For a game that aspires to balance playability and detail while providing an insightful take modern tactical naval warfare, Naval Command perfectly hits is target. If you want full details of every ship, plane, and weapon, systems like Harpoon and maybe others probably will be better for you. If, however, you're looking for a game that can provide a realistic-enough and educational window into the topic while allowing you to reasonably quickly play through different what-if scenarios, this is the modern naval wargame for you.

Review of Naval Command. I was expecting an unbiased game with a basically realistic set of stats. Just after a brief review I found glaring problems with the stats of the ships. For example, I read how 4 harpoon missiles sunk the Admiral Kuznetsov- a Kuznetsov Class Carrier in one of the scenarios.

“In response Iron Duke and Kent both selected the Kuznetsov as a target and each fired a salvo of 4 Harpoon Missiles. With only the Slava class cruiser providing effective defence the Russian carrier was an easy target and was obliterated by the missiles and rapidly sank.”

The Admiral Kuznetsov carrier has one of the most effective anti-missile defences in the world. With 6 30mm Anti-Air cannons and 8 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS (each 2 × 30 mm Gatling AA plus 32 3K87 Kortik SAM). Not to mention it also has 24 × 8-cell 3K95 Kinzhal SAM VLS (192 missiles; 1 missile per 3 seconds) for long range anti-missile defence. This would obliterate 4 harpoon missiles long before they reached the Carrier. Here is a link on the effectiveness of the Kashtan system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kUdh3ofZBQ

Furthermore, the differences in ASM performances are also staggering. Here is a list of 4 missile systems in the game. Two US and two Russian.

Harpoon SSM Range 70? (Actual 124km) Damage rating 1 (actual 225kg HE) TLAM Range 200 (Actual 2500km) Damage rating 2 (actual 450kg HE) P700 Shipwreck Range 80 (True range 625km) Damage rating 2 (actual 750kg HE) Moskit SS-N-22 Sunburn Range 70 (True range 250km) Damage rating 1 (actual 300 kg HE) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLv0_GzTJUg

Then after reviewing the rules and game system I found that the harpoon was rated almost as effective as the Russian P700 Shipwreck. While the Shipwreck missile was terribly underpowered and shorted on range and damage. Not to mention no consideration for the weapons speed. (The Russian weapons are 4 times as fast as the NATO Harpoon missile. Meaning they could potentially fire back and destroy the attacking ship before the Harpoons reach their targets.) All in all, the game system has potential except for the biased stats which would make playing NATO’s opposition as basically targets. To get a decent game the ship and weapon stats need to be rebalanced and given at least a realistic and fair representation. I will have to rewrite most of the stat sheets by hand to make it playable.

This is a great little game with a well written set of rules. Totally worth $10, and if you want to play modern naval there aren't exactly any other non-harpoon non-fleet series choices out there.

Kudos to the author for including various ships and planes from before 1980, all the way back to the 50s and 60s in some cases.

There are also US, Russian, and British navy ship lists and more being worked on, all free for download on his site.

The falklands and red october (again free) addons are also top notch.

If you are on the fence, go hit up his site and download some of the freebies and get a feel for how it was written.

But for $10, totally worth it.