At 14.05 local time, Admiral Togo ordered a sharp turn to the left to intercept the enemy’s line. Mikasa and other battleships began a dangerous maneuver under the fire of the Russian fleet. Each of them at the time of turning was exposed to the fire of the entire Russian squadron. Minutes lengthened in a terrifying tension …
However, the Russians were shooting very inaccurate. As soon as the Japanese finished their maneuver, the van of Russian fleet was exposed as if on a plate. At 14.10 Mikasa opened fire.
The weather was good, although the waves were high.
Gods of War: Togo is a naval wargame that puts you in command of mighty battleships, nimble cruisers and fast destroyers from the turn of the 20th century in conflicts such as the Spanish–American and Russo-Japanese wars. With careful planning, clever manoeuvres and accurate artillery salvos, you will sink the enemy fleet.
Beautiful models and rules that you can learn in 15 minutes guarantee a great adventure.
The primary rule of the game is to give each ship two orders: for this turn and one for the next one. This simple system has very complex implications – you have to plan your moves really well and anticipate where enemy ships might be in order to take the best position against them.
The ships are divided into 4 classes, from battleships, through armored cruisers and smaller cruisers, to gunboats, TBD’s and torpedo boats. The smaller the ship, the harder it is to hit, which is another important game mechanic. Battleships pose a threat to armored cruisers (and, of course, other battleships), but they must beware of torpedo boats. Torpedo boats, on the other hand, have to watch out for smaller cruisers that can easily sink them. And for smaller cruisers, armored cruisers will be a threat. This is a bit of an elaborate but well-known rule of “rock, paper, scissors”.
These two main rules in combination allow for a lot of different combinations, and at the same time make the rules of the game very easy to learn. It takes literally 15 minutes to understand all the basics you need.
Let’s listen to the opinions of players from Poland who have been playing in Togo since September 2022.
Simple but not trivial, an exciting introduction to the world of naval warfare at the turn of the century – Mirosław ‘Tancred de Beauville’ Kuśnierz
Another huge advantage is that the developers listen to the players, something that doesn’t happen very often. – Rafał Woźniak.
“Togo…got me hooked from the moment I heard about it”. – Paweł “Berdysz” Dąbrowski, the author of the Youtube channel: “By the Bardiche“.
Simplicity of rules and depth of tactics combined! With Gods of War: Togo You will have great fun in no time! No rulebook studying, no wording discussions, no time wasting any more. Just plain fun coming from simple, but not coarse rules with deep tactical possibilities. – Marcin Szymankiewicz.
From historical wargames I always bounced off the wall and chose fantasy or science-fiction systems. Until suddenly TOGO came in full steam. The game quickly became my number one. – Adam Kubica.
Štěpán Jura – famous wargaming blogger and player from Czech Republic (Potan’s War), made a review of our rules on his blog.
Click the picture to go to the review.
I invite you to watch a few videos that explain the most important rules of the game.
The game will be divided into a few modules. First and main one, will introduce general rules and allow to command small fleets.
The next modules, which will be published later, will introduce admirals and more advanced rules.
The game is characterized by a large simplicity and, above all, dynamics, battles can be played in a short time. The rules allow for the adoption of various tactical variants, which combined with considerable unpredictability will bring us perfectly into the climate of fighting at sea.
The Polish version of the game had its premiere in 2022, the English one followed in 2024, thanks to Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bolterpl/gods-of-war-togo
You can buy all models and rules here: https://bolter.pl/en_US/c/Gods-of-War/1832
FULL AHEAD!
Example battle reports
http://www.gmboardgames.com/blog/en/gods-of-war-togo-to-the-shore-aar/