (you’ll need Jutland 2e and Risk Fleet).

While the Swedes get their 1916 fleet expansion program (with new cruisers, armored cruisers and coast defense ships) and the Germans get their proposed coast defense ships, it’s the Russians who get most of the attention. Admiral Nikolai von Essen’s 1914 proposal to hasten the process by building additional battleships in British yards and purchasing foreign dreadnoughts gets full attention, but we also look at Italian-designed battleships proposed for the fleet and the original, full-sized designs for powerful fast cruisers.