Quarterdeck International Games Through the Ages
Below is a list of all games we have designed/developed or published since 1979.
Destroyer Captain (1979)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Bill Haggart
Hex-based simultaneous-move wargame based on destroyer (and an occasional light cruiser) actions in the 20th century. By the same designer and uses the same system as Ironbottom Sound. Gunfire is figured in factors, and an ordered-pair dice roll determines number of hits based on factors firing and range. The location of each hit is then determined by another ordered-pair dice roll. A hit on a location knocks it out unless the location has armor superior to the shell which hit it, and most destroyers have no armor. Torpedos are handled similarly, but must travel to their target before possible hits are determined.
Ship plan sheets for typical WWI and WWII turret layouts are provided. Players must fill these out from the ship stat sheets prior to playing.
Thirteen historical and two hypothetical scenarios are provided, along with extensive ship stats lists. It should be possible for players to set up additional balanced scenarios.
Republished in Command Magazine Japan #51 in 2003.
Bismarck 2nd Edition (1980)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Jean Bear, Claus Bergen, Bob Haynes & Mike Uhl
Avalon Hill's (AH) Bismarck 1979/80 edition, designed by Jack Greene, is a totally different game from the AH 1962 edition designed by Lindsley Schutz and Charles Roberts.
The game centered around the hunt for the KMS Bismarck and the KMS Prinz Eugen in mid-1941. The game has some similarities to game Battleship, with both players having a hidden map-board and calling out coordinates to locate their opponent.
Second edition changes included:
The square grid on the original map was replaced with a hexagonal brick grid overlay;
The single Bismarck ship unit was replaced by multiple German ships;
The relatively simple search, movement and combat systems of the original were replaced by much more complex rules. (Indeed, many considered the rules changes ponderous and detrimental to gameplay.)
Packaging was modified, second edition coming in a smaller, standard-sized AH flat box (compared to the over-sized box of the first edition) and having alternative cover artwork.
Iron Bottom Sound (1980)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Rodger B. MacGowan
Simultaneous-plotting hex-based naval game based on actions near Guadalcanal during WWII. Ten scenarios are provided, five historical and five balanced "tournament" situation. Scale is 600 yards/hex.
Gunfire and torpedo fire are figured in "factors" per turret, with all guns of the same caliber firing on a single target rolling once, using a range-modified ordered-pair of dice against a table, for number of hits. The location of each hit is then determined by another ordered-pair roll against another table.
Each ship has a damage sheet showing its gunnery and torpedo layout, and giving number of factors for each turret/mount. It also serves as the damage record sheet for the ship, and specifies armor thickness over protected locations (e.g. belt, primary turrets, secondary turrets, bridge). A ship sinks when its last hull box is marked off.
The game is basically set up for two-player ftf, but short rules for PBM, moderated two-player, and moderated multi-player are provided.
Iron Bottom sound won the Charles S. Roberts Best Inertial Release Award in 1981
Iron Bottom Sound II (1998)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Rodger B. MacGowan
Iron Bottom Sound 2 is a tactical simulation of night naval surface combat in WW2 that captures the flavor of bloody night surface battles fought off Guadalcanal.
A past property has been succeeded because it focuses it on the combat at nighttime though the system was greatly changed from the original Ironbottom Sound. This edition featured a massive map and incredible counters!
Fleet Admiral (1987)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Jack W. Greene
Fleet Admiral is a tactical naval game simulating the battles that were fought in WWI and that era. It includes portions of German, Russian, British, French, Turkish, Austro-Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and US navies.
The system is similar to Tsushima (also by Jack W. Greene) published in Strategy & Tactics magazine (#130) although Fleet Admiral predates Tsushima. It includes 22 sheets of ship logs and 15 scenarios. The logs include ships not in the scenarios.
Fleet Admiral is an early example of DTP as there were only 135 copies made and they were laser printed cardstock.
norway 1940 (1981)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: W. Haggart, Dana Lombardy, Rodger B. MacGowan
Norway 1940 was first published by Quarterdeck Games in 1981. The game recreates the invasion of Norway in 1940 by the German, mostly by the simulation of the naval battles. An updated version is available in our Store under the title “Hitler Strikes North”.
macarthur: road to bataan (1985)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Kevin Zucker
Macarthur: The Road to Bataan covers the battle of Luzon Island during the winter of 1941-1942. Basically this game deals with a large island that must defend itself without any hope of significant outside help, against an enemy that can strike from virtually any direction. The Japanese can assault the island at many different points, causing the Allies (Filipinos and Americans) to be very wary of being drawn too far from the island's prize, Manila Bay, the main harbor at Manila, and the fortress of Corregidor, that controls the entrance.
Published in The Wargamer Magazine issue 44. "MacArthur: The Road to Bataan Dec 1941 - Jan 1942", second edition, was published in Paper Wars #90 (Summer 2018 magazine & game issue), by Compass Games.
The royal navy (1984)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Margaret Bond, David Hammond, Dana Lombardy, Rodger B. MacGowan, Bruce Weigle
The Royal Navy was a follow-up to Iron Bottom Sound that covers Royal Navy action against Germany & Italy in WWI & II. The game also has US, French & Soviet surface ships.
iron bottom sound iii (2015)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Rodger B. MacGowan
Iron Bottom Sound III is a re-launch of Jack Greene’s award winning tactical naval combat game of the fighting in the Pacific in 1942-43. This game has been extensively updated from the original and includes twelve scenarios (and additional new rules) as well as additional ships for future scenarios to be made available on line at Quarterdeck International’s ConSim World (CSW) site.
Iron Bottom Sound III includes corrected scenarios from earlier versions, several 1943 actions, one Channel action between the Brits and the Germans, as well as two revised 1928 hypothetical actions between American and Japanese battleships and battlecruisers. The Japanese and Germans have slightly higher Victory Point value as their loss is tougher on them than the Allies.
tide of iron designer series volume 1 (2008)
Designer: Jack W. Greene & Various Others (see below) | Artist: Michael Komarck, Andrew Navaro, Brian Schomburg, Mark Schumann
Compiled by conflict historian Dana Lombardy (Streets of Stalingrad) and featuring today's most famous wargame designers, this hard cover collection of twenty scenarios will be an incredible addition to the Tide of Iron base game. The new scenarios will vary from short skirmishes to epic battles with several of the scenarios incorporating elements from the Days of the Fox expansion. Check out some of the eighteen amazing designers who have contributed to the Tide of Iron: Designer Series.
Michael Bennighof … Panzer Grenadier
Richard Berg … Great Battles of History
Ulrich Blennemann … Tank Commander, Tunisia '43
Vance von Borries … Barbarossa, Kasserine Pass
Frank Chadwick … 8th Army, 1940
Jack Greene … Destroyer Captain, Norway 1940
Don Greenwood … Advanced Squad Leader
John Hill … Squad Leader, Tank Leader
Chad Jensen … Combat Commander
Dana Lombardy … Streets of Stalingrad, Days of the Fox
Jason Matthews … Twilight Struggle
Joseph Miranda … Battle for Baghdad, Balkans 1941
John Prados … Third Reich, Salerno
Jack Radey … Korsun Pocket, Aachen
Ted Raicer … Great War in Europe, Barbarossa to Berlin
Mark Simonitch … Ardennes '44
Rick Young … Europe Engulfed
tsushima (1989)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Larry Hoffman, Mark Simonitch
Tsushima is a tactical naval game simulating the battles that were fought in the Sea of Japan in 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War.
Counters represent individual capital ships with destroyer and torpedo boat flotillas. Hexes represent 1000 meters and each turn represents 7.5 minutes of real time. A number of scenarios are provided, each with its own victory conditions.
white ensign/rising sun (1997)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Rodger B. MacGowan
White Ensign/Rising Sun (WERS) covers the Japanese raid on Ceylon under Vice-Admiral Nagumo into the Indean Ocean in April 1942. This raid sank and destroyed shipping in the Bay (including the British carrier Hermes) and destroyed targets in and around Ceylon.
Hitler strikes north (2017)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Jack W. Greene
Hitler Strikes North is a remake and facelift of a classic game from the 1980's by Quarterdeck Games, and licensed to Hobby Japan. Many of the changes from the original reflect research I have conducted since the original game design and are reflected from our co-authored book Hitler Strikes North. Errors have also been corrected. The game map shows portions of the North and Norwegian Seas.
In April, 1940 World War II was locked in a "Sitzkrieg" - a phony war. There were naval activities and limited air operations, but the Allied Armies faced Germany on her border where little was going on beyond training and planning. Attention was drawn north to Norway because of vital Swedish high-grade iron ore resources feeding both side's weapons industry through the ice-free port of Narvik and brought further into focus with the Russo-Finnish "Winter War" that had just concluded. Great Britain, with ally France, had a preponderance of ships and naval support, even if the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) was more modern. Britain was on the defensive, though she had advanced plans for invading Norway to cut off the supply of iron ore going to Germany. But the British did not know when or with what that the Germans might try to break raiding warships out into the Atlantic to attack her vital convoy routes, or marshal an attempt to overwhelm a tragically weak and under armed Norway.
You can pick up a copy of Hitler Strikes North in our Store!
togo: dawn of the dreadnought (2018)
Designer: Jack W. Greene | Artist: Yasushi Nakaguro
TOGO is a tactical naval game of the 1904-05 battles of the Russo-Japanese War. TOGO is a reworked version of Tsushima that appeared in S&T 130. Changes include the new 1904 ships and scenarios, new torpedo hit table, improved and more accurate Ship Logs/Roster sheets and far superior graphics.
TOGO is a battleship game. TOGO was conceived as a game that allows for a realistic yet playable surface combat game for this period. The concept was to design a big game that would give one the sense of the grandeur and scope of one of the largest series of surface engagements in the modern era and yet not load you the player down with needless detail. Certain liberties and abstractions were taken to achieve the overall goal.
You can pick up a copy of Togo: Dawn of the Dreadnought in our Store!